Journal of Welfare Sociology
Online ISSN : 2186-6562
Print ISSN : 1349-3337
Volume 9
Displaying 1-18 of 18 articles from this issue
Special Issues: Problems from the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake
  • Kosuke OKABE
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 7-10
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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  • Kamon NITAGAI
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 11-25
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    We need to consider the new social planning theory and the long-term social reproduction theory with reference to the experience of the Awaji great earthquake and the East Japan great earthquake in 2011 without stopping at a revival theory in the frame of "disaster mitigation" + restoration and revival. In this paper, a new methodology for the creative revival of an area and society is proposed to newly develop independently on the continuum of "disaster prevention-revival." In order for the "creative revival" of the stricken area to reproduce and revive the community that newly became independent, and in order to adopt a fiscal policy along with a program for the local reproduction of the stricken area, analysis of necessity and an un-public revival fund is needed in order to free public funds. Regrettably, research involving the state of the revival funds for the restoration/revival process does not fully grasps the funds, their projects, or the whole activity. This is the cause not connected with the revival theory and the new social formation theory after the disaster. In order to discuss this point below, I newly coin the term "Disaster-Time Economy." Activities of the projects, services, support, self-efforts, etc. comprising the processes of restoration and revival from disaster are grasped even over the social and private domains from an administrative domain, and the features and points of the process are made in full. The basic work is done that determines the economic order for self-subsistence throughout life differently from the new market economy currently produced today.
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  • Masato SHIZUME
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 26-45
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Social security against the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake consists of a three-tier system in the same way as the Japanese three-tier safety nets delineated by Uzuhashi (Uzuhasi et al. 2010): the 1st tier is an employment safety net, the 2nd tier is social insurance and personal social services, the 2Y2th is social allowances and loans, and the 3rd tier is means-tested benefits. There are some problems in the 2nd-tier safety net: coordination problems between social insurance organizations, inequality between local governments, and lower benefit levels. They take over the problems that have occurred under Japanese three-tier safety nets. In addition, instead of unconditional benefits, loans have been mainly to counteract loss of income. This is a common problem in the 2nd-tier and 2Y2th-tier safety nets. The victims of the earthquake are required to meet two conditions to receive social security against the disaster: a regional requirement, which means that victims need to have suffered losses within the disaster area approved by government, and a damage requirement, which means that victims have to suffer a certain level of damage set by the government. Some victims, such as refugees from the disaster area, voluntary refugees, and indirectly suffering residents, could not receive services from the safety net because they did not meet these criteria. Especially, social security needs to be offered to the voluntary refugees, who evacuated to escape radiation effects, and to the indirectly suffering workers, including primary industry workers around disastrous area, who lost their jobs as a result of the economic downturn caused by the earthquake.
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  • Hayato KOBAYASHI
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 46-62
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This article proposes an agenda for a welfare society through comparing cash for work (CFW) with workfare. CFW programs employ victims of a disaster as workers on reconstruction projects (at below-market wages). Although CFW may be useful for tsunami disasters, which require short-term relief, it does not function well for other disasters and cannot respond to those who were the working poor or unemployed before earthquake. In the recent event, multiple disasters were linked inextricably with each other, and social problems existing prior to and resulting from the disasters also overlapped inextricably. It seems that recovery will take a long time. Therefore, in the disaster-stricken region, it is not enough only to ensure jobs; income security needs to be provided for a long time. The current systems of unemployment insurance and job-seeker support do not provide adequate income security, so public assistance is expected to play an important role, but there are many difficulties in using public assistance for disaster relief. Both before and after the disasters, arguments about reform of public assistance have leaned consistently in the direction of workfare. Workfare is a policy that forces employable public-assistance recipients to work. However, if there are not enough other forms of assistance, CFW does not function well, seems to act as workfare, or changes into something like it. CFW and workfare have similar purposes: to support self-sufficiency and reduce dependency on relief. In addition, they share a similar problem: they cannot offer support to less-employable people. In conclusion, in order to recover from this disaster and set an agenda for welfare society, it is important to expand income security through public assistance, which would make CFW function well.
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  • "Rebuilding Humanity"
    Miyuki SHIMOEBISU
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 63-80
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The 2011 Tohoku earthquake caused many problems, resulting in obvious strains on modern Japanese society. One such problem magnified by the aftermath of this earthquake is gender inequality. This paper begins with a pre-earthquake examination of disaster and gender with respect to government awareness of these gender problems. It then discusses the aftermath of the earthquake and the manifestation of gender issues, responses to those issues, and the movement to rebuild after the disaster. Finally, the study discusses the current state of gender equality in Japan and related issues. Government policy already calls for gender equality in disaster prevention. Currently, however, the disaster-prevention field is dominated by men. Because of this, with the Tohoku earthquake, the same issues regarding women as in the past have repeated themselves. In response to these issues, administrative action and female-supported civic action have progressed in ways never seen before. In the future, it is important to verify the actual situation and achieve gender equality during times of disaster. The goal of rebuilding is to revive communities to a state of "normal, everyday life." For this purpose, different types of people, each with his/her own perspectives and abilities, are needed. Accordingly, women are essential to the rebuilding effort as well. Within communities, which include people of all types, there is agreement about the rationale behind the reduction of disasters. Different individuals are crucial to these disaster reduction plans, and without them, no true progress can be achieved.
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  • Shinya TATEIWA
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 81-97
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    First, I present what we, researchers, can do, and how much we have and have not done for logistic support of the disaster area of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Second, I suggest that people with disabilities or illnesses need to secure what is necessary to live, have preparation and wisdom available for use, share knowledge that should be shared, take measures that can be taken, and then introduce some activities concerning them. Moreover, I present the possibility and fact that under the Personal Information Protection Law, people who are missing are transferred without being known and left there; we need to strongly complain about the unconscionability of this, and in fact, invocations against this practice have been made. Furthermore, there appears to be a movement wherein people run away from nuclear power and try to secure new living places. Finally, I present that these activities have been supported by the success and development of this 40-year movement of disabled people, and the ones after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake reconfirm its significance ..
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  • Norihiro NIHEI
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 98-118
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    It is often pointed out that the number of volunteers for the Great East Japan Earthquake was smaller than that of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, and the reason for this is likely to be assumed that a bureaucratic government exercised too much regulation and control of volunteer activities. Although this framework was constructed to anticipate compensation for the failure of coordination of volunteers, such as in the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, it is not appropriate to interpret the relative shortage of volunteers for the later earthquake in March of 2011 in the same way because the mode of governance in 2011 was different from that of 1995. In other words, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake took place in an era of developmentalism, and conversely, the Great East Japan Earthquake happened in an era of neoliberalism . Therefore, it would be reasonable for the issue of volunteer shortage in the March 2011 earthquake to be investigated from the perspective of the dysfunction of neoliberalism, not developmentalism . According to data analysis results, contrary to the assumption of the view of developmentalism, the shortage of volunteers was caused by the following two factors: the first was the diminishment and damage of local government brought about by not only the tsunami but also regional policies from the 2000s The second factor was the dualism of non-profit sectors structured by civil society policies in Japan. The result could imply that NPOs and volunteers can be activated not in the context of neoliberalism but in the context of expanding universal and inclusive social policies.
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Articles
  • Takashi IGUCHI
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 121-141
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    At present, it is said that medical treatments and ideas need to be applied to the care of people with dementia in order to attain optimal dementia care in Japan. The first aim of this paper is to empirically explore how the care process will be affected by the application of medical treatments and ideas. The second aim is to argue that the effects should be evaluated on the basis of the first empirical study. This paper achieves these two purposes through a case study on care practice at a day-service center for people with pre-senile dementia. On the basis of the qualitative data obtained from participant observation and interview research, the following three results were obtained: (1) Diagnosis is important for families of afflicted people to recognize their deviant behavior as the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. However, families are reluctant to consider the medical model proposed through diagnosis as their everyday guide to living with the afflicted person. They also refuse to access care services because some believe that the public admission of one' s spouse' s as "a person with dementia" means that one will also acquire dementia. (2) The day-service center has to consider their denial and develop an appropriate approach to care. The use of advanced medical knowledge as an ideology at day-service centers is effective at creating the impression that the activity at day-care centers delays the progression of dementia. (3) However, the difficulty associated with the strategy of applying medical knowledge to care practices is the issue of the inclusion of people with severe dementia. Our next study will investigate both the good and bad aspects of applying medical ideas and treatments to dementia care. Accordingly, we need to compare various cases in which care is given to people with dementia
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  • AsymmetricTechniques for Maintaining Symmetric Relationships
    Hiroto MATSUKI
    Article type: research-article
    2012 Volume 9 Pages 142-162
    Published: May 30, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: October 10, 2019
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper explores the meaning that the staff members of a child care open space ascribe to their experience as mothers (Toujishasei) and expertise as child care supporters. It is often said to be useful for the provision of child care support that the staffs have raised their own children as mothers. And at the same time, it is argued that they need to have the expertise as child care supporters. However, the analysis of the staff narratives at the child care open space suggests that their attitudes toward the expertise have an ambivalent character. While they claim that they have expertise in term of having been mothers, they characterize their practice as that of the "non-experts." In addition, their ambivalent attitudes have a practical reason in that they need to be careful in taking on the category which has the asymmetric implication between the client and the staff, such as "expert" and "senior mother." Although they recognize that they have expertise in term of having been mothers, their expertise involves that of being the "non-experts" ; that is, asymmetric techniques for maintaining symmetric relationships with their clients. Valuing experience as mothers and expertise in the child care open space would be misleading, unless it overlooks these practical techniques for being the "non-expert."
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