The purpose of this paper is to conduct a survey based on what was said in the “Thinking about Family Program” conducted for young inmates, and to suggest points to keep in mind when returning to their parents’ homes. In the survey, the participants expressed difficulties in resuming and continuing their relationship with their parents after their release from prison, and the background factors were assumed to be the difficulty in imagining their feelings due to the lack of relationship with their parents, and the loss of their own value due to poor quality of relationship. From the perspective of preventing recidivism, the importance of the connection between the possibility of recidivism and emotional sensation, and the importance of providing each other with what one can do as a desirable relationship was discussed. In order to expect recidivism prevention effects from returning to the parental home, it is necessary to understand the relationship difficulties that inmates face, and if returning to the family is judged to be risky, it is desirable to support methods of social reintegration that do not rely solely on family.

This paper aims to shed light on the issue of familialism, which is manifestly or potentially embedded in various policies concerning children in Japanese society, and to propose “de-familialization” as a solution. First, the paper argues that because of the reliance on familialism as the basis of policies concerning children, the terms “family” and “home” have almost become magic catchphrases, with discrepancies in their interpretation across different policies. To deal with this issue, the paper will delve into the debate over the definition of “family” within the field of family sociology. It will then highlight the difficulties that must be faced in view of policies which set “family” and “home” as preconditions for providing social security or social welfare. In conclusion, the paper argues that a two-fold approach to “de-familialization” is necessary to solve these issues. It also suggests that a shift from deductive thinking to inductive thinking is required in order to achieve “de-familialization.”

The purpose of this study was to focus on the diversity of interpersonal relationships among people with mental disorders and to clarify the types of emotional/evaluative support they receive from family members and others outside the family and the factors associated with these types of support. The analysis used self-reported data (n=318) from holders of the Health and Welfare Handbook for Persons with Mental Disabilities living in X city, a core city in Japan. After deriving the types of support receipt through hierarchical cluster analysis, a multinomial logit was conducted to examine the factors associated with the types. The results of these analyses revealed differences in the receipt of support among the mentally disabled and their related living conditions, including (1) those who use social welfare and receive support from various others, (2) those who engage in labor while receiving support, (3) those who have no job and live in a conventional family of the mentally disabled, (4) those who live alone, discriminated against, and without financial support, and with limited support (experiencing isolation and loneliness) were found.

The purpose of this paper is to examine several specific cases in which school teachers’ responses to student suicide cases have been made into a societal problem and to analyze the process of problematization.

The two cases discussed in this paper had a ‘reality disjuncture’ between the school teachers and the bereaved families regarding “what the school teachers’ responses was like”. In both cases, therefore, a ‘politics of experience’ emerged, in which the certainty of the reality experience was disputed.

The case studies revealed the following (1) A third-party committee and the mass media were involved in the ‘politics of experience’ as evaluators of the situation. (2) By relying on the reality experience of the bereaved families, it was possible for the mass media to problematize the school teachers’ responses to student suicide cases.

Based on the results of the case studies, this paper points out the danger of uncritically accepting outsiders’ evaluations.