Sociologists must work as "Beruf" to write a good textbook. A more positive outlook must be taken. There are many patterns in the textbooks of sociology for beginners. They contain cliches peculiar to sociology. These cliches describe the ideology of sociology, but must yet be reflected. These cliches describe the discipline of sociology as a result, not as advanced sociological theory, but as a type of on-the-job sociological theory. Sociology, as a discipline, is in a vulnerable state. From the viewpoint of the writer and editor, there are also the problems of "Ethos" when writing textbooks, and of setting the boundaries of sociology, and so on. I think that it is necessary to construct and make accessible sociological textbooks on the web, especially in the form of organized production.

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This paper looks at sociology textbooks from the viewpoint of an editor who has edited various textbooks. The author has kept the following questions in mind while producing textbooks: (1) Questions or "provocations" to the authors of textbooks such as "What are the problems and dissatisfaction you have found with textbooks thus far? What kind of struggles do you have when lecturing?" This is the starting point for producing a "better textbook." (2) Questions to students who read textbooks: "Do you find the contents or style of textbooks interesting? Can you understand them? What about their volume, prices, or design?" Editing which corresponds with the interests of students is especially important today, when students have become cool and dry. (3) Questions to the publisher: "I am able to produce high-quality and powerful textbooks at a certain cost, but may I have permission to do so?" (4) Questions for the editor to himself: How much longer will my vigor and physical strength hold out?

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Sociology faces clear and present dangers. Management of sociology has become a central problem in the social world and the sociological one. This is not only because the decline of fertility in Japan is causing a crisis of management for universities, but also because sociology as a discipline cannot show students the clear-cut system of sociology and the practical abilities which students can develop by studing sociology. This paper aims to rethink introductory textbooks of sociology in the above-mentioned context, that is, the crisis of management of sociology. Introductory textbooks of sociology must show the whole map of sociology and how to act in the sociological world. Many textbooks have not been able to do so. Firstly, they cannot explain the system of theories, system of areas, and systematic relationship between theories and areas. Secondly, they cannot elucidate how the history of sociology is constructed and used as a resource for sociological analysis. Thirdly, they cannot clarify what position sociological methods hold in the epistemological total process, and what position methods of social research hold in sociological analysis. When we make introductory textbooks of sociology, we must try to do so focusing on two practical tasks, which are solving problems and interpreting meanings. To solve problems, we must find a problem and analyse causes, outcomes, and policy programs. To interpret meanings, we must find cultural objects and analyse social realities which are causes, outcomes, and contents of cultural objects. If there were to be a good textbook, students would never lose the way in the sociological world and would be able to develop practical abilities for sociological analysis and social life. Students would know positions and meanings of teaching materials when they study each area of sociology, and could have a plan to study sociology systematically, developing sociological abilities.

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When we examine the inter-ethnic relationship between Japanese and Koreans in Japan, "Buraku issues" are an important aspect. Before World War II many Koreans had migrated to Japan, and many of them lived in or around Buraku areas. This meant that Koreans and Buraku-people have come to live, work and learn together in the same communities. In this paper, I examine the relationship between these two groups chronologically. In the discriminative structure of Japanese society, Koreans and Buraku-people have been put in a peripheral position, and they have faced competitive situations against each other. This has led to some of them holding prejudice and antagonism against the other group. However, it is also true that they have developed face-to-face relationships in their daily life. To examine the relationship they have developed during their hard life is a key when considering the formation of an inter-ethnic relationship. To compare two minority groups also brings forth some important findings. Comparing the discriminative barriers and their understanding and reaction to them helps to understand not only the nature of each minority group, but also the nature of the discriminative structure of Japanese society.

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This article provides insight into the relationship between Nikkei Brazilians and local residents in Toyota City, the center of Japan's automobile industry. Nikkeijin started residing in Toyota City in the late 1980's, and this population has escalated with the arrival of further Nikkeijin. Associations formed by local residents have been agencies in resolving problems between Nikkeijin and local residents for more than ten years. Despite the diligence of the committee members of the residents' associations, complex problems have surfaced. Residents' associations have forwarded various demands to the local government, the Housing Corporation and Prefectural Housing, on behalf of apartment owners, and contract agencies who employ Nikkeijin. There have been several turning points, and they are currently experiencing a fifth turning point.

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The objective of this paper is to consider the nature and significance of the multi-racial society developing in contemporary Japan, by exploring the lives and acculturation experiences of individuals. Foreigners living in Japan represent a diverse range of classes and hierarchical characteristics, and cannot be grouped into one ethnic identity or ethnicity. They hold diverse worldviews representing universalistic, nationalist, global, bio-regional, international, and cosmopolitan outlooks on life. Each of these perspectives expresses a sense of cautious modernity which counteracts, and is critical of the negative impacts of modernization. In the process of forming their world views, Third World individuals are faced with the difficult dilemma of choosing between two life strategies. The first strategy is one in which they seek to build an autonomous, endogenous, and egalitarian nation-state in their home country. The second strategy is one where they build their lives outside the constraints of the nation-state. Foreigners in Japan are people, caught up in the vortex of globalization, who had no choice but to migrate beyond their own national borders. Yet, at the same time, they are hardy individuals who, through migration, seek upward mobility, relying on their own abilities and resources. Foreigners as well as Japanese members of the underclass share common characteristics of class and stratification that supercede national and racial differences. They both perceive themselves as members of an underclass that exists in the margins and lower strata of the globalization phenomenon. They are not multiculturalists. However, among the foreigners of this underclass, there are those who are isolated and suffer from a racial inferiority complex. Within this attitude, we find a cloistered insularity in which class contradictions are magnified, making class and racial solidarity difficult to achieve simultaneously.

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Issues surrounding foreign workers in Japan have changed drastically over the past few dacades. The move from "internationalization" to "globalization" has brought about these changes. Concerning "internationalization," a move has taken place from "internationalization I" ( friendship between the nations) to "internationalization II" (coexistence of ethnic groups). During the past twenty years, the number of "new comers" has increased. It is now necessary to analyze both "old comers" and "new comers." In this article, I indicate two main points. Firstly, we are accustomed to thinking that foreign workers are those who are eager to occupy the "3K jobs." But today, many foreigners with great talents and high qualifications are working in Japanese companies. Secondly, foreigners are not only permanent residents but also Nikkeijin who repeatedly come from and go to the South American countries. These two categories of foreign workers are found in many host countries. So, in accordance with this diversification of foreign workers, we must adopt not only an "integration paradigm" which focuses on how to integrate foreigners to the host society, but also a "transnational paradigm" which focuses on today's transnational or post-national context.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the structure of industrial society which produces (the symptoms) of limitless desire, by reconsidering Durkheim's concept of anomie, which he calls 'the disease of the infinite.' To begin with, I consider the meanings of limitless desire. I show that it means the form of action that pursues endlessly objects which industry produces, and that it cannot be distinguished from the indeterminacy of the object of that desire. Next I examine the mechanism which compels the subject to continue the endless pursuit. I see the explanation by Durkheim that this phenomenon is based on the morality of progress and improvement inherent of industrial society. Then I focus on the sentences where Durkheim described anomie as the effervescence of violent energy. From the point of view of economics of energy, which Bataille names 'general economies', I try to explain theoretically the relationship between the effervescence of anomie and the value system of industrial society, to which Durkheim gives only some suggestions. Finally, along with the Lacanian theory of desire, I examine the interpretation by Keiichi Sakuta that anomie renders the subject perverted.

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Recently, local currencies have developed rapidly in Japan and are being used for diverse purposes. But there is confusion about their significance because of their practical orientation. This paper examines the systems known as SEL and RERS, which are local exchange associations in France. We consider how local currencies aid the formation of social ties in the historical context of the economy of social solidarity. For the economy of social solidarity, it is not sufficient to consider only markets and distribution. We much consider reciprocity as well. We think of local exchange associations, like SEL and RERS, as ways to systematize exchanges of reciprocity that contribute to the formation of social ties. This approach helps us understand the significance of local currencies.

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Recently a new approach in the field of elderly care has emerged to analyze the care for the elderly as a family lifestyle based on the perspective of the Family Lifestyle Approach. Individuals are now able to have personal preferences about how they care for elderly in their families, and to construct an Elderly Care Lifestyle by negotiating amongst family members while looking after the care-receiver and respecting his or her will. In this article I examine Elderly Care Lifestyles from a gender perspective, comparing cases where sons and their wives care for their parents with cases where daughters and their husbands care for their parents. Through analyses of negotiations between husbands and wives, I found a paradox on Caring Lifestyles from a gender perspective. With further progress in Caring Lifestyles, men would tend to play the actual and physical part of caring, such that fixed gender roles could be loosened. On the other hand, women would be forced to take care spontaneously, such that the persisiting reproductive mechanism would not ease women's burden on elderly care giving. I seek to emphasize the significance of Relationship Commitments in today's elderly care giving, and to argue that it is necessary to construct not Closely-Unified Relationships but Moderate-Distant Relationships between family members when caring for the elderly.

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