Japan remains one of the most intriguing yet least understood nations. In a much needed balanced and comprehensive analysis, among other remarkable revelations, this book presents for the first time a vital key to understanding the organization of Japan's society and the behavior of its people. The Japanese are not driven by a universal morality based on good and Evil, but by broad aesthetic concepts based on Pure and Impure. What they include as "impure" will surprise many readers.

Introduction: Japan as Other, and the Other Japan * Part I: the Essentials of Society: Men and Women * Hard Men, Soft Men, Ideal Men, Real Men: The Constructing of Maleness * From Reigning Empress to Silly Servant: The Historical Downgrading of the Female * Tradition meets the Modern World: The Hesitant Emergence of the New Woman * Boys and Madonnas, Father-Figures and Virgins: Relations Between the Sexes * The Blurring of Gender: Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Androgyny * Part II: On the Fringes of Society: Minorities and Other Marginals * Impure Outcasts: The Burakumin * Primitives: The Ainu * Not Quite Us: Koreans in Japan * Heroic Villains: The Yakuza * Off-Center: Okinawans and Other Regional Groups * The Dreaded Outside Threat: Foreigners and "Foreign-Tainted" Groups * Failures: Day-Labors and Vagrants * Unwholesome: The Diseased * Imperfect and Neglected: The Physically Disabled * Selfish and Ungrateful: The Mentally Impaired * Part III: The Mainstream of Society: Being a Normal Japanese * Being Young: Socialization, Education, and Muted Rebellion * Being Adult: Social Responsibility, Work, and Families * Being Old: Confucian Ideals and the Reality of Decrepitude * Being Oneself: The Individual in a "Groupist" Society * Being Japanese: A Race Apart? * Conclusion: Japan as Itself and the Aesthetics of Purity