Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Introduction: Differentiation and Uncertainty 1
5. I. Change over Time
6. Chapter 1. Work and Life in Challenging Times A Kansai Family Across the Generations 27
7. 2. Being a Man in a Straitened Japan: The View from Twenty Years Later 60
8. II. Work Conditions and Experiences
9. 3. Working Women of the Bubble Generation 83
10. 4. “Making an Ant’s Forehead of Difference”: Organic Agriculture as an Alternative Lifestyle in Japan 105
11. 5. Shelf Lives and the Labors of Loss: Food, Livelihoods, and Japan’s Convenience Stores 135
12. III. Exploring New Roles and Identities
13. 6. Single Women in Marriage and Employment Markets in Japan 163
14. 7. The Aging of the Japanese Family: Meanings of Grandchildren in Old Age 183
15. 8. Barrier-Free Brothels: Sex Volunteers, Prostitutes, and People with Disabilities 202
16. IV. Making Social Ties
17. 9. Recreating Connections: Nonprofit Organizations’ Attempts to Foster Networking among Mothers of Preschoolers 223
18. 10. The Divination Arts in Girl Culture 247
19. V. Persisting Patterns and Continuities
20. 11. Education after the “Lost Decade(s)”: Stability or Stagnation? 271
21. 12. Lightweight Cars and Women Drivers: The De/construction of Gender Metaphors in Recessionary Japan 300
22. 13. The Story of a Seventy-Three-Year-Old Woman Living Alone: Her Thoughts on Death Rites 316
23. Glossary 339
24. Contributors 347
25. index 349