Love in Modern Japan Book

There's a lot going on in here, though it is primarily an application of Foucault's governmentality and biopower to sex and love in Japan, as it has evolved historically. Essentially, she holds that the state, via its post-war sexual purity education, eugenics programs, comfort stations, and war-time exceptionalism, employs love strategically (biopower) for economic and political ends.

Her emphasis on the state's influence in defining love and sex was new to me. I sense that the relationship is weaker than she purports, but conceiving of love as a political technology is a pretty sexy idea and applying it to Japan's history of love seems a good fit.