Japan's performance in the field of scientific research has been less than might be expected. There has been a curious dichotomy between what has gone on in the laboratory and the country's outstanding technical sophistication and economic success. However, this may be about to change. This new ethnograpic study of Japan's scientists looks firsthand at the career structures and organizational issues that have hampered their advancement. It provides an analysis of the problem of career mobility in science, the status quo in university and government laboratories, relations between scientists...

The book description for the previously published "Family Planning in Japanese Society: Traditional Birth Control in a Modern Urban Culture" is not yet available.

The durability of Japan's industrial products now holds world acclaim. But the durability of jobs in Japan--despite misleading Western images of lifetime employment--is no better than in other industrial nations. The "group model" of Japanese society that has been in fashion in the West confuses the goals of an organization with the personal aims and aspirations of its members. Like workers anywhere, those in Japan must go through life reconciling their duties to the job with their often conflicting obligations to family, to community, and to self-respect. Career outcomes are anything but...