In the contemporary world deinstitutionalization is the most important phenomenon to consider, and classical sociological ideas can help to analyze it. Because classical sociological theories have been used to examine how social institutions came into existence, these theories also have a long range to analyze social institutions. Deinstitutionalization is what Giddens calls "disembodiment" and disembodiment has introduced reflexive individualization and psychologization in contemporary society. However, in these phenomena social substance is not disorganized but is built in, in the individual. I propose that Parson's "affective neutrality" is one of social substance which is built in, in the individual in the process of psychologization.

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In contemporary Anthropology and Sociology, there has emerged a movement to search for a new frame of reference for both disciplines regardless of differences in their respective concepts, models, and theories. Whatever such a frame of reference may be, both disciplines must heighten the need for abductive thinking in the course of their field research, and in the examination of collected data. While abduction, as Charles Peirce pointed out, "depends on our hope to guess at the conditions under which a given kind of phenomenon will present itself," the consideration of hope has seldom been found in these two disciplines. This paper attempts to show, making use of a case of freeter research, how the perspective of the social value of Anthropology and Sociology can be opened up toward advancing the study of hope.

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There are some parallels in Japan between critical reflections about sociology, and those concerning philosophy. 1) It is said that both are too serious and gloomy, especially for young people. 2) Both are criticized in that the introduction and study of the theories or methodologies are valued much more than the investigation of real problems in Japan. 3) They have the same scientific structure; sociology is regarded as "the last social science" in modern time, i.e. the last of the sciences to have been isolated from philosophy. The instability of sociology as a "trans-boundary science" is an inevitable characteristic of this science which will never be able to be a hard paradigmatic science, and which will ever have to perform self-reflection. Namely sociology has a philosophical character. The critical assessment of university education should be connected with historical reflections regarding the sciences concerned, and should also take into consideration new ideas about the institutionalization of sciences. The movement of applied ethics provides us with a suggestion here. Applied ethics is a philosophical effort to respond to social problems which mainly arise from the development of new technologies. A new community should be established "a problem sharing community," with experts from many different disciplines who can solve these serious problems in our society today. Here sociology is expected to be able to research society itself and the background of social problems of science and technology, but it is not thought to have the philosophical capability of self-reflection.

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The popularization of the modern family in post-WW II japan was accompanied by disorganization of various kinds of child-care networks including adoptive parents, parents in folklore, relatives and others. Parent-child relationships narrowed to mean only the real ones, and child care became only that by children's real mothers. Today, people seem ambivalent towards assisted reproductive technology: a remedy against the malfunctioning of, and any menace to natural parent-child relationships. However, I assert that both approaches are on the same side as both operate on the premise that people will seek to have this relationship by nature, because it is filled with love and is a natural course of nature. I insist that we must now look beyond the apparent conflict between the modern family and assisted reproductive technology of recent years. Reviewing the process of popularization of the modern family in the light of population policy, eugenic policy, reproductive technology and birth control behavior, I point out that the Japanese modern family is of a social and historical construction. Besides, it had to be a 'healthy modern family' which demanded the development of artificial reproductive technology and its powerful control over reproduction. I mention some examples of family planning movements as population policy. As a result, presently we face a new variety of parent-child relationships. Curiously these resemble their pre-modern counterparts as regards the instability among many parents and children because it presents us as separate parents such as the sperm parent, the rearing parent and so on. I suggest that legislation and social welfare grounded in reproductive rights and children's rights are urgently needed.

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Several studies have recognized that there are two main streams in the discourse on fatherhood in Japan. One is 'father as authority,' which distinguishes the father's role from the mother's and calls on fathers to play a significant role in the socialization of children. The other is 'father as carer,' which calls on fathers to be holistically involved in parenting, and in baby care. The two main streams have a commonality in that both call on fathers to be more involved in the family and in parenting, although they have different viewpoints as to what fathers should do for their children. These trends lead Japanese fathers to be aware of the importance of a father's involvement in parenting, and prompt them to strike a balance between work and parenting. Compared to Japanese mothers and fathers living in foreign countries, however, Japanese fathers are not very active and spend less time in parenting. This would be partly due to conditions of work and employment under which the majority of families with young children are obliged to adopt a 'gender division of labor' (father works and mother stays home) in keeping with economic rationality. This condition places not a few fathers in a dilemma regarding work and parenting. In response to the trend of the contradiction of the gender division of labor, the image of a father who merely works and earns wages is not supported anymore. However, the majority of women see that earning is the father's most significant role and that the mother should stay home when children are in their infancy. Though the majority of Japanese people do not support a strict form of the gender division of labor, they still support moderate forms of that division.

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Parental rights under civil law in Japan have been regarded as more important than children's rights. Moreover, after World War II, the attitude that judicial and social authorities should not intervene in domestic problems has prevailed. These two points, especially when combined with the isolation of the modern family, have contributed to a rapid increase in domestic problems such as child abuse. The creation of a stronger child abuse support system in the field of child welfare is required, and it is necessary for the new system to aim toward a more progressive law and at the same time to limit parental rights.

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In the institution of modern marriage, sex, reproduction and marriage are considered inseparable, and the functions of reproduction such as childbirth and child-rearing are expected to be exercised within marriage. Moreover, the parent-child relationship is strongly connected with the marital relationship and a legal father is determined by the presumption of legitimacy. In many Western industrialized countries in recent years, with the increase in non-marital cohabitation, births outside marriage, divorce, single-parent families and reconstituted families, the functions of human reproduction have been performed not only within the legally-married family but also within variant family forms. From the standpoint of respect for the human rights of children and a neutrality of lifestyles, such countries have revised laws relating to families, so that the concepts of legitimacy and illegitimacy have been abolished, along with the presumption or denial of legitimacy. Father-child relationships are formed regardless of the parents' marital relationships and joint custody after divorce is accepted. In Japan, although premarital sex is common, many people strongly advocate the norm of legitimacy, and maintain the pairing of marriage and reproduction. In order to view how legal parent-child relationships evolve from the institution of marriage, I considered different formations of father-child relationships from the standpoint of whether or not the father was married to the child's mother, and examine problems in the denial of the presumption of legitimacy, the nationality of an international child born outside marriage, the notification of birth by an unmarried father, single custody, and the institution of responsibility for the rearing of a child.

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There have been numerous articles written on gift relationships. This paper examines two well-known gift relationships from the viewpoint that a gift relationship is a set of bodily movements. Human social action necessarily involves two constituents, intentional choice, and bodily movement. This paper will focus on the latter. Making reference to Goffman's notion that bodily movement is distinct from the intentional choice of a social action, the paper assumes that the set of bodily movements, which comprise giving and receiving, will inevitably generate a communal designation of the situation, called here a communal fiction. Firstly, kula is described as an institution producing a communal fiction, "the friendship of the kula ring." Participants in the kula ring are unaware of the fiction generated by their bodily movement; it is not their intention to generate the fiction, rather it is an unselfconscious result of their bodily movement. Secondly, potlatch is studied carefully, and the mechanism for producing a communal ideal of "the independence of property" in potlatch is made clear. Finally, the destruction of property, which culminates the potlatch, is examined. This behavior demonstrates the possibility of transcending the communal fiction. Apropos to this line of reasoning, reference is made to both Bataille's theory of sacrifice, and Mauss' theory. An additional vehicle for transcending the communal fiction is discussed.

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The aim of this paper is to inquire into possibilities of women's sexual independence by focusing on women's masochism, which is usually believed to be opposed to said independence, as a possible way towards it. I will examine the potentiality of women's active practices of masochism to deconstruct the present power structure of our gendered society. This examination is also intended to lead to a deeper understanding of masochism itself. In our present gender-biased culture, women's masochism, in contrast with men's, has been understood to be derived naturally from the constitution of women. This type of argument, based on nature, must be rightfully placed under critical review. It does not necessarily mean, however, that women's sexual masochism is simply a reflection of power relations in our daily life. If sadomasochism could be considered a game making full use of these relations, it might be taken to be a "parody of power relations," as defined by Pat Califia. Consequently I will take up her conception of masochism as a means to attain an adequate understanding of women's masochism as well as to deconstruct the present gender structure, so that we may find a way to redefine women's sexual independence. In this connection, Judith Butler's conception of "gender trouble" and John K. Noyse's argument regarding men's masochism, which according to him is an inevitable outgrowth of modern subjectivity, are also to be examined.

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The flâneur in Benjamin has often been thought of as an "observer." Yet there is another aspect of the flâneur in Benjamin, which is intoxicated, without mastery of the subject and without a clear boundary between the self and the other. In order to focus on this experience of the intoxication of the flâneur, this article deals with one of the figures which cause said intoxication, namely the whore. According to Benjamin, the figure of the whore is a peculiar allegory of modernity, "the life which signifies death," which embodies the character of commodity in the extreme. However, exactly what Benjamin means when referring to "death" is not clear. A suitable clue to trace the hidden meaning of "death" in Benjamin's thought is the figure of the doll, which has a close connection with the whore. Considering the figure of the doll, Benjamin addresses a fetishism that includes a factor of sadism, a fetishism that succumbs to the sex-appeal of the inorganic. This idea corresponds closely with the notion of a compulsive recurrence of the death drive in Freud's "The Uncanny." In conclusion, it is suggested that the secret of the figure of the whore resides in the dangerous quality of revealing the deadly purpose of eros, and "the life which signifies death" is nothing hut the allegorical figure which exposes the death drive. Seduced by the ambiguous attraction of the whore, the flâneur dissolves into an impersonal being, intoxicated, through the recurrence of this fundamental drive.

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