Skip to content

Outline for January 18 session

Key features of Japan’s mainstream modernity, 1950s-1990s

I. Japan’s “national projects,” 1950s-1990s: Economic growth and cultural identity

A. Material needs: Growing the country’s Gross National Product

B. Spiritual objective: The emperor and Japaneseness as cultural nationalism

II. The social ethos of Japanese society, 1950s-1990s: “Mainstream consciousness”

A. Prime Minister’s Office annual survey, 1968-

B. Does mainstream = middle class?

C. The spread of metropolitan lifeways

III. The social order of Japanese society, 1950s-1990s: “Structured diversity”

A. What differences were played down? Class and ethnicity

B. What differences were played up? Gender, geography and generation

IV. The central social institutions of mainstream modernity

A. Work and workplaces

B. Family

C. Schooling