In Tate shakai no ningen kankei (Human Relations in a Vertical Society), published in 1967, Nakane Chie set shikaku, an attribute such as an occupation, against ba, a frame such as a company.
The publisher, Kōdansha, sums up the book’s question: why do Japanese people value sharing a frame more than sharing an attribute? Its description says that the book examines a social structure that stresses the frame and is strongly aware of uchi and soto, inside and outside.