Becoming Japanese

The children are more than mere pictures. They tell us the truths about Japan. So wrote a visitor to Japan at the turn of the century and this view underlies the title of this book. The first few years of a child’s life are vitally imporant for preparing it to be a member of the society to which it belongs. Japanese methods of childcare are consequently directed towards taking advantage of the receptivity of the early years. They are also different in many ways from Western methods and much of the colorful detail in this book will be of great interest to mothers everywhere–from family beds and toilet training to the elaborate religious ceremonies of childhood. Joyn Hendry looks at customs and traditions, at rewards and punishments, and at the day-to-day life of children at home, at school, and in the wider world.

Joy Hendry’s research involved working with Japanese mothers and other care takers, and with kindergartens and day nurseries. She has drawn on the work of sociologists, psychologists and educationalists in English and Japanese, but the theoretical framework for the study is drawn from social anthropology.