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Molding Japanese Minds Sheldon Garon

Molding Japanese Minds By Sheldon Garon

Molding Japanese Minds by Sheldon Garon


Condition - Good
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Summary

How has the Japanese government persuaded its citizens to save substantial portions of their incomes? How did the public come to support legalized prostitution as in the national interest? The author helps us to understand this mobilizing spirit as he taps into the intimate relationships everyday Japanese have with their government.

Molding Japanese Minds Summary

Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life by Sheldon Garon

How has the Japanese government persuaded its citizens to save substantial portions of their incomes? And to care for the elderly within the family? How did the public come to support legalized prostitution as in the national interest? What roles have women's groups played in Japan's economic miracle? What actually unites the Japanese to achieve so many economic and social goals that have eluded other polities? Here Sheldon Garon helps us to understand this mobilizing spirit as he taps into the intimate relationships everyday Japanese have with their government. To an extent inconceivable to most Westerners, state directives trickle into homes, religious groups, and even into individuals' sex lives, where they are frequently welcomed by the Japanese and reinforced by their neighbors. In a series of five compelling case studies, Garon demonstrates how average citizens have cooperated with government officials in the areas of welfare, prostitution, and household savings, and in controlling religious cults and promoting the political participation of women. The state's success in creating a nation of activists began before World War II, and has hinged on campaigns that mobilize the people behind various policies and encourage their involvement at the local level. For example, neighborhoods have been socially managed on a volunteer basis by small-business owners and housewives, who strive to rid their locales of indolence and to contain welfare costs. The story behind the state regulation of prostitution is a more turbulent one in which many lauded the flourishing brothels for preserving Japanese tradition and strengthening the family system, while others condemned the sexual enslavement of young women. In each case, we see Japanese citizens working closely with the state to recreate community and shape the thought and behavior of fellow citizens. The policies often originate at the top, but in the hands of activists they take on added vigor. This phenomenon, which challenges the conventional dichotomy of the state versus the people, is well worth exploring as Western governments consider how best to manage their own changing societies.

Molding Japanese Minds Reviews

Molding Japanese Minds is history at its best; with a thorough command of original sources and scholarship, both in Japanese and other languages, Garon demonstrates that social policy was not solely government-or bureaucracy-driven.--Times Literary Supplement An excellent book... Garon has chosen his subject well and... he handles it with balance and authority.--Patrick Smith, The Nation

About Sheldon Garon

Sheldon Garon is Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of The State and Labor in Modern Japan, which was awarded the 1988 John K. Fairbank Prize by the American Historical Association.

Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsAbbreviationsPrefaceSocial Management: An Introduction3Pt. 1State and Society Before 194523Ch. 1The Evolution of Japanese-Style Welfare25Ch. 2Defining Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy60Ch. 3The World's Oldest Debate? Regulating Prostitution and Illicit Sexuality88Ch. 4Integrating Women into Public Life: Women's Groups and the State115Pt. 2Social Management in Postwar Japan147Ch. 5Re-creating the Channels of Moral Suasion149Ch. 6Sexual Politics and the Feminization of Social Management178Ch. 7Managing Spiritual Life and Material Well-being206Epilogue231Notes239Bibliography273Interviews298Index299

Additional information

CIN069100191XG
9780691001913
069100191X
Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life by Sheldon Garon
Used - Good
Paperback
Princeton University Press
19980816
336
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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