Imagined Families, Lived Families

Culture and Kinship in Contemporary Japan

Akiko Hashimoto, John W. Traphagan, Akiko Hashimoto, John W. Traphagan

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780791475782, 9780791475775
• eBook ISBN: 9780791477687
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

An interdisciplinary look at the dramatic changes in the contemporary Japanese family, including both empirical data and analyses of popular culture.

The Japanese family is at a crossroads of demographic change and altered cultural values. While the population of children has been shrinking and that of elders rising, attitudes about rights and responsibilities within the family have changed significantly. The realities of life in postmodern society have shaped both the imagined family of popular culture and the lived experience of Japanese family members. Imagined Families, Lived Families takes an interdisciplinary approach toward these dramatic changes by looking at the Japanese family from a variety of perspectives, including media studies, anthropology, sociology, literature, and popular culture. The contributors look at representations of family in manga and anime, outsider families and families that must contend with state prosecution of political activists, the stereotype of the absolute Japanese father, and old age and end-of-life decisions in a rapidly aging society with changing family configurations.

Table of contents

• Imagined Families,Lived Families
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Changing Japanese Families
• Imagined Families
• 2. Blondie, Sazae, and TheirStoried Successors: Japanese Families in Newspaper Comics
• 3. From Spiritual Fathers toTokyo Godfathers: Depictions of the Family in Japanese Animation
• 4. The Agony of Eldercare: Two Japanese Women Directors Study an Age-Old Problem
• Lived Families
• 5. Mass Arrests, Sensational Crimes,and Stranded Children:Three Crises for Japanese New Left Activists’ Families
• 6. Is “Japan” Still A Big Family? Nationality and Citizenship at the Edge of the Japanese Archipelago
• 7. Someone’s Old, Something’s New,Someone’s Borrowed,Someone’s Blue:Changing Elder Care at theTurn of the 21st Century
• References
• Contributors
• Name Index
• Subject Index