The author has written quite a few books on how Japanese persons behave, but this one goes a level deeper to try and explain why they act the way they do. To do this, he puts forth the concept of analyzing behavior through the lense of kata, forms for the proper way of doing things in a Japanese context. Using this as his key, he outlines what he sees as about 15 influential kata patterns and how they've been incorporated into various levels of Japanese society. Going beyond mere description, he offers a critique of the weaknesses of a kata based culture, and gives some idea how things will change as the kata patterns are weakened by foreign influences.