Past, Present and Future Of Japanese Cultural Sociology

This paper examines the historical development and the theoretical features of Cultural Sociology in Japan. By discussing the past works such as views of ShotaroYONEDA(1873-1945), Jun’ichiro Matsumoto(1893-1947), Kazuta KURAUCHI(1896-1988), the present works such as Keiichi SAKUTA(1922-), Munesuke MITA(1937-), Shun INOUE(1938-), and the contemporary several movements toward the future cultural sociology, we will elucidate the historical and theoretical characteristics of Japanese cultural sociology in the following way.

     It is true that Japanese cultural sociology has been influenced by the Western sociological thoughts such as German sociology(in particular, Alfred WEBER, Max WEBER, Georg SIMMEL), the French sociology(Emile DURKHEIM, Gabriel TARDE), the American sociology(Talcott Parsons, Jeffrey ALEXANDER), the English CULTURAL STUDIES, etc., However, today, Japanese cultural Sociology is going to present its originality or uniqueness by fusing these Western cultural theoretical impacts with the Japanese cultural tradition and contemporary social situations in a global setting. That is, Japanese cultural sociology should advance from “moon-light sociology”(Yasujiro DAIDO)--a passive mode of sociology--to “sunshine sociology” --an active mode of sociology. Thus, we will make clear one aspect of Japanese cultural sociology .