Peter Matanle is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield’s School of East Asian Studies. Dr. Matanle’s research interests focus on the economic sociology and cultural geography of work in Japan and the United Kingdom. He is the author of several publications in these fields, including Japanese Capitalism and Modernity in a Global Era: Refabricating Lifetime Employment Relations (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), Perspectives on Work, Employment, and Society in Japan (Palgrave, 2006; co-edited with Wim Lunsing); and "Coming to a City Near You: Learning to Live Beyond Growth in Japan's Shrinking Regions" (Social Science Japan Journal, 2010). He is also the founder and general editor of the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies (www.japanesestudies.org.uk).

About Anthony Raush

Anthony Rausch is an associate professor at Hirosaki University, Japan. He holds a PhD from Monash University. He is the author of A Year with the Local Newspaper and coauthor of The Birth of Tsugaru Shamisen Music and Tsugaru: Regional Identity on Japan’s Northern Periphery.