Crested Kimono: Power and Love in the Japanese Business Family

From Library Journal: As a graduate student in Japan during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hamabata found himself in an unusual situation--a third-generation Japanese-American, he could pass for a Japanese, but in cultural background he was treated primarily as an outsider. Writing from this dual perspective, Hamabata (sociology, Haverford Coll.) discusses a number of aspects of traditional and contemporary Japanese society--succession within family businesses; funeral rites and the role of ancestors; patterns of family authority; and attitudes regarding love and marriage. Throughout, he takes care to correlate his personal experiences with the literature in the field. An important contribution to the subject that deserves the attention of general readers as well as specialists. --Scott Wright, Coll. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.