Publisher's Synopsis
This book attempts to divest Japan of some of the multiple layers of wrapping in which it has been encased by the social sciences. As well as exploring current issues related to advertising, tourism, women, festivals, the art world and much else, it attempts to show how the study of Japanese sociey, or aspects of it, may also contribute to anthropological theory and understanding.;This task has been formulated by the contributors as one of "unwrapping", that is as a process by which "revelations" of Japan or things Japanese have been related to wider problems and questions prevalent in contemporary anthropological discourse.;The issues dealt with include the contribution of applied anthropology to theory, the relationship between tourism and nostalgia; the role of advertising in reproducing gender relations; and the place of Japanese genres of writing within anthropological texts.
