Japan's New Middle Class · the Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb

I got this book for an assignment in an anthropology class. For anyone looking for a pre-1970s ethnography that is confused by the fact that this is an ethnology: an ethnology is an ethnography, it just had a different title in the past. Also, yes Ezra F. Vogel is a social scientist (not an anthropologist), but he received years of training in ethnographic fieldwork, and used those methods during his research.Additionally, his wife accompanied him and participated in the research project, and she is an anthropologist.I didn't need the book to be in spectacular condition and wanted to save money, so I was able to get this on the cheap and in great condition. A little wearing around the corners and on the cover, but the pages are in great shape, and the binding is intact, which is all that really matters.I'm only about halfway through the book but so far it's an informative read. It's very clearly organized and includes some charts to provide different visual examples of the information.It also describes gender roles, relationships within family and within a business, cultural expectations of individuals and families, etc. The aspect that is of most interest to me in this book is the early effects of Westernization on a culture (after defeat in the war), and the displaced heritage that seemed to be collectively experienced. Effects of power and history are not ignored in this book. Lastly, Vogel does not write from a God's Eye View perspective; he does the anthropological thing, and places himself within the stories, although somewhat sparsely.