Yasunari Kawabata had Parkinson's disease), a possible illicit love affair, or the shock caused by the suicide of his friend Yukio Mishima in 1970. Unlike Mishima, Kawabata left no note, and since (again unlike Mishima) he had not discussed significantly in his writings the topic of taking his own life, his motives remain unclear. However, his Japanese biographer, Takeo Okuno, has related how he had nightmares about Mishima for two or three hundred nights in a row, and was incessantly haunted by the specter of Mishima. In a persistently depressed state of mind, he would tell friends during his last years that
Japanese Society (1970 book) Japanese Society (1970 book) Japanese Society (1970) is an analysis of the structure of Japanese society, written by Nakane Chie. The main theme of the book is the working of what Nakane calls "the vertical principle" in Japanese society, which is a series of social relations between two individuals, one of whom is senior and one of whom is junior. Nakane also formulates the criteria of 'attribute' and 'frame' to illuminate that way that groups are formed in Japan, and to compare Japan with other countries. Her thesis is that 'frame', which is circumstantial and may be "a locality, an