Shinohata - by R P Dore (Paperback)

About the Book

"This book presents a marvelously intimate view into the flood of little changes that lie behind the great transformations that have swept Japan in recent times. . . . It makes enlightening, fascinating, and often amusing reading for the casual reader as for the specialist."--Edwin O. Reischauer

Book Synopsis

Ronald Dore offers the reader insight into the changing rural life of Japan in this fascinating study of a village some 100 miles from Tokyo where he lived first in 1955 and again in the early 1970s. A new Afterword reports on the acceleration of change to a once self-sufficient community most of whose young men now commute to city jobs instead of working the land. Dore comments on the effects of the 1993 election-Shinohata in a non-LDP-governed Japan.

From the Back Cover

'An English authority's subtle and meticulous account of life in a small and newly prosperous Japanese village during the last twenty years... The details are fascinating: from the history of toilets to the techniques of rice-planting and the rise of family discussions.' - Todd Gitlin, The Nation

Review Quotes

"An affectionately ironic portrait. . . . The subtle shifts in the relation of family members, of superiors and inferiors, of men and nature, are here captured with wisdom and gracefulness of language. . . . The most penetrating look at a Japanese village ever done in English."--"Asia Magazine

About the Author

Ronald Dore is a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex and a Fellow of the British Academy. Among his many books is British Factory/Japanese Factory (California, updated edition 1990).