Ordinary people, extraordinary lives : political and economic change in a Tōhoku village

Tanohata in the 1950s was an isolated fishing village in the Tohoku region of Japan. Life there was so miserable that those who could leave did, and those who could not stayed on in a state of demoralization. By the 1980s, however, Tanohata had not only joined the mainstream of Japanese culture and economic life, but had done so with an adroitness that attracted national notice. The story of that dramatic transformation, written from the perspective of one who has both observed and participated in the changes for the last 20 years, brings into dramatic focus what is happening throughout Japan in the 20th century. Frontmatter Preface (page vii) Introduction (page 3) Chapter One Tanohata Emerges (page 35) Chapter Two The Process of Development, 1955-82 (page 65) Chapter Three The Politics of Development: Hayano in the Lead (page 97) Chapter Four Education as Social Engineering: The Fulcrum and the Lever (page 121) Chapter Five The Desperate Search for Jobs (page 143) Chapter Six The Hybrid Enterprise and Regional Development (page 185) Chapter Seven Conclusion (page 203) Appendixes (page 225) Notes (page 237) Bibliography (page 247) Index (page 253) This study of the dramatic economic transformation of the Japanese village of Tanohata explores how the isolated fishing community has entered the mainstream of Japanese culture since the 1950s. It documents how the traditional role of the rural household has acted as a basis for innovation.