The Japanese Family
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About This Book
This book explores how the relationship between child and parent develops in Japan, from the earliest point in a child’s life, through the transition from family to the wider world, first to playschools and then schools. It shows how touch and physical contact are important for engendering intimacy and feeling, and how intimacy and feeling continue even when physical contact lessens. It relates the position in Japan to theoretical writing, in both Japan and the West, on body, mind, intimacy and
Our Review
This anthropological study offers a nuanced exploration of parent-child relationships in Japan, tracing development from infancy through the critical transitions to preschool and formal education. The work stands out for its focus on physical touch as a foundational element for intimacy, examining how these early bonds evolve even as direct contact diminishes over time. Grounded in ethnographic research, it provides rare insight into the embodied dimensions of family connection that often remain unspoken in cross-cultural studies of parenting.
What makes this research particularly valuable is its bridging of Japanese cultural practices with Western theoretical frameworks around embodiment, intimacy, and emotional development. Readers interested in comparative parenting approaches, cross-cultural psychology, or anthropological studies of family dynamics will find rich material here. The book ultimately reveals how Japanese approaches to physical closeness challenge Western assumptions about independence and emotional connection, offering a compelling alternative perspective on what constitutes healthy child development.
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