University of Hawai'i Press, 2019

Honolulu : , : University of Hawaii Press, , [2018]

©2018

0-8248-7335-1

0-8248-8244-X

0-8248-7704-7

1 online resource

AlexyAllison

CookEmma E

DaleS. P. F

DalesLaura

GoldfarbKathryn E

KawaharaYukari

KuwajimaKaoru

MilesElizabeth

SandbergShana Fruehan

TahhanDiana Adis

YamamotoBeverley

YamauraChigusa <1977->

303.4

Intimacy (Psychology) - Social aspects - Japan

Social change - Japan

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social

Japan Social life and customs 1945-

Inglese

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- CHAPTER 1. Introduction. The Stakes of Intimacy in Contemporary Japan / Alexy,

Allison -- CHAPTER 2. Students Outside the Classroom / Kawahara, Yukari -- CHAPTER 3. Resisting Intervention, (En)trusting My Partner / Sandberg, Shana Fruehan -- CHAPTER 4. Romantic and Sexual Intimacy before and beyond Marriage / Dales, Laura / Yamamoto, Beverley Anne -- CHAPTER 5. What Can Be Said? / Alexy, Allison -- CHAPTER 6. My Husband Is a Good Man When He Doesn't Hit Me / Kuwajima, Kaoru -- CHAPTER 7. Power, Intimacy, and Irregular Employment in Japan / Cook, Emma E. -- CHAPTER 8. Manhood and the Burdens of Intimacy / Miles, Elizabeth -- CHAPTER 9. Gender Identity, Desire, and Intimacy / Dale, S. P. F. -- CHAPTER 10. Beyond Blood Ties / Goldfarb, Kathryn E. -- CHAPTER 11. Making Ordinary, If Not Ideal, Intimate Relationships / Yamaura, Chigusa -- CHAPTER 12. Connections, Conflicts, and Experiences of Intimacy in Japanese-Australian Families / Tahhan, Diana Adis -- CHAPTER 13. Reflections on Fieldwork / Alexy, Allison / Cook, Emma E. -- Contributors -- Index

How do couples build intimacy in an era that valorizes independence and self-responsibility? How can a man be a good husband when full-time jobs are scarce? How can unmarried women find fulfillment and recognition outside of normative relationships? How can a person express their sexuality when there is no terminology that feels right? In contemporary Japan, broad social transformations are reflected and refracted in changing intimate relationships. As the Japanese population ages, the low birth rate shrinks the population, and decades of recession radically restructure labor markets, Japanese intimate relationships, norms, and ideals are concurrently shifting.This volume explores a broad range of intimate practices in Japan in the first decades of the 2000s to trace how social change is becoming manifest through deeply personal choices. From young people making decisions about birth control to spouses struggling to connect with each other, parents worrying about stigma faced by their adopted children, and queer people creating new terms to express their identifications, Japanese intimacies are commanding a surprising amount of attention, both within and beyond Japan. With ethnographic analysis focused on how intimacy is imagined, enacted, and discussed, the volume's chapters offer rich and complex portraits of how people balance personal desires with feasible possibilities and shifting social norms.Intimate Japan will appeal to scholars and students in anthropology and Japanese or Asian studies, particularly those focusing on gender, kinship, sexuality, and labor policy. The book will also be of interest to researchers across social science subject areas, including sociology, political science, and psychology.