ABSTRACT
After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 Japan modernized rapidly, transforming itself perhaps more quickly than any other country in history. However, the change was not without its conflicts, many of them still unresolved as the pleasures of modern society vie with a respect for the traditional Japanese lifestyle. As the literature of change and of the young, science fiction acts as a window to the modern mind and the uneasy alliance of the old and new. This book, filled with detailed reference to numerous stories, traces the origin and development of the genre from the mid-nineteenth century to today, thus exploring unique insights into Japanese attitudes to commercialism, spirituality, the media, war and international relations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |4 pages
Introduction
part |34 pages
The Origins of Japanese Science Fiction
chapter |6 pages
The Beginnings
chapter |26 pages
The Period of Development
part |83 pages
The Concerns of a Changing Society
chapter |12 pages
The Jaded Japanese
chapter |11 pages
Advertising and the Media
chapter |16 pages
Economics and Commerce
chapter |14 pages
Human Concerns and Values
chapter |11 pages
Consciousness of Generational Change
chapter |14 pages
Sex
part |45 pages
Matters of the Mind and Spirit
chapter |18 pages
Moral Values, Ethics, and Religious Beliefs
chapter |22 pages
The Psyche, Perception, and Emotion
part |68 pages
The Consequences of Change