Synopses & Reviews
This book puts forth a sociology of Japanese youth problems showing that the Japanese media draw on an equally, if not more, perplexing gallery of social categories when it discusses youth than affluent Western societies such as the US or UK and that Japan is no less replete with social problems involving young people and no less capable of generating hysteria over the fate of its youth than affluent Western societies such as the US or UK. The chapters include case studies covering issues such as:
- Returnee children
- Compensated dating
- Corporeal punishment
- Child abuse
- The withdrawn youth
- NEET (not in education, employment or training)
By examining these various social problems collectively A Sociology of Japanese Youth shows how seemingly disparate events follow a similar pattern and how clusters of concepts are historically linked. The book simultaneously illuminates the mechanisms of social problem construction, the Japanese cultural repositories that continue to be drawn upon, and the changes and dynamisms created by actors in Japanese society that the social problem discourse reflect.
This book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese society and culture, the sociology of Japan, Japanese anthropology and comparative sociology of youth studies.
Synopsis
Over the past thirty years, whilst Japan has produced a diverse set of youth cultures which have had a major impact on popular culture across the globe, it has also developed a succession of youth problems which have led to major concerns within the country itself. Drawing on detailed empirical fieldwork, the authors of this volume set these issues in a clearly articulated social constructionist framework, and put forth a sociology of Japanese youth problems which argues that there is a certain predictability about the way in which these problems are discovered, defined and dealt with.
The chapters include case studies covering issues such as:
Returnee children (kikokushijo)
Compensated dating (enjo k sai)
Corporal punishment (taibatsu)
Bullying (ijime)
Child abuse (jid gyakutai)
The withdrawn youth (hikikomori) and
NEETs (not in education, employment or training)
By examining these various social problems collectively, A Sociology of Japanese Youth explains why particular youth problems appeared when they did and what lessons they can provide for the study of youth problems in other societies.
This book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese society and culture, the sociology of Japan, Japanese anthropology and the comparative sociology of youth studies.