Japanese Attitudes Research Articles

The Relationship Between University Education and Pro-Immigrant Attitudes Varies by Generation: Insights From Japan

Abstract While there is lively debate on whether higher education cultivates support for immigrants in North America and Western Europe, there is little discussion on the extent to which the relationship generalizes beyond these continents. In light of Japan’s growing reliance on foreign workers, increase in university enrollment rates, as well as efforts to internationalize universities over the last half-century, we explore the relationship between university education and Japanese attitudes toward immigrants. Using two surveys asking an overlapping set of questions in 2009 and 2022, we find the relationship between university education and pro-immigrant attitudes varies by generation. Otherwise positive connections are significantly weakened for Japanese who entered universities in the 1990s through 2000s. Even though Japan is a modern democracy with well-developed higher education institutions, these institutions do not always correlate with more supportive attitudes toward immigrants. Our findings underscore the dynamic nature of higher education’s role in shaping public opinion outside of North America and Western Europe.

Narrative premiums in policy persuasion

AbstractSurvey experiments have shown mixed results about the effect of information provision on attitudes toward controversial policies. We argue that one reason is varied receptiveness to different modes of information. Prior research suggests that people selectively ignore factual, statistical information that contradicts prior beliefs but are more attentive to narrative information that describes individual experiences. We test this in the context of Japanese attitudes toward poverty relief programs, which are less popular than other welfare expenditures. Using a conjoint survey, we show that there is a “narrative premium”: Respondents who are shown a narrative story about the plight of a single mother are more likely to support higher expenditures on poverty relief than those who are shown statistical information about the share of single parents living in poverty. This premium is particularly effective in strengthening the convictions of those who are already aware of levels of societal poverty.

Reporting the real names of juvenile offenders: A study of Japanese perspectives through the lens of symbolic discrimination

This study examined Japanese attitudes toward reporting the real names of juvenile offenders, through the lens of symbolic discrimination. This topic has attracted much attention in recent literature. As extant research suggests that the Japanese public considers Japan's Juvenile Law to be outdated, we hypothesized that the notion of symbolic discrimination—which argues that juveniles should not be treated differently from adults—would be related to attitudes toward real-name reportage. After an online survey of 961 Japanese people aged 14 years and older, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate attitudes toward real-name reportage of and symbolic discrimination against juvenile offenders, including appropriate punishment for bad behavior (balance) and adversity experienced by juvenile offenders (adversity). The results showed that, in addition to several of the participants' beliefs about and perceptions of juvenile offenders and crimes, balance was associated with support for real-name reportage, demonstrating that symbolic discrimination was related to support for the same.

Japanese attitudes toward risk control in seismic design in light of observation, prediction, and actual performance of building structures

AbstractDespite recent international efforts toward a risk‐conscious approach to advancing seismic design, Japan, a country very prone to earthquakes, remains conservative regarding the consideration of risk‐based seismic hazards in developing seismic designs. This article attempts to interpret the reasons. First, the evolution of Japanese seismic design codes and specifications is introduced, noting that the design seismic loads have remained essentially the same since the revisions implemented in 1981. Second, Japanese efforts in providing and renewing seismic hazard maps are briefly introduced and discussed. The maps have been developed using the data recorded by Japanese strong motion networks. Some unique challenges in preparing seismic hazard maps for the territory of Japan are presented, in light of the observations of actual earthquakes in the past three decades. On many occasions, the damage disclosed in modern buildings remained limited even when the recorded ground motions significantly exceeded the design earthquake level. An inherent conservatism is embedded in the performance criteria imposed on structural systems and elements. Third, political‐legal and sociocultural aspects are discussed. Centralized operation is commonly exercised in Japan for post‐disaster relief efforts, and the general public also values “equality” for such support. The factors naturally encourage cautiousness for the revision of relevant seismic codes and specifications.

The Changes of Japanese Attitude toward Law and Legal System

This paper compares and analyses the results of a social survey on legal attitudes conducted from January to February 2022 among Japanese citizens (aged 18 or older) nationwide (hereinafter referred to as the 2022 survey) as a follow-up to the 1976 survey and the 2005 survey, which were conducted in previous years. The 2022 survey focused on three lower-level attitudes that constitute legal attitudes: 1. flexibility; 2. naïve moral sentiment (naïve morality); and 3. severe punishment orientation. First, we examined the attitude toward flexibility, especially the legal attitude toward flexibility in contracts. And we found that the majority of respondents in the 2022 survey, regardless of gender or generation, demanded strictness when concluding contracts, but flexibility when executing contracts. This result is almost the same as in the 1976 and 2005 surveys. Regarding the naïve moral sentiment, a change was observed in the 2022 survey, with a decrease among males aged 60 and over and an increase among females in their 20s. The proportion of eachpattern accounted for by the combination of flexibility, naïve moral sentiment and severe punishment orientation in the 2022 survey did not differ significantly from the 1976 and 2005 surveys.

External Threats and Public Opinion: The East Asian Security Environment and Japanese Views on the Nuclear Option

AbstractThe Japanese public has been assumed to possess a deeply ingrained aversion toward the acquisition of nuclear weapons. We employ a survey experiment to ascertain whether this aversion is unconditional or may erode in the face of hypothetical deterioration in Japan's security situation, and in particular a hypothetical withdrawal of the US security-nuclear umbrella, increased North Korean nuclear weapons testing activities, and movement by South Korea toward the attainment of a nuclear arsenal. We find that the Japanese nuclear aversion may come under stress in the face of such developments. Additionally, we find that the elasticity of Japanese attitudes with respect to the nuclear option in the face of external security deterioration may be associated with an important individual-level demographic characteristic, namely, gender.

Comparison of public attitudes toward five alternative proteins in Japan

Alternative proteins (or alternative meats) have attracted much recent attention from the food sector and the public. Although many studies have investigated public attitudes toward alternative proteins in Western countries, there have been few such surveys in Japan. Additionally, relatively few analyses have compared between ones of different alternative proteins. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate Japanese attitudes toward the alternative proteins of insects, plant-based meat, cultured meat, milk alternatives, and microalgae. We conducted an online questionnaire survey (N = 5,000) with respondents from all over Japan. Results showed that social acceptance of plant-based meat was the highest (70.2%), followed by microalgae (57.8%) and milk alternatives (50.8%) and social acceptance of insect protein was the lowest (19.5%), followed by cultured meat (40.9%). Our comparative analysis of image associations showed that insect protein had a distinctly negative image among the alternative proteins. Further, our survey found that the level of scientific interest was the critical common factor in determining the attitudes toward these foods. Daily consumption of foods, age and gender affected the attitudes toward various alternative proteins. More than 40.0% of participants wanted labeling regulation for all alternative proteins by the government, in a relatively similar pattern among different types of alternative proteins. Our results would contribute to understanding public attitudes toward alternative proteins, which is helpful in practicing science communication for the meat industry, food sectors, and policymakers.

“Violated Angels”: Japan, Sadism, and Angela Carter’s Sadistic Orientalism

Abstract This essay examines Angela Carter’s private journals and the British Library’s 2000 pages of letters from her time in Japan to explore Carter’s evolving thinking about the intersections between race, gender, power, and sexuality, from casual expressions of racist stereotypes in the early works through a more radical interrogation of those stereotypes, to a later, more intersectional approach to feminism and race. It explores her uncollected writings for men’s magazines, such as Men Only and Club International, where she describes Japanese attitudes towards sexuality and the practice of irezumi, Japanese tattooing, which she analyzes as an index of a Japanese culture of “repression, narcissism, masochism and superstition” (“Irezumi” 96).

Chapter Three: The Japanese attitude towards China

Strategic links between Japan and Europe during the Cold War were limited. During this period the IISS helped bridge the gap between the two, exposing its membership base to the international affairs of Asia and Japan and providing Japanses scholars, strategists and diplomats with a platform from which to amplify their voices in the West. Analyses by these experts often appeared in IISS publications, but the Institute also gained key insights through its well-established conferences and lecture series. These initiatives illuminated Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives on contemporary critical issues in Japan’s and Asia’s foreign, security and defence policy.This Adelphi book, through its collection of earlier analysis, helps the reader to understand the evolution of Japanese strategic thought from the 1960s until today, and shines a light on the continuities and changes in this thinking. New, original analysis of the material seeks to identify areas where such thinking was prescient and remains relevant to the contemporary strategic environment, and other areas where predictions failed or assumptions were proved wrong. These new essays were also informed by interviews of Japanese senior scholars and diplomats who spent time with the IISS. This book seeks to frame, educate and guide strategic thinking on the most pressing issues of today, both in and outside Japan and Asia, and will be of great interest to analysts, practitioners and students of international affairs.

Japanese attitude toward insects as food: The role of tradition

This study investigated the influence of traditional insect food culture on the acceptance of novel insect foods by comparing a sample from the Kanto area (N = 485) as representative of the Japanese population, and a sample from Nagano Prefecture (N = 198), where entomophagy remains relatively commonly practiced. More than half of the Japanese participants had insect-eating experience (52.0% in the Kanto area, 81.8% in Nagano); however, among them, less than half were currently willing to eat insect foods. Furthermore, when questioned about the dietary substitution of meat and fish with insects, only 7.0% in the Kanto area and 15.7% in Nagano answered positively. Although the regions with a strong insect culture had a higher percentage of people who accepted traditional insect foods, the percentage of people who accepted novel insect foods was not significantly different between the two regions. Results of the regression analysis suggested that food neophobia and food technology neophobia have relatively positive impacts on willingness to eat novel insect foods in Nagano. However, concerns about the taste of insects owing to the experience of eating traditional insect foods counteracted this effect, indicating both positive and negative effects of tradition. Regression analysis of willingness-to-eat and willingness-to-substitute for edible insects suggested that the key to getting people to incorporate insects into their diets is not only to create awareness of the relationship between using insect foods and environmental conservation, but also to dispel concerns about the hygiene of insect foods and develop insect foods with a taste as good as that of meat and fish.

The school education, ritual customs, and reciprocity associated with self-regulating hand hygiene practices during COVID-19 in Japan

BackgroundThe role of social ties, other-regarding preferences, and cultural traits in boosting community resilience and minimizing citizens’ vulnerability to crises such as COVID-19 is increasingly being recognized. However, little is presently known about the possible routes through which such personal preferences and cultural norms pertinent to social behaviors are formulated. Thus, in this paper, factors that can be potentially associated with individuals to self-regulate strict hand hygiene practices before the pandemic, during the state of emergency, and after the state of emergency was lifted in Japan are investigated. Focus is given to the handwashing education in primary school, a cultural practice originating from the old Shinto tradition, and individuals’ reciprocal inclinations. As people in Japan are known to be highly conscious of hygiene in all aspects of their daily life and are less likely to contract an infection, evidence obtained in this specific context could contribute to the better understanding of individuals’ health-related behaviors in general, and during crises in particular.MethodsUsing the data derived from a four-wave nationwide longitudinal online survey, we examined the extent to which elementary school education, childhood cultural experiences at shrines, and individual other-regarding preferences are associated with self-regulating hand hygiene practices prior to the pandemic and people’s efforts to comply with the government-imposed measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection during the state of emergency. We also investigated the long-term trends in the relationships among these factors (i.e., after the abolishment of the state of emergency) using panel data.ResultsOur findings reveal that childhood education and cultural experiences related to handwashing practices, as well as reciprocal inclinations, are significantly associated with Japanese attitudes toward personal hygiene (beyond handwashing practices) prior to, during, and after the state of emergency. In recognition of the possible effects of recall bias and measurement errors, several important attempts to mitigate these issues were made to strengthen the value of our findings.ConclusionsThe importance of school education received during childhood, as well as culture and other-regarding preferences, in the individual attitudes toward hand hygiene in adulthood highlighted in this study contributes to the better understanding of the role that these factors play in the variations in voluntary compliance with strict hand hygiene practices before and during an uncertain and prolonged crisis.

Financing Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in Thailand

This article analyses Thailand's place in Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and how Japan financed its goal of integrating the kingdom into the sphere. Financial arrangements to incorporate Thailand in a yen bloc go well beyond finance to reveal Japanese attitudes and policy towards the Co-Prosperity Sphere. In Thailand, Japan's use of ‘special yen’ created near open-ended Japanese purchasing power. Japan could obtain whatever resources it could ship home but provide Thailand almost no goods in exchange. Although in response to Japanese demands the Thai government printed large quantities of money, prices rose not too much faster than monetary expansion. Thailand, unlike most of wartime Southeast Asia, avoided hyperinflation. It is argued that principal explanations for this economically unexpected stability were Thailand's particular economic structure and the behaviour of Thai peasants.

Modern Technologies and Transformation of Social Work Profession and Education: Insights of Teachers of the Lithuanian and Japanese Higher Education Institutions

This article explores the attitudes of Japanese and Lithuanian social work program teachers towards the challenges posed by modern technologies that may transform social work profession and studies. Study data revealed that scientists from both countries admit that “taming” technologies and optimally “cooperating” with them is the main challenge of social work practice and studies. On the one hand, belief that technological development will provide more opportunities to fulfil the mission of social work was prevalent among the study participants, on the other hand, they had expressed concern that eventually the use of technology will change the essence of social work as a profession of human relations or will create modified forms of social exclusion. Additionally, a niche for the new role of the social worker was identified: to help the world “occupied” by technology remain “social”. Attitudes of research participants from both Lithuania and Japan can be linked to traditional concept of sociality and vision of social work as profession that belongs exclusively to area of human relations. B. Latour’s asocial sociality concept can be applied for broader look into this situation. This concept states that efforts to trace the contribution of actors of an inhuman nature to what belongs in the human world may be more successful when one ceases to view the world exclusively through human eyes and tries to reveal the inner perspectives of phenomena of a mixed nature.

TRAINING AND ACTIVITY OF THE RUSSIAN RANKS OF THE MANCHURIAN POLICE, 1932-1945

This article examines the way the training and service of Russian emigrants in the Manchurian police took place. According to Japanese attitudes, the policy of Manchukuo was in full accordance with the foreign policy course of the Japanese Empire in building the Great East Asian Sphere of Co-prosperity. In this spirit, the indoctrination of all ranks of the Manchurian police took place. Additional work was done with Russian police officers to educate them in strict discipline and anti-communist beliefs, as well as loyalty to the Japanese and Manchurian authorities. The article traces how the ideological education of the Russian police officers of Manchuria was built, as well as their activities to combat banditry in Manchuria.

Gods and Demons of Diseases: Japanese Traditional Views on Epidemics and the Ways of Resistance to Them

The article discusses the mechanisms of protection against infectious diseases that have been employed in Japan through ages, and the religious, social, and individual practices considered effective in the struggle with epidemics. Studying the cultural and ethnoreligious roots of Japanese attitude towards epidemics is particularly relevant these days. The coronavirus pandemic has reanimated the memory of old popular beliefs and actualized traditional, even archaic, rituals and superstitions. Alongside obvious hygienic measures going back to the Shinto rites of purifications, historically, the amplitude of responses (whether on state or local or family levels) oscillated from the ceremonies of appeasing the demons of diseases to the rituals for exorcising them.Besides written historical sources, the main material analyzed in this article is visual: popular woodblock prints with mythological subjects, leaflets on vaccination, children’s toys representing protective characters, and apotropaic amulets. The main focus is on the materials against smallpox and cholera in the early modern period in Japan (the Edo epoch, mainly the 18th—19th centuries) and the mass reaction (not medical but resurrecting traditional superstitions) to the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerning the coronavirus, this is a new academic subject, and as for the analytical studies of visual sources on the magical reaction on epidemics during the Edo time, there are hardly any of them in Russian and quite few of them in other languages, including Japanese.In conclusion, the author posits that along with certain real benefits (like the propaganda, albeit mythologized, for vaccination, or the practices of “self-purification” jishuku of the COVID times), the demonological approach played (and partly plays) the role of a humorous and entertaining instrument that alleviated the sense of menace and insecurity.

Public preferences on immigration in Japan

This paper examines the factors affecting Japanese attitudes toward immigration. Using individual-level survey data, we investigate the impact of both economic/socioeconomic (cognitive) and noneconomic (or noncognitive) factors, the latter including behavioral bias, communication skills, social stance and subjective well-being. The results indicate that individuals that are male, richer, more educated, younger and from smaller families tend to agree with immigration. More importantly, noneconomic factors also matter, with those that have lower time preference, better English language skills and overseas experience tending to be more positive to the perception of immigration. In addition, individuals trusting neighborhoods rather than the government, that make donations to society and that keep in good health tend to be more positive toward immigration.

Can Non-Western University Education Cultivate Immigrant Integration? The Case of Local Enfranchisement for Foreign Residents in Japan

While there is lively debate on whether higher education cultivates support for admitting foreigners into North America and Europe, there is little discussion on the extent to which this relationship generalizes beyond these continents. In light of Japan's growing reliance on foreign workers and the public’s divided opinion on integrating foreigners, we examine the relationship between university education and Japanese attitudes toward local enfranchisement for foreign residents. Using a large-scale online survey with corresponding ZIP codes, we isolate the causal effects of education independent of residential contexts. We further assess mechanisms underlying such effects through causal mediation analysis. Our findings show Japanese university education has limited effect on support for enfranchisement. Even though Japan is also a modern democracy with well-developed higher education institutions, these institutions do not lead to more supportive attitudes toward immigrant integration because they are neither vehicles for liberalization in ideology nor positive affect toward foreigners.

減少する中流意識と変わる日本人の社会観 : ISSP国際比較調査「社会的不平等」・日本の結果から

減少する中流意識と変わる日本人の社会観 : ISSP国際比較調査「社会的不平等」・日本の結果から

Shonen Kurabu and the Japanese Attitude Toward War

The Japanese people’s understanding of the Fifteen Years War (1931–1945) is still problematic. The problem of the war was commonly solved by transferring responsibility for the war to an obscure subject called the State, and by offering financial compensation to those who were directly affected. However, there has been no in-depth discussion of how the Japanese public’s understanding of the war in the period before defeat was modified in the post-war period. This article is a study of the children’s magazine Shonen Kurabu, which gained wide popularity by featuring articles related to war during the early modern era of Japan, including the wartime period, and continued to be published until 1962. By focusing on Shonen Kurabu, this paper explores the close relationship between the mass media and the public attitude toward war, and the handling of the theme of war by both the media and the public.

Psychological characteristics of Japanese attitude toward COVID-19: Sanitary masks and “jishuku” (self-restriction)

Relevance of the article. COVID-19 is a serious global problem, that humanity is facing today. Different countries provide various measures to confront the epidemic. But not only measures differ from country to country, but people’s attitude to this problem is also quite different. In Japan the number of victims is relatively low, and it can be suggested that several socio-psychological factors of the Japanese society underlie this phenomenon. Aim of the current research is to describe psychological measures of confronting COVID-19 in Japan, and to analyze religious, cultural and psychological features of the Japanese people, that could predeterminate the effectiveness of measures conducted by the Japanese government to confront the epidemic. Course of the research. Current article is devoted to the two main features of Japanese policy confronting COVID-19: sanitary masks and self-restriction policy (jishuku). The attitude of the Japanese people to the epidemic, and the measures conducted by the government are analyzed from psychological point of view. Also, basic social and psychological factors that supposedly helped to control the epidemic and the features of governmental policy in confronting COVID-19 are described. Results. Important feature of the Japan’s anti-COVID-19 policy was an absence of strict measures suppressing individual freedom. But in spite of that, government’s appeal for the mask use and social distance was carefully followed by the people. It can be probably explained by a historically based tendency of the Japanese people to conduct themselves in accordance with the social rules, a daily habit of sanitary masks usage, and also a special attitude to cleanliness and hygiene. Conclusion. Fight against COVID-19 requires systematic, coordinated and constructive approach, use of several scientific disciplines, human resources and technological solutions. Probably the Japanese experience in this problem would help international community to confront epidemic.