In comparison to the industries related to art or culture, it is necessary that the content industry retains workers, for it demands a large number of skilled creators. The animation industry also happens to be a labor-intensive industry; thus, the manner in which the creators maintain orientation toward retention is critical. For retention to be sustained, it is necessary that the creators have the prospect of continuing to obtain work. In the animation industry, it is difficult to evaluate the competence of creators who are primarily recruited as project-based contractors. This makes the mutual evaluation of creators highly significant in order to retain themselves in the industry. We employed an interview research method to examine the structural conditions and the limits of informal communities, which help the creators conduct mutual evaluations.

Due to the recent technological innovations, the management workforce has become younger, making the hierarchical evaluation difficult and strengthening the importance of mutual evaluation. While the older generations built informal communities to enable the evaluation of themselves, the younger generations feel that their colleagues do not evaluate them. This difference is a result of workflow segmentation, which has converted evaluations into ambiguous and shortened broadcasting periods, thus making the younger generations eventually lose out on mutual communication opportunities.

The animation industry needs informal communities to enable workers' orientation toward retention. These analyses illustrate the structural factors that obscure the evaluation of young animators and point out the significance of research on the structural condition of communities, which underpins workers' retention in the content industry.

This study aims to describe the long-term gender gap trends in educational attainment in Japan. Educational expansion in the latter half of the 20th century has occurred unevenly among men and women. While there have been 4-year colleges or universities for men, there have been just 2-year junior colleges for women. It is following the 1980s cohort that womenʼs enrollment rate in 4-year colleges or universities rapidly increased to replace their enrolments in junior colleges. Previous studies have predicted the disappearance of the gender gap in postsecondary education. In this study, the question of gender gap is considered by itself again. We examine whether gender gap in educational attainment decreases in the postwar generation. We further examine whether gender gap remains in generations where gender-segregated educational systems converge into the single-tracked school system.

An empirical analysis shows that gender gap in all educational institutions decreases with the passing generations. The gender gap in high school entrance has reversed from male favoring to female favoring, and the gap has approximately equalized in postsecondary education. In colleges or universities, even after controlling the effect of family background and academic achievement in junior high school, the positive effect largely remained with males among the youngest cohort. This result suggests that the hidden gender tracks in Japanese educational choices or different returns in education still seem to exist. An additional analysis shows that these levels in the gender gap are affected by the family background. Trends in the decline of male favorability in education are not affected by their family background. Based on these findings regarding the persistent family background effects and the declining gender gaps, it is expected that family background, which plays a relatively more important role in educational inequality, affects the educational attainment of men and women in a similar way.

Many industrialized countries have experienced increasing wage inequality and erosion of collective bargaining systems since the 1980s. Although several studies have revealed how unions affect trends in wage inequality in western countries, little is known about their effects in Japan. This study examines whether and how unions affected trends in Japanese wage inequality for male employees between 1985 and 2015. Using data from the Social Stratification and Mobility Survey（SSM） conducted in 1985 and 2015, we conducted Recentered Influence Function（RIF） regressions on the natural logarithm of wages and an extension of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method that can be applied to various distributional measures. We found that unions compressed wage distribution in 1985, but not in 2015. Unions also contributed to the changes in wage distribution over this period, and composition effects linked to unions（the impact of de-unionization）increased wage inequality. On the other hand, the effects of unionsʼ wage structure reduced inequality at the low-end of the distribution. In 1985, union membership increased wages at the low-end and middle-end of the distribution and lowered wages at the top-end of the distribution, effectively widening the wage distribution at the lowend and equalizing the wage distribution at the top-end. However, in 2015, unions could no longer impact wages. Although this wage structure effect contributed to reducing wage inequality at the low-end, this study concluded that the impact of deunionization on increasing wage inequality was more robust than the unionsʼ wage structure effect.

This study canvasses a new perspective on the history of deaf education in Japan based on non-modernism. Using the approaches of Actor-Network Theory and Modi Essendi Theory, the study visualizes the continuity and discontinuity of deaf education with the use of deaf-mute and gestural languages in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. An analysis of a discourse related to deaf-mute and gestural languages discovered the realization process along with the translation of deafmute, starting from Confucianism, construction of an actor-network with different kinds of actors under the effects of Confucianism, to the instructional policy for common people or the apprentice system. The gestural language was defined as an actor-network, which re-visualizes that separable and internal relationships between deaf embodiment and deaf embodiment changed to their inseparable and external relevance. We take into cognizance the construction of the actor-network of diverse actors such as the deaf-mute, gestural language, reading, social systems, and Confucianism in the Tokugawa period, apart from the purification process, in which the deaf-mute and gestural languages were definitively combined, suggesting a new perspective of history of deaf education in Japan. This is to say that the westernization of deaf educational systems during the Meiji period in Japan does not necessarily imply the modernization of deaf education system in Japan.

The decreasing number of blood donors in recent years has been a critical concern. However, there are limited sociological studies on blood donation. Literature reviews show the consistent motivation for blood donation to be “my family and I might use blood products in the future.” This motive can be considered as an anticipation of reciprocity. Further, it can be assumed from this type of narrative that blood donors trust blood banks. Based on this premise, this study attempts to examine the trust blood donors place in blood banks, as well as their narratives of anticipation of reciprocity.

In their interviews, the participants described the trust they place in blood banks, blood services, specific functions of blood, and the actions of other members of the society. The participants also described their or their family membersʼ hypothetical need for blood products in case of accidents and injuries, in the treatment of diseases, during surgeries, or by imagining vague situations. Other participants shared ideas about prioritizing donors in need of blood, or described reciprocity not through blood products but through other “gifts.” Among these motives, the anticipation of accidents and injuries was often mentioned; however, in reality, the use of blood products following an accident or injury is limited. For “healthy” young or middle-aged donors, illness does not seem to be a reality, while involvement in an accident seems more realistic. Furthermore, some repeat donors did not have much knowledge about the uses of blood products. The background narrative in these cases is the strong trust in blood banks and the specific functions of blood. This study indicates that in order to increase the number of blood donors, it is important to enhance not only the anticipation of reciprocity but also the trust in blood banks.

The author of this paper an individual with severe physical disabilities who cannot speak easily. Although the author cannot use standard language, he can communicate his intentions by verbalizing “A, Ka, Sa, Ta, and Na” and can produce a doctoral thesis in collaboration with caregivers. During the writing process, the author recognized the challenge of determining whether the ideas expressed were completely his own or heavily influenced by the caregiver.

This study analyzed transcripts of the authorʼs dissertation meetings to clarify the dissertation writing process in the context of the self and others. Specifically, the author described in detail the context surrounding the “challenge of separating thoughts” that arose during discussions between two individuals and consider the nature of the issues that arose from this challenge.

This survey found that during the process in which the writer conveyed the contents of the abstract and the caregiver recorded it, the steps consisted of: (1) occurrence of the question, (2) sharing of recognition through discussion, (3) clarification of the claim, and (4) determination of the claim. It became clear that the “caregiver who participated verbally” was expected to play a role in these steps.

Consequently, the process of writing the author`s dissertation diverged from the conventional concept that caregivers must robotically work as hands and feet of persons with disabilities , in that knowledge and opinions were shared with the “caregiver who participated verbally.” The process involved the author and his caregiver jointly deciding which expressions to choose, enabling him to find a way to express my ideas. However, questions have arisen as to whether “essential capacity was inflated” due to the “challenge in separating one individual`s thoughts from those of another.” Furthermore, an additional question was raised about generalizations regarding the capabilities of people with disabilities. This analysis highlights the real life situation experienced by “people with severe disabilities who have difficulty speaking.”

This article analyzes the organization of the space dedicated to collaborative work shared by the staff, local volunteers, and users of the “hikikomori” and “NEET” support organization through social interaction. Specifically, this article analyzes the spatial formation practices of light work（assembling wiring harnesses for automobiles）in the office. The studied support organization locates this work as “the first step” toward participating in various activities（including job training outside of the office）. This article aims to analyze the methods of participation in the support space, focusing on those of users.

The findings are as follows. First, in the process of light work, each participant makes the status of the harnesses which are accumulated on the table（already aggregated “bunches” or unaggregated “heap” as of yet）visible to other participants in the situation where the table is crowded with the harnesses. Second, the visualization of each productʼs status also enables the visualization of the work status of each participant engaged in aggregation or assembly work, thus managing the boundaries of each workspace, which may otherwise overlap. These practices are, in the first place, aimed at avoiding mistakes in product aggregation. Conversely, the visibility of oneʼs work progress status functions as a device that enables other participants to participate in collaborative aggregation work. Finally, based on these findings, I consider the significance of the fact that multiparticipants work around a single table in the form of a user support space.

Welfare states vary widely in the manner in which they choose to allocate the burden of unemployment benefits among workers, employers, and public authorities. This article challenges the explanations of labor market policy pushed forward by the power resource theory, varieties of capitalism, and insider-outsider theory, and presents a novel explanation for the causes of cross-national variations in the cost-sharing patterns of indemnification granted in the case of unemployment. Based on a comparative historical analysis of unemployment insurance development in interwar European countries, the author argues that pathdependent social policy institutions are the best explanation for the allocation of unemployment insurance costs. Questions of how the social programs were structured（along citizenship or occupational lines）in the early 20th century and whether the organization of unemployment funds was exclusively in the hands of trade unions were the key factors that determined the patterns by which the burden of insurance was shared among the workers, employers, and public authorities. The article shows that countries like France, which have adhered to the fragmented unemployment fund schemes, retained the old voluntary systems, where the burden of insurance was borne entirely by the workers. However, in countries where the unemployment funds were constituted solely by labor unions, such as Germany, it required employersʼ participation in the compulsory unemployment insurance to overcome the neglect of unorganized workers after World War I.