This article focuses on the problem of who gets hired for dangerous work. Current Japanese society depends on nuclear power plant energy and has a system that sacrifices workers working there. This system operates on the discrimination against such workers. A structure for concealing the actual situation of the labor is made, and the reason why no solution has been given for such a problem is that most people does not understand the workers' reality. In this article, I clarified how the workers' reality concealed while investigating the cases of a dead worker and a former worker of the Fukushima first Nuclear Power Plant.

View full abstract

This paper examines the diversification of employment and working style (or of non-regular employees), and considers the problems of human resources management in Japanese companies from the standpoint of the divide and conflict resolution in organization. Under the structural change of management environment, many companies changed their employment style and the gap in personnel treatment became wider, according to the types of employees. Since non-regular employees, who worked as much as core regular employees, increased, major policy issues targeted on the balanced treatment and adjustment of the conflict between different types of employees. Furthermore, the institutional defect of temporary work arose, and it became necessary to reform the employment security for temporary workers.

View full abstract

This paper is a case study of a mass murder, so called Osaka-Kyoiku University Ikeda Elementary School massacre in 2001. In this paper, the offender's personal notes, his interviews and the court’s decisions are analyzed from the point of view of Value-Orientation, that has been never noted by any studies. Focusing on Diplomaism, the paper clarifies that the murderer, who looks like the most antisocial or non-social man, evaluated anything and chose his targets based on common sense. Over heinous crime, just like this case, non-morality, cruelty and antisociality attract attention. But this paper insists that we should pay attention to the hidden sociality and non-expected result of functional mechanism or system.

View full abstract

The　purpose　of　this　study　is　to　examine　how　the　mass　media　end　up　accusing　school　of　their　responsibility　when　the　murder　of　their　student　occurred　in　the　school　property.　In　this　 study　I　chose　two　similar　murder　cases. In one case, which occurred in April 28, 1979, Haboro junior high school, Haboro city, Hokkaido prefecture, a 9th grade female student (14-years-old) killed her female classmate (the Haboro case). In the other, which occurred in June 1, 2004, Okubo elementary school, Sasebo city, Nagasaki Prefecture, a 6th grade female student (11-years-old) killed her female classmate (the Sasebo case). The Haboro case and the Sasebo case have a lot in common. However, there is a big difference between these cases. In the Haboro case, the mass media did not blame for the case on Haboro junior high school. By contrast, in the Sasebo case, the mass media blamed the case on Okubo elementary school. Therefore, I will achieve the purpose of study by comparing how mass media reports talk about these cases.

View full abstract

The current status of residents as for mental health as well as suicidal ideation was examined, using the survey data of the city of Osaka. Specifically our analytical focus was placed upon their consultation behaviors coping with daily worries and stress. Stemming from the survey output, the focal discussion issue was presented as the suicidal gender paradox concerning suicidal behavior and mental health. The survey was conducted by self-administered questionnaire mailing method, and 558 respondents returned. Principal addressed questions are the experience of suicidal ideation over the past one year, the mental health status indexed by the CES-D scale score. Logistic regression analysis was performed together with the relevant factors, "worries and stress consultation", "CES-D score", "family support", &"workplace support", and "contacts with neighbors". Suicidal ideation was counted 8.8 % among male and 12.8 % among female respondents. Suicidal ideation had been observed more common in females than males. CES-D average score was 14.4 for females higher than 13.5 for males. In logistic regression analysis "worries and stress consultation", "CES-D score were found significantly associated with suicidal ideation.

View full abstract

This research focuses on women's view of drinking. It aims to clarify the possibility of alienation between the pathology of women who drink and general women's view. This study specifically targeted readers of articles that were published in newspapers especially for women ("Hitotoki (Moments),"Asahi Shimbun; "Onna no kimochi (Feelings of Women)," Mainichi Shimbun) every five years, starting from 1955 until 2010. The gender roles, attitudes, and gender role norms during this time were considered to be focused on women's view of drinking as supported by these articles. This study suggests that women's consideration on men's and their own drinking gradually changed in the 1970s and was transformed in the 1980s. Further, house wives' view of drinking with a sense of stagnation, characteristic of the 1980s, declined in 1990s. From these observations, it can be concluded that women's view of drinking could have been transformed by the changes of gender role attitudes expected by society.

View full abstract

This paper, by indicating the rhetoric in the fiction of a domestic violence (DV) enlightenment video to turn models into the victim and the assaulter, aims to visualize the mechanism of ideological manipulation executed over viewers in an invisible manner. The makers of the video transmit messages via this DV enlightenment video. In order to clarify what it attempted to convey to the viewers, I analyzed written descriptions of the viewers’ impressions after actually showing them the enlightenment video as well as the transcript extracted from the video. This paper mainly reports on the analysis of the transcript of the video. Due to the functions of ideological state apparatuses in the concept of Althusser, viewers were manipulated, received the images of a modeled victim enduring violence and a modeled assaulter suffering stress, affirmed the division of roles of the sexes, and were convinced of the male-dominant society.

View full abstract