The purpose of this paper is to explore the history of the debate about “attachment

disorder” in foster care, especially in foster homes, from the late

1940s to 2000s in Japan. This corresponds to the time from the early post-war

period, in which most children in foster homes were war orphans; the period of

high economic growth, during which family policy had begun to be shaped; the

period of stable economic growth (from the 1970s to ’80s), when child abandonment

and infanticide were serious social problems and the necessity of foster

home reformation had been advocated; to the era of child abuse （from the

1990s to present）.

　Attachment disorder is a political concept constructed in the modern era, referring

to the modern concepts of child and family. The history of debates about

attachment disorder tracks the views of foster homes and family in each period.

This paper describes two peak periods in the debate about attachment disorder

and the concept of child development in foster homes in each period.

　Foster homes, one of the spaces that implement social care measures for children,

are sites of temporary child-rearing. Children in these homes work towards

either returning to their biological families or, when this is not possible,

towards independence when they turn 18. The duration of care provided by a

foster home depends on the situation with the child’s biological parents and the

decision of the relevant Child Guidance Centre. When a child moves to a facility

or returns to their biological parents, the Child Guidance Centre refers to it

as a ‘change of placement’. This article uses interview data to examine a

‘change of placement’ case study.

　In the target case, although the relationship between the child and their foster

parents was positive, the child was abruptly moved to a child protection facility

in order to facilitate interaction with the biological parents. This article aimed

to understand this change of placement from the perspectives of three actors

involved: the Child Guidance Centre, the foster parents support organisation,

and the foster parents themselves. It discusses how the intervention of the foster

parents support organisation, a civil society organisation that the child Guidance

Centre contracted to deal with a range of foster care elements beyond

child protection measures, affected the foster parents. At the same time, I focus

on the discord that arose between the Child Guidance Centre and the foster

parents as a result of the change of placement.

This paper considers issues about supporting “diverse parenthoods” on the

basis of the findings from a survey interview conducted by the author. Nine

children adopted through the special adoption system were surveyed.

　First, I define “diverse parenthoods” compared to the modern family and verify

necessary supports for such parenthoods and the formation process of the

system. Second, I identify and explain supports discussed in the special adoption

system. Among the supports provided to the parties involved in the special

adoption system, this paper focuses on the supports provided to adopted children,

particularly related to their “identity.” Third, I discuss the sense of discomfort

I felt during the survey interview and the questions about supports currently

provided by referring to the findings from sociological studies, which use

a narrative approach. Specifically, I discuss ⑴ authors of “redemption script,”

⑵ the implicit framework for supports, ⑶ the circulation, coexistence, and confluence

of the dominant story and the alternative story in supports, and ⑷ diverse

supports provided to the parties involved. Lastly, I indicate that connecting

the support for “diverse parenthood” with the findings from the narrative

approach and broadening the scope of the experience-based studies and theoretical

studies were challenges to be addressed in welfare sociology in the future.

　There has been social pressure upon stepfamily members into behaving as if they belonged to a conventional nuclear family, in spite of the fact that stepfamilies

tend to have uniquely complex family structures. Who should be parents of

children in stepfamilies is defined by social institutions such as family laws regarding

custody arrangement after parental divorce, adoption of stepchildren,

and family register system, and by underlying family values. The definition, in

turn, leads adult members in stepfamilies to such behaviors. These behaviors

then affect children’s well-being negatively. Researchers in Japan are not duly

interested in this process. These conventional stepfamilies of the scrap and

build household or substituting parent model are based upon the assumptions;

⑴ parent-child relations presuppose parental marital relations, ⑵ the existence

of one of the parents and its values are disregarded or underestimated, ⑶ a

stepparent is expected to substitute the vacant parent’s position, ⑷ a custodial

parent and his/her new partner（ stepparent） tend to form a parenting team just

like a first married family, and ⑸ a stepfamily is a household unit whose members

share the same interests. These assumptions are critically examined in contrast

to the ideas guiding emerging stepfamilies in the expanded and intercon︲

nected network or continuing parent model. Challenges for more child-centered

policies and new directions in supporting stepfamilies are also discussed.

Organizational theory contains many insights that can further organizationalstudies in Sociology. The paper makes four points. First, organizationaltheory is relatively new and very interdisciplinary. Many disciplines havecontributed to its development and not just Sociology. It is very open to different perspectives.Second, initially the focus was on organizational structures and not labor relations. Other subfields in sociology, e.g., Marxist theory, focused on the latter. Organizational theory can be traced to Weber’s essays on bureaucracy, and it focused on different forms that organizations can take and under what conditions different forms are more or less effective. Third, organizational theory has not been kind to managers and administrators, portraying them as boundedly rational, conspiratorial, or self-serving. Unfortunately, this deflected attention from the problems that they confront and must solve on a day-to-day basis. Fourth, organizational theory focuses more on the context of strategic decision-making than on the choices that managers make. The structure within the organization as well as the environment external to the organizations limit what managers can do. Ecological and neo-institutional theories made the greatest contribution here but approached the study of organizational behavior from very different perspectives. The talk then described two new developments in the field, classification theory, which is an offshoot of ecological theory, and inhabited institutionalism, which is an offshoot of neo-institutional theory, to show that the field is still growing and developing new insights. The paper concludes by encouraging researchers to continue to search for new explanationsto organizational phenomena focusing on both inside and outside of the organization.（Joseph Galaskiewicz）

　This study considers the meaning of nurture according to the faith of foster parents who believe in the Tenrikyo religion. There have been few studies conducted of foster parents of the Tenrikyo faith, a gap this study aims to fill. This study contributes new findings to the study of the relationship between faith/religion and social welfare.

　Analysis of the interview data yielded the following clarification. The reason the participants became foster parents was the “human assistance orientation” of the Tenrikyo faith. As concerns the position of foster parents, both “relational unlimitedness” and “time unlimitedness” were generated from their religious belief. Foster parents of the Tenrikyo faith understand their relationship with their foster children in terms of their religious belief. This understanding is termed “religious context” in this study.

　This “religious context” will be an important framework for future foster parent studies and welfare studies. In addition, as the number of foster parents following the Tenrikyo faith increases, this framework will become practically important for understanding foster parents.

　There is an urgent need to promote social inclusion of people with mentaldisabilities in the community in Japan. This study explored the expansion of　support activities for people with mental disabilities within the community and　how support users perceived these activities. A case study was conducted on　employment support activities in Tama New Town, Tokyo. Based on participant　observation, a questionnaire survey, and interviews with support users and staff　members of a support organization, the results obtained were as follows:　Employment support activities have expanded, enabling support users to　choose the type of activity they want and to work in many parts of New Town.

For example, there is an employment support office in the shopping area of a　housing complex. This office plays an important role in facilitating not only the　interactions among the residents of the housing complex but also the exchanges　between these residents and support users. Moreover, users find opportunities　for participating in the community through selling and circle activities.　Support users perceived that such employment support activities enabled　them to receive job training for future employment, gain understanding about　their mental and physical condition, and also help in connecting with other support　users. The interaction at the places of employment support activities brings　the possibilities of social recognition to support users and plays a crucial role inlinking support users with the community.

Prior research has shown that having had family members or friends in need　of blood motivates people to donate blood. However, few studies have focused　on people who donate blood even though they do not know anyone who needs　blood. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the motives of people who　repeatedly donate blood although they do not know anyone in need of blood.

　During the interviews, interviewees described their first-time motives for donation　and their motives for repeatedly donating blood in common as: a desire　to be of help to people in need, encouragement from family members or friends　who are blood donors themselves or work at medical institutions, and the expectation　that they or their family members would receive blood in the future.

Also, some donors stated that they repeatedly donate blood to maintain good　health. There were interviewees who specified “no particular reason” or mere　curiosity as their motive for their initial donation. However, these interviewees’　motives for repeatedly donating blood changed to motives such as a desire to　help people in need and maintain good health. In order to increase the number　of repeated blood donors, even if they have no particular reasons to donate, it　is important to provide people with opportunities to participate in blood donation.

Moreover, because most of the interviewees first donated blood when theywere under 24 years old, targeting people under 24 is important.

　The purpose of this article is to overview the development of anti-AIDS measures aimed gay men and men who have sex with men （MSM）, and to clarify what kind of AIDS prevention has been developed for them in Japan. We focus more specially on the preventive system based on collaboration between researchers - mainly epidemiologists - and gay NGOs, and clarify the development of the preventive system, based on the case of activities in Fukuoka.

　Anti-AIDS measures by epidemiologists initially require ‘gayness’ as an important parameter to approach this high-risk group which is difficult to get in contact with, therefore a collaborative system has been established and developed with gay NGOs in response to this need （‘passive collaboration’）. However, the activities of gay NGOs under the collaborative system imply a process of acquiring ‘gayness’ which is different from the one expected by epidemiologists, hence the collaborative system becomes more refined（ ‘active collaboration’）.

　By acquiring ‘gayness’ thanks to this collaborative system, the gay NGO -Love Act Fukuoka（ LAF） - has experienced conflict with the anti-AIDS measures promoted by epidemiologists and decided to carry out activities independently from epidemiologists. This means that a gay NGO that acts independently is an unintended consequence of ‘gayness’ needed by epidemiologists for anti-AIDS measures.

　This study investigates the factors of support for striker eligibility criteria（ SEC）for the social assistance program（ SAP） in Japan with a focus on the effects of perceptions of welfare abuse. While the SAP is often criticized for its underuse in Japan, the Japanese citizens support the implementation of SEC for the SAP.

Previous studies have found that social and geographical proximities to welfare recipients as well as media use affect the support for SAP; however, these studies have not explained the mechanism through which these factors impact the support. Based on this viewpoint, we test the validity of the assumed mechanismthat proximity and media use affect the perceptions of welfare abuse, which in turn determines the support for SEC for the SAP. We observed the following results by using the multilevel structural equation modeling with Bayesian estimation: 1） social proximity （social network） to the welfare recipient reduces the perception of welfare abuse, whereas geographical proximity strengthens it. 2） Reading the newspaper reduces the perception of welfare abuse, whereas watching television and using the internet do not affect it. 3） Perceptions of welfare abuse strengthen the support for SEC for the SAP even after controlling the effects of self-interest. These results support the validity of our model.

　In recent years, the Japanese government has promoted a care-centered society　with a focus on collaboration of care between the residents to strengthenties within the community and to overcome an inflexible, compartmentalized　public administration. One example is known as Toyama-Style day care service.

This reference provides care to people with or without handicaps, regardless of　age, in a home-like facility. However, under government promotion, collaboration　through care does not fully acknowledge conflicts within this relationship　style.

　In this paper, I examine the place for co-living of care between care-workers　and uncooperative residents, using the care practices found at Toyama-Style　day care service Day Care Center Nigiyaka as an example. This research analyzes　the actuality of co-living, in which a quarrel as performed in certain conditions　is inevitable for the residents to accept having been excluded from the existing　care system. Certainly, a quarrel is an intense expression of a relationship,　but through forming a place of trust with other people over a long time,　care-workers are better able to sustain the relations of care. Finally, to enhance　the promotion of care-centered society, I suggest the necessity of imagining a　long-term collective work mechanism which includes quarrel in relationships.

　Public attitudes toward the welfare state are often measured one-dimensionally. The assumption of one-dimensionality predicts that supporters of a certain welfare state program are more in favor of all other programs. However, some studies suggest that attitudes toward the welfare state are multidimensional. That is, conflicts over certain welfare state programs may be qualitatively different from conflicts over other programs. Using ISSP data, this article examines the structure and determinants of welfare state attitudes in Japan. The purpose is to accurately represent the structure of attitudes and to reveal whether there are cross-program differences in the welfare state conflict.

　Categorical confirmatory factor analysis shows that attitudes are not completely one-dimensional and that cross-program differences need to be considered. Structural equation modeling results indicate that conflicts over the policies on illness and old age are qualitatively different from conflicts over the ones on unemployment and poverty. For example, while the effect of equivalent income is not statistically significant in the dimension of illness and old age, equivalent income has a significant negative effect in the dimension of unemployment and poverty. People with lower incomes are more in favor of the policies on unemployment and poverty instead of the ones on illness and old age. In this way, the findings help understanding of why individuals support the welfare state.