A study of postwar Japan through the work of its leading photographers, artists and fashion designers. Starting with the devastating experience of 1945, the book traces how the transformations in Japanese society were reflected in the visual imagery of the culture. The book provides a guide to the creative forces that have most profoudly effected modern Japan, from the writer, Yukio Mishima to the fashion designer, Issey Miyake. Although Tokyo is the axis of this work, the book finally points to the emergence in the Nineties of a new generation of creative figures who have become major international artists. The new Japan is not a distant, alien culture, as it was a century ago. The book addresses the whole spectrum of Japanese art, photography, design, cinema and architecture.