Many people in contemporary Japan face themselves with the question "Who am I?". One of the social values that should be respected in modern society is the individual's autonomy and following this tendency, quite ironically, the individuals constantly need to reaffirm their self-identity. An example of this tendency is the recent popularization of the word "jibun-sagashi" ("seeking the self"), which represents the conflict of individuals with regard to their self-identity.
The craving for self-identity induced people, and especially the young generation, to discover backpacking. Identity is formed in the process of differentiation from the Other, and the "adventurous drift," wherein one experiences various cultures for long periods of time, can be seen as a social practice that constructs identity. In the field of sociology of tourism, research on backpacking has showed repeatedly that one's identity can be transformed in the course of an adventurous experience in backpacking.
However, the environment in which backpacking exists undergoes crucial changes. As the flooding of the market with backpacker's manuals has proved, the adventure is being commodified and now bears the characteristics of mass tourism. This paper introduces a case study of Japanese backpackers traveling in Asia. It explores the various cultural and social meanings embedded in what has been continuously represented as an "adventurous travel", or backpacking, and analyzes the conditions under which this phenomenon is re-localized in contemporary society.

View full abstract

This paper argues that the status of language in Japanese discourse enables the development of an autopoietic system of education. The status of language before the 1920s was compelled by a social order founded on the inner world. This allowed educators to make decisions without obtaining consent from students, resulting in the failure to foster interaction between teachers and students. The status of language since the 1920s, however, has become something that needs to be "interpreted". This has caused people to interpret the inner world through language, thus making them reflect on themselves on a micro level, and thereby fostering interaction between teachers and students on a macro level. This reflection at the micro level has enabled education to institutionalize the self-observation of one's inner world, while the interaction at the macro level has enabled education to become a system in the Luhmannian sense. This paper researches the discourse networks of language (a considerable amount of research, especially in philosophy and literature studies, has been done on this). It also argues for the cultural and sociological meanings of the status of language in education.

View full abstract

The birth of a first child is a turning point in the life of an employed woman. A wife's employment is the foundation of her own economic independency and an important factor in the realization of her equality with her husband. It also has a strong relationship with issues of gender arrangement at the macro level.
In this paper, the process of decision-making with regard to whether mothers should continue working after giving birth is analyzed through interviews with couples expecting their first babies soon.
The framework uses three conceptions of power presented by Komter.
The result reveals that "manifest power" does not work. Instead, "latent power" and "invisible power" work with factors at the macro level.
As a factor of "invisible power," there is the priority of rationalistic ideas as well as gender ideology. The complementary operation of these factors is successful in enabling wives to withdraw "smoothly" from the labor market.
These findings require rethinking the power conceptions proposed by Komter. The first point is that "latent power" may also be exercised by collectives and institutions. The second is that other factors of rationalistic ideas besides gender ideology exert an influence on "invisible power."

View full abstract

Of the estimated 16.2 million diabetic patients in Japan, most have no symptoms in the earlier stages of their disease; these symptoms are primarily indicated by high blood glucose levels. Modern medicine problematizes the fact that many such patients "leave" their diseased condition untreated or "discontinue" their treatment program midway. On the other hand, some patients agree to undergo treatment and engage in coping behaviors despite having no visible symptoms. This paper examines interviews with incipient diabetic patients in a hospital diabetic education course in order to show how these patients' blood glucose levels pathologize their self-perceptions.
This diabetic education course instructs patients to monitor their blood glucose levels for self-control, which is considered as an autonomous and independent behavior. However, since their self-evaluation is based on their blood levels, they evaluate themselves based on the criteria of modern medicine. In this sense, the blood glucose level keeps "at risk" patients with little intention of seeking treatment within the domain of the medical profession. At the same time, if these patients can learn to access the indices directly without any symbolic interpretations of the physicians, they may be freed from their physical/mental burdens.

View full abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in men who compete for pink-collar jobs. In particular, there has been an increase in the number of males who engage in care work such as nursing, caregiving, and child care. This phenomenon can be interpreted as a change in the gender regime, especially when it is observed in comparison to women who compete in occupations that are dominated by men. However, very few influential studies in the field of women's studies have focused on pink-collar males. This is also the case in men's studies, which have mostly focused on "masculinity." The purpose of this investigation was to examine pink-collar men in Japan, especially from the perspective of "masculinization of care work." Many narratives demonstrate that pink-collar men are sometimes considered as "tokens," because they are a minority. However, their position is not simply symmetrical to that of women who are minorities in male-dominated occupations. In a sort of irony, pink-collar men reflect the gender order of modem society and care work, and vice versa.

View full abstract