This book examines the place of body practices and the management of emotions in Japanese preschools. Early childhood socialization is explored as a set of 'body projects': a series of practices undertaken (over time) to design the body according to prevailing cultural definitions and images. The concept 'body projects' allows us to understand how the body is, at one and the same time, a malleable material capable of being fashioned in a certain manner, an entity which represents social relations and notions, and an embodiment of affective attitudes and stances towards the world.

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Institutional Framework; Chapter 3 From Mothering to Othering; interludeI Hoikuen, Kibbutz, and Sleep; Chapter 4 Learning to 'Group'; interludeII Three Little (Japanese) Pigs; Chapter 5 A Note on the Gambaru Complex; interludeIII The Marathon; Chapter 6 Eating to Become Japanese; interludeIV Menus; Chapter 7 Name-Calling; interludeV An Instance of Discipline?; Chapter 8 Conclusion;