Imagined Families, Lived Families

The Japanese family is at a crossroads of demographic change and altered cultural values. While the population of children has been shrinking and that of elders rising, attitudes about rights and responsibilities within the family have changed significantly. The realities of life in postmodern society have shaped both the imagined family of popular culture and the lived experience of Japanese family members. Imagined Families, Lived Families takes an interdisciplinary approach toward these dramatic changes by looking at the Japanese family from a variety of perspectives, including media studies, anthropology, sociology, literature, and popular culture. The contributors look at representations of family in manga and anime, outsider families and families that must contend with state prosecution of political activists, the stereotype of the absolute Japanese father, and old age and end-of-life decisions in a rapidly aging society with changing family configurations.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Changing Japanese Families
Akiko Hashimoto, University of Pittsburgh
John W. Traphagan, University of Texas at Austin

Imagined Families

2. Blondie, Sazae, and Their Storied Successors: Japanese Families in Newspaper Comics
Akiko Hashimoto, University of Pittsburgh

3. From Spiritual Fathers to 'Tokyo Godfathers: Depictions of the Family in Japanese Animation
Susan J. Napier, Tufts University

4. Agony of Eldercare: Two Japanese Women Directors Study an Age-Old Problem
Keiko I. McDonald, University of Pittsburgh

Lived Families

5. Mass Arrests, Sensational Crimes and Stranded Children: Three Crises for Japanese New Left Activists’ Families
Patricia G. Steinhoff, University of Hawai’i

6. Is “Japan” Still a Big Family? Nationality and Citizenship at the Edge of the Japanese Archipelago
Mariko Asano Tamanoi, UCLA

7. Somone’s Old, Something’s New, Someone’s Borrowed, Someone's Blue: Changing Elder Care at the Turn of the 21st Century
Susan Orpett Long, John Carroll University

References
Contributors
Index