The aim of this research is to examine the (re-) entry bans and admissions of migrants into Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic and to consider the logic of dealing with migrants. During the pandemic, many countries regulated the movement of people, which, some studies argue, shows the “re-establishment” of states. In contrast, by focusing on the logic of the (re-) entry of migrants during the crisis, it is pointed out that this logic was, in fact, the actualization of the logic latent in normal times. This suggests that the logic of dealing with migrants shows continuity with that of normal times rather than a transformation of states in crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on people’s activities in local communities, how residents attempted to resume their activities during the period, and how these activities changed compared to pre-pandemic conditions, focusing on traditional festivals in local towns and folk performing arts in villages. In particular, the paper discusses the following three issues. (1) What impact did COVID-19 have on the community of residents through festivals and on the relationship between residents and other local community actors? (2) Why and how were festival practices resumed early in some areas? (3) What impact has COVID-19 had in the present now that festivals have resumed?

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced major changes in people’s behavior and relationships and has caused various changes in private areas such as marriage hunting. As a result, the coronavirus pandemic has deepened trends in Japanese society that existed before the pandemic, and has brought to light and accelerated family-related issues, especially issues related to family disparities. There have been three trends in Japanese families since the 1990s: 1) a decrease in dating, marriage, and childbirth, 2) a polarization of intimate relationships between husband and wife, and 3) a “selection” of family (intimate) relationships. The following trends are due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 1) the tendency to refrain from dating, getting married, and having children is accelerating due to behavioral restrictions, health concerns, and deepening economic concerns, 2) the polarization of intimate relationships between husband and wife has become apparent as the time spent together as a couple increases and the satisfaction of intimacy needs outside of the marriage is restricted, and 3) The selective nature of family relationships (with relatives) has led to an increase in behavior outside the family. The restrictions provided an opportunity to sort out family relationships, including with parents.

The suspicion that the iterative practices in qualitative research might be HARKing and research misconduct is addressed in this paper. An overview and information on this issue, which are necessary to dispel the above suspicion, are presented. Subsequently, a promising response from a Bayesian perspective in political science is shown, and how it might be applied in sociology is suggested.

This paper presents the theoretical background and empirical findings from two longitudinal experimental research projects conducted by Toshio Yamagishi, which aim to elucidate the evolutionary, socio-cultural, and neuroscientific foundations of human prosociality as social niche constructors. These studies explore how social environments are shaped and sustained by the social behaviors of individuals and how these behaviors are underpinned by neurological and socio-cultural mechanisms.

The difficulties of qualitative research from both macro and micro perspectives by focusing on field surveys are discussed in this paper. Regarding macro difficulties, two points are raised: (1) qualitative research tends to be costly in terms of time and money, and (2) qualitative research opportunities for secondary analysis of and verification of results are limited. Regarding micro difficulties, the author’s past research on French women’s civic movements that promote women’s political participation are used as a case study. Micro difficulties arise in the research request and rapport building processes and can be resolved by the researcher’s communication efforts and using internet websites. At the end of this paper, the author presents the two significances of conducting qualitative research: inductive theory creation and verification of quantitative findings.

A deep understanding of the possibilities and conditions required to construct the East Asian civil society argument (EACSA) through the examination of the relationship between the civil society argument and “the critical theory of soviet-type societies” (CTSS) in Andrew Arato’s From Neo-Marxism to Democratic Theory (DT) is provided in this paper. It is clarified how DT successfully mediates social change themes between Eastern and Western Europe under different regimes, regarding “relatively autonomous civil society from the state” as a common solution. However, theoretical problems remain unsolved between CTSS and the civil society argument. Mediating social change themes between heterogeneous societies through the “civil society” concept implies possibilities in EACSA construction. The unsolved problems in DT will become more pressing questions that EACSA must ask itself.

In this paper, the transmission of war histories in everyday life is elucidated by examining the personal experiences of ghosts and supernatural phenomena related to the Asia-Pacific War. Readers’ contributions to Mu, a monthly occult magazine, were used to collect and analyze mysterious personal stories. The following are pointed out in this study. First, personal stories of war-related ghosts and supernatural phenomena show that people in postwar Japan touched on and recalled pieces of the history of the Asia-Pacific War in everyday life by encountering mysterious experiences. Second, the visitation of unknown war ghosts and transmission of war history are intimately connected. These mysterious personal stories demonstrate that people tend to encounter ghosts in places historically related to war.

The focus of this paper is on the changes and problems that occur in family relationships when a woman in a family caring role becomes ill. Gender perspectives are adopted in the analysis. The narratives of four women who have experienced breast cancer, a common disease for women in their 30s to 50s, were analyzed. The “work” perspective discussed by Anselm Strauss was adopted to discuss who reconfigures or does not reconfigure the “normal” work of running a household, and how “normal” family life is maintained. As a result, two problems were identified: first, women who care for their families must continue to carry the “housework” even when they are sick, and second, they face a strong conflict between being sick and being a mother.

This paper analyzes the preschool facilities-making movements in Misato-Danchi, with the aim of revisiting the current analysis that explains resident social movements in suburban mass housing complexes (Danchi). From 1973 to 1976, residents of Misato-Danchi actively demanded the construction of a public kindergarten and organized childcare initiatives through mutual aid. Previous research has argued that these movements were a response to the lack of facilities resulting from rapid urbanization. This paper critically examines these narratives of “lack” and argues that the motivations of the participants, the local context of urban development, and the ongoing self-management of facilities play significant roles that cannot be fully explained by the narratives of “lack” alone. By examining the motives and logics of facilities-making, the paper provides a more nuanced and contextually rich understanding of the resident social movements in Danchi.

Despite burgeoning research on ‘mixed-blood’ Japanese born to Occupation Forces soldiers and Japanese women following WW2, little is known about their life histories and their determinants. The factors and mechanisms which affected their biographical experience during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood are analyzed. The findings show that the ‘mixed-blood’ Japanese have experienced cumulative discrimination due to social and symbolic boundaries congruent with their race, gender and familial status.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify some aspects of the conflict between religiosity and secularity in postwar Japan through a discussion of worship at Christian universities. From the postwar period through the university conflict, worship was one of the key subjects for the expanding Christian universities. As schools expanded, the number of students who were not Christian or pro-Christianity, and were thus less interested in Christianity, naturally increased due to the ratio of Christians to the population in Japan. Schools then began to consider how to conduct worship, the fundamental Christian ritual or educational program, as a challenge and the students’ perception of worship also changed. This became a major issue in university conflicts, transforming the religiosity of Christian universities.

The aim of this paper is to investigate possibilities in the critiques of everyday life based on individual morality in terms of the phenomenological arguments of Thomas Luckmann. Considering the multiple realities theory of Alfred Schutz, the critique of everyday life needs a finite province of meaning (“the world of morality” against “the world of everyday life”) and “moral experience” within the realm in which one is aware of one’s own way of thinking about morality. The critique needs to be in “für sich,” open to criticizing itself (distinguished from that in “an sich” from a static and taken-for-granted standpoint). The study implies that the moral experience that leads to critiques of everyday life necessarily includes the three processes: 1) an attempt to separate value from obligation; 2) critiques of obligation according to one’s value; 3) constant reflections on whether and how the value is affected by the obligation.

In this paper, male infertility, as narrated by a physician, is explored. Male infertility is gaining increased social attention, particularly due to technological advances. Historically, infertility was predominantly regarded as a concern exclusive to females, however, innovations in sperm visualization have paved the way for increased male participation in discussions surrounding fertility. In the social construction of medicine, the gender perspectives of physicians play a crucial role, reinforcing established gender norms. Thus, the paper argues for the significance of understanding men’s involvement in reproduction through the perspectives of male infertility specialists.

The focus of this paper is on the relationship between income inequality and politics in urban spaces. As a result, in Japan’s metropolitan areas, it was confirmed that the ruling party tended to have a higher vote share in areas with a larger number of low-income groups, and that the left-wing opposition parties tended to have a higher vote share in areas with larger income disparities. Furthermore, it was also confirmed that in regions where the number of high-income groups increased or where income disparity widened, opposition parties seeking to reduce inequality achieved higher vote shares compared to the ruling party.

At the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, Shinpei Goto added a new meaning to the concept of “reconstruction”: “to make things better than they were before the disaster.” However, this concept of “reconstruction” was also subject to criticism. What was he trying to assert by proposing the concept of “reconstruction” in the first place? To this end, the focus of this paper is on three main positions regarding “reconstruction.” The first is Shinpei Goto, who proposed the concept of “reconstruction” and led the Imperial Capital Reconstruction Plan; the second is Miyoji Ito, who proposed the theory of “restoration” at the Imperial Capital Reconstruction Council; and the third is Tokuzo Fukuda, a social policy scholar who stood for the theory of “reconstruction” but sharply criticized Goto. The results revealed that the different ways of referring to the concepts of “reconstruction” and “restoration” gave priority to different policies.

In this paper, the discourse of the overpopulation problem in Japan in the 1920s is analyzed through texts of the population experts and the bureaucrats of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of the Interior, and how the discourse framed the social policies at that time is examined. Today, the idea that overpopulation is the cause of unemployment is not accepted. However, population studies in the 1920s defined overpopulation as a decline in living standards and regarded it as the fundamental cause of unemployment. The bureaucrats also recognized the same problem and promoted a policy for the unemployed to migrate to South America. As a result, the overpopulation discourse became the excuse for inadequacies in employment policies and forced the unemployed themselves to find solutions.