This book is an unprecedented collection of 29 original essays by some of the world's most distinguished scholars of Japan.

• Covers a broad range of issues, including the colonial roots of anthropology in the Japanese academy; eugenics and nation building; majority and minority cultures; genders and sexualities; and fashion and food cultures
• Resists stale and misleading stereotypes, by presenting new perspectives on Japanese culture and society
• Makes Japanese society accessible to readers unfamiliar with the country

Jennifer Robertson is Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan. Robertson has published many articles and book chapters on a wide spectrum of subjects ranging from the seventeenth century to the present. Her most recent research projects include Japanese colonial culture-making, eugenic modernity, war art, and comparative bioethics. She is the author of Native and Newcomer: Making and Unmaking a Japanese City (1991), Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan (1998), and editor of Same-Sex Cultures and Sexualities: An Anthropological Reader (Blackwell, 2004). She is finishing a new book, Blood and Beauty: Eugenic Modernity and Empire in Japan.