This volume demonstrates a fresh approach to urban studies as well as a new way of looking at contemporary Japan which links economy and society in an innovative way.

John Clammer is Professor of Comparative Sociology and Asian Studies at Sophia University, Tokyo.

Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. Approaching Japan through the Study of Consumption.

2. Consumption and Urban Cultures in the Japanese City.

3. The Context of Desire.

4. Shopping and the Social Self.

5. Gender, Class and the Internationalization of Consumption.

6. Consuming Bodies: Media and the Construction and Representation of the Body.

7. Sites and Sights: The Consuming Eye and the Arts of the Imagination in Japanese Tourism.

8. Theorizing Consumption in Urban Japan.

References.

Index.