The title of this book is misleading, although it captures the main idea of the authors, two social scientists working in Japan and in the United States. When compared to the U.S., Japanese society is more orderly or, to put it differently, more conformist. More people than in the U.S. comply with important norms of society and thus generate a higher level of social order. Why?
Rather than being the outcome of social engineering, the authors argue that this is an unintended byproduct of interaction between individuals and small groups. It is, in other words, accidental.
That suggests that it could be otherwise; that is, social order could flow out of some master plan for all of society called culture, law, structure or normative framework.