Download or read book Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 5 Japan, Modern Japanese Society written by Josef Kreiner and published by Handbook of Oriental Studies. This book was released on 2003-12 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Japanese society essentially different from other modern industrialized societies, or not? This survey work with contributions from the leading scholars in this complicated field, presents a full overview of the most important aspects of Japanese society which may lead the reader to find an answer to these two often-asked questions. Japanese society, defined as those institutions shaping the life of individuals and groups, as well as being responsible for the dynamics of social development, is shown to be as modern as any other industrialized society; definitely distinct, though, are the ways in which institutions are defined and organised as a result of different social and historical roots of the process of modernization.