One of the most influential sociologists living today, Robert N. Bellah began his career as a Japan specialist and has continued to contribute to the field over the past thirty years. Imagining Japan is a collection of some of his most important writings, including essays that consider the entire sweep of Japanese history and the character of Japanese society and religion. Combining intellectual rigor, broad scholarship, and ethical commitment, this book also features a new and extensive introduction that brings together intellectual and institutional dimensions of Japanese history. Bellah shows that characterizing Japan has been a challenge for Japanese and for foreigners for quite some time. Imagining Japan involves thinking historically, asking how Japanese society and culture have developed over the last millennium and a half, and thinking comparatively, asking where Japan fits in comparison with other societies and cultures. The task has always been controversial: What is the Japanese tradition? Is it unitary or plural? What are its tensions and contradictions? Is it unique? In these pages the reader will meet apologists and critics, traditionalists and reformers. Every culture is engaged in a process of constant self-interpretation and self-transformation. This book argues that the "Japanese difference" is only one of degree and that Japanese culture is intelligible within the normal range of human cultural variation. It is thus not only a description of Japan but an exercise in imagining.