Social theory and Japanese experience1997

Social Theory and Japanese Experience addresses the most profound sociological issues surrounding the theory of modernity in the light of Japan's experience. As a kind of intermediate world between East and West, the exceptional importance of Japan for comparative history is well-established, but social theorists have been much slower than historians to come to terms with Japan's modern transformation. The reason for this is that Japan challenges established Western sociological theories, and the aim of this highly important and provocative book is to instigate a revision of current sociological approaches, and to free sociological thinking from its present Western biases that have until now prevented it from coming to terms with the Japanese experience. Critics tend to account for modern Japanese society either by stressing the durability of the cultural legacy or by focusing on long-term historical processes such as feudalization and state formation. Johann P. Arnason calls for a synthesis of the two prevailing approaches, emphasizing the interplay between culture and power as a means of understanding both the fixed and the dynamic elements of social structure.