ABSTRACT
The chapters that comprise this volume originated with the 2005 meeting
of the Japan Anthropology Workshop (JAWS), an organisation made up of
anthropologists from countries across the globe who do research on Japa-
nese society. A key question that often arises in this context is: To what
extent do anthropologists of different societies approach Japan in a
common way? And to what extent do their analyses of Japan reflect the
different societies from which these analyses emerge? Is there a universal
anthropological approach to Japan, or do approaches fundamentally differ in different societies?
