Princeton University

Department of Sociology

Fall 1994

Soc 311: Japan and the United States: Comparison and Perceptions

Preceptor: Julian Dierkes

TuTh 1:30

INTRODUCTION (September 14 and 16): Introduction to Japan and to Comparative Sociology

PRECEPT 1 (September 21 and 23): Adolescence, the Consumer Society, and Recent Social Trends

1. Thomas P. Rohlen, Japan's High Schools (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983) [in package], Chapters 6 (part), and 9, pp. 187-209, 271-305.
2. Merry White, The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (New York: The Free Press, 1993) [08940-5, for purchase, $12.00], Chapters 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, pp. 9-221 (skim only Chapters 2 and 5).
3. Nakano Osamu, "A Sociological Analysis of the 'New Breed'", Japan Echo, Vol. 15, 1988 [in class], pp. 12-16.

PRECEPT 2 (September 28 and 30): The Self and Early Childhood Socialization

1. Nancy R. Rosenberger, "Introduction," and Takie Sugiyama Lebra, "Self in Japanese Culture," in Nancy R. Rosenberger, ed., Japanese Sense of Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) [in package], pp. 1-15, 105-117.
2. Thomas P. Rohlen, "Order in Japanese Society: Attachment, Authority, and Routine," The Journal of Japanese Studies Vol. 15, No. 1 (Winter 1989) [in package], (part) pp. 5-26.
3. Joseph J. Tobin, et. al., Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) [for purchase, 0-300-048122, $11.95], Chapters 2,4 (part) 5; pp. 12-71, 137-48, 162-87, 188-221.

PRECEPT 3 (October 5 and 7): Education and Social Mobility

1. Thomas P. Rohlen, Japan's High Schools [in package], Chapters 3, 4 (part), Conclusion; pp. 77-110, 134-41, 308-25.
2. Thomas P. Rohlen, "The Juku Phenomenon: An Explanatory Essay," The Journal of Japanese Studies Vol. 6, No. 2 (Summer 1980), [in package], pp. 207-43.
3. Shiomi Toshiyuki, "One Saturday Off in the Schools," Japan Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2 (April-June 1993) [in package], pp. 136-41.
4. Merry White, The Japanese Overseas: Can They Go Home Again? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988) [in package], Chapter 4, pp. 43-72.
5. Mary C. Brinton, Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) [in package], Chapters 3 (part), 6 (part), pp. 79-86, 192-221.

PRECEPT 4 (October 12 and 14): The Status of Women

1. Mary C. Brinton, Women and the Economic Miracle: Gender and Work in Postwar Japan (in package), pp. 89-101, 104-106.
2. Sumiko Iwao, The Japanese Woman: Traditional Image and Changing Reality [0-674-47196-2, for purchase, $14.95], Chapters 3,4,5,6,10; pp. 59-93, 94-124, 125-52, 153-88, 265-82.

PRECEPT 5 (October 19 and 21): Law, Social Policy, and the Aging Society

1. Taimie L Bryant, "'Responsible Husbands', 'Recalcitrant' Wives, Retributive Judges: Judicial Management of Contested Divorce in Japan," Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Summer 1992) [in package], pp. 407-43.
2. Yasuhito Kinoshita and Christie W. Kiefer, Refuge of the Honored: Social Organization of a Japanese Retirement Community (Berkeley; University of California Press, 1992) [in package], pp. 20-29, 37-65, 172-85.
3. John Creighton Campbell, How Policies Change: the Japanese Government and Aging Society (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992) [in package], pp.139-59, 242-53.
4. John O. Haley, "Consensual Governance: A Study of Law, Culture, and the Political Economy of Postwar Japan," in Shumpei Kumon and Henry Rosovsky, eds., The Political Economy of Japan: Volume 3, Cultural and Social Dynamics [on reserve], pp. 32-62.

PRECEPT 6 (November 2 and 4): Identities: The Community, the Workplace, the Nation

1. Harumi Befu, "Nationalism and Nihonjinron," in Harumi Befu, ed., Cultural Nationalism in East Asia: Representation and Identity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) [in package], pp. 107-35.
2. Jennifer Robertson, Native and Newcomer: Making and Remaking a Japanese City (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) [in package], pp. 26-47.
3. Theodore C. Bestor, "Conflict, Legitimacy, and Tradition in a Tokyo Neighborhood," in Takie Sugiyama Lebra, ed., Japanese Social Organization (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1972) [in package], pp. 23-47.
4. Thomas Rohlen, For Harmony and Strength: Japanese White Collar Organization in Anthropological Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974) [in package], pp. 13-23, 34-61.

PRECEPT 7 (November 9 and 11): Identities: Social Classes, Minorities, Insiders, and Outsiders

1. Changsoo Lee and George de Vos, Koreans in Japan: Ethnic Conflict and Accommodation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981) [in package]:
   • Changsoo Lee, "The Legal Status of Koreans in Japan," pp. 135-57.
   • Thomas Rohlen, "Education: Policies and Prospects," pp. 182-222.
2. Diane M. Hoffman, "Changing Faces, Changing Places: The New Koreans in Japan," Japan Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 4 (October-December 1992) [in package], pp. 479-89.
3. George A. de Vos, Social Cohesion and Alienation: Minorities in the United States and Japan (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992) [in package], Chapters 1 (part), 5 (part) and 8; pp. 15-36, 47-62, 140-47, 272-81.

PRECEPT 8 (November 16 and 18): Changing Identities in the Japanese (Multi-National) Firm

1. Shumpei Kumon and Henry Rosovsky, eds., The Political Economy of Japan: Volume 3, Cultural and Social Dynamics [on reserve]:
   • Yasusuke Murakami and Thomas P. Rohlen, "Social Exchange Aspects of the Japanese Political Economy: Culture, Efficiency, and Change," pp. 63-77, 82-105.
   • Thomas B. Lifson, "The Managerial Integration of Japanese Business in America," pp. 240-66.
   • Robert E. Cole, "Some Cultural and Social Bases of Japanese Innovation: Small-Group Activities in Comparative Perspective," pp. 304-318.
   • Thomas B. Rohlen, "Learning: The Mobilization of Knowledge in the Japanese Political Economy,: pp. 322-63.
2. Yamamoto Harumi, "The Lifetime Employment System Unravels," Japan Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 4 (October-December 1993) [in class], pp. 381-86.
3. "Two Agendas for Reforming Japan," Japan Echo, Spring 1994 [in class], pp. 26-31.
4. "Japanese Manufacturing at an Impasse," Japan Echo, Spring 1994 [in class], pp. 45-49.
5. Fukukawa Shinji, "The Challenge to the Japanese Way of Business," Japan Echo, Winter 1993 [in class], pp. 61-66

PRECEPT 9 (November 23): Great Power Identity

1. Kenneth Pyle, The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era (Washington: The AEI Press, 1992) [on reserve], pp. 85-146.
2. Gilbert Rozman, "Japanese Views of the Great Powers in the New World Order," in David Jacobson, ed., Old Nations, New World: Conceptions of World Order (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994) [in package], pp. 15-35.

PRECEPT 10 (November 30 and December 2): American Perceptions and Internationalization

1. Sheila Johnson, The Japanese Through American Eyes (Stanford: Stanfraud University Press, 19??) [0-8047-1959-4, for purchase, $8.95], pp. 19-38, 55-72, 93-110, 124-44.
2. Walter Feinberg, Japan and the Pursuit of a new American Identity: Work and Education in a Multicultural Age (New York: Routledge, 1993) [in package], Chapters 1 (part), 2 (part), and 7; pp. 15-36, 37-44, 58-60, 168-94.

PRECEPT 11 (December 7 and 9): Japanese Perceptions and Internationalization

1. Merry White, The Japanese Overseas: Can They Go Home Again [in package], Chapters 2,3,6; pp. 13-42, 103-22.
2. Homma Nagayo, "What Does It Mean To Understand America? -- A Japanese View" in IHJ Bulletin, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Spring 1994) [in class], pp. 1-7.
3. "Immigration Reform for an Open Society," in Japan Echo (Winter 1987) [in class], pp. 19-24.
4. "The Globalization of Japanese," in Japan Echo (Special Issue 1989) [in class], pp. 61-68.

FINAL LECTURE (December 13): Looking Ahead a Few Decades

Requirements

In the reading period one 10-12 page research paper (plus bibliography and tables or appendices) is due. It may build upon one of the earlier shorter papers. Precept participation (20 percent) and the short papers (25 percent) account for 45 percent of the grade. The two quizzes comprise the other 25 percent.

The quizzes will be fifty minutes each, including six questions calling for you to identify and discuss the significance of themes form the readings and lectures. The first quiz will be during the mid-term week, available in the Sociology office, 2-N-1 Green Hall. You will sign it out nd go to a nearby library or classroom to take it. The second quiz will be in class on December 2.

Description of Course Coverage

The first part of the course focusses on the relationship of the individual to the group over the life cycle. We trace the formation of group identity over many stages: the self and the family, the child and the nursery school group, primary and high school groups, teenage peer groups, the couple and the family, and communities of the elderly. Other groups, including deviant ones, minorities, small groups in the workplace, are examined in the second part of the course.

The second part of the course concerns identities. The identities and alienation in groups perceived as minorities in each country are compared. Various levels of identity are explored, from the community and the workplace to national identity and Japan's emerging identity as a great power. Special attention is placed on how the Japanese employment system is changing and its effect on worker identities.

The third and final part of the course centers on mutual perceptions of Americans and Japanese. Problems of adjusting to a new era of internationalization are linked to difficulties in cooperating with each other. Comparisons of the media are introduced along with excerpts from recent media coverage of the other country. In these final two weeks, we search for sources of misunderstanding and for connections between domestic social structure and worldview.