ABSTRACT
The transformation of Japan over the second half of the twentieth cen-tury and into the twenty-first century has been momentous, recastingthe social, political, economic and cultural landscape. The pace and breadth of change has been staggering and yet some aspects of Japan seem unchanged or only slightly modified. Pockets of rural Japan remain repositories of a vanishing era while the small shops, factories and nomiya (bars) of shitamachi (downtown) remain redolent of the sounds, smells, flavours and relationships conjured up by nostalgic memories about how Japan used to be, almost frozen in time. Time-honoured traditions persist and some aspects of society still function on established patterns, but the scope of continuity has been overwhelmed by the metamorphosis of modern Japan.
