Japan's Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? (Japan Anthropology Workshop Series)

219 Pages·2003·3.44 MB·English

by  Gordon Mathews

Japan’s Changing Generations
GenerationsofyoungpeopleinJapanhaveresistedthe“adultsocialorder”
for the past fifty years; but for the most part, these young people grew up
and entered that order. Today, however, in an era in which the Japanese
social order has lost legitimacy, this may no longer be the case. Will
Japanese young people today be swallowed up by the adult social order, or
willtheycreateanewsocialorder,moreflexibleandpluralisticthanthatof
their elders? In examining this question from many different angles, this
book provides a generational roadmap into Japan’s future.
GordonMathewsisAssociateProfessor,DepartmentofAnthropology,the
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Bruce White is Social Anthropologist, an active member of the Europe-
Japan Research Centre and part-time Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University.
Japan Anthropology Workshop Series
Series editor: Joy Hendry
Oxford Brookes University
Editorial board:
Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta
Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
Wendy Smith, Monash University
Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden
A Japanese View of Nature
The world of living things by Kinji Imanichi
Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and
Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and introduced by Pamela J. Asquith
Japan’s Changing Generations
Are young people creating a new society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
Japan’s Changing
Generations
Are young people creating a
new society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and
Bruce White
Firstpublished2004
byRoutledgeCurzon
11NewFetterLane,LondonEC4P4EE
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledgeCurzon
29West35thStreet,NewYork,NY10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
RoutledgeCurzonisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup
#2004Editorialmatterandselection,GordonMathewsandBruceWhite;
individualchapters,thecontributors
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor
reproducedorutilizedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,
mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafter
invented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany
informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin
writingfromthepublishers.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested
ISBN 0-203-31662-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-38703-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN0–415–32227–8(Print Edition)
Contents
Notes on contributors vii
Series editor’s preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: changing generations in Japan today 1
GORDON MATHEWS AND BRUCE WHITE
PARTI
The Japanese generational divide 13
1 The generation gap in Japanese society since the
1960s 15
TETSUOSAKURAI
2 Why are Japanese youth today so passive? 31
SATOSHI KOTANI
3 The local roots of global citizenship: generational
change in a Kyushu hamlet 47
BRUCE WHITE
PARTII
How teenagers cope with the adult world 65
4 How Japanese teenagers cope: social pressures and
personal responses 67
PETER ACKERMANN
vi Contents
5 Youth fashion and changing beautification practices 83
LAURA MILLER
6 “Guiding” Japan’s university students through the
generation gap 99
BRIAN J. McVEIGH
PARTIII
How young adults challenge the social order 119
7 Seeking a career, finding a job: how young people
enter and resist the Japanese world of work 121
GORDON MATHEWS
8 Mothers and their unmarried daughters: an intimate
look at generational change 137
LYNNE NAKANOAND MOEKOWAGATSUMA
9 What happens when they come back: how Japanese
young people with foreign university degrees
experience the Japanese workplace 155
SHUNTA MORI
10 Centered selves and life choices: changing attitudes
of young educated mothers 171
AYUMI SASAGAWA
Epilogue: are Japanese young people creating a new
society? 189
BRUCE WHITE AND GORDON MATHEWS
Index 201
Contributors
Peter Ackermann is Chair, Department of Japanology, University of
Erlangen-Nu¨rnberg,Germany.Heistheauthorofmanyarticlesandbook
chapters on the Japanese education industry, and on the structure of self
and communication in Japan.
Satoshi Kotani is Associate Professor at O¯tsuma University, Tokyo, and
author of the books Wakamonoron o yomu [Reading theories about
youth] (1993) and Wakamonotachi no henbo¯: sedai o meguru
shakaigakuteki monogatari [Changing youth: a sociological narrative
about the generations] (1998).
Brian J. McVeigh teaches in the Department of East Asian Studies,
University of Arizona. He is the author of many books, including
NationalismsofJapan:ManagingandMystifyingIdentity(forthcoming),
The Nature of the Japanese State (1998), Wearing Ideology: State,
Schooling and Self-Presentation in Japan (2000), and Japanese Higher
EducationasMyth(2002).
GordonMathewsisAssociateProfessor,DepartmentofAnthropology,the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has written What Makes Life
WorthLiving?HowJapaneseandAmericansMakeSenseofTheirWorlds
(1996) and Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in
the Cultural Supermarket (2000), and edited Consuming Hong Kong
(2001).
Laura Miller is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and
Anthropology,LoyolaUniversityChicago,andistheauthorofnumerous
articles on Japanese language and culture, and gender representation in
media. She is currently working on a book entitled Beauty Up: The
Consumption of Body Aesthetics in Japan.
Shunta Mori is Associate Professor, Department of Regional and Cultural
Policy, Shizuoka University of Arts and Culture. He is the author of
numerous articles in Japanese on the effects of overseas university
viii Contributors
experience on Japanese life, as well as on cross-cultural senses of what
makes life worth living.
LynneNakanoisAssociateProfessor,DepartmentofJapaneseStudies,the
ChineseUniversityofHongKong. Sheistheauthoroftheforthcoming
book Community Volunteers in Japan: Everyday Stories of Social
Change.
TetsuoSakuraiisProfessoratTokyoKeizaiUniversityandauthorofmany
books,includingKotobaoushinattawakamonotachi[Youngpeoplewho
havelostmutualcommunication](1985).Hehasalsowrittenthechapter
“‘Mondai’ toshite no wakamono” [Youth as a ‘social problem’], in
Shakaigaku ga wakaru [Understanding sociology] (1997).
Ayumi Sasagawa is the author of the Ph.D. thesis “Life Choices:
University-Educated Mothers in a Japanese Suburb,” Department of
Anthropology, Oxford Brookes University.
Moeko Wagatsuma is Research Associate, Department of Japanese
Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has a Ph.D. in
EthnicStudiesfromWarwickUniversity,andhasdoneresearchonsingle
Japanese women in Hong Kong.
Bruce White teaches Anthropology and Intercultural Communication at
Oxford Brookes University. There he authored the Ph.D. thesis “Local
PathstoanInterstateJapan:ChartingGenerationalChangeandIdentity,”
intheDepartmentofAnthropology.Heisco-founderoftheOrganisation
forIntra-CulturalDevelopment(OICD),anethnographic researchgroup
focusing on identity and social action.
Series editor’s preface
Members of the Japan Anthropology Workshop continually carry out
detailedandinsightfulresearchinJapan,andtheymeetregularlytopresent
papers about their research and to exchange views on the subjects of their
study. The fruits of most of these gatherings have eventually appeared in
print in a variety of different forms and formats, and we are proud of our
collection. However, it sometimes takes several years for our deliberations
tobemadewidelyavailable,andinacountrywherechangeflourishes,this
is regrettable. The inauguration of a series devoted specifically to the
research of the Japan Anthropology Workshop is a step in the direction of
speedingupthisprocess,andofferinganoutletforgroundbreakingworkas
it proceeds. This book is our first example of success in this respect. The
papers were presented at our most recent conference, and the authors have
spenttheinterveningtimerevisingandrefiningthem,sothatIthinkwenow
have a collection at the cutting edge of research on Japan.
Another aim of the series is to present studies that offer a deep
understanding of aspects of Japanese society and culture to offset the
impression of constant change and frivolity that so tempts the mass media
around the world. Living in Japan brings anyone into contact with the
fervent mood of change, and former residents from many other countries
enjoy reading about their temporary home, but there is a demand also to
penetrate less obvious elements of this temporary life. Anthropologists
specialize in digging beneath the surface, in peeling off and examining
layers of cultural wrapping, and in gaining an understanding of language
and communication that goes beyond formal presentation and informal
frolicking.Ihopethatthisserieswill helptoopentheeyesofreadersfrom
manybackgroundstotheworkofthesediligent“moles”inthesociallifeof
Japan.
ThisparticularbookincludestheworkofethnographersfromwithinJapan
and from various places outside. Together they combine a deep internal
understandingofclosecompatriotswithawideinternationalcontext.Some
oftheauthorshavemanyyearsofexperienceandareputationforexcellent
work; others offer the fresh approach of scholars starting out on their