David W. Plath

Introduction: From the Zabuton: a View of Personal Episodes

I NFANTS grow to be children, children turn into youths, youths become adults. But what do adults become? The cynical reader of social science books might conclude that about the only thing adults become is older. Few of our scientists of humankind seem concerned about understanding how -humans develop after puberty, fewer still make an effort to delineate the process. The analyst of social systems, for example, seems content to equate maturation with the performance of adult roles. And the orthodox Freudian on his part often suggests that human growth has hit its peak with the onset of&dquo;genitaI maturity&dquo;. When we turn to studies of Japan we find this bias magnified. In the conventional scholarly wisdom of our day the Japanese are said to be extreme, almost peculiar, because they are thought to go to such lengths to deny or dissolve their individuality. Some students insist that Japanese are actually devoid of self-consciousness. And if one assumes this to be the case, one is not <

Modernization and its Discontents: Japan's little Utopias

UTOPIAN groups have sung a counterpoint of discontent with modernization in the West since the 18th century. Their performances are widely known, and often have attracted popular curiosity as well as scholarly scrutiny. Utopian groups also exist in modern Japan, although few non-Japanese are aware of them. The origins of these little Japanese utopias, the themes of discontent they articulate, and their effects on the greater society, all raise intriguing questions about the nature of utopianism and the success of Japan’s modernization.