Preface

Chapter One: Criteria of Group Formation
1. Attribute and Frame
2. Emotional Participation and One-to-One Relationships

Chapter Two: The Internal Structure of the Group
1. The Development of Ranking
2. The Fundamental Structure of Vertical Organization
3. Qualification of the Leader and Interpersonal Relations in the Group
4. The Undifferentiated Rôle of the Group Member

Chapter Three: The Overall Structure of the Society

Chapter Four: Characteristics and Value Orientation of Japanese Man
1. From School to Employment
2. The Web of Comradeship
3. Localism and Tangibility

Concluding Remarks
Index

"Should be taken to heart by everyone who has dealings with Japan...Even those—or, perhaps, most of all those—who know Japan intimately will be grateful to Professor Nakane for her brilliant study."—Times Literary Supplement

"This is an important book!"—Journal of Asian Studies

"If you have time for just one book on Japan, try this one."—Asian Student

"A brilliant wedding of 'national character' studies and analyses of small societies through the structural approach of British anthropology. One is of course reminded of Ruth Benedict's Chrysanthemum and the Sword which deals also with Japanese national culture. Studies by Margaret Mead and Geoffrey Gorer deal with other national cultures; however, all of these studies take off from national psychology. Professor Nakane comes to explanation of the behavior of Japanese through analysis rather of historical social structure of Japanese society, beginning with the way any two Japanese perceive each other, and following through to the nature of the Japanese corporation and the whole society. Nakane's remarkable achievement, which has already given new insight about themselves to the Japanese, promises to open up a new field of large-society comparative social anthropology which is long overdue."—Sol Tax