The purpose of this paper is to examine characteristics in the human cognition of intimate relations, using the historical formation of the social cognition that defines the “family” as an irreplaceable site of “exclusive intimacy” in modern Japan as a backdrop.
The subject matter is examined from two aspects : the first is conservative family-state ideologues, who created the notion of “familial harmony”; the second is socialists. We study the structure of the socialists' idea of “reformative” exclusive intimacy and its impact.
Family-state ideologues justify affective relations by calling it a human instinct. However, what they take as “instinctive” behavior takes place only when acted out intentionally by members of a family. On the other hand, opponents find in “familial harmony (or affection)” their ideology's point of contact with reality.
Family-state ideologues and socialists were in competing camps, but they were exactly alike in terms of their “contribution” to the creation of the notion of exclusive intimacy. We find that the dual structure formed from the ideologies of “conservative” family-state ideologues and “reformative” socialists provided a flexibility that maintained the duality of “ie” and “katei” of the Japanese family in different situations.
It is perhaps difficult for us to imagine harmony and affection without oppression, at least in the framework of modern family.

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In this paper, I examine the concepts of primitive, modern and contemporary law in Emile Durkheim's legal theory with reference to Jean Carbonnier's concept of internormative relationships. According to Durkheim, laws including religious taboos in early societies are almost exclusively of penal and repressive nature. On the other hand, in modern society, laws are no longer repressive in nature. In addition, regulation of modern laws also became abstract. Therefore, the modern law, which Durkheim classified as restitutory law, seems to be as if it were permitting consensual contract by free will. However, the regression of repressive law in modern society does not result in an absence of the social norms which regulate the consensual contract, but the development of respect for the dignity of human person based on the morals of humanity. According to Carbonnier, the law limits itself to allotting its task to non-legal social norms which are not well crystallized, like morals. The law developing in contemporary society is said to be an inappropriate regulation in a relatively closed and automatized system, which prevents voluntary communication and consensus by citizens. But originally, the development of the law in present day society is caused and promoted by the decay of morals, which regulated consensual contract by citizens. Nowadays, conflicts occur more and more in consensual contract due to the moral decay in our daily life. Hence, regulation of present laws needs to be more concrete to restore and reconstruct the lost moral order. This is the cause of the development of law in present society. The simultaneous occurrence of the decline of morals and the development of restitutory law illustrates the paradoxical principle that society has to first fall ill in order to become healthy.

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Collective action theory has demonstrated an irrefutable effectiveness in rebuttingthe, main thesis of class theory that those who share common interests tend to act collectively as a class. On the other hand, it overlooks the point that stratified group formation affects and changes its members' consciousness and behavior to a great extent. From this perspective of sociology, this paper tries to explicate the significance of “reification-symbolization” phenomenon seen in group category formation, which in turn binds and canalizes class members' collective action and the subsequent group formation.
With this in mind, I will argue, first, that Olson's free-rider can be a free-rider only when he/she is automatically counted as a beneficiary on the ground that he/she has the attributes of a group member. Next, the class-relevance of the collective good/bad will be explored and the “reification” problem examined in relation to the “collective identity” problem posed by C. Offe. Thirdly, the imaginary identification of a member with the group as a whole is accomplished through reified group category formation, although this identification will break down just as frontrunners begin to contribute to the collective good.

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In stratification research, the question of how to evaluate the social status of women remains controversial. The problem is that there is no indicator to differentiate between employed and unemployed women. There are two alternative solutions to this problem : the first would be to modify the social status model, keeping the hierarchy of paid occupation as a criterion of evaluation, while the second would be to develop a new scale that includes unpaid activities. However, with respect to the issue of “gender inequality, ” insofar as “gender inequality” is based on liberalism, the unit of social status must necessarily be the individual. Further, the variable for occupational status is one with an inseparable connection to liberal ethics, and stratification research remains dependent on the empirical validity thereof. These political aspects imply that stratification research concerning inequality is restricted to the sphere of the employed. Thus, gender inequality should be considered in the light of its exclusion and alienation from that.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze images of men presented in the traditional women's periodical Fujin Koron. This analysis is a first step toward determining common images of men in postwar Japan. The result shows that two streams of male images appeared in the 1950's : the weak male image associated with “salarymen, ” who were increasing in number at the time; and the dependent male (amaeru otoko) image that replaced the strong male image, which was commonplace under the patriarchal Ie system. These two streams of discourse overlapped with each other repeatedly during the era of high economic growth. These male images shared a pattern based on gender roles in private spaces : the metaphor of Mother-Child. The male seeks indulgence and the woman gives care, thus emphasizing the primacy of work for men. This set of male images, “working man” and “childish man, ” is at odds with the discourses of “family man” that emerged in the 1960's.
My conclusion is as follows. First, the behavioral pattern of male “Amae” was formed as a role : the “amae role.” Second, the male “amae role” justified the female “caring role.” Third, the “amae role” was justified by the male “working role.” Fourth, the negative connotation of “family man” reinforced the positive meaning of male “amae role” and “working role.”

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Recently, it has been discussed again whether the progress of welfare society presents more advantages than disadvantages. At the same time, however, the question of reconstruction of the welfare state has to be raised. This paper, as a case study of a residential community, discusses the role and task of local administration in the change of welfare conditions. The public residential complex that houses the community is constructed as a model of welfare-society and includes households that include the aged and the handicapped as members. Trouble occurred involving a handicapped member, which made her isolated in the community. An ombudsman institution of the local government played a part in settling the trouble. Through reviewing the pros and cons, this paper examines the function of the system, clarifying the roles asked of the administration in the development of welfare society, and discusses the sociological task accompanying such issues.

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This article discusses the sponsorship by a beer manufacturer of a hip-hop club event. Hip-hop culture is on the one hand defined in terms of its sub-cultural practices. On the other hand, it has a commercial aspect, of which the record industry is a platform. This propensity is common to all other types of popular music culture, including rock. In existing literature, the commercial aspect of popular music was understood to be viable only because of the existence of record industry. However, the, commercial aspect of popular music in marketing operations has not been paid adequate attention, despite the fact that it is not a rare phenomenon. Hence my raising the example of the beer maker's sponsorship of a hip-hop club event. First, I point out that the beer manufacturer not only uses hip-hop culture according to its business plans, but also is conscious of the cultural authenticity of hip-hop culture. Second, I discuss how organizers go about running the event taking into consideration the thinking of the beer industry. Finally, I conclude that the mediating platform for hip-hop culture is not limited to the record industry but is open to other-such as the manufacturing-industry as well.

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