Description
Book SynopsisThis book looks at issues surrounding admissions of alcoholism and attempts to lead a sober life by Japanese men in Tokyo.
Trade ReviewAnthropologist Christensen grapples with what it means to be an alcoholic man in recovery in Japan. He traces the history of drinking alcohol, even to the point of inebriation, to concepts of masculinity. People passed out in the street might be looked at with sympathy or self-recognition and be considered 'normal' within the urban landscape. Yet the man in recovery who refuses to share in the camaraderie of drinking may be looked at as aberrant. Much of the book describes the sobriety movement in Japan, focusing on AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and Dansŭkai, the Japanese-developed sobriety group that, like AA, is based on abstinence and group support. Christensen’s book contributes to the small cross-cultural literature on AA, which, as a mutual help approach to alcoholism, has traveled around the world making accommodations as it has been embraced by various cultures. This book is best understood by students who also have a background in Japanese studies. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *
Paul A. Christensen's new book is a thoughtful ethnography of drinking, drunkenness, and male sociability in modern urban Japan. . . .Throughout the study, Christensen offers an extraordinarily sensitive treatment of the struggle of individual men to build a new selfhood while their sense of masculinity, and of a place in society, have been dismantled. * New Books Network *
The strength of this text is that it is tightly focused on masculinity and men within the context of alcoholism and sobriety in Japan and it rarely strays out of the ethnographic moment to dwell on history or social theory. . . .[This book gives] great insight into the complexities of alcohol consumption and abuse in contemporary Japan. * Japanese Studies *
This is a good book. . . .This is a fascinating book to read, exploring a wholly new ethnographic area of research. For anyone wanting to know about alcohol and alcoholism in Japan, this book provides a very good place to begin. * Social Science Japan Journal *
This readable and thought-provoking study of alcoholism in Japan revolves around a fundamental dilemma confronting Japanese alcoholics in their attempts to achieve sobriety. * American Anthropologist *
The major contribution of the book is that it shows the complex interconnections of masculine sobriety group membership with the gendered, embodied, (homo)social, (cross-)cultural, and historical dimensions of alcohol consumption in contemporary Japan. Especially for readers unfamiliar with Japan, there is much to think (critically) about here. * The Journal of Japanese Studies *
Toasted salarymen weaving through nighttime streets and swaying drunkenly on the last train of the evening is a common enough sight in Japan. Christensen's study explores the cultural history surrounding alcohol consumption, as well as the awkward understandings and treatments for alcoholics. By tracing the way drinking is intertwined with notions of masculinity and male sociality, Christensen exposes the damaging struggles faced by men who want to dodge expectations that they imbibe with others. This is a superb book that addresses a gap in our knowledge about contemporary Japan. -- Laura Miller, University of Missouri-St. Louis
Drinking in Japan is a powerful cultural imperative and social lubricant, especially for being and becoming a man. Christensen looks beyond the camaraderie to show how easy it is to drink up and how challenging it is to dry out in contemporary Japan. He provides a sensitive and moving analysis of the social worlds of drinking, of those individuals who are led to excess, and of the sobriety organizations that provide pathways to living in recovery for those desperate enough and brave enough to confront their condition. His ethnography of alcoholism and alcohol abstention as daily experience, lived identity, and organized support is a thought-provoking contribution to Japan studies and a rare analysis of the cultural framing of substance abuse and recovery therapies. -- William W. Kelly, Yale University
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Drying Out Chapter 2: Divine Drink Chapter 3: Sobriety and Disease Chapter 4: Sober Groupings Chapter 5: Moral Failures Chapter 6: Ten Yen Coins Chapter 7: Futsū or Fushigi: Normally Drunk and Oddly Sober Chapter 8: The Imperial Drunkard
