This book argues that 'the generation gap' in Japan is something more than young people resisting the adult social order before entering and conforming to that order. Rather, it signifies something more fundamental: the emergence of a new Japan, which may be quite different from the Japan of postwar decades. It argues that while young people in Japan in their teens, twenties and early thirties are not engaged in overt social or political resistance, they are turning against the existing Japanese social order, whose legitimacy has been undermined by the past decade of economic downturn. The book shows how young people in Japan are thinking about their bodies and identities, their social relationships, and their employment and parenting, in new and generationally contextual ways, that may help to create a future Japan quite different from Japan of the recent past.
Introduction: Changing Generations in Japan Today Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
Part One: The Japanese Generational Divide
1. The Generation Gap in Japanese Society since the 1960s Tetsuo Sakurai
2. Why are Japanese Youth Today so Passive? Satoshi Kotani
3. The Local Roots of Global Citizenship: Generational Change in a Kyushu Hamlet Bruce White
Part Two: How Teenagers Cope With the Adult World
4. How Japanese Teenagers Cope: Social Pressures and Personal Responses Peter Ackermann
5. Youth Fashion and Changing Beautification Practices Laura Miller
6. 'Guiding' Japan's University Students through the Generation Gap Brian McVeigh
Part Three: How Young Adults Challenge the Social Order
7. Seeking a Career, Finding a Job: How Young People Enter and Resist the Japanese World of Work Gordon Mathews
8. Mothers and Their Unmarried Daughters: An Intimate Look at Generational Change Lynne Nakano and Moeko Wagatsuma
9. What Happens When They Come Back: How Japanese Young People with Foreign University Degrees Experience the Japanese Workplace Shunta Mori
10. Centered Selves and Life Choices: Changing Attitudes of Young Educated Mothers Ayumi Sasagawa
Epilogue: Are Japanese Young People Creating a New Society? Bruce White and Gordon Mathews
