Japan is regarded as a society that provides "cradle to grave" security to those who conform to its standards. Carolyn Stevens' ethnographic study of social life in Kotobuki, an inner city district of Yokohama, documents the lives of those who have missed the Japanese economic miracle. Stevens closely examines the lives of those who live there, mostly the unemployed, elderly and disabled, as well as the small number of volunteers, middle-class Japanese Christians and radical students, who address issues of social justice through their charitable work. "On the Margins of Japanese Society" demonstrates how volunteering in Kotobuki is seen as a personal and political response to social marginality. There, social rules are less restrictive, which allows volunteers and residents to create and re-create definitions of their identities.

Carolyn S. Stevens is Professor of Japanese Studies and Director of the Japanese Studies Centre at Monash University, Australia.

Chapter 1 A purehabu with a view; Chapter 2 Kotobuki, the "land of longevity"; Chapter 3 The economy of welfare; Chapter 4 Taking action; Chapter 5 The human side; Chapter 6 Rituals "organized" and "disorganized"; Chapter 7 Helping out and holding back; Chapter 8 Conclusion;