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In recent decades Japanese university students have been characterised as politically apathetic and disinterested in organising for grassroots change. Despite a variety of socio-contextual factors that have contributed to this reality, a student movement known as SEALDs emerged in 2015 and successfully mobilised a substantial number of Japanese youth and shifted public discourse on social activism. By taking a case study approach, this paper analyses the movement and focuses on their unique ability to mobilise the masses through a unique utilisation of what Castells terms 'spaces of autonomy'. The authors argue that while existing in a hybrid of cyberspace and urban space SEALDs was able to resonate with the country through social networking sites, music, fashion, and pop-culture appeal. Unlike other movements that aim to 'radically disrupt the system' SEALDs found success through branding and popular appeal. We suggest the case study of SEALDs offers a novel contribution to the research of student activism worldwide, and highlights the importance of social context in any attempt to understand particular manifestations of student-led activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines tokusatsu films and television series and how they relate to and depict atomic bomb victims. Particular focus is given to monsters and aliens in these works, including "Shin Gojira," a movie featuring the monster Godzilla, the television series "Urutora Sebun," and the 1957 film "The Mysterians." Additional topics discussed include how most of atomic bomb literature focuses upon the experiences of female and child victims and insights on gender representation and reproduction experiences in Japanese culture.

This article explains a cultural sociological approach to research on social inequality. "Cultural sociological" means that we do not regard social inequality as resulting only from a distributive order of goods, income and positions, but also from an evaluative order created and reproduced by the actions of social groups. Concerning the topic of this thematic issue, this means that, from a sociological perspective, we see "weakness" not only as the social vulnerability of actors and groups resulting from a lack of material resources, education and power, but also as an attribution and assessment which can have a variety of social consequences. "Weakness" can compel others to help the weak and defend their interests. But if the weak are to be protected and empowered, they must be identified as "weak" in the first place, and this act of identification can have paradoxical consequences. As we demonstrate with evidence from East Asia, the social designation as "weak" can have many adverse effects for the weak groups themselves, because it blames them for their own weaknesses and publicly condemns, disparages, or stigmatizes them. Based on an analysis of the situation of victims of the Fukushima disaster in Japan and of rural migrants and their offspring living in Chinese metropoles, we show how social designations of weakness can produce negative classifications that signal disrespect to weak actors and limit their opportunities for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ikumen is a buzzword that describes fathers who are actively involved in childrearing. This article focuses on the process in which the term ikumen and its meaning are diffused and investigates how soon-to-be fathers, themselves potential ikumen, view the ikumen discourse. Our endeavor is to grasp the transformation of father roles and the wider family in contemporary Japan through the public and individual engagement with the term ikumen. In this article, we combine macro and micro approaches to analyze ikumen as a discourse circulating in Japanese society and study the way in which the subjects of the discourse – soon-to-be fathers – view the ikumen discourse and interact with it. Utilizing an analysis of newspaper articles, we inquire into the process in which the concept ikumen became popular in Japan and the images that are affiliated with it. Through interviews, we then investigate how soon-to-be fathers as potential ikumen themselves perceive the term. Our results show the way in which an ikumen discourse emerged in Japan in opposition to the term kazoku sabisu, which since the 1970s describes the activities fathers engage in for the satisfaction of their families and fulfillment of social expectations. However, while the term is very popular in the media, the young families we interviewed see ikumen more skeptically. They both resist the popular discourse and adapt it into their construction of paternal identities through a differentiation between a strong versus a weak ikumen image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ongoing discourse on children's rights and related attitudes towards individualisation and risk in contemporary Japan's education system. The paper is also interested in how this discourse is translated into concrete change. The concepts of ‘children's rights’ and ‘risk society’ both have their origins in Western conceptions of the relationship between the individual and society, and the place of children and young people in that society. This paper explores the way that these concepts have been transformed by their adoption into domestic Japanese discourse on education reform. After a discussion of how the classical liberal concepts of positive and negative human rights can be applied to the specific case of children's rights, the discussion moves on to show how this debate has developed in Japan since the 1980s. Then the paradigm of the ‘Risk Society’ is introduced and the concepts of ‘positive risks’ and ‘negative risks’ are explored, first with reference to schooling in Western countries and then in relation to Japan. Finally, the relationship between risk, rights and neoliberalism is discussed, and it is shown how Western notions of individualisation have met strong resistance from various actors on both sides of the political spectrum. In the case of the Japanese education system, the shift of responsibility from state bureaucracies to individuals and private-sector organisations that is predicted by Risk Society theory has only partially taken place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines General Douglas MacArthur's six years as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in post-World War II Japan. MacArthur was appointed by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to preside over and administer the reconstruction of postwar Japan. No American serving in the role of a public administrator has ever had a more difficult task than the one MacArthur took on in Japan. At the end of World War II, Japan was devastated, and the entire population faced starvation. MacArthur's administrative style and his successes and failures in Japan are examined in this Administrative Profile. Fifty years after his death, the influence of MacArthur's policies during his tenure as Supreme Commander are still felt in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the aesthetics of kissing in imperial Japan. According to the article, kissing in Japan served as a subversive act of individual will and freedom prior to 1945 and a symbol of social democracy and collective freedom during the occupation of Japan following World War II. It discusses cultural material related to kissing in Japan, the role of kissing in Japanese society and sexual behavior, and kissing in Japanese popular culture.

The article focuses on Japan, its economic, political, and social crises, and its international position in the face of China's rising power. The author discusses its gross domestic product (PIB) from 1993 to 2010, the consequences of the nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima, Japan, on March 11, 2011, and its growing nationalist movement as a response to globalization. The influence of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) and the five challenges Japan needs to surmount to overcome these crises are also discussed.

In 1950s Japan, films about the Second World War, especially the conflict in the Pacific, were very popular. Though some of them concentrated on misery and suffering, others were surprisingly positive in their portrayal of Japanese soldiers. The 1950s have the reputation of a pacifist decade in Japan, when people were only too glad to forget the war as they turned instead to the future. This orthodox view is undermined, however, by the undeniable fact that a great many people wanted to see cinematic dramatizations of the war. The movies they watched left room for pride, dignity, the recognition of Japanese military power and even nostalgia for the war years. They were an important means by which people explored the meanings of the recent conflict. In particular, they explained and dramatized what had happened; presented examples of heroic soldiers and sailors; and contributed to the reintegration of ordinary soldiers who had been convicted as war criminals back into Japanese society. In doing so they played a vital role in reclaiming and validating the actions of military men, and in promoting the idea that there had been positive aspects of the war experience, despite the suffering the conflict had undoubtedly brought. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many recent studies have discussed the features of Japanese civil society. Some of them point out that these have been greatly affected by the legacy of the new left movements, a network of anti-Vietnam War groups, student groups, and young workers’ groups which developed toward the end of the 1960s. This article explores the formation and development of the ideas and actions of the Japanese new left movements, examining the discourse of student activists in particular. These activists were critical of the conservative consciousness – which they termed ‘everydayness’ – which was a product of the economic boom of that decade, and sought to transform it. They were willing to take confrontational direct action against armed police officers on streets and on campus in spite of the risks of arrest and injury. I analyse their activism, and the reasons leading to it. By exploring the ideas and actions of new left movements, this paper aims to historicize certain features of Japanese civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japanese science and technology studies has historically developed under the influence of Marxism, which generally had a great impact on prewar and postwar Japanese social sciences. However, since the late 1970s, the Marxist tradition was taken over by postmodernism and then neoliberalism. The global immiserization of working class recently brought back Marx and his critique of capital. The Marxist tradition should be revitalized by reviewing neo-Marxist works in the 1960s and 1970s, which rightly made science and technology the subject of criticism for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, both Japanese and Western media have devoted a great deal of attention to a new type of Japanese man, so-calledsōshoku-kei danshi(“herbivorous men”), as an example of a new, “softened” masculinity. In this paper, I draw a parallel between the growing number of “herbivores” and the increasing popularity of Japanese contemporary author Murakami Haruki, and in particular of the young male protagonists of his novels. Apart from the apparent similarities in the personalities of Murakami’s characters and the herbivores, a significant commonality can be found in their way of relating to their representation, especially their rebellious image constructed by society. Through an analysis of the formation of such an image, we will find that their popularity is closely associated with the history of Japanese masculinity, and more importantly with their astute distancing from society and their complicity with the capitalist system. In this article I examine Murakami’s and the herbivores’ ways of positioning themselves in Japanese society in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of both types of men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article introduces the 1952–56 hiropon crisis, Japan's sole major domestic experience with illegal drugs, and the world's first methamphetamine “epidemic.” In the early postwar years, hiropon addiction came to symbolize the dependent, traumatized state of a defeated Japan. This ideological significance made the eradication of hiropon a leading public issue, mobilizing the Japanese government, medical establishment, and social actors such as educators, parents, neighborhood associations, the media, and others. The process of eliminating methamphetamine restored public confidence and agency, and created a new identity for Japan as a cosmopolitan, independent nation. Unlike drugs in other contexts, hiropon was not embedded in the postwar political economy or culture, making possible its swift suppression. However, resolution of the methamphetamine crisis also sowed the seeds of its recrudescence in the 1970s. The ongoing “second stimulants epidemic,” reflecting consumption patterns typical of developed nations, has proven resistant to solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the Second World War, Okinawa was under the administration of the US armed forces from August 15, 1945 to May 15, 1972. High schools in Okinawa began entering the preliminary tournament of the National High School Baseball Championship Tournament in 1952, before the islands were returned to Japan. Schools from the region competed in the tournament in 1958, 1962, 1963 (when the Okinawa team won its first game), 1966 and 1968 (when the Okinawa team advanced to the semi-finals for the first time). After that, Tomishiro High School successively advanced to the quarterfinals in 1976, 1977 and 1978, and Okinawa Fishery High School succeeded in advancing to the finals in 1990 and 1991. Then, in 2010, Konan High School won the championship for the first time for Okinawa. In spite of being very skilled in the sport, until winning the championship, Okinawa's participation seemed to represent the ‘sympathy’ of the sad experiences from the war, ‘special arrangements’ and economic disadvantages compared to the mainland, and a mental weakness whereby there was a lack of tenacity for the purpose of victory. In short, it can be said that such representation drew the attention of Okinawan people to a ‘summer moment’, in effect throwing a veil over the real history of their experiences and lives during and after the war. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the sex industry in Japan during the U.S. occupation of the country following World War II. An overview of Japanese female streetwalkers, who are also referred to as prostitutes and panpan, including their social conditions, their formation of local gangs resembling criminal syndicates, their social and legal status and their control over their own labor, is provided. The social backgrounds of the Japanese women employed as sex workers, including their middle class upbringing, are discussed. The political activity of mothers and educators regarding Japanese prostitution, including in their invoking of children's rights to oppose it, is discussed. The relationship between panpan and the U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan is also discussed.

The loss of community worries academics and politicians the world over, and Japan is no exception. Over recent decades, in response to an outcry over diminishing social cohesion, Japan has seen a wave of neighbourhood projects, aiming to restore local social networks. At the same time, some argue that here urban neighbourhoods still function as organisers of social life. These contrasting views make Japanese cities interesting case studies. Unfortunately, despite a host of studies on aspects of neighbourhood involvement, there is limited general research into local social networks as a neighbourhood effect. The authors aim to fill this gap with evidence from a household survey in Tokyo. They conclude that neighbourhoods in Tokyo are relatively mixed and that, for some groups, the neighbourhood is an important source for social relations. However, the study does not show that this supports cross-group relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented discusses the political activism of the feminist, writer and socialist Yamakawa Kikue (whose birth name was née Morita) in Japan following World War II. Kikue's efforts to highlight the role that the divisions of class, gender and ethnic backgrounds played in Japanese women's lives are discussed. An overview of Kikue's perspective of the Allied Occupation of Japan, including its putative goal for the "democratization of Japan," is discussed.

This paper explores the contradictory discourses on manners, safety and emotion that arose with mass motorization in Japan in the 1960s and which continue through the present. It documents the way in which multiple government entities end up working at cross-purposes in their attempts to cultivate safer drivers and slow the epidemic of traffic accidents. On the one hand, the discourse on driving manners suggests a widespread embrace of the Traffic Bureau's and other government agencies' concern with safety. On the other hand, the emphasis on manners may lead to angrier driving, which promotes accidents according to psychological studies of driving. The picture that emerges is one in which attempts at social control are complicated by the often unpredictable emotional reactions of subjects caught in a web of institutional and ideological processes. By exploring the relationship of emotion to driving school curricula and the discourse on manners, this article extends previous studies of self, social control, and social management in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an examination into the history of the Ogasawara Islands of Japan and the social identity of its population within the larger culture of Japan. An overview is given charting the history of the Island, including its colonization by Japan in 1875, its occupation by the U.S. Navy until 1968, and its early 21st century conditions. The impact of the U.S. Navy's administration of the island for 20 years is particularly addressed. The social and economic conditions of the islanders on Ogasawara and in Japan are discussed.

The article presents an examination into the treatment of the issue of school absence within the mass media of Japan from 1950 to the present. Introductory details are given describing the extent to which the Japanese Ministry of Education has devoted attention to the issue of school attendance and delinquency throughout the period. Analysis is then offered regarding the characteristics of the Ministry's framing of the issue, noting its close relation to public opinion at any given time. Conclusions are offered evaluating the Ministry's work.

This article examines the pioneering role of Japanese intellectuals in the contemporary (post-1945) global revival of civil society. Although often overlooked or discounted in recent scholarship, Japanese intellectuals were among the first contemporary theorists worldwide to re-conceptualize civil society as a remedy for two of the central problematics of the post-World War II era: the theoretical and practical crisis in Marxism, on the one hand, and the anomie of advanced capitalist development, on the other hand. The article argues that any comprehensive global history of contemporary civil society must consider the insights of these Japanese thinkers alongside those of their Continental and North American counterparts. More critically, the article also suggests that Japanese civil society thought merits attention because it vividly exposes the dearth of criticality and excess of celebration in the idea's recent resurgence. The result in Japan (and elsewhere) has been an ironic and troubling retreat of criticality coupled with a naïve faith in the therapeutic capacity of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2011, forty-two years since the popular jidaigeki (period drama) television series Mito Kōmon was first broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), would seem an appropriate historical juncture to reassess the cultural significance of the jidaigeki television series in post-war Japan. Many factors influence and determine the production and reception of cultural texts. This article, therefore, focuses on the two aspects of structure and ‘place’, and their relationship to content in the Japanese jidaigeki television series: at the structural level in terms of ‘iteration’ as a defining narrative pattern, and ‘place’ on two levels – first, the consideration of Edo as a time-space configuration of social relations and, second, the location of the television set in the home. Therefore, in this article, the Japanese jidaigeki television genre is being utilized as a methodological tool, to begin an introductory exploration into television's political role in reaffirming and perpetuating basic cultural beliefs and a sense of shared experience through pleasure. This article is also concerned with television's role in the domestic as a medium that reflects an expression of domesticity. Furthermore, through an analysis of the dominant ‘gendered reading formations’ of examples from the genre, I shall demonstrate how social problems related to patriarchal institutions raised by feminism and the changing expectations of women in Japanese society are ritualized in the formulaic structure of the jidaigeki television series. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This essay examines the graphic design of the Tokyo 1964 Games as a symbolic site through which Japan's postwar identity was re-articulated in relation with both the realm of internationalization and tradition. The visual language utilized by the Tokyo Games adhered to the anti-historical approach of modernism, while it also encoded the visual composition of crest design, established in medieval Japan. In encoding their tradition in not directly decipherable means, postwar Japanese designers found an important resource for distinguishing their identity in the international arena, and for establishing a continuity with their past. In the years following the Olympics, their designs were recognized as instigators of an international design scene, becoming also reminiscent of the 1964 Olympic glory days. On the other hand, they also encapsulated memories of the nation that acted on a visceral level, echoing Japanese society's fluctuation between tradition and modernity, nationalism and internationalism, past and future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes both the policy debates within the American Occupation over famine, food relief and nutrition in Occupied Japan (1945-52) and the contested terms in which the debate was conducted. Conflict arose over muddled accounting of food intake in calories, a rampant black market that suggested a failure of equitable distribution, and the absence of serious unrest despite imports falling short of minimal stated requirements. Occupation authorities questioned estimates made by the Japanese government. There was internal disagreement among American authorities in Japan and between interested parties in Washington, as well as among the Allies in the Far Eastern Commission. Herbert Hoover's Famine Emergency Committee of 1946 sounded an alarm, and the Food and Fertilizer Mission of February 1947 marked a shift away from rather crude quantitative measures of caloric intake to more subtle qualitative ones of dietary balance and combinations of nutrients. The Occupation's chief concern then became the dearth of animal protein. Attempts to correct this shortfall by reestablishing Japan's fishing and whaling industries proved unpopular with U.S. allies. The Occupation preferred to champion the success of its school lunch program, whose core component - powdered skim milk imported from the United States - was viewed as an invaluable weapon in the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses democracy and dating in Japan during the occupation by American armed forces from 1945 to 1952 and how U.S. dating customs and popular culture transferred to Japan. The research of anthropologist Margaret Mead on dating customs in Britain during World War II is considered, particularly focusing on the difference between dating customs in Britain and the U.S. Social customs and related laws in Japan during the Meiji period and various terms for young women in the Japanese language are considered as are social expectations about women and their roles in Japanese society. Gender policies in Japanese laws after the end of World War II that would impact the role of women in Japanese society are discussed.

How do undemocratic civic organizations become compatible with democratic civil society? How do local organizations merge older patriarchal, hierarchical values and practices with newer more egalitarian, democratic ones? This article tells the story of how volunteer fire departments have done this in Japan. Their transformation from centralized war instruments of an authoritarian regime to local community safety organizations of a full-fledged democracy did not happen overnight. A slow process of demographic and value changes helped the organizations adjust to more democratic social values and practices. The way in which these organizations have made the transition offers important lessons for emerging democracies around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the career of Japanese singer and child actress Misora Hibari (1937-1989) as an example of how idealized images of girls were deployed in debates about national identity and gender issues in Japan following World War II. Her early career is discussed in particular, from her first appearances as a highly sexualized child actor to her teenage years, when her image was shaped into that of a chaste and virtuous girl. Also discussed are subsequent remakes of her 1954 hit film "The Izu Dancer" ("Izu no odoriko").

'Speaking as a tōjisha' has become an important strategy in establishing 'correct knowledge' about sexual minority cultures in contemporary Japan. Originally developed in a legal context where it referred to the 'parties' in court proceedings, in the 1970s tōjisha was taken up by citizens' groups campaigning for the right of self determination for the 'parties concerned' facing discrimination and has become a central concept for all minority self-advocacy groups. In the 1990s the discourse of tōjisha sei (tōjisha-ness) was adopted by gay rights groups and by spokespersons for lesbian and transgender communities in a battle to change public perceptions of sexual minorities through insisting on their right to speak about themselves in their own voices. This paper considers two unforeseen outcomes of the primacy of the tōjisha in current LGBTQ discourse. Firstly, through insisting on attending to the voice of each individual, it has proven difficult to establish common links among discriminated communities (or within communities) because of widely diverging perspectives. Also, given the broad variety in many individuals' experience of non-normative sexuality, having to identify and speak as a tōjisha has engendered normalizing effects. The current primacy of the tōjisha reinforces developmental narratives of sexual-identity formation (only the 'out' homosexual is truly authentic) and in so doing inadvertently silences those unable or unwilling to prioritize the sexual in their presentation of self, or whose modes of self-expression fall outside current orthodoxies that provide the boundaries for sexual-minority identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay traces the rise of new civic movements in Japan from the 1970s. Challenging claims that these movements are transforming the country's civil society, the article shows how state, corporate, and civic actors have fashioned a domesticated and largely apolitical sphere of social activism. Not only have bureaucratic and corporate elites fostered cooperative and useful groups, leading civic activists have crafted a pervasive logic of "proposal" which demonizes contentious politics, espouses self-help as the solution to all social problems, and celebrates intimate engagement with the state and market. Accordingly, the article argues for a more nuanced reading of transformation in Japan's civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an in-depth exploration into the social conditions and politics of Japan in 1968, noting the shifts in public perception and reaction to violence performed by the government. Several activist and dissident movements among students and citizens are described as case examples of a larger international social phenomena of the 1960s regarding political participation and cultural identification. Analysis is also given to the depiction and portrayal of political demonstrations and conflict between state actors and dissidents within the media of the nation.

This paper challenges the centrality of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in our understanding of Japan's antinuclear activism. Focusing on the social distribution and perception of the fallout d*anger, I reexamine the symbiotic dynamics of governmental diplomacy and the grassroots movement against nuclear tests from 1954 to 1963. I argue that radioactive pollution during the Bikini incident triggered a consumerist and materialist turn in the peace movement with housewives at the center. Initially resisting the citizens’ perception of risk, the conservative administration by 1957 came to embrace it and launched diplomacy against nuclear tests to steal people's support away from the grassroots movement. At this crucial moment, the grassroots movement's leadership switched its focus from fallout to the “war policy” in the West, which brought about a paradigm shift from the consumerist and materialist platform toward militant workerism for socialist peace. Now disparaging fallout as merely a “physical phenomenon,” the campaign leaders left the environmental angle exposed in 1961 when the Soviet Union unilaterally broke a test moratorium in effect since 1958. While the government's diplomacy, shrewdly stressing the fallout danger, applied a blow to the campaign, the group was split and paralyzed over a protest of Soviet fallout until it dissolved in 1963. The Japanese experience ultimately proved to be an abortive attempt to grasp the environmental legacy of the Bikini incident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay addresses the conjunctions of football, masculinity and gender relations in Japanese society. Football has been identified as a major domain of masculinity in modern societies. However, in Japan, where football has emerged as a major cultural force only over the past one or two decades, women are much more present in the football stadia than in the traditional core cultures of football support. Despite the apparent de-gendering of football, in some subcultures football has been rebuilt as part of the male world. By looking at the way football is packaged, played and supported in Japan, I will show how both a crisis of hegemonic masculinity and the commodification of the game have changed the relations between football and gender in a specific cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the behavior of commuters in trains in Tokyo before World War II and reveal the different forms of publicity in urban traffic by referring to resources such as the laws, customs and novels that existed at the time. From 1900 to 1920, the train was an arena of crowd riots that were rebelling against the rise in the train fare; consequently, various norms pertaining to train travel were constituted. The purpose of these norms was to restrain the behavior of commuters by controlling their five senses and enabling them to use their eyes relatively, for example, they were able to read books and bills in a train, which is something that many commuters do. In this paper, this situation in a train has been referred to as the "order of eyes." Although this order of eyes was stringent, the commuters devised a way to playfully steal glances at each other. Such behavior established a subtle and unrecognized, albeit definite, boundary between the publicity (or correctitude) that must be maintained in urban traffic and the deviation (or vulgarity) that inevitably stems from the excessive proximity of commuters in a train. In this manner, the Metropolitan Railway ensured that the commuters not only passively accepted the rigid regulations but also positively dealt with the excessive proximity in trains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, Japan's economy has experienced depression. In this context, the labor market and the education system for the youth have changed. This study aims to describe the strategies of identity constructions among the youth at a time of social change by examining the boxing subculture in Japan. For this purpose of this study, fieldwork was conducted in three boxing clubs in Japan for two and a half years; further, 38 members of these clubs were interviewed. This paper proposes the following arguments 1) Focusing on how prospective boxers join a gym, I first argue that the stereotypical image of the hungry fighter does not hold for boxers in Japan. Secondly, I clarify the relationship between gyms, the media, the community, and other professional sports. 2) Based on the activities of boxers at a gym, I first analyze the commonalities in the gym members with respect to their character traits and lifestyles as well as their past problems. Secondly, I describe the gym subculture that is suited to the members disciplined and productive ethos. 3) Focusing on the life of professional boxers in a gym, I examine socialization and job identity as well as their physical and mental growth. 4) Considering the retirement options of boxers, I describe the conditions for a satisfactory retirement and clarify how complete devotion to the profession provides the boxers with a positive identity. Finally, I argue that the cases studied in this gym ethnography provide a model for restoring the views of life and labor in present-day Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, Hikikomori (social withdrawal) has become a social problem in Japan. Hikikomori implies that the young people withdraw from most social activities. Moreover, most of them have extremely negative self-identities to the extent that they often retreat into their houses or rooms to avoid meeting other people. Subsequently, one of the goals of support institutions dealing with this problem is to change these young people's self-identities into positive ones. First, this article argues the social conditions involved in changing the users' identities on the basis of participant observations and interviews in an institution. In particular, the interaction rituals that are always used by the staff and the users in their daily lives have been examined as important conditions involved in changing the users' identities. According to Goffman (1967), I describe two rituals, referential avoidance and invitation to join collective activities, practiced particularly in such institutions. These rituals enable the users to ease their anxiety concerning human relationships and gradually speak about themselves to each other. The rituals provide such conditions that enable the users to alter their self-image regarding sociability as well as provide opportunities that help the users reconstruct their self-narratives. Subsequently, I examine the negative effects of these interaction rituals. Highly developed rituals in such institutions paradoxically prevent the users from completely rewriting their self-narratives. Self-narratives obtain their realities from the acceptance given by "others." However, the stringent rules of these rituals deprive the users of "otherness." Furthermore, being conscious of rituals that facilitate inner development makes the users fear that they will inevitably lose face in society. Consequently, they hesitate in approaching society, and as a result, they maintain their simple and negative image regarding society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses gender and sexuality education in Japan. The inclusion of lessons involving sexual minorities through Human Rights Dowa Education (HRDE) is explored. A brief history of the HRDE program is presented and its focus on oppressed groups of people including women, handicapped people, Koreans, and the elderly is discussed. The importance of personal stories, particularly among sexual minorities, is explored. The effect of HRDE on sexual minorities who choose to come out is also examined.

This article describes the problem of homelessness in Japan, and contrasts the status of the problem between the United Kingdom and Japan. Demographic characteristics of the homeless, including age and gender, vary across the two countries (for example, there are very few homeless women in Japan). Factors contributing to the development of homelessness in each country are discussed and contrasted. Differences in social welfare systems may be the primary contributor to differences in the apparent rates of homelessness and the conditions that the homeless must endure across the two nations. Housing and homeless policy in Japan are discussed in depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes to examine how the emergence of global human rights ideas has changed framing in local social movements and construction of social movement actorhood, using the case of resident Koreans' activism in Japan. Theoretically, we combine the world society approach and framing theory in social movement literature to evaluate the impact of global models on local construction of social movement actorhood. Examination of the history of resident Koreans' social movements with archival data reveals that activists in the movements used nation-state-based citizenship rights frames in the early post-war period but increasingly used universal human rights language since the 1970s. The first period was characterized by a deep chasm between North and South Korean residents in Japan, while in the second period, use of universal human rights vocabularies transformed their movement actorhood and enabled collaborative social movements by North and South Koreans as well as other international activists, leading to some key policy changes in their favor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I examine the processes by which AIDS has been "domesticated," and Japanese women stigmatized as vectors of HIV/AIDS, once regarded as a "foreign" disease in Japan. Women are associated with ritual pollution and impurity in the Shinto tradition. At the same time, Japanese women are blamed for eschewing marriage and motherhood in favor of material pursuits. As a sequel to the "AIDS panic" of the 1980s, which centered on "foreign women" and women who dated foreigners, in the late 1990s, the Japanese media incited widespread anxiety over a phenomenon known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating," in which Japanese teenage girls are said to exchange favors (sometimes sexual) for money with older Japanese men. After describing the social and political conditions making the link between young girls, consumption, and AIDS appear natural in late 1990s Japan, I draw on material from some interviews with HIV-positive women to show how these women are marginalized by narratives that fail to take the particularity and the heterogeneity of their experiences into account. While these women resist the stigma that goes along with being labeled a "sex worker," their stories are drowned out by larger stories that speak of the body politic and national concerns over generation divides, demographic shifts, and gender relations in times of rapid social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women highlights the importance of equal participation of women in public life. Since the early 1960s, women in Japan have voted in elections at significantly higher rates than men. However, Japanese women's equal participation in policy formulation and decision making lags far behind major democracies. Gender equality is stated under the Japanese Constitution, but social practices are far from equal. There are no legal constraints on Japanese women's right to candidacy for public office, but they are far underrepresented in local and national elected assemblies. In 1999 an important landmark in the substantial progress towards gender equality took place when the Japanese government, for the first time, legally denounced the stereotyped division of roles on the basis of gender and described men and women as equal partners. An unprecedented amount of legislation, together with policy changes and organizational reform at the national level were introduced from this state-led initiation. In the same year, women's grassroots groups were rapidly moving beyond the reach of policy, organizational, and legal changes; they successfully conducted a major nationwide campaign for 'More Women to Assemblies¡' and increased the number of elected women representatives at the local level at an unprecedented rate. The purpose of this article is to assess the potential of increased women's political voices in Japan, which can be seen as an alternative way of solving the problems of political disengagement in the male-dominated representative democracy. To this end, the article examines the course of watershed events in 1999 towards a gender-equal society in Japan, with special emphasis on the importance of grassroots missions in eliminating barriers to Japanese women's political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study examines how a number of American and Japanese journalists make the tough calls regarding an escalating social problem: whether to identify juveniles who have been charged with serious capital crimes. Divergent societal and journalistic values of the two countries are explored via a survey of journalists from Honolulu and Hiroshima. Newsroom policies and practices are described regarding general and specific cases of juvenile crime. In general, Japanese journalists are far more likely than U.S. journalists to withhold names. Tables and additional background information are found at jmme.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, some of the socially, economically and politically marginalised have developed robust social and labour movements that engage with mainstream society. These movements have developed strategies challenging the conditions of the excluded, while also highlighting pathways to establish, or enhance, individual and collective participation in the labour market and the wider society. Two distinct though related, social and organisational forms of these movements are elaborated – firm-centred and community centred respectively. The former especially has a combative past in the labour struggles of the 1950s in what are known as sa'ha shōsū-ha kumiai (left wing Minority union, or, Minority-faction union). However, this does not mean Minorities are inherently leftist in orientation. In the 1940s and 1950s, during a period of radical union hegemony, a collaborative form of second unions developed assisting the purge of radical leaderships. Our focus here is on a contemporary radical democratic current. While articulating concerns of those in full time employment outside the political mainstream they may also represent ethnically and otherwise socially marginalised workers. The community unions, a form of what are known as ‘new-type union’, shingata kumiai (this term will be used here to describe the community unions) articulate the concerns of those socially and economically marginalized in the community and the wider labour market. Controversially, the term ‘Minority union’ is used to depict the different forms of oppositional social movement union in a broader sense than is typically understood in the literature. This is because they share a common concern with the articulation of Minority social and political interests in the context of the employment relationship and the local community. In considering the character of these social movement unions the article seeks to add to what Price (1997 ) describes as ‘bottom up history’ which we term ‘sociology from below’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The 1990s saw the beginning of new developments in the social policy agenda of Japan. A combination of further cuts in social expenditure and increases in financial resources through various means has become inevitable in response to the increasing cost burden of an ageing society, the prolonged recession and changes in the Japanese family. In this context, “kaigo hoken” (long-term care insurance) was introduced in 2000 to increase revenue and fill the gap vacated by the family. The scheme introduced a different concept to the public: that long-term care was no longer “expected’’ from the family or “allocated” by the state, but has become part of a “social contract” based upon a system of mandatory contributions, uniform entitlements and consumer choice. This paper first explores the role of the new scheme in creating social inequalities among individuals (and families). A panel survey is used to highlight different patterns of care provision and the varying degree of financial pressure among different income groups. Second, based on qualitative research, the paper examines how the new scheme has transformed the relationship between older people and their families who have played a central role in this arena. The scheme has consequently divided “traditional” families and their liberal counterparts, as a result of care work being “commodified”. It is apparent that this scheme has not only responded to fill the existing care gap but may also help accelerate the changes that have been taking place for the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]