Description: This work discusses literary depictions of mass transit in 20th century Tokyo in the decades preceding WWII. It cuts across literary and historical/sociological analysis, and contributes to the growing body of work examining Japanese urbanism, gender, and modernism.
Review Quotes: "Based on a large amount of historical material, literary works, journalistic and popular cultural depictions, it examines the development of the Tokyo mass transportation system, and more importantly, the social and cultural transformation of Japanese society during the first half of the 20th century. The book not only provides a new methodology and fresh thinking for social science research, but also provides a new perspective on the modernization of Japan with its rapid development of mass transportation, and introduces us to new and vast materials for the study of Japanese history and culture."--Kuniko Fujita "Urban Studies"