NEW RISKS, OLD WELFARE Japanese university students, work-related anxieties and sources of support
Not unlike many European societies in the 1970s and 1980s, Japan went through a rapid process of postindustrialization in the 1990s and 2000s. Whilst the implications were wide-ranging, young (would-be) labour market entrants were among the most affected groups: youth unemployment more than doubled, as did the prevalence of non-standard employment. Simultaneously, how to remain in employment and achieve work-life balance became serious concerns for women especially. This article builds on existing research as well as interviews with 38 university students in Kyoto to capture key features of such 'new risks' in Japan. Alongside intriguing gender and class differences, we find that the short- and long-term anxieties many students face have not yet been countered with public policy innovations. Emerging support measures outside the context of the family and the company remain not only inadequate but also largely unknown to students.
Social Exclusion and Earlier Disadvantages: An Empirical Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Japan
This paper is one of the first attempts in Japan to define and measure the extent of poverty and social exclusion in the country. It makes use of data from a 2006 survey of 600 households which was carefully designed to capture incidents of different dimensions of poverty and social exclusion, such as income poverty, material deprivation, exclusion from public services, lack of social relations, inadequate housing, lack of activities and subjective poverty. The paper's main findings can be summarized as follows. First, sections of the population which are most vulnerable to social exclusion are not necessarily vulnerable in terms of income poverty. Second, disadvantages at earlier stages of life seem to exert influence on some aspects of current social exclusion, even after controlling for current income, occupation and household type. One of the most interesting results of the analysis is that the variable indicating poverty at age 15 has a positive and significant effect on one's current lack of basic needs (food, clothing and medical care), even after controlling for current income, age, sex, household type and experiences of divorce and layoff. This indicates that poverty during childhood not only influences adult well-being via education and occupation (and thus, income) but there is also a path which connects childhood poverty and adult social exclusion directly.
The Need For A Sacred Science
The meaning of a science rooted in the sacred, its contrast to modern science and its pertinence to us today.