Japanese Society
Tradition, Self, and the Social Order

A compelling illustration of Japan's evolution into an industrial state, the only major industrial society to emerge outside of the Western tradition.

Robert J. Smith (Author)

9780521315524, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 April 1985

192 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.1 cm, 0.44 kg

As the world's only major industrial society yet to emerge from outside the Western tradition, Japan has evolved into an industrial state very different from those of the West. Robert Smith argues that this difference is found not so much in organisational and institutional forms as in the Japanese view of the relationship of individuals to one another and to society as a whole. He traces the origin of this difference to the historical traditions of Japan, which rest on cultural premises quite unlike those of the Western world. His compelling and convincing analysis of contemporary Japanese society has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the nature of the modern industrial world.

Foreword by Alfred Harris
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The creation of tradition
2. Order and diffuseness
3. Self and other
4. The perfectible society
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]