ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at manners from the perspective of the macro level of political economics. It also examines the particular institutions that shape sociolinguistic behavior. Aisatsu, or daily sociolinguistic practices that embody, symbolize, and make visible key cultural values. Its usage permeates Japanese society. Also deserves serious attention because it constitutes the basic building blocks, or micro rituals, of complex ceremonials, and rites of passage, and ultimately bolsters larger political economic arrangements. In the economic sphere, business leaders believe that well-performed aisatsu helps facilitate the flow of value through the exchange circuitry that is between company employees and customers. Besides aisatsu, students study bodily dress and adornment, bodily movement, facial expressions, and the "correct" attitude. An important place where individuals acquire knowledge about etiquette is schools, which are, of course, socializing agents of the state. In particular, it is within officially sanctioned educational sites that aisatsu is symbolically linked to moral education.
