With a new expanded introduction. The continuing relevance of Ron Dore's classic study of Japanese urban life and social structures is widely accepted by urban sociologists and other social scientists concerned with the study of modern Japan. Whilst the peripherals of technological change and living conditions have self-evidently changed, the Japanese way of life and organisation have remained largely intact. Such changes as there have been and what has followed from them are addressed in depth by the author in a new extended Introduction which students as well as the general reader will find both helpful and illuminating. Contents are divided into five sections: Introduction; Levels and Standards of Living; The Family; The Wider World; Religion and Morality.