While this book does do a good overview of modern Japanese culture, going into depth on several selected themes and a separate topic in each chapter, I felt that the view point of the authors was quite rigid and sometimes quite dogmatic. In most conclusions, in the preface, and again and again throughout the book it is mentioned that such and such things are "multifaceted" and must be looked at through several "lenses" and that everything is dynamic and fragmented, etc. However, I found that these "lenses" the authors were using were consistently the lenses of sociologists and linguistic anthropologists. I have no disregard for these approaches, however I would have found the book much more intriguing and and sensible had an historical approach, a political approach, or even a psychological approach been included in some of the chapters. Modern Japanese culture is inherently tied to the historical and political aspects of the broader picture, so it was disappointing to see that a discussion of the culture's progression through the modern time was left out. Instead "modern" is treated as fixed and present.
Aside from these complaints, the authors did a fantastic job of providing a brief examination of modern culture while positing new view points on academically debated issues.