Japanese Propriety, Past and Present

Florian Coulmas is one of the Western world's leading Japan sociolinguists, and his 2023 Routledge monograph on Japanese codes of conduct is more readable than most academic Japan studies. The argument — that Japan models a distinctive 'disciplined liberalism' as one version of modernity among many — is credible and timely, but it will feel familiar to specialists and the book came out too recently for independent critical consensus to confirm its contribution.