JAPANESE FAMILIAL STRUCTURE

The end of World War II signaled a complete change in the social and familial structure of Japan. First of all, while the Emperor was permitted to remain, his "divinity" was now no longer a certainty. Japan's military and upper-class elite were now downgraded, if not totally eliminated. The workers were no longer merely given information the upper classes wanted them to have. Prior to WW II, "The will of the ruling class was transmitted through the mediation of the men of the middle stratum who were, at least, compared with the subordinated masses, educated men" (p. 67).

What has happened since World War II of course is the build-up of Japan's industrial complex, and the rise of a bureaucratic middle-class, with values far different from those before the War. The "new" Japan features a capitalist society. "As the capitalist6 economy develops, men cannot remain the same as they were in the feudal period" (p. 71). In fact, they cannot remain as they were after the Sino-Japanese War, or prior to the Japanese attempt to create its own sphere of influence in Asia prior to the Second World War.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes, as this chapter points out, is "the change in the basic economic structure (which) dilutes the community character of villages and urban neighborhoods and cannot fail to affect the social structure" (p. 71). The change also affected the way white-collar workers were treated. They could no longer be on the same

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