Description
Book SynopsisExploring the legal perspective on love, sex, and marriage—and their complications—in contemporary Japan.
Trade ReviewNobody else explores the law in Japan quite like Mark West, bringing it to life and close to home. Lovesick Japan is an entertaining and insightful examination of the courts, pulling eye-popping gems from judges' opinions that speak volumes about their proclivity for peeping, prodding, moralizing and otherwise creeping into the bedroom in adjudicating marriage, divorce, rape, stalking and pornography.... But there is much more to Lovesick Japan than a series of absurd rulings; here we are shown how sermonizing judges try to shape society in their own image.... Often they go well beyond the law to decide cases based on nonfactual, subjective elements, sometimes with unfortunate consequences.
-- Jeff Kingston * Japan Times *
Tranquil, according to Mark D. West, Japanese love is not. Happy it is not. And comforting it is not.... A prolific and brilliant legal scholar, West draws these conclusions from Japanese court opinions. Some of them concern criminal prosecutions for rape or murder. Others involve civil suits for divorce or damages. West carefully and thoughtfully combs these opinions for discussions of love, sex, marriage, and romance, teasing out what judges think about it all.... West reads these court opinions with care and intelligence (with, frankly, extraordinary care and intelligence).
-- J. Mark Ramseyer * Monumenta Nipponica *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Judging
2. Love
3. Coupling
4. Private Sex
5. Commodified Sex
6. Divorce
ConclusionNotes
Index
