Merton's Scheme Applied to Japanese Youth Problems

Abstract

Youth problems are often confused by Japanese adults with student problems, because the most dominant among the youths are students.
Japanese youths, the dominant portion of which are students, are at a glance homogeneous beings, long haired, wearing G-pants, and sometimes several books under their arms. But the fact is that they are rather heterogeneous than being homogeneous.
To analyze the “deviant behaviours” and complicated heterogeneity of Japanese youths systematically, it might be convenient to adopt as working hypothesis the scheme which was established by Merton decades ago and quoted in this paper as Tab. 1.
But Japanese youths are too heterogeneous to be adequately investigated so long as the scheme is applied by rote. So the author modified Tab. 1 for Tab. 2. The fundamental standpoint of modification is as follows.
Merton clarified the relation between deviant behaviours and reference groups. That is, the“rebellion” from a certain standpoint of a certain group is, according to him, nothing but the conformity viewed from another standpoint of another group. ( on Tab. 1 and 2).
Indeed his explanation is reasonable, but such cases are even possible to be existing. 1. The non-conformist (or retreatist in Merton's terminology) of a certain group is not welcomed also by another group. ( on Tab. 2). 2. The non-conformist of a certain group is a partially conforming to another group. (, )
Even “conformity” is not monotonous. Conformity to a certain group means sometimes “rebellion” to another group, and sometimes not. Some conformists might be also conformists even among another group, while another somes might possible to be “innovators” or “ritualists” viewed from another group. (, , , )
In the same way, “innovation” and “ritualism” might be subdivided. (, , , ;, , , )
Thus we get to Tab. 2.Every behaviour of the youths might be classified as one of the categories on this table, assuming, e.g. a big company as “a certain group”, and anti-monopoly movement as “another group”.
Generally, the reference of a certain person depends on his way of life, and youth's way of life owes much to his parents, who are belonging to one of the several social classes. Social classes is a dependent variable of youth's reference.
Even the youths, who are at a glance homogeneous, are in fact stratificated on the basis of social class structure. Such a situation is inevitable to be reflected on their behaviours. The corresponding relations between adaptation patterns and social classes are, though not so strict ones, illustrated on Tab. 3.