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Japanese often present their 'family system' as a timeless national tradition. Instead this article examines changes in Japanese family structure from the late nineteenth century to recent years, focusing on interrelationships between the Japanese managerial state and family. Specifically it charts (1) the state's role in establishing the household as the primary site of welfare provision and (2) the gradual shift from the patriarchal household to a family system centred on the woman as household manager and mother. The development of the woman-centred family occurred in dialogue between urban women activists and the state, which increasingly perceived the advantages of mobilizing married women to raise healthy children, organize neighbourhoods, care for the family's elderly and take responsibility for saving the family's money. Keywords: state; family; social welfare; policy; gender; Japan. DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2010.486214

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.

Despite the fact that women's rights have been increasingly defined as equal to men's in law and policy, in post-Second World War Japan women continue to be at a disadvantage in many aspects of social and economic life. Drawing from a survey of 2,205 Japanese women, this article focuses in particular on women's home ownership as a new catalyst behind increasing social stratification in Japan. The women's experiences are closely linked to Japan's institutional 'familism': the development of social policy that has been explicitly connected to the male-breadwinner model. We argue that a wide range of institutional and policy practices--mortgage provision, property ownership, social security and taxation and labour market mechanisms--has combined to define the housing asset status of women. We discuss the women's current housing asset portfolio, and also recent socio-economic changes that have begun to redefine their position in a home-owning society. The case of Japan--a patriarchal but shifting home-owning democracy--contributes to our understanding of the contemporary dynamics of women's interaction between family, work and housing in the institutional context.

The Japan National Defense Academy was established in 1954 with the following characteristics: (1) civilian president, (2) joint-service education, (3) no obligation to serve after graduation, and (4) emphasis on natural and engineering sciences. For the first twenty years of its history, sociology played virtually no role. The School of Social Sciences (Administrative Sciences/International Relations) was established in 1974. Sociology and sociology-related subjects entered in the undergraduate curriculum. Establishment of the Graduate School for Security Studies in 1997 further expanded the role of sociology, while introducing military sociology to the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. In 2001, as a result, a major organizational reform, Departments of Humanities, Public Policy, and International Relations constitute the new School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Although there is only one sociology professor, the role of sociology in the educational system of Self-Defense Forces is gradually expanding. Keywords:sociology; armed forces and society; constabulary force; postmodern military officer

In the chaotic aftermath of Japan's loss in the Asia-Pacific War, thousands of Japanese infants and children were stranded in northeast China and remained there for decades as the foster children of Chinese households. Subsequently, more than two thousand of these 'war orphans' have belatedly returned with their families to Japan, where they have faced tremendous difficulties adjusting to Japanese society. This article critically examines the reasons for the Japanese government's failure to expeditiously repatriate and successfully resettle the war orphans in Japan and considers the war orphans' grievances in light of their recent compensation lawsuits against the government.

This article explores the Great Kanto Earthquake as a window into Japan of the 1920s and examines how this disaster was interpreted and used for political, ideological, and social ends. I suggest that a wide cross-section of commentators described the disaster as an act of divine punishment to admonish Japan's subjects for leading what many claimed were self-centered, immoral, and extravagant lifestyles. I further argue that the disaster nurtured a strong sense that Japan possessed an unparalleled opportunity not only to rebuild Tokyo to reflect and reinforce new values but also to reconstruct the nation and its people. In doing so, the 1923 calamity fostered a culture of catastrophe and reconstruction that amplified discourses of moral degeneracy and national renovation in interwar Japan.

The article examines the characteristic patterns of Japanese women's movements and presents an overview of women's movements and their socio-political significance in post-war Japan. It is observed that the diversity of these movements has contributed to strengthening democracy at the grassroots.

In this article the issue of the connection between the cultural identity and economy in Japanese nationalism and intellectual discourses that are being used to define it historically are presented. It is observed that in the mid 1990s the government and business leaders are adopting a fully-fledged neoliberal policy that is completely the reverse of the earlier policies.

This article looks at public discussion surrounding the enactment of Japan's Prostitution Prevention Law in 1956. It homes in on the opinion of commentators that the exclusion of the geisha system from the law's provisions allowed the Japanese sex industry to flourish even after 1956. The paper asks why the geisha system was left out of the law, and why this exclusion was a boon for the Japanese sex industry. It argues that the geisha system established a 'respectable' standard for prostitution in Japan, which shielded the sex industry from legal intervention in the postwar period. It concludes that the geisha system has normalised and lent respectability to the activities of the sex industry in Japanese society to the detriment of its women and girls., INTRODUCTION This paper looks at public discussion surrounding the enactment of Japan's Prostitution Prevention Law in 1956. It picks up the opinion of commentators that the Japanese sex industry continued [...]

Some evidence for prolonged gains in the standard of living of Taiwanese under the Japanese, when they ruled Taiwan and transformed it, is presented. The negative impact the shift in colonial policy in the 1930s for human welfare is discussed.

Japan's recent transformation in different fields including economic, political and social aspects is discussed.

Japan's civil society is being transformed as more people volunteer for advocacy and professional nonprofit organizations. In the US context, this trend has been accompanied by a decline in participation [...]

New ways of comprehending the relationship between objectification and racialization are proposed through the interpretation of the Japanese object as an 'ethnic thing'.

The differences between historical forms of racism emerge in an examination of the similarities between the United States and Japan during World War II.

This paper looks at different kinds of stories told in a Japanese advertising agency and argues that, like organizations in other creative industries, an advertising agency may be seen as a dedicated storytelling organization. Based on long-term anthropological fieldwork, it makes use of three indigenous classifications--tales of the past, tales of the now, and tales of repetition--to see to what extent a non-western organization confirms, contradicts, or adds to previous analyses of storytelling organizations. Findings suggest that storytelling in a Japanese advertising agency generally conforms to what is already known, but that in certain cultural specifics connected with strategic positioning, management, employment relations, and other Japanese corporate practices, it is rather different. Key words: storytelling organization, advertising agency, creative industries, Japan

Integrating three theoretical explanations for declining rates of marriage in Japan, the authors develop hypotheses in which linkages between benefits of coresidence with parents and marriage timing are moderated by women's own socioeconomic characteristics. To evaluate these hypothesized interactive relationships, data from a panel survey of Japanese women is used to estimate hazard models for the transition from the parental home to first marriage. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that limited domestic responsibilities contribute to later marriage among coresident women with higher levels of human capital. Less evidence is found for the hypothesis that limited living expenses are associated with later marriage among women whose potential husbands are likely to have more tenuous economic prospects. The authors conclude that coresidence with parents plays a potentially important role in the marriage behavior of economically independent women in societies where family formation is relatively incompatible with full-time work for women. Keywords: marriage; gender; coresidence; Japan; work-family balance