This book is a guide of Japanese history from the viewpoint of how Tokyo has developed into a megalopolis. Among researchers of Japanese studies, the question of whether traditional Japanese society has changed is a topic pursued by students and researchers alike in various fields. The major question of this book is whether modernization had changed the lives and soul of the Japanese people. To provide a basic framework to discuss Japanese culture from various angles, I have chosen Tokyo as a common viewpoint. I have analyzed how daily lives and urban culture have developed under the process of modernization. This book will serve as an introduction and travel guide for readers to understand the historical settings behind the high-tech landscape of Tokyo, which has been a busy thriving city since it was founded in 1590. It is the best companion for your classes and your visit to Tokyo.
Takako Suzuki holds a PhD from the International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan. She is currently a part-time lecturer in the Department of Comparative Culture, Otsuma Women's University, Tokyo, and a part-time lecturer of the SATOMU (Semester Abroad at Tokyo Metropolitan University) program, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo. She is the author of 'Forest Preservation and Environmental Awareness in Saion's 'Rinsei hassho'' in Study of the 19th Century Scholarship 13 (2022), and she translated chapters 4 and 6 of Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo, and the Culture of Early Modern Japan. (2008) into Japanese: Nihonjin to Sankinkotai (2010).
