Long assumed to be a bastion of conformity by the West, Japan has in fact a complex way of looking at the self, which is constantly reconstructed in relation to others. Independent scholar Ishikawa, who makes good use of the insights afforded by living and studying in Tokyo and London, gives an historical overview of perceptions of the self, focusing on postwar development of new self-identification systems. She describes how perceptions of the self evolved from Manga to more modern ideas, and what she calls the consuming empathy involved in seeking the self and coming to understand the self as an individual. She traces the influences of consumerism on the development of the self in men and women, the imposition of national to cultural "Japaneseness," and the invention of national identity as myth, particularly in the relation of the self to the imperial entity. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)