Description: This book is designed as an undergraduate course reader offering up-to-date ethnographic research on contemporary Japan to enrich students learning. Based on data collected during the 2000s by eleven well know anthropologists of Japan, the collection explores current social phenomena such as wage work, small businesses, lifestyle choices, food, family and marital relations, childbearing, and aging.
Brief description: Satsuki Kawano is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Guelph, (Canada).
Review Quotes: Capturing Contemporary Japan, a collection of neatly unified and carefully researched case studies by leading anthropologists takes a thorough look at Japan's current "questioning of post-war, middle-class ideals" and the "exploration (by its people) of new identities." . . . [and] provides a detailed introductory description of Japan's recent economic history.-- "Times Literary Supplement"