Abstract
This term, the board of education for sociology examined a number of general textbooks on sociology published during the postwar period. This paper was written as an introduction to the special issue of this volume, which focuses on this examination. Among the various textbooks on sociology, we direct our attention, in particular, toward the introduction to sociology or the general outline of sociology in textbooks.
The general view of the social changes in postwar Japanese society is that while a trend toward individualization is observed, there exists a considerable gap between the “early modern” and the “late modern” periods. From changes such as industrialization, urbanization, and an increase in the number of nuclear families in the early modern period, one can discern the rise of a new conservatism and a new liberalism in the political realm, a tendency toward a high-consumption society in the economical realm, and postmodern and linguistic changes in the cultural realm in the late modern period.
Sociology textbooks have been altered according to these social changes. First, the content and range that they deal with have changed from the early modern to the late modern period. Moreover, their presentation has changed considerably. While the transmission of orthodox sociological concepts and theories had once been central, making the textbooks easier to read has become the main concern today. Sociology textbooks have undergone a drastic transformation in both content and form.
