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Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper suggests that the analysis of racism in Japan can be advanced by taking note of theoretical arguments produced in the context of studies of European racisms. Specifically, the paper discusses the relationship between racism and nationalism, and argues that this relationship can be understood only if the ideological character of the notion of 'race' is recognised. The significance of racist ideology in the discourses of the state during the period of the Japanese colonial empire is analysed and some implications of this analysis for the situation of minority populations in contemporary Japan are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1970s 'the Japanese-type welfare society' was proposed by the ruling party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party. This paper examines the background and content of this proposal. Without being enthusiastically committed to the 'welfare state', Japan, under continued rule by the LDP since 1955, has developed social security institutions in an ad hoc way keeping pace with the growth of the economy. However, facing the prospect of an unprecedented rapid aging of the population, Japan has to find a way to balance the cost of social security with an increase in the needs for it. The LDP's answer to that was 'the Japanese-type welfare society'. However, it has been found that there is no easy answer to the problem. It has been noted in recent years that there is less talk of the 'Japanese type' and more introduction of concrete measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the research trends in welfare sociology (sociological studies on social security and welfare), one of the many subfields of active research in sociology in Japan. For this purpose, several research streams formed from the 1970s to the 2000s are described, and some of the most important research results produced within these in the past two decades are introduced. In the latter part of this article, a broad overview of the research trends in Japanese welfare sociology is attempted by focusing on the contents of the journal published by the Japan Welfare Sociology Association (JWSA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although family sociology in Japan has a long history, sociological family studies in Japan have undergone major changes since the 1990s. This article recounts the ways in which family sociology in Japan has developed and its current state, with a special focus on the developments in the last three decades. The 1990s marked a turning point in the history of Japanese family sociology in terms of the establishment of new academic societies and a paradigmatic shift in theoretical orientations. The trends in family research articles indicate the continuing importance of quantitative research, with the role of qualitative research on the rise over the last two decades. In reviewing the literature over the last three decades, the author summarizes four major strands of empirical research: (a) care and families, (b) social inequality and families, (c) comparative research, and (d) diversity of families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review of the Japanese sociological literature on information and communication technologies showcases some of the best studies in the field published in Japan since 2005. It provides an overview with a special focus on the internet, the computer, the mobile phone and other devices, and social media. Two events during the period covered in this review spurred research on public consequences: the East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and the 2013 Amendment of Public Offices Election Act. Long-term structural issues such as inequalities of various kinds and labor relations also influence researchers' interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of Japanese labor studies conducted since the 2000s; it particularly focuses on studies dealing with women's work and non-standard employment. By reviewing these studies, the article aims to show how the Japanese employment system creates and maintains economic disparities between men and women and between different employment statuses. First, a review of the literature on women's labor indicates that the Japanese employment system is discriminatory toward women. Specifically, the article finds that Japan's long-term employment and seniority-based systems are preventing women from developing their careers. Next, the article reviews research on non-standard employment with a focus on disparities between standard and non-standard workers and explains how differences in human resource development policies have created and maintained large discrepancies between employment statuses. Therefore, the study concludes that the established Japanese employment system causes large disparities between men and women, and in employment statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although various dimensions of values have been advanced, this paper proposes a three-fold value typology, using individual, collective and universal value orientations. In post-war Japan, a profound change in values from the collective orientation to individual orientation has occurred. It is suggested that the causes of this change are: 1) democracy imported from Western countries; 2) the development of an affluent society as a result of economic growth; and 3) social changes, like urbanisation and the nuclearisation of the family. On the other hand, in the 1980s there was a growth in the awareness of the universal orientation, involving the relative priority that a person gives to general human happiness over the individual's own happiness if there is a competitive relation between the two. Although people who hold a universal orientation and behave accordingly are still in a minority, the universal orientation will become more widespread in future society and it is therefore important to pay particular attention to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fukushima nuclear accident raised important questions concerning Japan’s civil society: first, what was the role of civil society prior to the accident; second, what were civil society’s reactions to the accident; third, what impact has civil society had on Japan’s nuclear policies following the accident. Focusing on societal, organizational, and local community-level activities, this article explores these questions analyzing documents and news clippings pertinent to the accident, participant observations of protest activities, and a comparative analysis of Japan’s nuclear policies with Germany’s policy shift. The relative weakness of civil society provided the context for the accident. After the accident, however, energetic citizen protests became frequent. The structures around which protests and public demonstrations were organized changed substantially over time. Civil society has begun to influence public policy, and is fostering a deeper public discourse, while advancing policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan has moved in a different direction from the West since the 1970s in terms of family and gender role changes. The purpose of this article is to place Japan’s path in a global context and to clarify the factors that made it diverge from the Western path, and to consider if it is becoming closer to the path taken by other Asian countries. A characteristic shared by Japan and other Asian countries is that, even though dramatic demographic changes have occurred, the institution of marriage remains intact. Nevertheless, in contrast to the other Asian countries, which had experienced a compressed modernity and developed liberal familialism in response to the pressures of globalization, Japan had leeway in its semi-compressed modernity to carry out familialist reforms in the 1980s that solidified the family system of the first modernity. It is too simple to say that Japan has rejoined Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The convergence argument in the debate on globalization regards globalization as a structural change. Globalization, however, is as much a structural change as a social construction - an imagined order of the future that involves value judgment and an ideological stand. Through an analysis of the ideological conflicts in the politics of Japan's national response to the challenge of globalization, the article shows that the convergence argument is being challenged on four specific issues in Japan: the universal model of market economy conflicts with the search for national identity; the big bang strategy that asserts a radical turnover of the national economic system is discredited by the holistic view of the economy that emphasizes the social embeddedness of the economic system; the new interpretation of the Japanese economic system as a product of wartime control contradicts the widely held image of postwar Japan as a democratic country; and the efficiency principle for future economic governance is challenged by the established norms concerning equality. This study indicates that the convergence argument in the debate on globalization faces strong resistance from the deeply institutionalized beliefs in the national economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay assesses the usefulness of Max Weber's sociology, particularly his writings on China, for the analysis of East Asian industrialisation. Many scholars writing about modern Asia criticise Weber's views on the relation between Confucian values and the development of capitalism. This essay suggests that many of these critics misinterpret Weber's writing on China. Acknowledging that Weber made errors in interpreting China, the authors, nonetheless, argue that Weber's perspective is most valuable in analysing Asian economic development because of the institutional approach he developed. Weber's institutional approach is outlined and briefly applied in a comparison of Japanese and Chinese industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]