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CULTURAL NATIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: A Sociological Enquiry. By Kosaku Yoshino. London (England) and New York: Routledge. 1995. viii, 270 pp. US$13.99, paper ISBN 0-415-071194.
ANALYZING nihonjinron (discussions of Japanese), academic works on the topic, and interviews of educators and businessmen, Yoshino sets forth his understanding of contemporary cultural nationalism. Yoshino focuses on Japan while providing a broader comparative context for cultural nationalism by supplying examples from other countries, particularly Turkey and India. The author distinguishes between cultural nationalism and political nationalism and examines the sentiment and identity created in the concern with the "distinctiveness of the cultural community as the essence of a nation." Yoshino, not surprisingly, is critical of much of...