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The article looks at directions in research on the anthropology of contemporary Japan. The best known models of Japanese society were produced by two anthropologists who eschewed the label of Japan specialists, Chie Nakane and Ruth Benedict. Social science writing has generally followed two lines of inquiry. Some begin with the significance of the family as kinship unit. Formal education has become the link between home and work, youth and adulthood. Postwar Japanese education has managed to combine mass schooling of a literate citizenry with a rigorous culling for elite positions in society.