The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America

In this exemplary cross-cultural study of teenagers in the U.S. and Japan, White ( The Japanese Educational Challenge ) zeros in on the critical differences and similarities in the way these groups are socialized, contending that conflicting social mores cause much of the current perplexity in the two countries' relations. While some of the material has surface familiarity, White's in-depth examination of each group's schooling, friendships, family relations, sexuality, search for identity and feelings about their own and each others' countries is newly revealing. The book reflects White's 30-odd years of teaching and studying young people in both Japan and the U.S.--where she is an associate professor of sociology at Boston University and a research associate at Harvard's Reischauer Institute. For this study, she interviewed a relatively small, but broad, cross section of her two societies, teenagers as well as psychologists, marketers and music promoters who play key roles in the lives of these adolescents. Because many of them are newly affluent, they face similar conditions, which is a particlarly instructive focus in a superb, thorough and accessible account. (Mar.)