Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (46 page)

Immediately before moving to Mamachi, I asked various people there how we should go about finding a place to live and whether there were any special problems we should expect in moving. Many people thought it would be somewhat lonely for us, and they continued further by relating some of the feelings they had when they first moved. It is our belief that these spontaneous expressions of feeling provided us with a fuller understanding of the subtleties and strength of their feelings than more formal and rigid interview procedures.

General knowledge of community practices.
—On some topics people talked about their own experiences but knew little about the activities of their friends. For example, men talked fairly freely to me about their friends' sexual experiences as well as their own, but women, although willing to talk to my wife about their own experiences, were so poorly informed about other women's activities that they could not be useful informants about wider community patterns. Hence, our information on women's sexual activities is based on only a small number of cases and we would not have had confidence to report our own findings had it not been for the fact that they generally coincided with the findings of Japanese scholars who have conducted much more extensive research into the field of sexual behavior.

Interpretation of material.
—Some problems do require a leap in interpretation. For example, I have concluded that one important reason why Mamachi residents do not go back to their rural villages

is their fear of requests which would be difficult to handle, yet no person in Mamachi specifically gave this as the reason. They said they felt they should go back more often, but many gave no reason or explained that it was due to having only a short time off from work or congested traffic during the special holidays when they have time off. Although these are undoubtedly important considerations, on two occasions we went with Mamachi residents to visit their rural relatives, and both times large numbers of villagers came bringing presents to the Mamachi residents with requests to find homes and be of assistance in the city. Supplementing these observations were the many accounts given us in Mamachi of difficult requests from rural friends or relatives. Since many felt guilty about not going back more to rural villages, and since many expressed concern about requests from rural acquaintances, we felt it was reasonable to relate these two observations even if they did not.

Child-rearing practices.
—Most parents with whom we had close contact were in their thirties or early forties and their children were already in school. Because they seemed vague on precise details of handling small children, toward the end of our stay my wife made a concerted effort to study the techniques of mothers who had small children. The director of our son's nursery school assisted this study with introductions to ten mothers who each had a child in nursery school and an infant at home. My wife then conducted a two-to-three-hour interview in the homes of each of these mothers which also gave her an opportunity to observe mother-infant interaction. The director of the nursery school supplied us with additional information about the families and about the behavior of the children in the nursery-school setting. We also had opportunities to observe groups of young children playing on the school playground and in the alley in front of our home. Our interpretation of child-rearing practices was heavily influenced by the concrete cases presented to us by Japanese child psychiatrists and child psychologists even though our different cultural perspective sometimes led us to different interpretations of the child's behavior and the mother-child relationship.

Any attempt to understand one's own behavior, or one's friends' behavior, or a stranger's behavior is subject to special hazards re-

sulting from one's inadequate objectivity and lack of adequate understanding. We took as many precautions as we knew to assure a many-sided sympathetic understanding of Mamachi residents, and in analyzing the material we have attempted to consider how our own position and bias might have interfered with our interpretations. We can only hope that our conclusions, though inadequate in giving the full flavor of life in Mamachi, will be of some help in furthering Western understanding of Japanese society.

For bibliographical information on Japanese-language behavioral-science studies, see Kunio Odaka, "Sociology in Japan," in Howard Becker and Alvin Boskoff, eds.,
Modern Sociological Theory in Continuity and Change.
New York: Dryden Press, 1957; Takao Sofue, "Anthropology in Japan: Historical Review and Modern Trends," in Bernard J. Siegel, ed.,
Biennial Review of Anthropology,
1961; Ronald Dore, "Sociology in Japan,"
The British Journal of Sociology,
1962, XIII:116–123;
A Guide to Exhibition of Japanese Sociological Books,
Fifth World Congress of Sociology, September 2–9, 1962, published by The Japan Sociological Society.

More specialized bibliographies are available in many of the following English-language works.

Abegglen, James G.,
The Japanese Factory.
Glencoe, Ill., The Free Press, 1958.

Baker, Wendell Dean, "A Study of Selected Aspects of Japanese Social Stratification." Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, 1956.

Beardsley, Richard, John W. Hall, and Robert E. Ward,
Village Japan.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1959.

Bellah, Robert N.,
Tokugawa Religion,
Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1957.

Benedict, Ruth,
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.
Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1946.

Borton, Hugh, ed.,
Japan Between East and West.
New York: Harper, 1957.

Burks, Ardath W.,
The Government of Japan.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1961.

Cohen, Jerome B.,
Japan's Postwar Economy.
Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1958.

Cole, Allan B., ed.,
Japanese Opinion Polls with Socio-political Significance, 1947-1957.
Medford, Mass.: Tufts University, 1958.

Cole, Allan B.,
Japanese Society and Politics.
Boston: Boston University, 1956.

Dore, Ronald P.,
City Life in Japan.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1958.

Dore, Ronald P.,
Land Reform in Japan,
London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Embree, John F.,
A Japanese Village: Suye Mura.
London: Kegan Paul, French-Trubner, 1946.

Enright, D. J.,
The World of Dew: Aspects of Living Japan.
Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1956.

Fukutake, Tadashi,
Man and Society in Japan.
Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1962.

Haring, Douglas G., ed.,
Japan's Prospect.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1946.

Ike, Nobutaka,
Japanese Politics.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.

Koyama, Takashi,
The Changing Social Position of Women in Japan.
UNESCO, 1961.

Lanham, Betty Baily,
Aspects of Child Rearing in Japan.
Doctoral dissertation, Syracuse University, 1962.

Levine, Solomon B.,
Industrial Relations in Post-War Japan.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1958.

Lockwood, William,
The Economic Development of Japan.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.

Maki, John,
Government and Politics in Japan.
New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962.

Maruyama, Masao,
Thought and Behavior in Modern Japanese Politics.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Matsumoto, Yoshiharu Scott,
Contemporary Japan: The Individual and the Group.
Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1960.

Mendel, Douglas H., Jr.,
Japanese People and Foreign Policy.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.

Morris, Ivan I.,
Nationalism and The Right Wing in Japan.
London: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Nakamura, Hajime,
The Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples.
Tokyo: Japanese National Commission for UNESCO, 1960.

Norbeck, Edward,
Takashima: A Japanese Fishing Community.
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1946.

Pelzel, John C., "Social Stratification in Japanese Urban Economic Life." Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1949.

Plath, David W., "The Strung and the Unstrung: Holidays in Japanese Life." Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1962.

"Post-War Democratization in Japan,"
International Social Science Journal,
1961, XIII: 7-91.

Reischauer, Edwin O.,
The United States and Japan.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950.

Reischauer, Edwin O.,
Japan: Past and Present.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.

Rosovsky, Henry,
Capital Formation in Japan, 1868-1940.
Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1961.

Scalapino, Robert A., and Junnosuke Masumi,
Parties and Politics in Contemporary Japan.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1961.

Smith, Robert J., and Richard K. Beardsley, eds.
Japanese Culture.
New York: The Viking Fund, 1962.

Smith, Robert J., and John B. Cornell,
Two Japanese Villages.
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1956, Center for Japanese Studies, Occasional Paper No. 5.

Smith, Thomas C.,
The Agrarian Origins of Modern Japan.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959.

Smith, Thomas C., ed.,
City and Village in Japan. Economic Development and Cultural Change,
IX:1, part ii, October, 1960.

Stoetzel, Jean,
Without the Chrysanthemum and the Sword: A Study of the Attitudes of Youth in Post-war Japan.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1955.

Taeuber, Irene B.,
The Population of Japan.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.

Von Mehren, Arthur Taylor, ed.
Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963.

Yanaga, Chitoshi,
Japanese People and Politics.
New York: Wiley, 1956.

Kenneth Morioka has compiled an excellent bibliography of Japanese works on the family: "Kazoku Shakaigaku Sankoo Bunken Mokuroku" (A Bibliographic Guide to Works on Family Sociology),
Shakai Kagaku Jaaneru,
International Christian University, 1960, 185–254. (Revised English translation available from the Family

Study Center, University of Minnesota.) The following is a selected list containing some of the major Japanese family studies.

Aruga, Kizaemon,
Nihon Kazoku Seido to Kosaku Seido
(The Japanese Family System and Tenancy System). Tokyo: Kawade Shoboo, 1943.

Asayama, Shinichi,
Sei no Kiroku
(Report on Sexual Behavior). Osaka: Rokugatsusha, 1957.

Isomura, Eiichi, Takeyoshi Kawashima, and Takashi Koyama, eds.,
Gendai Kazoku Kooza
(The Structure of the Contemporary Family). 6 volumes. Tokyo: Kawade Shoboo, 1955-1956.

Isono, Seiichi, and Fujiko Isono,
Kazoku Seido
(The Family System). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1958.

Kawashima, Takeyoshi,
Ideorogi to shite no Kazoku Seido
(The Family System as Ideology). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1956.

Kawashima, Takeyoshi,
Kekkon
(Marriage). Tokyo: Iwanami Shinso, 1954.

Kawashima, Takeyoshi,
Nihon Shakai no Kazokuteki Koosei
(The Familistic Structure of Japanese Society). Tokyo: Nihon Hyooron Shinsha, 1950.

Kekkon Zenshu
(How to Plan Your Marriage). Toyyo: Fufu no Tomosha, 1960.

Kitano, Seeichi and Yuzuru Okada, eds.,
Ie: Sono Koozoo Bunseki
(An Analysis of the Structure of the
Ie
). Tokyo: Soobunsha, 1959.

Koyama, Takeshi,
Gendai Kazoku no Kenkyuu
(An Investigation of the Contemporary Family). Tokyo: Koobundoo, 1960.

Rural Welfare Research Institute,
Soozoku Sei no Kenkyuu
(A Study of Inheritance). (Includes lengthy English summary.) Mitaka: International Christian University, 1958.

Shinozaki, Nobuo,
Fufu Sei Seikatsu no Jittai
(The Sexual Life of Married Couples). Tokyo: Muramatsu Shoten, 1949.

Tamura, Kenji, and Makie Tamura,
Anata wa Dare to Kekkon Shiteru ka
(Who Is Your Partner in Married Life?) Tokyo: Sekkasha, 1961.

Toda, Teizo,
Kazoku no Kenkyuu
(Family Studies). Tokyo: Koobundoo, 1926.

Tsuru, Hiroshi,
Nihon no Boshi Kankei
(Mother-Child Relationship in Japan). Nagoya: Reimei, 1958.

Ariga, Kizaemon, "The Family in Japan,"
Marriage and Family Living,
1954, XVI:362-368.

Asayama, Shinichi, "Comparison of Sexual Development of American and Japanese Adolescents,"
Psychologia,
1957, I:129-131.

Baber, Ray E.,
Youth Looks at Marriage and the Family.
Tokyo: International Christian University, 1958.

Beardsley, Richard, "The Household in the Status System of Japanese Villages,"
Occasional Papers.
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1951, I:62-72.

Bennett, John W., and Michio Nagai, "The Japanese Critique of the Methodology of Benedict's Chrysanthemum and the Sword,"
American Anthropologist,
1953, LV:404-411.

Caudill, William, "Maternal Care and Infant Behavior in Japan" (mimeographed), National Institute of Mental Health, 1962.

Caudill, William, "Japanese-American Personality and Acculturation,"
Genetic Psychology Monographs,
1952, XLV:3-102.

Caudill, William, and George De Vos, "Achievement, Culture and Personality: The Case of the Japanese-Americans,"
American Anthropologist,
1956, LVIII:1102-1126.