This book explores the rise of consumerism and the expanding variety of goods available in Japan. Japan is placed within the comparative context of the 'consumer revolution' in Europe and North America, contributing to the analysis of the ways in which consumption and everyday life change in the course of economic development.

An economic, social and cultural analysis of Japanese consumption, examining industries, institutions and the changing patterns of everyday life

Introduction: Japan's Consumption History in Comparative Perspective; J. Hunter & P. Francks PART I: GENDER, THE HOUSEHOLD AND CONSUMPTION The Role of Housework in Everyday Life: Another Aspect of Consumption in Modern Japan; M. Tanimoto Like Bamboo Shoots after the Rain: the Growth of a Nation of Dressmakers and Consumers; A. Gordon Building up Steam as Consumers: Women, Rice-cookers and the Consumption of Everyday Household Goods in Japan; H. Macnaughtan PART II: TRADITION, MODERNITY AND THE GROWTH OF CONSUMPTION Japanese Modernisation and the Changing Everyday Life of the Consumer: Evidence from Household Accounts; S. Nakanishi & T. Futaya Sweetness and Empire: Sugar Consumption in Imperial Japan; B. Kushner Kimono Fashion: the Consumer and the Growth of the Textile Industry in Pre-war Japan; P. Francks Reviving Tradition: Patients and the Shaping of Japan's Traditional Medicines Industry; M. Umemura PART III: SPACES AND PATHWAYS OF CONSUMPTION Getting on a Train: Railway Passengers and the Growth of Train Travel in Meiji Japan; N. Nakamura People and Post Offices: Consumption of Postal Services in Japan from the Late Nineteenth Century; J. Hunter Mail-order Retailing in Pre-war Japan: a Pathway to Consumption Before the Mass Market; I. Mitsuzono From Corporate Playground to Family Resort: Golf as Commodity in Post-war Japan; A. Lockyer Conclusion: History and the Consumer: an Historian of the West Looks to Japan; B. Lemire