Order by Accident : The Origins and Consequences of Conformity in Contemporary Japan

This book explains the emergence of social order in Japan as an unintended consequence of institutionalized group conformity, and then traces out how that conformity affects a wide range of social characteristics from religious behavior to crime rates..

In Order by Accident , Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa explore how social order is produced and maintained in Japan, and they discuss the positive and negative consequences of this high social order.

The authors integrate a wide range of scholarship on Japan, ranging from studies by criminologists, to religious studies, to the most current social psychological studies.

While the consequences of low social order are well understood, the consequences of high social order are not.

Yet perhaps nowhere in the world is social order so well developed as in Japan, which is highly organized, economically successful, and enjoys a safe society.

However, Japan pays a price--the loss of personal freedom, and the inability to exploit its citizens' talents.In Order by Accident , Alan S.

Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa discuss the consequences of high social order in Japan. They integrate a wide range of scholarship on Japan, ranging from studies by criminologists, to religious studies, to the most current social psychological studies.

The results are sometimes startling and counterintuitive, since the same theory of social order explains equally well why Japan has an orderly society with low street crimes, but is plagued with problems such as white collar crime.