Japanese Journal of Sociology最新文献

This paper explores the career development process of women in postwar Japan who belonged to the Shufuren (the Association of Consumer Organization), the homemakers' federation, and who became experts in everyday life through studying and researching to improve their lives. It analyzes the organizational chart, hours and fundings for activities, details of activities, formation of the cooperative relationships, and career development of the leaders. The women who gathered at the Shufuren studied and researched the issues that arose in daily lives. By accumulating survey and research data and presenting scientific evidence, they made requests and proposals for improvements to the Diet, governments, and industries. Through these activities, they contributed to establish laws and systems protecting consumer rights. The women also developed partnerships with other civic groups in sharing current social issues. They expanded the circle of the movement and asserted their demands to the Diet, government agencies, industries, and the public. The members grew as experts in everyday life by steadily building their careers with passion for daily activities. Their activities were not limited to the Shufuren; some women went beyond the Shufuren to become leaders of organizations. Conventionally, homemakers are viewed as not having career development aspirations. When discussing women's career development in Japan, attention has focused on career development through work and balancing work and family life. However, the activities and steps taken by the female members of the Shufuren to improve their lives should also be considered a form of career development.

This article explores the paradoxical nature of beauty consultant careers in Japan. Despite being considered a “woman-friendly” occupation, it reveals the challenging aspects of this profession in a neoliberal context. Japan's gender gap in employment is stark, with women often engaged in precarious positions, earning significantly less than men. The beauty industry, perceived as advancing women's empowerment, presents opportunities for women in management roles. However, the profession of a beauty consultant demands continuous beauty upkeep, making it a potentially unsustainable career. The research draws on interviews with former and current beauty consultants, supplemented by statistical data and observational research. It highlights their working environment, including entry requirements, training, career advancement, and aesthetic labor demands such as wearing company uniforms, using specific makeup, and maintaining a youthful appearance. Despite a seemingly supportive environment with maternity leave and career advancement prospects, the research reveals the reality of aesthetic labor demands, limited career progression, and challenges faced by women in sustaining their careers after life events like childbirth. Neoliberal norms impact these women, emphasizing self-fulfillment, maintaining youth and beauty, and working post life events. In conclusion, the research offers insights into the gendered labor dynamics in Japan and broadens understanding of women's labor in the neoliberal context. It calls for a deeper examination of “woman-friendly” workplaces and underscores the need to recognize the challenges women face in career progression in such environments.

This study conducts an in-depth analysis of Japanese women entrepreneurs' career formation, examining how they navigate the acquisition of essential capital, such as human, cultural, social, and financial, to initiate and sustain their business ventures. It delves into the societal and cultural barriers in Japan, drawing comparisons with South Korea to shed light on the factors contributing to the relatively low engagement of Japanese women in entrepreneurship. Interviews were conducted with 69 women entrepreneurs, unveiling diverse career trajectories and underscoring the significant impact of life events on their decision to pursue entrepreneurship. This study covers the numerous challenges these women face, from societal expectations to balancing family and work, and it considers how they creatively overcome them. The findings of this study not only highlight the resilience and resourcefulness of Japanese women entrepreneurs but also indicate the implications for policy and practice to foster a more supportive environment for women's entrepreneurial endeavors in Japan and similar contexts.

This study examines the impact of working from home on how the working hours of full-time employees varied by task characteristics during the first COVID-19 state of emergency in Japan. One of the employment issues during the COVID-19 pandemic was which type of job maintained working hours despite the spread of infection. Research in various countries argued that working from home effectively maintained normal business operations without interruption. However, Japan's situation regarding working from home and maintaining working hours during the pandemic differed. Under the first state of emergency, the government strongly promoted work-from-home measures for office workers, regardless of the tasks they were responsible for at their workplaces. In cases where a task was incompatible with working remotely, work stagnated or ceased entirely, which was reflected in the hours worked. This study considered shortened work hours by not maintaining full-time work hours during the emergency period as an indicator of the dysfunctional state of business operations. The results demonstrated that work-from-home arrangements resulted in shortened work hours if the tasks of workers were incompatible with the scheme. We further revealed a tendency in which work-from-home arrangements were discontinued after the emergency period when it involved shortened work hours during the emergency period. The results suggested that work-from-home settings are not sustainable beyond emergency situations unless business operations function as indicated by maintaining full-time work hours.

This study investigated the association between mentoring and creativity among male and female office workers. A web survey was administered to individuals aged 20–59 years using the survey monitors of an internet company; 2106 valid responses (1048 men and 1058 women) were analyzed to examine the association between mentoring and creativity. A three-way analysis of covariance was conducted using mentoring, gender, and managerial status as the independent variables, which were adjusted for occupation. The analysis of the main effects showed that mentored individuals had higher creativity than nonmentored individuals, regardless of gender or managerial status. In addition, managers had significantly higher creativity than nonmanagers. There was no significant difference in creativity between men and women. The interaction effect of gender and managerial status was significant, and the analysis of the simple main effects indicated that male nonmanagers had higher creativity than female nonmanagers, whereas no significant gender difference was found between male and female managers. The difference in the creativity score between mentored and nonmentored female managers was 0.467, whereas the difference between mentored and nonmentored male managers was 0.357; this suggests that mentoring is critical, particularly for female managers. The primary focus of mentoring research has been the role of mentoring in promoting career-related behaviors and attitudes. This study illustrates the potential to enhance creativity, which is an asset for working women in managing challenges after COVID-19.

The issue of “gender integration” within the military organization has long been a major research topic in military sociology. In the last two decades, however, specific topics such as “gender mainstreaming,” “diversity management,” and “diversity and inclusion” have pervaded sociological studies on military organizations. In this article, I examine the current state of gender integration in the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), focusing on efforts to promote gender mainstreaming. In particular, following the National Action Plan to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 was formulated in 2015, the Ministry of Defense issued the JSDF Female Personnel Empowerment Initiative in 2017, in which previous challenges for career development of female SDF personnel were to be removed by making virtually all job categories available for women including combat pilot, missile boat crew, and tank driver. While the number and ratio of female personnel have increased and their prospects of career development have substantially improved in the last few years, work–life conflict and sexual/power harassment remain to be challenging issues for the retention of female personnel. Due to the deep-rooted male-dominant organizational culture of the military organization, further organizational challenges remain for JSDF to shift its overarching human resource management paradigm from “Diversity 1.0” to “Diversity 2.0,” with the strong commitment of top leaders to innovate organizational culture.

This paper analyzes the shift in career strategies among Japanese women due to the globalization of Japan's economy since the 1980s. It highlights how economic changes led to a gender-based division of labor, propelling women to seek opportunities abroad. The research draws on interviews with 81 women who moved to financial centers in East Asia, mainly in Hong Kong and Shanghai, examining their experiences in the workforce, the impact of human resource agencies in their migration, and the challenges and opportunities they encountered. The study reveals a complex landscape where Japanese women navigate gendered expectations and discrimination both in Japan and abroad in pursuit of career advancement. The conclusion emphasizes three points. First, women found opportunities abroad to do what they wanted, even if it was not what they initially expected before leaving Japan. Second, although supportive and subordinate to male managers, their work was indispensable to the management of Japanese companies abroad. Their contribution has long been underestimated but needs to be considered. Third, the experience abroad gave them direct interaction with various clients and colleagues and a view of rapid societal change in Hong Kong and China, contributing to choosing their diverse career trajectories and life plans.

Over the last 3 decades, the emergence of Japanese–Filipino children, born from the presence of female entertainers holding the “entertainer” residency status, has profoundly shaped the dynamic movement of individuals between Japan and the Philippines. These distinctive migration patterns have been regarded as noteworthy “social issues” within both Japanese and Philippine contexts. This study aims to illuminate the multifaceted roles assumed by support organizations in addressing this phenomenon. This article draws from collaborative research conducted with three prominent organizations primarily located in the Philippines, dedicated to providing assistance and empowerment to Japanese–Filipino children and their mothers. This paper delves into the diverse functions that support organizations undertake within the context of migration between these two countries. In summary, this paper discerns several key roles that support organizations have undertaken in the migration between Japan and the Philippines. First, these NGOs contribute to shaping the discourse surrounding the challenges associated with entertainers and Japanese–Filipino children, thus influencing perceptions of these issues. Second, these support organizations serve as transformative spaces for former entertainer women returning to their home countries, aiding them and their offspring in undergoing identity shifts and personal growth. Finally, while these organizations strive to combat human trafficking and exploitative migration, unintended consequences have led to the direct and/or indirect mediation of the younger generation's movement to Japan. In essence, this research underscores the intricate roles that support organizations play in mediating the intricate web of migration dynamics between Japan and the Philippines.

Although sociological neoinstitutionalist thought has made indelible imprints across the social sciences in Japan, its incorporation into Japanese sociology at large has been relatively limited, and its broader applications to analyses of global social phenomena using World Society Theory are even less prominent. To empirically gauge the emergence, growth, content evolution, and production/consumption patterns of this scholarship, sociological neoinstitutionalist works published across the 1977–2021 period by authors affiliated with Japanese institutions were manually coded for content, marquee publications/authors cited, primary author's final degree discipline, and publication's outlet field. The article briefly introduces core ideas in sociological neoinstitutionalism and World Society Theory before delving into the survey details and results, an explanation for the literature's distinctive pattern of incorporation into Japanese sociology, and concluding thoughts on its theoretical implications for Japanese sociology and beyond. The study finds that this scholarship has been produced and consumed primarily throughout—in declining order—business-related fields, education, and sociology. As its incorporation diversified in the mid-1990s, bifurcation occurred between a growing share of “middle-of-the-road” sociological neoinstitutionalist scholarship that embraced the range of ideas that broke from the “old” institutionalisms, and a small and declining share that pushed the phenomenological and social constructionist thrust of the theory to its limits and/or acknowledged the perspective's global-comparative applicability. These patterns seem to track the concomitant theoretical, substantive, and methodological inclinations within the discipline in Japan. Sociological neoinstitutionalist thought holds promise for a range of research areas interested in exploring domestic and global determinants of social change.