Abstract

An unacknowledged paradigm shift appears to be underway in con- temporary Japanese culture [...] At the beginning of the 21st cen- tury, the nation has observed a dramatic shift in its characterisation from a unique and homogeneous society to one of domestic diver- sity, class differentiation and other multidimensional forms. Sugimoto Yoshio (2009: 1) Numerous experts have pointed out the rapid changes that Japanese society has been undergoing in the past few decades (see, among oth- ers, Coulmas 2007; Kingston 2011; Sugimoto 2009; Yamada 2004). While all societies change, “the pace and scope of change in Japan has been staggering and deeply unsettling in many ways for its citizens” (Kingston 2011: 20). Many of these changes are reflected in both the transformation of individual lifestyles and in Japan's changing social re- ality. For Volume 23 of Contemporary Japan we therefore invited papers that covered diverse facets of a pluralization of lifestyles witnessed in Japan in recent years. In addition to dramatic socio-economic changes, Japan is undergoing a shift from “solid” to “liquid” modernity (Bau- man 2007) in which frames of reference for life planning and individual action have become blurred and multiplied. This development raises a number of questions: