Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Japanese term nihonjinron refers to discourses on the distinctiveness of the society, culture, and national character of the Japanese. As such, nihonjinron have manifested themselves periodically from the Meiji era (1868–1911) to the present, while continually undergoing changes in form. In its narrower and most recent sense, the term refers to the vogue of such discourses during the 1970s and the early 1980s, when a very large quantity of works on the unique qualities of the Japanese inundated bookstores – the so-called nihonjinron boom. In the aftermath, a period of critical reaction to the nihonjinron set in, and this in turn has had a large impact on the ways in which Japanese society and culture are discussed today. For the most part, the nihonjinron were not written as rigorous, objective studies of Japanese society, culture, and national character, but rather as works of popular sociology intended to be received favorably by wider sections of the population. The works reflect the concerns of the particular historical period in which they were written, concerns with the social, cultural, and economic conditions of the times, as well as the prevailing international relations. Characteristics of the Japanese chosen for discussion as well as the tone of discussion vary according to each historical epoch. For example, works written in the 1950s mainly took on a self-critical ... log in or subscribe to read full text