Family and Social Policy in Japan: Anthropological Approaches

Front Cover
Roger Goodman
Cambridge University Press, Nov 26, 2002 - Family & Relationships - 237 pages
"Social policies reflect and construct important ideas in societies about the relationship between the state and the individual. This 2002 book examines this relationship in a number of hitherto unexplored areas in Japanese society including policies relating to fertility, peri-natal care, child care, child abuse, sexuality, care for the aged and death. The conclusion is that a great change has taken place in all these areas through the 1990s as a consequence of Japan's changing economy, demography and the development of civil society. The case studies, based on intensive anthropological fieldwork, not only demonstrate how and why family and social policies have evolved in the world's second largest economy, but in the process provide a challenge to many of the assumptions of western policymakers. The empirical material contained in this volume will be of interest to anthropologists and to students and practitioners."--publisher website.
 

Contents

Anthropology policy and the study of Japan
1
Toward a cultural biography of civil society in Japan
29
Pinning hopes on angels reflections from an aging Japans urban landscape
54
Reproducing identity maternal and child healthcare for foreigners in Japan
92
State standardisation and normal children an anthropological study of a preschool
111
Child abuse in Japan discovery and the development of policy
131
Touching of the hearts an overview of programmes to promote interaction between the generations in Japan
156
Death policies in Japan the state the family and the individual
177
Embodiment citizenship and social policy in contemporary Japan
200
Index
230
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About the author (2002)

Roger Goodman is lecturer in the social anthropology of Japan at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. His publications include Children of the Japanese State: The Changing Role of Child Protection Institutions in Contemporary Japan (2000) and The East Asian Welfare Model: Welfare Orientalism and the State (1998).