At first glance, it looks as if we know a lot about the lives of the women who, born in needy rural areas, worked in the silk spinning industry in prewar Japan. Many researchers have described their poor working and living conditions in the silk spinning mills, giving us a hint of what the reality of their lives might have been. Still, because they almost systematically investigated this topic in the macroeconomic context of the Japanese industrialization, they mainly criticized its negative consequences and argued that these workers, exploited and oppressed, led a horrendous life in these mills. Therefore, most people remember them as victims and commonly refer to the history of their lives as "the pitiful history of women workers" (jokou aishi).
　But what do the women who worked in the silk spinning industry in prewar Japan have to tell us about their own version of their past? Did they consider themselves as victims and describe their experience in pitiful terms at all? Very few scholars have looked for some answers to these questions. In this respect, this study, which is based on the analysis of oral testimonies by ex-spinning mills' operatives, aims at reexamining this "pitiful history of women workers" through the lens of life history, so as to try and get, a fuller understanding of how these workers perceived their experience at the factory.
　This study revealed that a positive representation of these women workers is indeed possible. If the informants often described their work as "hard", they did not go as far as presenting themselves as exploited victims of the factory system. On the contrary, many of them insisted on the numerous sources of joy and content, not to mention a certain "window on modernity" factory life offered their workers. In this perspective, one can think that, for most of these women, "the factory experience" may at least have been a lesser evil than the life they led at their parents' home.

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　This article explores the masculine practice of elementary schoolboys and it's embodiment in their play activity and conversation.
　In Japan, most scholars of Men's Studies have adopted the Social Learning Theory of sex role, which argues that children learn appropriate behavior and attitudes through various sanctions from their parents and others, and through watching television and reading books. Internalization of masculine norms and values, such as "boys must not cry", has often been assumed in these studies. Generally, gender studies, including Women's Studies in Japan have accepted this kind of socialization theory.
　In contrast with these arguments, this study places great importance on child-peer interaction and tries to understand young boys' masculine speech and behavior as useful "social skills" in their interaction.
　The data is based on participant observation of boys and girls aged six to nine in a child care center in Kyoto city over six months in 2002. It was found that children mostly play segregated into groups of boys and girls. With reference to anthropologist Majorie Goodwin's work, an investigation of how boys and girls design directive and response was conducted. The results are as follows.
　Boys often make their directives emphasizing hierarchical arrangements among members. Imperative forms such as "yamero(stop)" and aggressive terms are used to construct asymmetry participant structure. It can be observed that leaders frequently instruct other team-mates in aggravated forms, denouncing their skills in the team games that young boys like to play. These practices are conducted with self justification in order to win the game. In these cases, thoughtfulness is not expressed between playmates, and boys of lower status also try to assert themselves as strongly as possible. Therefore, masculine behavior is practiced and learned not only because of social norms, but also because of its usefulness in social activity and interaction.
　This study shows the process whereby masculine plactice is constructed as social skills and emphasizes the importance of ethnography of social activity and practice for gender studies.

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　The purpose of this paper is to suggest a viewpoint to understand "Hikikomori" without referring to dyscommunication between parents and children as a cause of "Hikikomori," based on narratives by members of a self-help group.In this paper, we regard "Hikikomori" as passing, and focus on information about self and interactions with others.
　The term "Hikikomori" does not always indicate withdrawal from communication with all others.For example, informants sometimes go out for shopping or walks, on the one hand; on the other hand, they avoid meeting almost all their neighbors, friends and acquaintances. We can consider both episodes deliberate or unintended passing, namely, in order to avoid negative reactions from others, they try to keep anonymity that means relative shortage of biographical information by managing their own discreditable information about themselves.
　In addition, informants can associate with their intimates if they are familiar with the discreditable information about informants and passing is not needed. However, even in this case, informants sometimes avoid associating with their intimates if the negative reactions from them can be expected. From this view, it is not very important with whom informants communicate.
　In conclusion, we suggest that informants avoid the situations where they recognize themselves as stigmatized individuals, which cause them moral conflicts, and that we can consider "Hikikomori", in a sense, a rational strategy to ease their own moral conflicts.

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　Childhood play is a little studied object of research in risk management and social control. There is an ambivalent elationships between risk and children, and in the modern era, some dilemmas have emerged concerning risk management with children. This paper studies the transformation in the media framing of risk management in childhood play. Using newspaper data in postwar Japan, this paper examines the data on accidents in childhood play. As a result, this paper clarifies the transformation in the media’s framing of risk management.
　This paper takes as its object of study 1,394 articles, the titles of which contain content about childhood play. They were published between 1945 and 1999 in the Asahi News. The paper examines the cause of accidents, especially thoes attributed to spatial causes. In doing so, views of childhood play are divided into three frames: “dangerous play”, “playground insufficiency”, and “adventure play”. In the first frame, there is no mention of spatial cause, and various play styles are blamed for accidents. In the second frame, accidents are mostly related to the special deficiencies of playgrounds, and over time the increase in playgrounds became an administrative task. Finally, in the third frame, the risks of play within playgrounds become, positively accepted.
　In conclusion, this paper contends that the “adventure play” frame has appeared in conjunction with a decline in the number of accidents, and it suggests the ambivalent relationship between risk and children. Namely, the ambivalence is inherent in the belief that risks ought to be removed from the playground, but children should also be introduced to exciting play. The paper suggests that the frame of risk managemen that views non playground places as spaces of adventure is underdeveloped.

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　This paper aims to analyze the narratives of so-called "freeters" and their unintended consequences. Freeters are young people who work on a part-time basis without securing a permanent job. They are currently the focus of much discussion in Japan and their way of life is often associated with laziness, irresponsibility, and daydreaming. To avoid ascribing the entire problem to freeters' nature, I point out the significance of a social discourse that leads them to their unique lifestyle. Freeters often emphasize that they are doing (or trying to find) what they really want to do. Their choice of work is based on their belief that having an enjoyable job will prevent them from quitting. They evaluate freeters who have or are trying to find their dream job as "good" and freeters who do not have such a motivation as "bad." It is, however, ironic that their obsession with "what I want to do" makes it more difficult for them to achieve their goals.This unintended consequence is a result of three factors. The more they are fascinated with the idea of "what I want to do," the more it becomes difficult a) for them to identify what their goals really are, b) for them to change their lifestyle, and c) for others to suggest different ways of life.The narratives of freeters, and especially their stress on "what I want to do," imply that they have no other choice than to find it, facing the fact that the working conditions in Japanese society are severe and that there is little variety in the jobs that are available to them.

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　The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the synthetic use of Frazier's human ecological method by reorganizing his work in terms of "natural area", and the aspects of time space, which are basic characteristics of human ecology. We hold that the "climax" stage of the human ecological method can be found not in the work of C. R. Shaw, but in that of E. F. Frazier, and we seek to reevaluate the modern "empirical" social theories of time and space.
　We begin by reviewing "Black" sociology and human ecology, and the non-affinity between them in the early Chicago School of sociology. Then we proceed to examine the "climax" stage of Frazier's human ecological method.
　The "natural area" that Frazier used in The Negro Family in Chicago is "the South Side Negro Community" as a sub-area of the city of Chicago. In terms of temporal aspects, Frazier dealt with migration, mobility, succession, and four types of interaction (competition, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation). In those cases, there was a process of disorganization and reorganization of "Negro" lives. For spatial aspects, Frazier used the methods of zonal organization and gradient, deliberated on functional structures, and interpreted spatial distribution. Frazier was the first person to study the mechanism of social differentiation in a given community in a way that went beyond racial characteristics.
　We conclude that Frazier's work represents a synthesis of the human ecological method of the early Chicago School of sociology. In some sub-fields of contemporary sociology, there are studies that use the concepts of human ecological method. These methods of human ecology offer a basis of comparison not only in qualitative studies but also in quantitative studies. Frazier's human ecological method was not only the "climax" of the early Chicago School; it could also turn out to be the "rudiments" of fruitful modernistic research.

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