This book explores how the relationship between child and parent develops in Japan, from the earliest point in a child's life, through the transition from family to the wider world, first to playschools and then schools. It relates the position in Japan to theoretical writing, in both Japan and the West, on body, mind, intimacy and feeling, and compares the position in Japan to practices elsewhere. Overall, the book makes a significant contribution to the study of and theories on body practices, and to debates on the processes of socialisation in Japan.