The purpose of this essay is to reveal the features of drug addiction recovery in Japan based on the author's own experience with addiction and peer-support activities. It also presents the current situation in which the contemporary drug policies and the practical professional treatments for addiction have appropriated fruitful results of the addicts' self-help activities. In the 1960s and 1970s, deviant activities were often interpreted to be caused by social environments. However, their causes have been thought to be responsible for offenders today. The peersupport activities in the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Centers（DARC）that were first established in Tokyo in 1985 were developed against the backdrop of the social climate changes with regard to deviance. The recovery program in DARC was effectively developed based on the idea that the very person who has the liberty of using drugs could also recover from drug addiction. This is because the recovery needs the addict's autonomy in order for it to be successful. Such autonomy develops through two phases―integration and differentiation―which occur in the process of the recovery. However, there has been a recent amendment of the law to control drug offenses to go along with the compulsory enforcement of the prevention programs. These factors have often been recognized as desirable measures for recovery from addiction, although they are likely to damage the essence of recovery and seize the productive results of addicts' self-help activities.

“Sex Work Studies” is a relatively new research area which became defined in the 2000s. It was built on exchanges concerning prostitution as well as the effect of the sex workers' rights movement. Sex Work Studies is also a praxis which takes minorities' point of view to improve global inequalities. This paper is based on my experience as a researcher for whom these aspects of Sex Work Studies resonate. It examines Tojisha（the marginalised）Participatory Action Research as an essential method for this area, considering its importance, difficulties and dilemma. The dilemma is an inevitable one faced by marginalised populations; Participatory Action Research conducted by the marginalised aims to change their situations and the backbone structure but it also makes it difficult to achieve that aim precisely because the actor and the subject area are marginalised. The evident inequality between the marginalised and institutional researchers and the complications of participants' consent within this relationship are discussed as practical issues. Finally, the paper reaffirms the meaning of the method in Sex Work Studies as having an inherent capacity to recognise and challenge its difficulties. It thereby demonstrates the potential of Tojisha Participatory Action Research to deepen the discussion of wider research ethics and gradually shift the status quo through making concrete suggestions to refine research systems and practices to solve the dilemma.

In this essay I discuss my experiences during 23 years in the sex worker movement in Japan. I share the difficulties I faced and explain today's needs in this direction. The sex worker movement, which spread globally in the 1980s because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, reached Japan in the 1990s, and the Sex Worker and Sexual Health（SWASH）group was established in 1999 to reform the social environment for sex workers. The trajectory of SWASH activities until today reveals four massive walls obstructing this movement and its every activity: First, the wall that hinders our efforts to promote social and scientific research on sex work; second, the wall that forces us to play fixed roles with rigid perspectives, typically as victims of a patriarchal system posited by academics and/or politicians; third, the wall that blinds people to the facts about sex work; and fourth, the wall created by the lack of a vocabulary suited to expressing personal experiences. Braving such difficulties, the sex worker movement in Japan has been organized under the slogan “sex work is work,” in consideration of the fact that sex workers may include a wide variety of people including several types of minorities. This slogan serves as a clarion call in our struggle against oppression in Japanese society. The need of the hour is not to have spokespeople who more often than not appropriate our experiences but honest translators of our bare words.

This essay analyzes the history of Japanese money-lending regulations from the emergence of consumer finance companies in the late 1970s to the enactment of the Money Lenders Law of 2006, which imposed powerful regulations on lenders. The documents clearly show that the dynamic social movement led by legal professionals and debtors working together in a mutually complementary manner was a driving force in historical change.

In the late 1970s, 15 lawyers formed an association to correct an overwhelming gap in bargaining power between lenders and borrowers. They represented the overindebted borrowers, negotiated with and took legal action against the lenders, witnessed first-hand the unreasonable suffering of the debtors and their families, and concluded that the debtors were victims of unfair and unjust lending and collecting practices. Legal professionals, researchers, and concerned citizens organized a group, and credit victims formed groups in major cities with the help of legal professionals. These groups formed a coalition and pressed for stricter regulations, and nearly three decades later, the Money Lenders Law of 2006 was enacted.

Consequently, from FY 2006 to 2019, the number of debtors indebted to five or more lenders dropped by 94.4％; personal bankruptcies dropped by 50.7％; and the loan balance of the money lenders decreased by 42.2％. Illegal lending also fell sharply, and the total amount of money lent or extorted by loan sharks decreased by 77.9％ from 2007 to 2019.

Over the past decade, Japanese money lenders have expanded their business to other Asian countries, and major banks that are not regulated by the 2006 law have become the leading market players in Japan. It is more than worthwhile to revisit this unique history of social actions so that society can cope with these changes in Japan and other countries.

In this study, we focus on the collaborative, male cross-dressing community events that have been irregularly held since 2016 in Shinsekai, Osaka. From the interviews with people involved in this particular series of activities, we draw out the process of realizing these events and the self-narratives of the cross-dressers （josōsha）. Then, we consider how the different meanings of male cross-dressing are reconstructed.

First, these collaborative events were realized through shared interests and rational judgments. This connection was between josōsha, who wanted to increase the enjoyment associated with their solidarity, and those with commercial interests, who wanted to increase sales from a long-term perspective. Second, josōsha presented their transitioning process as a reversible one which can be switched between male and female; moreover, it can be an optimistic activity which can be easily accomplished.

These results indicate that the series of events were supported by the coexistence of the reconstruction of deviation as a recreational and economic activity. Additionally, the conversion of deviation to recreation was made possible by the differentiation from the fixed transitioning way. Josōsha has either tended to be marginalized by its medicalization or discriminated against by its criminalization. However, the abovementioned findings raise a new perspective which help to comprehend it.

This paper examines the tojisha activities of hikikomori, who have become increasingly active socially in recent years. First, we examine the activities of hikikomori as a social movement of minorities（Section 2）. Based on the fact that the focus of research shifts from the “receiver” of support to the “bearer” of the activity（Section 2.1）, we confirmed that the collective activity of hikikomori is a social movement oriented toward society（Section 2.2）, and we considered a personal strategy（ “impression management,” “compensation effort,” “deprivation of others” ）and a collective strategy（ “regaining self-value” ）as a way of proving the self-worth of hikikomori（Section 2.3）.

Next, while examining the narratives of hikikomori activists, we considered that the state of discourse supporting the activities of the parties changed from selfreform in the 2000s（Section 3.1）to institutional change in the 2010s（Section 3.2）. Then, the rise of parties transmission to convey the real image of hikikomori （Section 4.1）, shift to an interactive event to achieve the transformation of the hikikomori image through a dialogue（Section 4.2）, and network formation by connecting related activities（Section 4.3）, we discussed the process of expanding the activities of the concerned parties as a social movement to regain self-value. In this paper, it was made clear that the activities involved in hikikomori have an aspect of a social movement, which changes the image of the former deviation of hikikomori, as well as the values of existing society.

Using the postwar magazine Shufu no tomo（Housewife's Friend）as a primary source, this paper examines how the “tradition” of local cuisine/food has been emphasized, and how housewives have been designated as the keepers of this “tradition.” In my paper, “tradition” consists of “continuity,” i.e., continued since ancient times, and “goodness,” i.e., valued as good. An analysis of these narratives was carried out on articles published through 1979.

The results of this study are as follows:（1）By the mid-1960s, articles suggested innovations or improvements in local cuisine/food. At that time, the “tradition” of local cuisine/food was not emphasized;（2）Essays on the local cuisine/food choices of celebrities were published in large numbers from the mid-1950s onward, and many of these stories featured the local cuisine/food of the celebritiesʼ hometowns（ “goodness” ）;（3）Since the mid-1960s, “Ofukuro no Aji” has been acclaimed. “Ofukuro no Aji” and local cuisine/food have long been considered to be handed down（ “continuity” ）by women passing on traditions to other women-this was generalized to be their role in maintaining that continuity; （4）Housewives were given new responsibilities; this contributed to the prevention of gender order from changing.

In an effort to clarify the mechanisms that generate gender inequality in employment, increasing attention has been paid to organizational-level causes. Previous research has examined the effects of firm-level policies and power structures and delineated the mechanisms by which they affect gender inequality in an organization. This study adds a new perspective by investigating how the effects of these firm-level causes are dependent on changes in the organizational environment. Specifically, this study examines potential changes in the effects of major Japanese firms' policies and power structures with regard to their business conditions by analyzing gender inequality in their hiring practices.

The results demonstrate that the effects of some organizational-level causes are dependent on the firms' business conditions. Typically, firm-level work-family policies do not affect the female proportion of new hires. However, in times of poor corporate performance, firms with generous work-family policies tend to hire fewer women than those without such policies. On the other hand, the proportion of existing female managers has a positive effect on the proportion of new female hires. Moreover, this effect is basically independent of corporate performance. In conclusion, this study elaborates on the mechanisms by which organizational-level causes increase or decrease gender inequality in employment because it reveals the complex relationships between firm-level policies, power structures, and business conditions.