In this paper, we examine the determinants of subjective social status. This topic used to be discussed extensively in the U.S., although few consider the present state of social status. We focus on the sequence of temporal change in Japan in comparison with that in the U.S. Thus, we apply a multigroup MIMIC model to the longitudinal dataset from both societies. We feature subjective social status as the dependent variable. This is measured as a latent concept by three indicators: class identification, self-ranked social position, and satisfaction with standard of living. As independent variables, we examine the general aspects of objective social status: education, occupation, and household income. Significance tests of the model fit indicate that objective social status gradually gains influence to subjective social status in Japan, while the determinant structure is almost equally maintained in the U.S. Expanding class awareness observed in Japan calls for researchers to pay attention to future consequences not only in the U.S., but also other countries.

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     The aim of this paper is to study the process of formation of social status through social changes. In this paper, the author hypothesizes that an individual characteristic becomes a social status under the following conditions: (1) the characteristic is acquired through individual ability, and (2) variance of the characteristic is widened by social changes. In order to test this hypothesis, the author focuses on marital status and analyzes the effects that marital status has on social class identification by using 1985‘s SSM survey data (N = 2,650) and SSP-I 2010 data (N = 1,502). The results of the analysis show that "unmarried" as a marital status had a negative effect on social class identification in 2010, and had no effect on social class identification in 1985. In addition to this, the variance of married age in 2010 was large, while the variance of married age in 1985 was relatively small. However, the results of an analysis clarify that the effects of marriage on social class identification differ between social strata. These facts imply that the author's hypothesis has limited support by social survey data.

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     Japanese research on social stratification has paid much attention to class identification which is one of subjective social status. The research field of class identification is an important frontier where theoretical study using mathematical model and empirical research using statistical analysis come across each other. The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical model of class identification (coordinate-wise order model which is equivalent to the FK model in theory) and to test its empirical validity using vignette survey based on the idea of Karpinski (2009). We prepared stratification profiles (vignettes) based on combinations of three dimensions such as education, occupation, and individual income. We conducted an Internet survey to measure subjective evaluation of stratification profiles. We compared results of statistical analyses to theoretical predictions from the model to test empirical validity of the coordinate-wise order model. The model was not supported enough. We found that income of stratification profile had very strong effect on subjective evaluation of social status. On the other hand, education and occupation had weak effects. These results are different from findings of previous research on class identification. They found that all of education, occupation, and income had moderate effect on class identification. Class identification is evaluation of self-status, however, evaluations of stratification profiles are those of others‘ status. There is the possibility that different mechanism exist between evaluation of self-status and others' status.

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     A linear combination model of explanatory variables such as a multiple regression analysis is often used as the simplest approximation of true relation between explanatory and response variable. This paper shows that a linear combination model can be logically derived from the models of mathematical sociology that consist of sociological assumptions and attempts to give a linear combination model theoretical ground. We show that a linear combination model can be an explanatory model rather than just a curve-fitting model. In the context of studies of class identification, we show that the Farao-Kosaka model and the inherited status model can be a theoretical ground for a linear combination model of class identification and clarify the condition that is needed for an integrated development of mathematical sociology and sociometrics in the field of social stratification.

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     In this paper, we consider two innovating firms diffusing incompatible technologies and their decision of consumer targeting. The technology adoption is made in two steps. First, once the firms sell their products to their respective targeted consumer, the technology is diffused successively by word-of-mouth communication from the initial consumer to other consumers linked along the network. Then, in the second step, each consumer imitates the technology the neighbors use which fares better, and through this process of imitation, the technology distribution keeps evolving until it reaches the long-run steady state. We consider two cases; when firms are myopic enough to neglect the imitation possibility and when they are sophisticated enough to take the possibility into account. We demonstrate that if firms are myopic, the early innovator chooses the minmax location which surprisingly turns out to be equivalent to the node with the highest closeness centrality. On the other hand, if firms are sophisticated, the best target will tend towards a hub, although the minmax principle in general keeps valid in the sense that it should be the minmax location after considering imitation.

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     When faced with disaster, strangers, who are not embedded in dense networks, occasionally create communities in which they help one another. This paper introduces a new strategy, Sharing, into the classic Hawk-Dove game and analyzes under what conditions communities emerge and persist. The analyses showed that Sharings are more likely to dominate the population when the value of resources is higher than the cost of fights, although emerged communities do not always persist, due to the invasion of Dove strategies. Future studies should clarify how communities prohibit the expansion of Doves in the population, taking account of spatial structure or asymmetry in resource holding potential.

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