{"product_id":"9781442221963","title":"Japan's New Middle Class","description":"This classic study on the sociology of Japan remains the only in-depth treatment of the Japanese middle class. Now in a fiftieth-anniversary edition that includes a new foreword by William W. Kelly, this seminal work paints a rich and complex picture of the life of the salaryman and his family. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1958, Suzanne and Ezra Vogel embedded themselves in a Tokyo suburb, living among and interviewing six middle-class families regularly for a year. Tracing the rapid postwar economic growth that led to hiring large numbers of workers who were provided lifelong employment, the authors show how this phenomenon led to a new social class—the salaried men and their families. It was a well-educated group that prepared their children rigorously for the same successful corporate or government jobs they held. Secure employment and a rising standard of living enabled this new middle class to set the dominant pattern of social life that influenced even those who could not share it, a pattern that remains fundamental to Japanese society today.","brand":"Rowman \u0026 Littlefield Publishers, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47142830473456,"sku":"9781442221963","price":40.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781442221963_p0.jpg?v=1769904712","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781442221963","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}