2025 Volume 37 Issue 2 Pages 251-269
I have been conducting historical sociological research on late modern Japan, which is oriented toward wholeness, paying attention to the multidimensional linkage of “state,” “economy,” and “society. The 2000s have been called the “Zero Age,” which coincides with the rise of “subculture” studies, and the rise of a distinctive younger generation. This paper focuses on the “zero period” and the reasons for the rise of young scholars characteristic of this period, while attempting a holistic historical sociology that pays attention to the multidimensional linkage between “state,” “economy,” and “society. In conclusion, the destabilization of Japan’s diplomacy and security and the increase in the working poor due to “structural reform” can be linked to people’s “sense of survival,” but more than that, changes in the information environment (architecture) have also been linked to “gaming” and “survival,” leading to short-sighted and myopic (self) perceptions, which in turn have led to the current state of young debates in which performance is required. Compared to previous structural and wholeness-oriented historical sociological studies, it is possible to situate the growing influence of the discourse (institutions) of the information environment (architecture) in a partial but systematic way, as much as the institutional and discursive influence of the “state” and “economy”.
