Bøger i Japanese Society serien

Susumu Shimazono, one of Japans foremost sociologists of religion, deals with the development of popular religious and spiritual movements in Japan in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. At present, it is estimated that more than ten percent of Japans total population are members of the so-called New Religions. While Buddhist and Shintoist influences remain pronounced, there are many other features common to modern Japans popular religious thinking. Through a careful study of these features, the author examines classical concepts and theories of religious studies, proposes alternative approaches, and reconsiders religion in modernity in the context of Japanese cultural heritage.

Japan's national identity associates the 'Japanese people' with the Japanese land, making the farmer the backbone of the nation. Others in Japanese Agriculture challenges this mythology, revealing the changing faces of Japanese farmers during the colonial and post-war eras. First, it traces the tangled trail of Koreans brought into farming villages as a result of war mobilization and capitalist development. Second, it discusses the plight of those who evacuated from cities as they attempted to eke out a living on marginal land. Third, it points out that settlers repatriated from the colonies were met with hostility from villagers and indifference from authorities. Finally, it explores how those who were encouraged to emigrate for 'the good of the nation' in post-war Japan, found themselves victims of agrarian reforms, which severed their ties. In sum, despite being lauded as the 'backbone of the nation' Japanese farmers have been repeatedly marginalized and othered.

This is the first English version of Tadao Umesao's classic, published first in Japanese in 1957, with a full description of his "ecological theory" of civilizations of Eurasia. Dividing the Eurasian continent into three major ecological zones consisting of Western Europe, Japan, and the region between them, he shows how the first two are basically similar and demonstrates fundamental differences between Japan and China. In 1964 a jury of ten intellectuals chose this treatise as one of the 18 most influential treatises since 1945 from among more than a hundred which were considered. In 1998, when an influential monthly, Bungei Shunju, solicited "the ten most impactful books" in the twentieth century from more than 170 intellectuals in Japan, this book won the third highest vote among 67 books that were nominated.