Perfectly Japanese
Making Families in an Era of Upheaval
1st Edition
Published on 2. September 2002
Book
Hardback
265 pages
978-0-520-21754-6 (ISBN)
Description
Are Japanese families in crisis? This study looks back at two key moments of "family making" in the 20th century - the Meiji era and postwar period - to see how models for the Japanese family have been constructed. The models had little to do with families of their eras and even less to do with families today. Merry Isaacs White vividly portrays the everyday reality of a range of families: young married couples who experience fleeting togetherness until the first child is born; a family separated by job shifts; a family with a grandmother as babysitter; and a marriage without children.
Reviews / Votes
"Japanese politicians have pronounced the declining birthrate a national crisis. White gives us an enlightening bolt of reality, showing how Japanese families are really coping with the enormous changes surrounding them." - Ezra Vogel, Henry Ford II Research Professor at Harvard and author of Is Japan Still Number One?More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
9 line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 0 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-21754-6 (9780520217546)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2002
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€31.49
Available for download
Person
Merry Isaacs White is Professor of Anthropology at Boston University. She is the author of The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children (1987), The Japanese Overseas: Can They Go Home Again? (1986), and The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (California, 1993) and coeditor of Comparing Cultures: Readings for Writers on Contemporary America and Japan (1996).
Content
List of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction PART ONE: MAKING FAMILY--A NATION BEGINS AT HOME 1. Why Families Are a National Security Issue 2. Family Under Construction: One Hundred Years at Home 3. Families in Postwar Japan: Democracy and Reconstruction PART TWO: CONTAINING ELEMENTS 4. Elemental Families: Starting with Children 5. Life Choices for Men and Women: The Bounded Realities of Reproduction 6. Twenty-First-Century Blues: Aging in Families PART THREE: CONSUMING AS SURVIVAL 7. Marketing the Bite-Size Family: Consuming Images, Supporting Realities Conclusion: Exceptions Are the Rule--Families as Exemplars of Diversity Notes Bibliography Index