As she describes the youth culture of Japan, Merry White draws comparisons with the interests and activities pursued by teenagers in the United States and the contrasting attitudes of adults in Japan and the U.S. towards adolescence. The result is both engrossing and enlightening.
Merry Whiteis Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University and research associate at the Reischauer Institute, Harvard. She is the author ofThe Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children(1987).
Preface to the Paperback Edition
Glossary
Introduction
1. Rethinking the Life Course
Mixed Messages and Complementary Contradictions in the Creation of Adolescence
2. Youth in Time
Culture, History, and the Idea of the Teen
3. Family Time and Space
4. School in the Life of the Teen
5. The Material Child
Buying and Bonding
6. Friendship
Best Friends and Group Training
7. Sexuality
Illusions and Reality
8. Big Thoughts
Appendix: School Regulations in Japan
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Photographs of teenagers in Kyoto and Osaka by Yara Sellin, 1994
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