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SHUKO TAKESHITA, Department of Asian Studies, Chukyo Women's University, 55 Nadakayama Yokone-cho, Obu Aichi, 474-8651, Japan. The Passing CCKs in Japan: Analysis on Families of Cross-Border Marriages between Japanese and Brazilian Since an amendment to the Immigration Control Act in 1990, which granted 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese unlimited visa status to work in Japan, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Brazilians of Japanese descent coming to Japan. As a result, there is a large number of couples comprising Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian in Japan. In this paper, I investigated the conditions involving Cross-Culture Kids (CCK) born of these marriages. The children's first language is Japanese, and an overwhelming number of parents want their children to learn English as a second language rather than Portuguese. Regarding the children's name, there were few cases in which the child used a Brazilian name. In Japanese society, which emphases uniformity and homogeneity, using a Japanese name is one method of resolving the issue of being different from others. Parents with children who are not immediately recognizable as CCKs based on characteristics of outward appearance have developed strategies for avoiding discrimination and prejudice through passing. However, passing offers little possibility of enjoying the advantages of multicultural society. CCKs with two nationalities and cultural backgrounds should be guaranteed the right to enjoy the benefit of maintaining and developing an identity as a Japanese, in addition to one more identity. We need to encourage a new awareness of CCKs as agents for a transition from a monocultural system to a multicultural system, not only in Japanese schools, but in Japanese society as a whole. SHUKO TAKESHITA, Department of Asian Studies, Chukyo Women's University, 55 Nadakayama Yokone-cho, Obu Aichi, 474-8651, Japan. The Passing CCKs in Japan: Analysis on Families of Cross-Border Marriages between Japanese and Brazilian Depuis qu'un amendement a la loi sur le controle de l'immigration de 1990 a accorde aux 2e et 3e generations de japonais un visa illimite pour travailler au Japon, il y a eu une augmentation notable du nombre de bresiliens d'origine japonaise a venir au Japon. La consequence en est un grand nombre de couples mixtes composes de japonais et de japo-bresiliens au Japon. Dans cet article, j'ai enquete sur les conditions de vie des enfants dotes d'une double culture (Cross-Culture Kids, "CCK") nes de ces mariages. La premiere langue de ces enfants est le japonais et une grande majorite des parents preferent que leurs enfants apprennent l'anglais comme deuxieme langue plutot que le portugais. En ce qui concerne le nom de l'enfant, tres peu de familles choisissent un prenom bresilien pour leur enfant. Dans la societe japonaise, qui insiste sur l'uniformite et l'homogeneite, choisir un prenom japonais est une des methodes permettant de resoudre les problemes de discrimination. Les parents dont les enfants ne sont pas immediatement reconnaissables comme CCK par leurs caracteristiques physiques ont elabore des strategies de dissimulation des origines pour eviter la discrimination et les prejuges. Toutefois, cette dissimulation offre peu de possibilites de beneficier des avantages d'une societe multiculturelle. Le droit de jouir des benefices d'une identite supplementaire developpee en parallele de 1'identite japonaise devrait etre garanti aux CCK qui possedent deux nationalites et deux origines culturelles. Le Japon d'aujourd'hui rend necessaire une education dans le cadre d'une coexistence multiculturelle, une education qui enseigne aux enfants a comprendre et a coexister avec des gens differents d'eux-memes. SHUKO TAKESHITA, Department of Asian Studies, Chukyo Women's University, 55 Nadakayama Yokone-cho, Obu Aichi, 474-8651, Japan. The Passing CCKs in Japan: Analysis on Families of Cross-Border Marriages between Japanese and Brazilian Desde que una enmienda al acto del control de la inmigracion en 1990, concedio a los descendientes de Japoneses de 2da y 3ra generacion el estado de visa ilimitado al trabajo en Japon, ha habido un aumento considerable en el numero de brasilenos de descendencia Japonesa que han venido a Japon. Consecuentemente, hay una gran cantidad de parejas que involucran a Japoneses y Japoneses-Brasilenos en Japon. En este estudio, he investigado las condiciones en las que se encuentran los hijos nacidos de estas uniones de culturas distintas (llamados aqui "CCK" por las siglas en ingles de "Cross-Culture Kids"). El idioma principal de estos ninos es el Japones, y un numero abrumador de padres desean que sus ninos aprendan Ingles como segundo idioma en lugar del Portugues. Con respecto a los nombres de estos ninos, eran pocos los casos en los que el nino tenia un nombre Brasileno. En la sociedad Japonesa, que pone enfasis en la uniformidad y homogeneidad, el usar un nombre Japones es un metodo para resolver el problema de ser diferente a los otros. Los padres de ninos que no son inmediatamente reconocibles como CCKs basado en las caracteristicas del aspecto exterior han desarrollado estrategias para evitar la discriminacion y el prejudicio quedandose el prejuicio intentando pasar desapercibidos. Sin embargo, el deseo de pasar desapercibidos ofrece poca posibilidad de gozar de las ventajas de la sociedad multicultural. A los CCKs con dos nacionalidades y contextos culturales se les debe garantizar el derecho de disfrutar de la ventaja de mantener y de desarrollar una identidad como Japones, en adicion de una identidad mas. El Japon de hoy requiere educacion en la coexistencia multicultural que ensena a los ninos como entender y coexistir con gente diferente a ellos mismos., INTRODUCTION In Japan, there were 44,701 cross-border marriages in 2006-the highest number ever on record. Currently, one out of every 16 marriages in Japan is a cross-border marriage. This increase […]

The prevalence of risk levels in a number of biological risk factors across two populations of United States and Japan are compared. It helps provide a better understanding of risk factors that lead Americans to have a much lower life expectancy as compared to the Japanese.

High-income countries like Japan and some European countries are likely to have an increase in fertility rates in the following decades. Fertility rates in high-income countries are determined by social processes that exert effects beyond relative wages, income, and labor force participation.

Economic development in Japan has brought a specialization in gender roles and the decline in legal status of wives. Wives in the Meiji era received institutional enshrinement and protection due to their homemaker specialist status.

ABSTRACT In recent years, the population of foreign nationals and individuals from diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic populations has consistently increased in Japan. An apparent failure by the health [...]

Remains of a 2,000-year-old human Chinese population has relevance to the origin of the modern Japanese population. Molecular genetic analysis has been carried out using DNA from human remains excavated from the ancient Yixi site on the Shandong peninsula in China, where people lived about 2000 years ago. PCR amplification was used to determine nucleotide sequences for the mitochondrial D-loop regions of 414 mtDNA types from 1298 bodies. . Two indices were used to compare the ancient Yixi people with modern Asian and Pacific-area populations. The closest genetic relationship was between the ancient Yixi and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. Yixi people are closer to Mongolians, mainland Japanese and Koreans than to Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese. They are less close to Yayoi and Jomon people, contemporaries and predecessors, respectively, in ancient Japan.

Population aging poses a serious challenge in Japan because of the unparalleled increase in the number of people age 65 and older. Since the country experienced earlier accelerated declines in fertility and mortality, it will have the world's oldest population by the 2030s. The government has been trying to shift some of the financial costs of the aging population from the social security system back to families. However, this approach is not expected to succeed due to such factors as increased female employment, decreased coresidence and weakening values of filial piety.

This paper analyses how value change and economic and social change have jointly affected fertility in Japan since 1950, and especially since 1973 when fertility resumed declining after some 15 years at near-replacement level. The resumption of fertility decline since 1973 has been driven primarily by underlying economic and social changes. Value change has tended to lag behind fertility change, and this lag has tended to be larger in Japan than in other advanced nations, primarily because underlying economic and social conditions have evolved more rapidly in Japan, and because it takes time for values to adjust to changes in underlying conditions. Because of Japan's high degree of cultural homogeneity, values tend to be widely and quickly shared, so that under certain conditions value change tends to occur in spurts. In Japan, many of the more important value changes affecting fertility in recent decades are bound up with major educational and job gains by women, which have led to greater economic independence and more emphasis on values of individualism and equality between the sexes.

Migration, instead of infanticide, caused the stagnant population growth in Japan during the eighteenth and the early nineteenth century. Japanese wives were left alone when their husbands migrated from their homes to get better economic returns from work. The frequency of conjugal unions was reduced significantly due to work related migration, which negatively influenced population growth. The multiple components of demography worked together to make growth stagnant. Simplistic explanations based on mortality or fertility fail to explain the phenomenon.

Shinjinrui: who are they and why did they become who they are? Japanese in their 20s and early 20s differ so much from preceding generations that they are called - [...]

Seasonal variation of mean birth weight (MBW), mean gestational period (MGP), and MBW at 40 weeks of gestation ([MBW.sub.40]) in the 15 different prefectures of Japan were analyzed using vital statistics from 1974 to 1983. MBW generally shows a bi-modal pattern with two peaks in spring and autumn and two troughs in summer and winter. Seasonality exhibits a general geographic trend: The autumn peak loses its height and the spring peak increases its amplitude as one moves from north to south. This trend suggests that environmental factors are associated with the creation of seasonality in MBW. For MGP the pattern is relatively unimodal with a deep trough in winter; however, a late summer small dip is observed in most cases. According to an analysis of coincidence between the two time series (MBW and MGP) and correlation analysis, the seasonal variation in birth weight basically depends on the gestational period. For [MBW.sub.40], which represents the fetal growth rate, the seasonality shows a pattern similar to that of MBW. A statistically significant coincidence and a correlation are observed between the time series of MBW and [MBW.sub.40]. These results suggest that the two processes of fetal growth (gestational period and fetal growth rate) are associated with the creation of seasonality in MBW., The existence of seasonality of birth weight in humans has been reported by several researchers around the world (Selvin and Janerich 1971; Roberts 1976; Bantje and Niemeyer 1984; Matsuda et [...]

Seasonal variations of mean birth weight from January 1974 to December 1983 and of mean gestational period from January 1979 to December 1983 in Japan are analyzed by time-series analysis. This analysis decomposes the variation in a series into trend, seasonal variation, other cyclic changes, and a remaining irregular fluctuation. The results of the present analysis support the existence of a seasonal rhythm of mean birth weight and mean gestational period in Japan with statistical significance (p |is less than~ 0.001). Seasonal patterns of mean birth weight show two peaks in May and October-November and two troughs in June-September and December. Mean gestational periods shows two peaks in October and February-March and a deep trough in winter and a much smaller one in June-September. Two time series demonstrated a coincidence in monthly variations with statistical significance. These results indicate that a part of seasonality in birth weight could be explained by the seasonal variations in mean gestational period., The existence of the seasonal rhythm of birth weight has been reported by several researchers (Selvin and Janerich 1971; Roberts 1976; Bantje and Niemeyer 1984). However, it is difficult to [...]

A comparison of mortality patterns by marital status in 16 industrialized countries revealed that levels of mortality experienced by single Japanese have been staggeringly high in comparison with those of married Japanese or of singles elsewhere. In this paper, we use a variety of data sources to explore several explanations for the Japanese mortality pattern. Evidence from anthropological studies and attitudinal surveys indicates that marriage is likely to have been and probably continues to be more selective with regard to underlying health characteristics in Japan than elsewhere. However, causal explanations related to the importance of marriage and the family in Japanese society probably contribute to the excess mortality of the single population.

An analysis of mortality rates in the Tenpo famine of 1830 among the Ogenji population was undertaken. The data from the Ojenji death register which provide comprehensive statistics on the Tenpo famine were analyzed and its implications to population growth in Japan were discussed. Results showed that the Tenpo famine was not the sole determinant of the slow population growth in the Ogenji population but it greatly influenced population stagnation in Japan during the 19th and the 20th century.

This paper argues that an important indicator of women's status in different industrial societies is their life cycle employment mobility patterns relative to men's. Data from the 1984 'Survey on Work Patterns' show that Japanese women are more likely than men to experience downward mobility with age, moving out of large firms, full-time employment, and employee status. By linking these mobility patterns to Japanese employment practices, an extension of the analysis to other industrial economies is suggested.

Insights into the causes for the persistent, rapid fertility decline and population aging in Japan is analyzed and compared with that of France where the total fertility rate (TFR) has increased. Identifying the areas of divergence can explain these differences and assist in the project of theory building.

Details of study testing the validity and universality of cognitive age among older people of Japan and United States, are presented.

The problems faced by the Japanese over its ageing population are discussed. Japanese longevity, which is one of the highest in the world, can be ascribed to improvements in health care and in living conditions-including generally healthy diet.

IN 'PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN LONGEVITY,' S. J. Olshansky and co-authors note that if the rate of mortality decline observed in France between 1985 and 1995 were to continue, life expectancy [...]

FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II, the mean age at marriage in Japan (as measured by the singulate mean age at marriage) remained fairly stable until 1975, when it suddenly began to [...]

This article examines the performative enactment of a Brazilian nationalist identity among Japanese-Brazilian return migrants in Japan as a form of autonomous ethnic resistance against Japanese assimilative pressures. By appropriating [...]