Doing Fieldwork in Japan

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2003

Doing Fieldwork in Japan

Edited by: Theodore C. Bestor , Patricia G. Steinhoff and Victoria Lyon Bestor

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824862237

Overview
Contents

About this book

Doing Fieldwork in Japan taps the expertise of North American and European specialists on the practicalities of conducting long-term research in the social sciences and cultural studies. In lively first-person accounts, they discuss their successes and failures doing fieldwork across rural and urban Japan in a wide range of settings: among religious pilgrims and adolescent consumers; on factory assembly lines and in high schools and wholesale seafood markets; with bureaucrats in charge of defense, foreign aid, and social welfare policy; inside radical political movements; among adherents of "New Religions"; inside a prosecutor's office and the JET Program for foreign English teachers; with journalists in the NHK newsroom; while researching race, ethnicity, and migration; and amidst fans and consumers of contemporary popular culture.

Contributors: David M. Arase, Theodore C. Bestor, Victoria Lyon Bestor, Mary C. Brinton, John Creighton Campbell, Samuel Coleman, Suzanne Culter, Andrew Gordon, Helen Hardacre, Joy Hendry, David T. Johnson, Ellis S. Krauss, David L. McConnell, Ian Reader, Glenda S. Roberts, Joshua Hotaka Roth, Robert J. Smith, Sheila A. Smith, Patricia G. Steinhoff, Merry Isaacs White, Christine R. Yano.

Author / Editor information

Steinhoff Patricia G. :

Patricia G. Steinhoff is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1. Introduction: Doing Fieldwork in Japan Theodore C. Bestor, Patricia G. Steinhoff and Victoria Lyon Bestor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Starting Out
Taking Note of Teen Culture in Japan: Dear Diary, Dear Fieldworker Merry Isaacs White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
New Notes from the Underground: Doing Fieldwork without a Site Patricia G. Steinhoff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
From Scrambled Messages to an Impromptu Dip: Serendipity in Finding a Field Location Joy Hendry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
Fieldwork with Japanese Religious Groups Helen Hardacre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
Chance, Fate, and Undisciplined Meanderings: A Pilgrimage through the Fieldwork Maze Ian Reader Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Navigating Bureaucratic Mazes
Getting Cooperation in Policy-Oriented Research Samuel Coleman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
JET Lag: Studying a Multilevel Program over Time David L. McConnell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
Getting in and Getting along in the Prosecutors Office David T. Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
In Search of the Japanese State Sheila A. Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Doing Media Research in Japan Ellis S. Krauss Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
Asking: Surveys, Interviews, Access
Fact-Rich, Data-Poor: Japan as Sociologists’ Heaven and Hell Mary C. Brinton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Beginning Trials and Tribulations: Rural Community Study and Tokyo City Survey Suzanne Culter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Research among the Bureaucrats: Substance and Process John Creighton Campbell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Dealing with the Unexpected: Field Research in Japanese Politics David M. Arase Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	248
Studying the Social History of Contemporary Japan Andrew Gordon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Unraveling the Web of Song Christine R. Yano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Bottom Up, Top Down, and Sideways: Studying Corporations, Government Programs, and NPOs Glenda S. Roberts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294
Inquisitive Observation: Following Networks in Urban Fieldwork Theodore C. Bestor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Responsibility and the Limits of Identification: Fieldwork among Japanese and Japanese Brazilian Workers in Japan Joshua Hotaka Roth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Time and Ethnology: Long-Term Field Research Robert J. Smith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	352
Appendix: Digital Resources and Fieldwork Victoria Lyon Bestor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	383
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 424

eBook

Published: July 31, 2003
ISBN: 9780824862237