1st Edition
Life Course, Happiness and Well-being in Japan
Introduction: Making sense of happiness in "unhappy Japan"
Barbara Holthus and Wolfram Manzenreiter
PART I: CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
Chapter 1. Tanoshikatta ne? Learning to be happy in Japanese preschools
Eyal Ben-Ari
Chapter 2. "Because I feel happy": Japanese first graders’ views about schooling and well-being
Yoko Yamamoto
Chapter 3. "Unhappy" and isolated youth in the midst of social change: Representations and subjective experiences of hikikomori in contemporary Japan
Sachiko Horiguchi
Chapter 4. Anxious, stress, and yet satisfied? The puzzle of subjective well-being among young adults in Japan
Carola Hommerich
PART II: ADULTHOOD
Chapter 5. Being happy as a woman: The promise of happiness for middle class housewives in Japan
Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni
Chapter 6. The well-being of single mothers in Japan
James M. Raymo
Chapter 7. Happiness at work? Marital happiness among Japanese housewives and employed wives
Mary C. Brinton
Chapter 8. The happiness of Japanese academics: Findings from job satisfaction surveys in 1992 and 2007
Theresa Aichinger, Peter Fankhauser, and Roger Goodman
Chapter 9. Dilemma of fatherhood: The meaning of work, family, and happiness for salaried male Japanese workers
Futoshi Taga
PART III: OLD AGE
Chapter 10. Happiness pursued, abandoned, dreamed of, and stumbled upon: An analysis of twenty Japanese lives over twenty years
Gordon Mathews
Chapter 11. Senior volunteers and post-retirement well-being in Japan
Satsuki Kawano
Chapter 12. Well-being and decision-making towards the end of life: Living wills in Japan
Celia Spoden
Chapter 13. Fear of solitary death in Japan’s ageing society
Tim Tiefenbach and Florian Kohlbacher
Conclusion
Chapter 14.
Reconsidering the four dimensions of happiness across the life course in Japan
Wolfram Manzenreiter and Barbara Holthus
Biography
Barbara Holthus is Assistant Professor at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Austria. Her most recent publications include Parental Well-Being in Japan (2015) and a co-edited volume on Happiness and the Good Life in Japan (Routledge 2017).
Wolfram Manzenreiter is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. His most recent publications include Sport and Body Politics in Japan (Routledge 2014) and the co-edited volume on Happiness and the Good Life in Japan (Routledge 2017).
