Social and political conflict in postwar Japan is the subject of this volume, which draws together a series of field-based studies by North American and Japanese sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists. It focuses attention on the sources of conflict and the ways in which conflict is expressed and managed. This book challenges the widely held theories stressing the harmony and vertical structure of social relations in Japan, which imply that conflict is only of minimal importance. Not only does the research presented here force recognition of the existence and complexity of...