This classic study on the sociology of Japan remains the only in-depth treatment of the Japanese middle class. Now in a fiftieth-anniversary edition that includes a new foreword by William W. Kelly, this seminal work paints a rich and complex picture of the life of the salaryman and his family. In 1958, Suzanne and Ezra Vogel embedded themselves in a Tokyo suburb, living among and interviewing six middle-class families regularly for a year. Tracing the rapid postwar economic growth that led to hiring large numbers of workers who were provided lifelong employment, the authors show how this phenomenon led to a new social class, the salaried men and their families. It was a well-educated group that prepared their children rigorously for the same successful corporate or government jobs they held. Secure employment and a rising standard of living enabled this new middle class to set the dominant pattern of social life that influenced even those who could not share it, a pattern that remains fundamental to Japanese society today.

傅高義（Ezra F. Vogel，1930 —）

被認為是美國唯一一位對中日兩國事務都精通的學者，在哈佛有著“中國先生”的稱號，一直是受中國政府重視的漢學傢和中國問題專傢。他是繼費正清之後的第二任哈佛大學東亞研究中心主任和東亞研究委員會主席。1998年入選美國人文社會科學院。2013年3月23日，第五屆世界中國學論壇在上海展覽中心舉行，被授予“世界中國學貢獻奬”。2014年福岡亞洲文化奬獲得者。

傅高義於1963年發錶《日本新中産階級》一書，憑藉此書從社會學領域轉身，此後專注日本和中國研究，又將視野擴展到包括韓國、新加坡和中國颱灣與香港在內的亞洲“四小龍”，成為東亞研究的扛鼎人物。主要作品有《鄧小平時代》《日本第一》《樸正熙時代》《重振旗鼓》《日本還是第一嗎》《中美日關係的黃金時代》等。