Understanding leisure time and leisure space in contemporary Japanese society

Recent accounts of trends in leisure in contemporary Japan published in English have been descriptive, often atheoretical and largely statistical accounts using information derived from government sponsored surveys and documents. Underpinning these accounts has been an overly sanguine view of social and economic progress and an undifferentiated conception of Japanese society. In addition, little critical consideration has been given to the processes by which the official statistics are produced. The particular theoretical and methodological challenges thrown down in understanding leisure in contemporary Japanese society are briefly discussed in the light of a consideration of the above criticisms.