This study reveals the complex combination of cultural particularity and modern universality that underlies the reality of contemporary Japan. The work uses sources such as popular works of art, song, best-selling books and the advice columns of newspapers to draw a striking portrait of the Japanese public. Focussing on the four main phases of modernizing and modernized Japan beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to today’s postmodern society, this groundbreaking work uses quantitative and qualitative data to show that the processes of modernization brought a coexistence of generational variation imbued with tensions, conflicts and synergies, that, taken together, provide the key to understanding the structure and dynamism of contemporary Japan.
Part 1: The History of Feeling in Modern Japan 1. Popular Songs as Social Psychological Data 2. The History of Anger 3. The History of Tears 4. The History of Joy 5. The History of Love 6. The History of Chivalry 7. The History of Lingering Attachment 8. The History of Jest 9. The History of Loneliness 10.The History of Nostalgia and Yearning 11. The History of Feelings of Transience Appendix to Part One: A Dictionary of Modern Japanese Emotional Symbols Part 2: The Social Psychology of Modernizing Japan 12. Archetypes of Social Response during the Meiji Restoration 13. Archetypes of Social Response during Meiji Westernization 14.Value and Belief Systems in Pre-war Textbooks 15. Sucessism as the Driving Spirit of Modernization 16. A History of Modern Japan in Image Part 3: The Social Psychology of Modernized Japan 17. The History of Bestsellers 18. Revolution of Nostalgia 19.Typology of Unhappiness 20. White-Collar Spirit 21.Desires and Uneasiness of the Marginal Elite 22. Hell of Eyes – A Case Study of an Alienated Youth Part 4: The Changing Mentality of Contemporary Japan 23.Generational Composition of Contemporary Society 24. The Changing Mentality of the Young 25. Reality, Dream and Fiction – Japan, 1945-90.
Biography
Munesuke Mita
