Japanese Sociological Review
Online ISSN : 1884-2755
Print ISSN : 0021-5414
ISSN-L : 0021-5414
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Volume 70, Issue 2
Displaying 1-22 of 22 articles from this issue
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Articles
  • Corporate Choice and National Choice for Highly Skilled Foreign Workers
    How Do Highly Skilled Foreign Workers in Japan Choose Japanese Companies?
    Kaoru SONODA
    2019 Volume 70 Issue 2 Pages 91-108
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: November 13, 2020
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.70.91
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This study describes the subjective careers of highly skilled foreign workers employed by traditional Japanese companies, to shed light on the factors that create conflicts between foreign workers and companies. Currently, many foreigners work in large Japanese companies that maintain traditional Japanese employment systems. However, most of these foreign workers leave such companies after a few years. This has been identified as a problem by some researchers for Japanese companies desiring long-term commitment from their workers. Many studies focusing on the problem propose career development to help Japanese companies retain foreign workers. However, these studies overlook the reason foreign workers choose Japanese companies despite the fit was not being a good one. This study introduces the concepts of “national choice” and “corporate choice” to clearly explain their decision-making process of such career choices.
    This article, based on qualitative interviews with 20 foreign workers in large Japanese companies, confirms that few foreign workers preferred their position at their respective companies even when they first chose it. Most of them decided to stay and work in Japan as a national choice―for example, to avoid drifting apart from their partner, or because of disadvantages in the labor markets of their home country or other countries. Others made a corporate choice, selecting the most appropriate company among a variety of Japanese companies because they had lost earlier opportunities to work for foreign companies. This is why foreigners who were not necessarily interested in Japanese companies decided to work in Japan and for a Japanese company. These results suggest that the unavoidable circumstances that force foreigners to work in Japan tend to cause conflicts between foreign workers and Japanese companies.
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  • Daily Activity during a Transgender Person’s Gender Change
    A Narrative of a Transwoman’s School Experience
    Itsuki DOHI
    2019 Volume 70 Issue 2 Pages 109-127
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: November 13, 2020
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.70.109
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    The purpose of this paper is to explore the process a transgender individual goes through in everyday life during their gender change.
    To date, transgender studies have focused on transgender people and clarified the concepts of gender dysphoria and self-recognition. In contrast, this paper examines how the gender change of a transgender person can be accomplished through their daily activities, with others’ approval. It also focuses on changes in the way gender issues are handled by others and/or by the group to which one belongs in the classroom when the person changes their appearance and behavior, analyzing it through the narrative of the school experience of a transwoman who legally transitioned later.
    There are several key findings from this research. First, the activity of a transgender individual changing their appearance and behavior is the practice of changing their gender position relative to other girls and boys in the classroom. Second, the handling of gender can vary depending on how they cross and/or reset gender boundaries, with others’ approval of such changes. Third, the power leading to one’s assigned gender at birth being the guiding authority in the classroom affects the flexibility of not only the transgender person’s positioning relative to others, but also the bonds between their gender category, their assigned gender at birth, and their gender boundary.
    In conclusion, it is clear that gender change is an activity that can be managed in daily life through the repeated interaction between crossing and/or resetting one’s gender boundary and gaining others’ approval, as the transgender person is also changing their gender position relative to others.
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  • Equilibration as a Modern Government Strategy
    Formation of the Population Equation and Its Introduction into Policy Theory in Japan
    Karahari YAMADA
    2019 Volume 70 Issue 2 Pages 128-145
    Published: 2019
    Released on J-STAGE: November 13, 2020
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.4057/jsr.70.128
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper aims to extract the norm that regulates population policy in contemporary Japanese society and to examine its formation process in relation to political power. Specifically, with reference to Michel Foucault’s study of “governmentality,” we have focused on the norm of population policy based on the modern population theory, which has not been discussed in previous studies. Recently, the idea that population problems can occur through the development of an imbalance between population and other elements has become widespread in the field of population policy. It appears that the aim of maintaining or restoring balance is the norm to guide population policy. In this paper, we will call this norm “equilibration.”
    “Equilibration” as an art of government developed through discussions over excess population in the wake of a civic disturbance called the Rice Riots of 1918. Itwas thought that the Rice Riots were caused by a disparity between population and food. However, in opposition to Malthusian population theory, which discussed the theme of the relationship between population and food, other population theories that focused on other elements related to population emerged. Through this socalled “Taisho to early Showa population controversy,” the “population equation” was finally established by integrating each population theory.
    In addition, a framework for the equilibration of the population equation was not only limited to abstract arguments within academic circles but was also introduced into policy theory as its theoretical foundation. As a response to the problem of social order represented by the Rice Riots, a strategy based on governmentality was introduced into the field of policy theory. This was characterized by affecting the level of the population to guide the conduct of the people, rather than oppressing them through violence and surveillance.
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