Carola Hommerich - Social Change in Japan, 1989-2019

Based on extensive survey data, this book examines how the population of Japan has experienced and processed three decades of rapid social change from the highly egalitarian high growth economy of the 1980s to the economically stagnating and demographically shrinking gap society of the 2010s. It discusses social attitudes and values towards, for example, work, gender roles, family, welfare and politics, highlighting certain subgroups which have been particularly affected by societal changes. It explores social consciousness and concludes that although many Japanese people identify as middle class, their reasons for doing so have changed over time, with the result that the optimistic view prevailing in the 1980s, confident of upward mobility, has been replaced by people having a much more realistic view of their social status.

Carola Hommerich is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Sophia University, Japan.

Naoki Sudo is Professor in the Faculty of Law at Gakushuin University, Japan.

Toru Kikkawa is Professor in the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University, Japan.

Zainichi Korean Women in Japan

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Jackie J. Kim-Wachutka

Japanese Culture Through Videogames

Rachael Hutchinson

Social Trauma, Narrative Memory and Recovery in Japanese Literature and Film

David C. Stahl

Cultural and Social Division in Contemporary Japan

Bridging Social Division

Edited by Yoshikazu Shiobara, Kohei Kawabata and Joel Matthews

Locating Heisei in Japanese Fiction and Film

The Historical Imagination of the Lost Decades

Marc Yamada

Masculinity and Body Weight in Japan

Grappling with Metabolic Syndrome

Genaro Castro-Vzquez

New Frontiers in Japanese Studies

Edited by Akihiro Ogawa and Philip Seaton

Social Change in Japan, 19892019

Social Status, Social Consciousness, Attitudes and Values

Edited by Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo and Toru Kikkawa

Avant-Garde and Nondominant Thought in Postwar Japan

Image, Matter, and Separation

Kenichi Yoshida

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Routledge-Contemporary-Japan-Series/book-series/SE0002

Edited by Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo and Toru Kikkawa

First published 2021

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2021 selection and editorial matter, Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo and Toru Kikkawa; individual chapters, the contributors

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ISBN: 978-0-367-35377-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-33107-7 (ebk)

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Yuto Hashizume is Researcher at Tobacco Academic Studies Center, Tokyo. He received a PhD in Human Sciences (Sociology) from the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University. In his current research he focuses on social inequality and luxury grocery items (i.e. tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, etc.) in Japan, especially in the context of job status and subjective well-being, as well as determinants of consumerism of luxury grocery items and their social role. Recent publications include Shohi, Bunka toshite no Shikhin Sesshu [Usage of luxury grocery items as consumption and cultural activity] (Shakai to Chsa [Advances in social research] (22): 6578, 2019).

Ryotaro Hazama is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Policy Studies at Nanzan University, Nagoya. In the past, he has served as Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University. He holds a PhD in Human Sciences (Sociology) from Osaka University. In his current research he focuses on young people in Japan, especially on the connection between their socioeconomic status and social consciousness. Recent publications include Genzaishik ga jakunens no otonashisa ni ataeru eiky: Seijiininishiki to kakusa kteishiki ni chmoku shite [The Effect of Present-orientation on Japanese Youths Quietness: Focusing on Political Delegation and Neoliberal Perception of Inequality] (Soshioroji 62(1): 7995, 2017) and Bundanshakai to wakamono no ima [Disparity Society and Young Peoples Present] (Osaka University Press, 2019 edited with Toru Kikkawa).

Mari Higuchi is Associate Professor at the Laboratory of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo. She received her PhD in Human Sciences (Sociology) from Osaka University in 2015, investigating social values that allow social exclusion of people with severe mental health problems. Her core research interest is the relation between social values and the process of social devaluation/revaluation of certain groups. In her current research, she focuses on social inclusion, vulnerability of people with disabilities or diseases, social norms relating to suicide, care labour, gender inequality and welfare policies. Recent publications are: Dependence on Cultural Contexts of the Factors Influencing Social Acceptance towards Schizophrenia: Evidence from comparative study between Japan and Vietnam (Asian Social Science, 11(22):187202, 2015), Discovery of Place to Belong in Recovery Process of Persons with Schizophrenia: Combination of Grounded Theory Approach and QDA Software Atlas.ti (