Based on fieldwork spanning two decades, this book presents a longitudinal study of deviance and crime among youths in Kanagawa-ken, with a focus upon two groups of young people - a working class group and a middle-class group.

The author, a long-term resident in Japan, has managed to keep in touch with his subjects for twenty years and offers vivid descriptions of non-conformity among Japanese youngsters and an in-depth analysis of the way in which youth deviance is reproduced along class lines.