Social Movements and Political Activism in Contemporary Japan
This book explores social movements and political activism in contemporary Japan, arguing that the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident marks a decisive moment, which has led to an unprecedented resurgence in social and protest movements and inaugurated a new era of civic engagement. Offering fresh perspectives on both older and more current forms of activism in Japan, together with studies of specific movements that developed after Fukushima, this volume tackles questions of emerging and persistent structural challenges that activists face in contemporary Japan. With attention to the question of where the new sense of contention in Japan has emerged from and how the newly developing movements have been shaped by the neo-conservative policies of the Japanese government, the authors ask how the Japanese experience adds to our understanding of how social movements work, and whether it might challenge prevailing theoretical frameworks.
David Chiavacci is Professor in Social Science of Japan at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research interest is the economic and political sociology of contemporary Japan.
Julia Obinger is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford, Skoll Centre of Social Entrepreneurship. Her research interests are ethical and sustainable consumption and new forms of political engagement in Japan.
The Mobilization Series on Social Movements, Protest, and Culture
Series editor: Professor Hank Johnston, San Diego State University, USA.
Published in conjunction with Mobilization: An International Quarterly , the premier research journal in the field, this series publishes a broad range of research in social movements, protest and contentious politics. This is a growing field of social science research that spans sociology and political science as well as anthropology, geography, communications and social psychology. Enjoying a broad remit, the series welcomes works on the following topics: social movement networks; social movements in the global South; social movements, protest and culture; personalist politics, such as living environmentalism, guerrilla gardens, anticonsumerist communities and anarchist-punk collectives; and emergent repertoires of contention.
www.routledge.com/The-Mobilization-Series-on-Social-Movements-Protest-and-Culture/book-series/ASHSER1345
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Social Movements and Political Activism in Contemporary Japan
Re-emerging from Invisibility
Edited by David Chiavacci and Julia Obinger
Social Movements and Political Activism in Contemporary Japan
Re-emerging from Invisibility
Edited by David Chiavacci and
Julia Obinger
First published 2018
by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chiavacci, David, editor. | Obinger, Julia, editor.
Title: Social movements and political activism in contemporary Japan : re-emerging from invisibility / edited by David Chiavacci and Julia Obinger.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2018. | Series: The mobilization series on social movements, protest, and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048348 | ISBN 9781138091931 (hbk) | ISBN 9781315107790 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Social movementsJapanHistory. | Political participationJapanHistory.
Classification: LCC HN723.5 .S5786 2018 | DDC 303.48/40952dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048348
ISBN: 978-1-138-09193-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10779-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
DAVID CHIAVACCI AND JULIA OBINGER
PATRICIA G. STEINHOFF
SIMON AVENELL
GABRIELE VOGT
APICHAI W. SHIPPER
KICHI HASEGAWA
CARL CASSEGRD
AYAKA LSCHKE
ROBIN ODAY, DAVID H. SLATER AND SATSUKI UNO
Simon Avenell is an associate professor at the Australian National University. In 2010, the University of California Press published his monograph, Making Japanese Citizens: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan . He works on civic thought and activism in Japan. His latest book is Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement (2017).
Carl Cassegrd is an associate professor at the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg. He is a social movement scholar and cultural sociologist who is currently researching Japanese social movements with a focus on the environmental movement. He is the author of Shock and Naturalization in Contemporary Japanese Literatur e (2007) and Youth Movements, Trauma and Alternative Space in Contemporary Japan (2014).
David Chiavacci is Professor in Social Science of Japan at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research covers economic sociology, political sociology and sociology of knowledge of contemporary Japan. He is known for his publications on Japans social inequality and its new immigration. His recent publications include Social Inequality in Post-growth Japan: Transformation during Economic and Demographic Stagnation (2017, co-edited with Carola Hommerich).
Kichi Hasegawa is a professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Letters at Tohoku University. He serves as a president of the International Sociological Associations Research Committee 24 on Environment and Society and as vice-president of the Japan Sociological Society. He has published many articles and books on civil society, social movements, social change and environmental sociology. His recent works include Beyond Fukushima: Toward a Post-Nuclear Society (2015).
