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Social Psycho Of Modern Japan (Japanese Studies)
Social Psycho Of Modern Japan - Japanese Studies Author:MITA This study penetrates the metaphorical "sudare" or traditional reed screen that has long masked the inner world of the Japanese to reveal in detail, the complex combination of cultural particularity and modern universality that underlies the reality of contemporary Japan. The work is remarkable for its content and method, using such sources as p... more »opular works of art, songs, best-selling books and the advice columns of newspapers to draw a striking portrait of the public at large. Focusing on the four main phases of modernizing and modernized Japan, starting in the 19th century and continuing to today's postmodern society, this work uses quantitative and qualitative data to show that the processes of modernization brought about a co-existence of generational variations imbued with tensions, conflicts and synergies that, taken together, provide the key to understanding the structure and dynamism of contemporary Japan . Part 1 analyzes popular songs as social psychological data, examining the history of love, anger, tears, joy, chivalry, lingering attachment, jest, loneliness, nostalgia, yearning, trasience and ending with a dictionary of modern Japanese emotional symbols. Part 2 deals with the social structure which evolved from l868 to 1945, concentrating on the reactions to the Meiji Restoration and enforced westernization of the common people, which has not been investigated systematically before. Part 3 examines postwar social, psychological and cultural ferment, tracing transition in mass thought from 1945 to the early 1960's through the themes of bestselling books. Part 4 surveys generational changes in value orientation, and in attitudes to work and leisure, sex and the family.« less