How do we best make sense of contemporary Japanese society, a non-Western, highly technological, post-modern democracy, recently dubbed "Cool Japan"? Japan simultaneously exports to the world hi-tech hardware (e.g., cars, computers, Nintendo DS and Wii) and soft popular culture (e.g., games, anime, manga, fashion, and J-pop). Yoshio Sugimoto is La Trobe's Emeritus Professor of Sociology, globally regarded as one of the most prominent sociologists of contemporary Japanese society, with a long list of publications. Drawing on his most recent edited volume, The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2009), and in reference to La Trobe undergraduates' reviews of this book, he will talk on how the world can better understand contemporary Japan. Copyright 2009 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.