Book excerpt: This is Volume V of six in a collection on the Sociology of East Asia. Initially published in 1946, Dr. Embree's book is a description, based on direct observation, of the life of a Japanese village community. Its chief purpose is to provide material for that comparative study' of the forms of: human society that is known as social anthropology; but it should have an appeal to a wider audience of general readers as giving additional insight from a new 'angle into Japanese civilization.