This paper focuses on the practice of cooperative cooking in two regions in Tochigi Prefecture during the first half of Japans high growth period, and reexamines the significance of "cooperation" in domestic labor by rural women. At that time, cooperative cooking spread all over the country in the context of a movement for the improvement of living conditions. This paper focuses on the independent participation of rural women in cooperative cooking—women, who were considered the target of this "improvement".
In the 1950s, women working in large-scale farms in Uziie persuaded the town office to implement the practice of cooperative cooking in order to reduce their domestic labor during the farming season. This was a progressive undertaking that realized the communal centralization of cooking. Nevertheless, cooperative cooking faded out as farmers began to use agricultural machines. As the manual labor demanded of women decreased, they began returning to their housework.
The women of Kitsuregawa, an area with a higher subsistence farming population, also began cooperative cooking. During the farming season, they engaged in cooperative cooking in order to reduce domestic labor; however, on holidays they did so because they enjoyed the process. Thus, the practice of cooperative cooking was perpetuated. Because the women continued to cooperate when performing domestic labor, they were able to temporarily escape their severe daily working conditions and connect with each other beyond their "home". Hence, cooperative cooking provided them with an opportunity to work together. As a result, they succeeded to some extent in building labor conditions and social relations that were not necessarily based on the domestic labor of segmented family units, but rather on those that cut across these units.

View full abstract

This paper attempts to answer the following question: "What type of people are likely to perceive the risk of crime victimization, and why?"
Empirical research on the fear of crime in the West, which began in the 1960s, indicates that women, old people, and lower socio-economic groups have a tendency to perceive the risk of crime. Researchers have attributed the tendency in these groups to their physical and social vulnerability. In order to find out whether we can apply the results of the research conducted in the West to Japanese society, we compare the determinants of the perceived risk of crime in Japan with those of the perceived risk of crime in the United States. This comparison is conducted by analyzing the data of General Social Surveys (GSS) and Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSS) held in 2000.
The findings reveal that in the United States, women, old people, and low-income groups are more likely to perceive the risk of crime; this perception can be attributed to their physical and social vulnerability. On the other hand, in Japan, it was found that young women, men having young children, and white-collar or highly educated women are more likely to perceive the risk of crime. However, their risk perception cannot be explained by physical and social vulnerability. This paper illustrates the unique factors underlying the perceived risk of crime in Japan: fear of sexual crime, vulnerability of the significant other, differences in the wording of GSS and JGSS, opportunities of walking alone at night, and the role of the media.

View full abstract

This paper analyzes Michel Foucault s concept of the "care of the self" (epimeleia heautou), a theoretical point of departure in Foucault's study of ancient thought, which he addressed in the 1980s. Through this analysis, I intend to prove that Foucault developed this concept from his perspective of the constitution of the individual as an "ethico-political" subject that resists political powers. For this purpose, three points need to be examined using Foucaulf's logic.
First this paper clarifies that the care of the self is considered a point of resistance to political powers, and that this concept is defined as a practice of transformation in order to ensure access to the truth, that is, as a practice of "spirituality".
Second, this paper explores the role of the "other" in the care of the self. The other functions in the form of the "relationship of the self to the self." This other has two phases: the phase of a hēgemōn (a guide to the guided) and the phase of an object of care in the relation between the care of the self and the care of the others. Through my analyses, I point out the ethico-political functions in the relation between the self and the other.
Finally, this paper specifies that the care of the self enables the individual to "tell the truth" (parrhesia). Foucault dealt with the concept of parrhesia in his last years; this concept is characterized by an ēthos of anti-flattery that involves certain risks.
By examining these three points, I would like to demonstrate that the care of the self is conceptualized from an ethico-political viewpoint.

View full abstract

The number of foreigners living in Japan has been increasing since the end of World War II; it reached 2.085 million in 2006, constituting 1.63% of the total population of Japan. Many sociologists have shown interest in the recent growth of the number of foreigners; however, few studies analyze the formation of ethnic communities from a statistical and a cross-regional viewpoint. Using a multiple regression model, this study aims to analyze the contribution of an ethnic network to the growth of co-ethnics in all the municipalities in Japan. In addition, the study aims to assess the impact of the period of time for which these foreigners have been living in Japan. It is observed that an ethnic network has a positive effect on the growth of co-ethnics in the same municipality. However, this trend is strongly related to the Japanese visa system. Foreigners are strictly screened at the border; hence, an ethnic network is activated only when people hold valid visas. Thus it is shown that an ethnic network is not the general path followed by foreigners settling in Japan.

View full abstract

In this study, the process of ability formation from childhood to adulthood was examined using a sociometric approach. Honda (2005) indicated that family communication during childhood is the most significant predictor of the formation of abilities such as motivation, social skills, temperament, and others. A hypothetical model on the process of ability formation was innovated on the basis of theoretical or empirical literature. The model was tested using data gathered from 1,078 Japanese male working professionals aged 25-35 years. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) clearly showed that family communication does not have a very strong direct influence on ability formation as compared with the economic condition of the household and the transition process from family communication to non-family communication during childhood. This result illustrated that there are other ways through which we can boost human ability, apart from promoting family communication during childhood. Finally, a means of both mitigating the inequality in human ability formation and cooling down the "level of family education commitment" discourse was suggested.

View full abstract

This study examines how professionals adapt to an institutional change. We focus on the shift of the National Research Institute of Science and Technology from a state-run to an independent administrative agency. The conventional theory is that professionals do not depend on organizations as they have a strong commitment to their occupations. However, we observed a different tendency in an institutional change. The interviews revealed that researchers as well as clerks experienced uneasiness and dissatisfaction. When we analyzed the degree of their uneasiness in relation to the type of work performed and the position held in the organization, it was found that full-time researchers felt the greatest uneasiness with regard to this organizational shift while temporary clerks were anxious about losing their jobs. This paper explains the above phenomenon by using concepts such as "relative deprivation", "the conflict between the old institution and the new institution", and "the dismantling of the researcher's community". The self-subsistence of a person depends on social norms. Therefore, we conclude that increased uneasiness is the result of a perceived decline in a person's superiority. In addition, because each professional works in a specific field, it was difficult for them to unite against the control of the managers and directors. We conclude that this phenomenon is a professional's anomie in a institutional change.

View full abstract

Through an analysis of the headscarf controversy (Kopftuchstreit), this paper seeks to clarify an aspect of an unstable normative self-understanding in contemporary Germany. The headscarf dispute in Germany relates to the question of whether or not teachers at public schools should be prohibited from wearing a scarf during teaching hours. This dispute has extended to the entire public sphere ever since the judgment passed by the Federal Constitutional Court in September 2003. The dispute goes well beyond a mere opposition between pro-prohibition and anti-prohibition groups. However, it develops under the common selfunderstanding that Germany is a neutral state on matters of religion and worldview (Weltanschauung) but on the other hand a free and democratic society. Historical significance has been attached to this understanding because it closely relates to a conquest of National Socialism. It is variously interpreted in the controversy. In this context, we find that the dispute reflects a conflict in German postwar society (Nachkriegsgesellschaft). The present dispute has not come to an end, and hence, its outcome is not clear. However, we can safely state that the outcome will by no means be a trivial matter for Germany.

View full abstract

Local traditional cultures and their agents in the modern era were objectified when outsiders intervened and carried over their ideologies and images as cultural resources. Although local agents were forced to submit to the rules constructed by outsiders, they were also able to appropriate those rules for their own benefit
There has been considerable debate over the practices of local traditional cultures. However, these debates have not been able to sufficiently grasp the essence of the practices that developed in local areas and shaped the people's fundamental standpoints. In this paper, I will discuss this issue while focusing on the case of the transmission of Take Kagura in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture.
The core of the practice of Take Kagura is what I define as the "play of the present," which has developed from elements from the past and local religious rituals. The play of the present belongs to the realm of feeling as internal unification. It remains detached from unanticipated changes instigated by third parties, such as the transformation of the Kagura into a cultural heritage or a resource for tourism. While standing in the play of the present, players reject and appropriate the meaning of "cultural heritage" and "tourism" constructed by outsiders.

View full abstract

The purpose of this article is to reconstitute a constructionist approach to nationalism.
It has often been said that there is a bifurcation between the political and methodological forms of constructionism. On the one hand, Benedict Andersons works have been regarded as a reflection of political constructionism by virtue of his oft-quoted but much travestied dictum that the nation is an imagined community; on the other hand, he focuses on the question of death, namely, "What makes nationalism generate such colossal sacrifice?" The problem of death transcends the scope of constructionism because it is not limited to the nation's constructed nature, but to its existence, which comprises emotional experiences.
In addition to constructionism, this article addresses methodological construction ism by making three suggestions. First, Anderson's work can be regarded as being constructionist, not because it claims that the nation is constructed but because its arguments are only based on observable discourses. Second, the constructionist approach to nationalism must focus on the discourse of nationalism that attempts to capture irrational phenomena such as death or attachment. Third, the contradiction between the political and the methodological emerges out of an irrational core that cannot be explained by the discourse of nationalism.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the critical potentiality of Adorno's concept of "tradition". Adorno, a leading figure in critical social theory, is often criticized for his cultural elitism. Focusing on Adorno's notion of tradition, I will analyze the relation between the two aspects of his social thought—radical critique of society and cultural conservatism.
According to Adorno, "identity thinking" is the predominant mode of thinking in modern society. In this mode, the "subject" controls the "others" and reifies them through "instrumental reason". Adorno claims that the modern form of violence stems from this mastery of the subject and "reason" over the "object" and "experience". Thus, Adorno insists that the object as a form of "non-identity thinking" should have priority over the subject. In negative dialectics, Adorno terms this attitude "the priority of the object".
Adorno argues that tradition is a form of the concept of the object For the subject, the "past" is given and uncontrollable. "Subjective reason," which is confronted with the past through tradition, perceives its own limit and recovers the moment of reflection. Tradition is "non-identifiable" for the "identical reason".
Adorno distinguishes between tradition and "traditionalism". He states that the multiple and complex character of tradition is ignored in traditionalism. Therefore, the tradition advocated by traditionalism has already been simplified and reified by the identical reason. Adorno criticizes traditionalism as one form of "modernized reason".
In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno asserts that "All reification is a forgetting". From this viewpoint Adorno insists on the possibility of using the concept of tradition to criticize social "identity".

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract