The Material Child

In "The Material Child" Merry White explores the world of the teenager in two significantly different modern societies, Japan and America. Drawing on the voices of adolescents themselves, she offers an in-depth look at the sexuality, school work, family relationships, leisure activities, friendships and buying behaviour of the young in both countries. Through her analysis, White shows that although adolescents in the US and Japan may share the same taste in pizza, pop music and leather jackets, they remain very different from each other. The Japanese teen, for example, is sexually sophisticated, but dependent and childish by American standards. In contrast, American teenagers are more independent and worldly on some fronts, but surprisingly ignorant sexually. The author also explores Japanese fears for their teens versus the US fear of their teens, showing how these contrasting anxieties developed and how they affect the behaviour of the adolescents themselves.