From the 1960s onwards, Japan's rapid economic growth coincided with remarkably low youth unemployment. However, since the 1990s the ease with which young people have historically moved from education to employment has ended, and unemployment is now a real and growing problem. This book examines how the state, experts, the media as well as youth workers, have responded to the troubling rise of youth joblessness in 21st century Japan.
How to explain juvenile delinquent behaviour in the Japan of the nineties? "Juvenile Delinquency in Japan" for the first time looks comprehensively into the phenomenon.
In Mobilizing Japanese Youth, Christopher Gerteis examines how non-state institutions in Japan—left-wing radicals and right-wing activists—attempted to mold the political consciousness of the nation's first postwar generation, which by the late 1960s were the demographic majority of voting-age adults. Gerteis argues that socially constructed aspects of class and gender preconfigured the forms of political rhetoric and social organization that both the far-right and far-left deployed to mobilize postwar, further exacerbating the levels of social and political alienation expressed by young blue- and pink- collar working men and women well into the 1970s, illustrated by high-profile acts of political violence committed by young Japanese in this era. As Gerteis shows, Japanese youth were profoundly influenced by a transnational flow of ideas and people that constituted a unique historical convergence of pan-Asianism, Mao-ism, black nationalism, anti-imperialism, anticommunism, neo-fascism, and ultra-nationalism. Mobilizing Japanese Youth carefully unpacks their formative experiences and the social, cultural, and political challenges to both the hegemonic culture and the authority of the Japanese state that engulfed them. The 1950s-style mass-mobilization efforts orchestrated by organized labor could not capture their political imagination in the way that more extreme ideologies could. By focusing on how far-right and far-left organizations attempted to reach-out to young radicals, especially those of working-class origins, this book offers a new understanding of successive waves of youth radicalism since 1960.
Perversion and modern Japan focuses on the psychoanalytic approach to the study of modern Japan. Using a wide range of psychoanalytic approaches the contributors to this book have brought together chapters on everything from the Ajase complex to underpants, from fascist modernism in literature to internet-based suicide pacts.
Foreign interpretations of Japan hinge, in large measure, on the notion of a simple homogeneous culture in which individuality is subsumed in collective enterprise. Such interpretations posit a society organized with incredible efficiency for economic superperformance, a society to be, at once, feared and emulated. In this volume, Kumiko Miyanaga argues that the simplistic view of monolithic collectivity is misleading, and that Japan is undergoing a period of social transformation in which traditional attitudes toward collectivism and individualism are shifting in favor of the latter.Miyanaga finds that individualism is flourishing most significantly in the area of entrepreneurship, thus invigorating an already vital Japan. The author begins with a carefully nuanced analysis of the traditional and contemporary relationship between individual and collective attitudes. Historically, individualism has been a quiet, peripheral subculture, a refuge for society's dropouts, expressing itself chiefly in religion and art, and influencing little in the way of social change.With the acceleration of economic and technological growth since the 1960s, some individualists on the periphery of the Japanese economy have gained a position strong enough to enable them to interact with the mainstream without losing their independence. In such areas as the fashion industry, in high technology, and in venture-capital firms, individualists who would never "make it" with Hitachi or Toyota suddenly find themselves with very lucrative economic opportunities.Miyanaga contends that there is now a mutual influence between the peripheral and mainstream sectors. As enterprises on the outskirts of the economy grow larger and more successful, they feel the pull of the old ideology, and, conversely, mainstream organizations have discovered that they need the "creative edge" that comes from the periphery. Just as the small Japanese entrepreneur dreams, at least occasionally, of being a Toyota, large corporations have come to realize the importance of individualism. This book offers an original and distinctive contribution to a very important debate over the future of the Japanese economy. It is a work of great fascination for social scientists, economists, and those seeking a social perspective on Japanese culture.
The life stage of adolescence now occurs in most corners of the world, but it takes different forms in different regions. Peers, with such a central role in Western adolescence, play a comparatively minor role in the lives of Arabic and South Asian adolescents. Emotional turmoil and individuation from family occur in some societies but not others. Adolescent sexual revolutions are sweeping through Japan and Latin America. In this 2002 book, scholars from eight regions of the world describe the distinct nature of adolescence in their regions. They draw on research to address standard topics regarding this age - family and peer relationships, schooling, preparation for work, physical and mental health - and show how these have a different cast across societies. As a whole, the book depicts how rapid global change is dramatically altering the experience of the adolescent transition, creating opportunities and challenges for adolescents, parents, teachers, and concerned others.
This volume consists of 19 chapters that reflect the titular theme - Voiced and Voiceless in Asia - from a variety of angles, making use of diverse scholarly approaches and disciplines, while focusing specifically on China, India, Japan, and Taiwan. The chapters are broadly divided into two parts: (1) Politics and Society, and (2) Arts and Literature, although the texts included in the second part also deal with social themes. In addition to historical topics, such as Japanese colonialism or Chinese agricultural reforms in the 1950s, the volume also addresses current issues, including restrictive Chinese policies in Xinjiang, Japanese activist movements against gender-based violence and discrimination, or the problems of migrant laborers in India and performing arts in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, it provides insight into satirical woodblock prints from the Boshin War period or works of literature produced in Japanese leprosariums in the first half of the 20th century, as well as into selected topics in contemporary Chinese, Japanese, and Sinophone Tibetan literature. Collectively, the chapters comprised in this volume narrate the multifaceted relationship between 'voice' and 'power,' thus highlighting the fact that the question of 'voice' is closely intertwined with a variety of social, political, and cultural issues.
Considering the meanings of activism by and for children and young people in the twenty-first century, this edited collection is a valuable resource for scholars, educators and practitioners interested in the intersections of childhood and youth studies, activism and movements for social change.
An exploration of the dark side to Japanese literature and Japanese society. A wide range of fantasists form the basis for a ground breaking analysis of the fantastic.
Introduction : empires and indigenous peoples, global transformation and the limits of international society -- From wet diplomacy to scorched earth : the Taiwan expedition, the Guardline and the Wushe rebellion -- The long durée and the short circuit : gender, language and territory in the making of indigenous Taiwan -- Tangled up in red : textiles, trading posts and ethnic bifurcation in Taiwan -- The geobodies within a geobody : the visual economy of race-making and indigeneity
