A study on the structural change of Japanese Society under the full-fledged economy

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The purpose of this study is to research the various changes which Japanese society has gone through after the epoch of high-degree growth ended. We analyze them from several view points, i.e.those of economy, social structures and culture and investigate their inter-dependence with "Me-ism" their common denominator.Japanese economy has attained highest prosperity among the advanced countries by shifting the motor of growth from domestic demand to foreign one. In this process, Japanese society has also changed from "urbanizing society" to "full-fledged urban society". This means that the system of production in factories has turned from Fordism system to Flexible manufacturing system. This runs parallel with the change in schools where the late selection system is replaced by the early selection system. At the same time, the community at large has entered upon the age of urban society after it went through the stage of urbanizing society and "postmodern family" has taken the place of "modern family" at home. Thus, factories and schools saw "the cooperative competition" come to an end and community and home has experienced the collapse of the custom of mutural aid. As a consequence, the mechanism which kept the cultural traditions functioning has ceased to work and our daily-life culture (the culture of poverty) itself has been eclipsed by that of dazzling richness.But man is a social being. So he cannot live alone outside whatever community it may be. "Relay dial" or "Chat" is, then, what is left to him today as a substitute for real one, though, of course, he cannot hope to secure the kind of satisfactory communication which only the real comminity can provide.