Japanese Nationals Research Articles

Bilingual behaviour, attitudes, identity and vitality: some data from Japanese speakers in London, UK

Although the Japanese community in London is relatively small, its composition is stable and reflects several aspects of Japan's relationship with the international community. Yet there appears to have been no systematic research exploring patterns of bilingual behaviour in relation to social psychological processes amongst Japanese nationals in London. The 95 participants in this study were all Japanese nationals, who came from three major groups in this community, namely company employees, students and pupils at a Japanese school. They completed a quantitative questionnaire about language use, attitudes to use, proficiency, identity, contact and perceived vitalities in both London and Japan. Although the findings confirmed the dominance of Japanese in proficiency and identity, they also suggested some systematic variance in use and attitudes according to context. Furthermore, while multivariate analyses supported the predictive value of English proficiency for the use of each language, the prediction of English use and attitudes was significantly enhanced by incorporating three factors related to identities and vitalities. Finally, Japanese use and attitudes were also associated with social contact. These findings are discussed with reference to ethnolinguistic identity theory, intergroup and intragroup factors, and the international status of English.

Children of the danchi: a Japanese primary school for newcomers

Practices and policies of Japanese schooling for immigrant and marginalised students are examined through the lens of a primary school which serves one of the largest foreign student populations in Japan. Student families include Southeast Asian refugees, South American immigrants of Japanese descent, recent and longstanding Chinese and Koreans, and low-income Japanese nationals. Years of ethnographic fieldwork in several low-income Japanese urban communities preceded this work, consisting of interviews, site visits, historical documentation and professional consultations. Study of the chosen school offers a snapshot of not only the contested terrain of schooling, but also the larger context of these young peoples’ lives: demands on foreign labourers, shifting and constructed identities, laws that both welcome and constrain. In the midst of apparent chaos, this school attempts to respond to the challenges presented by a system ill-prepared to work with children who are ‘different’.

Gendered Borders: The Historical Formation of Women's Nationality under Law in Taiwan

What does the nation mean to women? How does the law draw national borders, and in what way is it gendered? This paper examines the ways in which women are related to the nation in Taiwan by discussing the legal regulation of nationality. Historically and contemporarily, the decisive and determinative power of the law in choosing members of the nation and in drawing national boundaries shapes women's overall relationship with the nation as an unequal one, as an inequality that is informed by women's subordinate status in the nation. My investigation into the subject of women and nationality in Taiwan reveals, through historical lenses, the ways in which law constructs national membership along gendered lines that subordinate women. Specifically, I examine how a woman's membership to the nation was dependent on her marital status, how citizen-mothers were deprived of the entitlement to define the nation through passing down her nationality, and how the law has been changed to reshape gendered borders. I begin with a discussion on various forms of gender inequality in nationality laws that existed during the Japanese colonial period, which reveals the gendered process of “becoming Japanese nationals,” and the gender politics of Japanese nationality in the context of imperial conquest as exemplified by the intermarriage between Japanese and Taiwanese. Gender inequality under nationality law survived the end of World War II, and new forms of discrimination in the legal regulation of women and national community membership emerged under the Guomindang (GMD) regime. The law confirmed male supremacy in the constitution of the national community by embracing married women's outsiderness and upholding the system of patrilineality. In the new millennium, legal reforms pursued by social movements have effectively reconceptualized national membership in an egalitarian, albeit incomplete, fashion. The new laws empower women's entitlement to national membership, but the extent of this empowerment remains limited. Male dominance in the drawing and redrawing of national borders is preserved through transformation. Discrimination against women functions not according to the old-fashioned mandatory commands but rather by the creation of a regulatory or disciplinary regime that compels a woman to adopt a husband's nationality and children to adopt their father's nationality. The historical retrospect of women's nationality under law hence suggests the necessity of developing new approaches to pursue and promote gender equality in the construction of national community membership.

Impact of age at marriage and migration on HIV and AIDS epidemics in Japan.

The causes of wide variation in the rates of HIV and AIDS epidemics among Japanese and non-Japanese nationals are not well understood. So, this paper examines the associations and assesses the potential roles of mean age at marriage, and migration in the HIV and AIDS epidemics in Japan. For the purpose, bivariate and multivariate regression analysis have been performed using epidemiological panel data to build up the relationships among overall HIV and AIDS prevalence, mean age at marriage, and migration. The same analyses have done for non-Japanese nationals living with HIV and AIDS separately. These indicators were significantly correlated with mean age at marriage, and migration. Multivariate linear regression analysis identified non-Japanese nationals' HIV and AIDS prevalence and mean age at marriage as the two most prominent factors linked with the national HIV and AIDS epidemics. The findings of this study supported the hypotheses that a high average age at marriage in the population leads to long period of premarital sex and the non-Japanese nationals' high prevalence facilitating the spread of the HIV and AIDS epidemics in Japan.

War and interpreters

This paper attempts to shed light on issues of trust, control, ethics and identity concerning military interpreters who use their language skills against the country or people of their own cultural heritage. It examines linguists (translators and interpreters) who worked in military intelligence and operations during the Pacific War and the occupation of Japan, and military linguists involved in the current context of the “global war on terror”. Drawing on Cronin’s notion (2002, 2006) of heteronomous and autonomous interpreting systems, this paper discusses different sourcing avenues of military linguists during and after the Pacific War: Caucasian linguists trained at US military Japanese schools as autonomous, Japanese nationals locally hired for the occupation as heteronomous, andNisei(second-generation Japanese American) linguists as in-between. Parallels and comparisons are drawn between the ambiguous standing of thoseNiseilinguists and the situations of foreign-born US military interpreters and locally hired civilian interpreters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The complex and difficult challenges faced by military interpreters who utilize skills deeply rooted in their heritage against their own people or people of their cultural heritage should be visited in future discussion of government policies for recruiting, training and utilizing heritage language linguists in military settings.

Japanese-North Korean Relations After the Second Pyongyang Summit of 2004

The Second Pyongyang SummitAt the first Japanese-North Korean summit meeting in Pyongyang on September 17, 2002, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il were able to reach agreements on a number of thorny issues which had constituted stumbling blocks in normalizing their relations. Regarding the question of Japan's compensation to North Korea for the suffering inflicted on Koreans during Japan's colonial rule, Pyongyang agreed to accept Tokyo's offer of economic assistance instead of demanding reparations as it had insisted previously. Another major issue in Japanese-North Korean normalization talks from 1991 to 2000 was the suspected abduction of a dozen Japanese nationals by North Korea from the late 1970s to the early 1980s; the purpose was apparently to utilize them as language instructors for training North Korean special agents. As the Japanese national police had collected substantial evidence concerning at least 11 such abductions, Tokyo demanded not only information concerning their whereabouts but also their repatriation to Japan. However, Pyongyang flatly denied any knowledge about these abductions until the summer of 2002. At the Pyongyang summit, Kim reversed Pyongyang's previous position of denial and acknowledged North Korea's responsibility for abducting thirteen Japanese nationals and offered an apology, pledging not to repeat such mistakes. According to Kim, out of thirteen, eight had died, while five were still alive. Regarding the nuclear weapons issue, Kim promised to comply with all international agreements. In addition, Kim also promised to extend Pyongyang's self-imposed moratorium on missile testing beyond 2003. When the Pyongyang Declaration (signed jointly by Koizumi and Kim) incorporating these agreements was announced, many reacted with optimism that Japan and North Korea would be able to normalize diplomatic relations quickly. However, such was not to be the case.Rather, Tokyo-Pyongyang normalization talks were stalemated shortly thereafter, largely due to the revelation of North Korea's secret uranium-based (HEU) nuclear weapons program in October 2002 and the backlash in Japanese public opinion on the abduction issue. North Korea refused to comply with Koizumi's persistent demand to abandon its nuclear weapons program by complying fully with international agreements, including the Pyongyang Declaration of 2002. The Japanese were also enraged by Kim's confession on the abduction of Japanese nationals, especially the shocking news of the death of the eight abductees while in North Korea's custody. As Pyongyang's explanations for the causes of these deaths aroused much suspicion about the credibility of Pyongyang's report,2 many Japanese demanded an accurate and convincing explanation for the circumstances surrounding the death of these abductees.Although Pyongyang returned five surviving Japanese abductees to Japan in October 2002, it was not until the summer of 2004 that Pyongyang agreed to send the family members of these repatriated abductees to Japan for a family reunion. In the meantime, the highly emotional abduction issue was quickly seized upon by Japanese right-wing elements which opposed the normalization of diplomatic relations with North Korea. They maintained that the Pyongyang regime was already posing a serious security threat to Japan with its weapons of mass destruction (WMD). They could not see any justifiable reason for Japan to prop up the communist regime by providing massive economic assistance. Since many nationalistic Japanese shared these views, it was difficult for the Koizumi government to compromise on the abduction issue to normalize Japanese-North Korean relations in spite of Koizumi's professed intention to achieve that goal before stepping down from office in 2006.In an attempt to resolve the outstanding issues in Japanese-North Korean relations, Koizumi decided to visit Pyongyang again on May 22, 2004. …

From Bride to Care Worker?

From Bride to Care Worker?

‘Samurai’ politics: Japanese cultural identity in global sport – The Olympic Games as a representational strategy

Modern Japan has considered global sport an appropriate forum for not only defining the national cultural identity of Japan but also for conducting its international diplomacy. The recent phenomenon of Japanese baseball athletes ‘defecting’ from Japanese leagues to play for the American baseball leagues has often been described in political terms. This paper argues that the current trend of analysing Japanese nationals playing baseball in America in political terms can be historically contextualized by reviewing the bids by Japanese cities for the 1940, 1964, 1998 and 2016 Olympic Games.

Substance Use and Sexual Behaviors among Japanese Tourists, Students, and Temporary Workers in Honolulu, Hawaii

A total of 249 Japanese nationals - tourists (n = 107), students (n = 98), and temporary workers (n = 44) - were recruited at the targeted community venues in Honolulu, Hawaii, and completed a structured survey questionnaire. Reported lifetime sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs infection (10% male and 20% female participants), and HIV infection rates (7%, 2 out of 31 persons tested) were high. Male participants were more likely to practice safe sex with female sex workers than with steady and casual female partners both in Japan and Hawaii. More than 80% of the participants reported having had sex under the influence of alcohol. Multivariate analysis revealed that positive attitudes toward drug use and negative attitudes toward condom use were significantly correlated with the frequency of sex under the influence of drugs with steady partners in the past 12 months. Future HIV/STD prevention intervention programs must target Japanese youths who are planning to visit Hawaii or elsewhere abroad, as well as Japanese high-risk groups (e.g., temporary workers in Hawaii), and provide information about HIV/STD prevention in relation to substance use.

Loyal Patriot? Traitorous Collaborator? The Yun Ch'iho Diaries and the Question of National Loyalty

Loyal Patriot? Traitorous Collaborator?The Yun Chiho Diaries and the Question of National Loyalty Mark E. Caprio In August 2004 Republic of Korea (South Korea) President Roh Moo Hyun called for the creation of a parliamentary commission to identify Koreans who had collaborated with Japan during its thirty-six years of colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula. The crimes of these collaborators, Roh explained, constituted “[a]cts of betrayal in support of imperialist Japan and colonial rule at the time our patriotic forefathers were staking their lives in the fight for the nation [and remain] hidden in the shade of history.”1 Critics accused Roh of attempting to rectify the past “through a political initiative” and warned that his inquiry “would have an explosive and inflammatory effect on the country that might well be hard to control.”2 Disregarding this warning, one year later the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities compiled a list of 3,090 collaborators, and promised to add more names in the near future.3 The term “collaborator,” as used pejoratively to describe someone whose actions or attitudes in support of a foreign occupation can be considered treasonous,4 is controversial primarily because it judges suspect individuals based on a context politically different from that which they committed their alleged crimes. It fails to consider the fact that the accused held a different sense of state and nation than that held by their accusers. It also attempts to render a judgment based on the activities of the accused, and fails to consider the pressures, reasoning, or circumstances that influenced the decisions they made. Timothy Brook notes, “those who appear to have chosen the reality of collaboration may have been engaging in a calculus of options and risks different from the simplicities that hindsight, and the nationalist narrative that thrives on it, hands to us.”5 In the case of Korea, few of the people listed as traitors remain alive to explain their case. A fairer assessment of their alleged betrayal requires a more comprehensive inquiry into the cognitive reasoning and ambitions behind these activities. The case of Yun Ch’iho (1864–1945) offers an appropriate example to test the justice of a collaboration charge precisely because of the complications and ambiguities it presents. Yun’s extensive contacts with Japanese nationals, and the support and assistance he offered to the Japanese colonial government during Japan’s participation in World War II, led to placing his name on various lists of collaborators. But there was an earlier phase in Yun’s life, when previous to Japan’s annexation of the Korean peninsula in 1910 he encouraged political, social, and cultural reform in Korea that established his qualifications as a Korean patriot. A review of his extensive eleven-volume diary that he maintained primarily in English throughout the pre- and post-annexation phases of his life provides a unique insight into his actions and the motivations that influenced them. Collaboration Examined Efforts by Koreans to identify collaborators predate President Roh’s recent campaign. The first post-war attempt to identify pro-Japanese collaborators was brought to a halt in 1949 by the first South Korean President, Syngman Rhee (1948–1960). Over the next four decades, which included the long period of autocratic rule by Park Chung Hee (1961–1979), investigations into collaboration became taboo. The democratization of South Korea starting in the late 1980s, however, helped to revitalize efforts to address collaboration. A three-volume set of biographies of ninety-nine members of the “pro-Japanese faction” (ch’inil p’a) that appeared in 1993 constituted a fresh effort to finally address this issue. Published on the 74th anniversary of Korean people’s most ambitious effort to drive the Japanese from their homeland—the March First (1919) Independence Movement—this project identified the most notorious Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese colonial administration.6 The root of the problem, however, is found in the days that surrounded Japan’s surrender and after the United States and the Soviet Union divided the Korean peninsula. Kim Pong’u, in his introduction to the ch’inilp’a volumes, blames the U.S. administration for Korea’s present plight: In addition to dividing...

Vicarious Traumas: Television and Public Opinion in Japan's North Korea Policy

Critiques often dubious cheerleading of the US war against Iraq have become familiar elements of recent public discourse. However, there have not been many similar analyses of media representations of North Korea. Considering how such representations can shape perceptions of North Korea among the public, academics and policy makers, and how difficult it has been to obtain accurate information on North Korea, this relative paucity is surprising. I address this lacuna by analyzing the role of the Japanese media, particularly television, in generating public perceptions of North Korea. While I focus on Japanese television, several of the implications of the analysis are applicable to media and public opinion in other countries. The caveat is that media coverage of North Korea in Japan has maintained near-saturation levels for the past four to five years, particularly since the build-up to the first Kim Jong U/Koizumi Junichiro Pyongyang summit on September 17, 2002 (hereafter 9/17), at which Kim first acknowledged that North Korea had abducted Japanese nationals in the past. In relative terms, media coverage of North Korea in countries other than Japan and South Korea has been sporadic and thin, in both quantity and quality. There are several works in English on the Japanese media; however, these have often converged around the role of the media in domestic politics or USJapan relations.2 Additionally, the North Korea-Japan binary has often

Relocation and Internment: Civil Rights Lessons from World War II

Beginning in March 1942, three months following the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, and lasting until as many as 16 months following the end of World War II, slightly more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry were excluded, detained, and held in “relocation centers” by the United States government, ostensibly because they were considered a threat to national security. Nearly 70% were American citizens by birth; the rest were Japanese nationals who were legally barred from naturalization because of the de jure racist policies of the time (Daniels, Taylor, and Kitano 1991). Despite this treatment, over 1,200 individuals volunteered to serve in the U.S. armed forces while several thousand others were drafted from the relocation centers. Most served in a segregated unit in the European Theater, while others served as interpreters in the Pacific Theater, all while their families remained behind barbed wire in relocation centers. These individuals served with great distinction within some of the most highly decorated units of the U.S. Army (Crost 1994).

“Korean Japanese”

Until recently, resident Koreans in Japan, former colonial subjects and their offspring, have had only two options for staying in Japan: naturalization, which required assimilation and the adoption of a Japanese identification, or zainichi status, which meant remaining Korean nationals and keeping their own ethnic identity. Choosing the zainichi option was a way for resident Koreans to express their resistance to Japan's naturalization system, which they saw as a legacy of assimilationist colonial policy. In the early 1990s, however, greater numbers of resident Koreans began to seek naturalization. In part, this was because they were beginning to redefine ethnicity as separate from nationality. Thus, they thought, they could retain their Korean identity even after naturalization. This development, coupled with the rise of a multiculturalism movement in Japan, set the stage for the recent emergence of a third option for staying in Japan, “Korean Japanese,” that is, Japanese nationals with Korean ethnic identification. By analyzing articles written by Sakanaka Hidenori, an influential immigration official who has expressed support for the Korean Japanese option, this article demonstrates that this new identity option as presented by government officials is actually in line with the earlier colonial discourse of ethnic hierarchy and assimilation. While cautioning against an easy acceptance of the government's calls for the Korean Japanese option, the author explores its potential for revitalizing the political presence of resident Koreans in Japan.

HIV/AIDS surveillance and prevention studies in Japan: summary and recommendations.

Japan is considered to have a low prevalence of HIV/AIDS, with a cumulative number of 2,556 AIDS cases and 5,140 HIV cases reported by the end of 2002. However, the recent trend of HIV cases shows a substantial increase, particularly among men who have sex with men and youth/young adults. The epidemiology of HIV/AIDS cases in Japan and a summary of current HIV prevention studies are presented based on surveillance data, research papers, and the Japanese government's annual reports on HIV behavioral and intervention studies of MSM, youths, and Japanese nationals who visit or are temporarily staying in the United States or Thailand. Recommendations and suggestions are presented for future HIV prevention research and structural changes in the Japanese government system, which funds HIV/AIDS care and prevention studies.

National Abjection: The Asian American Body on Stage (review)

Reviewed by: National Abjection: The Asian American Body on Stage Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns National Abjection: The Asian American Body on Stag. By Karen Shimakawa. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003. For the past decade, we have seen a burgeoning of scholarly production in Asian American theater and performance studies. Archival and theoretical projects on Asian American theater and performance simultaneously developed at the end of the twentieth century.1 In one decade, we witnessed the publication of groundbreaking anthologies like Between Worlds, edited by Misha Berson, Politics of Life, edited by Velina Hasu Houston, and Unbroken Thread, edited by Roberta Uno. Other publications include collections of Asian American theater work such as Asian American Drama, edited by Brian Nelson, Tokens, edited by Alvin Eng, and But Still, Like Air, I'll Rise, also by Velina Hasu Houston. The presence of Asian American theater work in such recently emergent multi-genre literature anthologies like Bold Words edited by Rajini Srikanth and Esther Iwanaga also testify to the liveliness of the field. At the same time, scholarly publications of and that include Asian American theater and performance began to proliferate: James Moy's Marginal Sights, Josephine Lee's Performing Asian America, Dorinne Kondo's About Face, Yuko Kurahashi's Asian American Culture on Stage, Una Chaudhuri's Staging Place, and Meiling Cheng's In Other Los Angeleses, are among the most notable of such critical studies. A welcome addition to the expanding list of scholarly inquiry into the Asian American stage is Karen Shimakawa's National Abjection: The Asian American Body on Stage. National Abjection is an important intervention, primarily in the fields of performance/theater studies and Asian American Studies. While Shimakawa deploys a range of theories including postcolonial theory and theories of globalization, it is Julia Kristeva's notion of "abjection" that is the primary theoretical anchor grounding her analysis of Asian American work. Shimakawa's coupling of the psychoanalytic dimension of the "abject" with U.S. racial formation [End Page 73] and national concerns enriches the possibilities for interpreting and understanding Asian American theater, performance, and arguably Asian American cultural production in general.2 "Abjection," as defined by Kristeva and deployed in this text by Shimakawa, is "a state and a process," "a national/cultural identity-forming process, as a way of 'reading' Asian Americanness in relation and as a product of U.S. Americanness—that is, as occupying the seemingly contradictory, yet functionally essential, position of consistent element and radical other" (3). In other words, the deployment of "abjection" to understand Asian Americanness helps us to see the place of Asian Americans in U.S. (cultural, political, and social) hegemony, and illuminates Asian Americanness, albeit produced as abject, as constitutive of U.S. nation formation. Shimakawa's discussion of various works by Asian American theater artists, including Yankee Dawg You Die by Phillip Kan Gotanda, 12-1-A by Wakako Yamauchi, The Year of the Dragon and Chickencoop Chinaman by Frank Chin, Talk-Story by Jeannie Barroga, Tea by Velina Hasu Houston, and Deshima and Chinoiserie by Ping Chong, elucidates her thesis of Asian American abjection. In her introduction, Shimakawa analyses critical historical moments in Asian American history to delineate how Asian Americans have been made abject within the U.S. national context. Her discussion of the internment of Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans in World War II and the U.S. government's denial of citizenship (and hence benefits) to Filipinos who fought for the U.S. government in World War II sets up her argument of Asian Americans as abject vis-a-vis U.S. nation formation. This engagement with historical events is important given the underlying questions that animate National Abjection: "what is the connection between histories of nationalization/racialization/gendering, and theatrical performance? What can being attentive to the processes of national abjection tell us about performances that take place within the nation? Conversely, what can performance tell us about national abjection? And perhaps most important, what can performance do to/about that process?" (163). Throughout her analysis of the very emergence of contemporary Asian American theater and various play texts, Shimakawa decisively demonstrates how Asian American artists have mobilized the...

Memories of Internment: Narrating Japanese Canadian Women's Life Stories

Abstract: This paper attempts to bridge the dichotomy of historical truth and personal recollection by exploring the sociological concept of memory. Drawing on 30 oral testimonies of Nisei (second generation) Japanese Canadian women, I explore the diverse and often complex ways in which Nisei women remember the internment, with particular attention to the intermingling of pest and present, the relationship between teller and listener, as well as the layering of personal and public narratives, in the construction of these memories. The theme of silence and telling is also explored, with the understanding that the literacization of memories is always a political act. Resume: Cet article essaie de relier la dichotomie de la > et des souvenirs personnels an explorant le concept sociologique de la memoire. M'inspirant de 30 temoignages oraux de femmes canadiennes japonaises Nisei (deuxieme generation), j'explore les manieres variees et souvent complexes dont les femmes Nisei se souviennent de l'internement, en accordant une attention toute speciale au melange entre le passe et le present, a la relation entre le narrateur et l'auditeur et a la superposition de narrations personnelles et publiques dans la reconstruction de ces souvenirs. Le theme du silence et de la narration y est aussi explore en sachant que toute transposition par ecrit de souvenirs represante toujoars an acte politique. Basically, my experiences are through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old. And over the years maybe I've embellished things a bit or I've been able to rationalize why things had to be done that way, to a point. But I also know that there could have been a better way of doing it. It was truly unthinking politicians that created this hardship and unnecessary move for the Japanese Canadians, removing their property from them. You couldn't even go back home because you had nothing. They'd taken everything away. (Polly) The Internment of Japanese Canadians The most devastating event shaping the lives of Japanese Canadians was the internment and forced dispersal of all persons of the Japanese race during, and in the years immediately following the Second World War. By now, the rough contours of the story are familiar to many Canadians, if only vaguely. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, Japanese Canadian citizens and Japanese Nationals in Canada were subject to government curfews, personal interrogation, and ultimately job loss and severe economic hardship. All Japanese language newspapers were shut down, fishing boats were impounded, and the federal government liquidated businesses, and sold vehicles, houses, and personal belongings. The proceeds of the sales were used to pay auctioneers and realtors, as well as to cover the costs of the internment. First interned were alien men, next Japanese Canadian men, and lastly women and children of Japanese descent. Women and children were initially placed in detainment centres, former livestock pens that reeked of urine and manure. Such violations were not short term. Even after the war, Canadians of Japanese origin were denied full citizenship rights, including the right to vote. Furthermore, they were prohibited from returning to the former sites of their homes on the west coast until 1949, four years after the war's end. (2) These events in Canadian history represent the deliberate destruction of a community, a form of genocide, (3) an erosion of human dignity, and a dramatic disruption of personal lives and family relationships. The latter is especially significant as the family had been the primary vehicle for the acquisition of an ethnic identity and for the transmission of Japanese cultural symbols in Canada. The internment of Japanese Canadians has had profound social, political and economic implications. Some scholars have described it as an act of political violence (see for example, McAllister, 1999). …

Men of Uncertainty: The Social Organization of Day Laborers in Contemporary Japan

Japan is a country strongly associated with strong, long-term relationships, whether they be located within kin- groups, local communities or large industrial enterprises. Yet Japan also has a long tradition of people who have been excluded from these relationships, whether voluntarily (hermits, mendicant monks, etc.) or compulsorily (outcasts etc.). This thesis deals with a contemporary category of people who operate largely outside the certainties of long-term relationships: day labourers. Whereas Japanese industry has become famous for 'life-time employment', my subjects often work under contracts for just one day. Most of them are also excluded from family and mainstream community life, living singly in doya-gai -- small urban districts with cheap hotels which resemble the American skid-row. These districts center on a casual labour market (yoseba), divided between a formal sector (public casual labour exchanges) and an informal sector (jobs negotiated on the street with recruiters often affiliated with yakuza gangs). Fieldwork (1993-5) was conducted mainly in Kotobuki, the Yokohama doya-gai, with brief field-trips to similar districts in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kitakyushu and Fukuoka. Most of my informants were Japanese nationals, though Koreans and Filipinos are also briefly discussed. The thesis describes the lives and attitudes of day labourers, and the social organization of the very distinctive districts which they inhabit. Based on participant observation, backed up by historical analysis and cross-cultural comparison, the thesis considers the role of these 'men of uncertainty' in a society which craves certainty. In economic terms, that role is to enable the construction and longshoring industries to adjust to fluctuating demand and changing weather conditions while maintaining a stable core workforce. But day labourers, like stigmatized minorities, have a parallel cultural role, as an internal other in the formation of mainstream Japanese people's identity.

Oral pre-cancer and the associated risk factors among industrial workers in Japan's overseas enterprises in the UK.

Screening at industries has been advocated as a method of early detection for cancer. This study describes the prevalence of oral pre-cancerous lesions and other mucosal diseases following oral mucosal screening, and associated risk factors among Japanese industrial workers in the UK. Oral mucosal screening was by invitation at 51 industrial locations in the UK. A self-administered questionnaire was used to record socio-behavioural factors and frequency of daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Four hundred and eighty-four subjects attended for oral mucosal screening (mean age 39.9 +/- 8.3 years) and their mean period of residence in UK was 5.3 +/- 4.5 years. 63.4% examined were male. 31.3% of males and 26.6% of females smoked daily. The gender differences were striking compared with Japan's national rates. A higher proportion of managerial staff was regular heavy (20+ per day) smokers. The intake of more than five portions per day of vegetables and/or fruits during the weekend was significantly higher in females than in males (P = 0.022). One hundred and six subjects (22%) were detected with oral mucosal lesions, including 16 leukoplakia lesions (3.3%) and three with oral lichen planus (1%). The rate of positive detections was higher in managers (7.5%). Odds ratios were estimated by socio-behavioural variables. Among subjects positive for oral leukoplakia, managers accounted for 68.8% (OR 5.26; 95% CI, 1.24-22.29). 87.5% of subjects detected with oral leukoplakia smoked daily and had done so for the past 10 years (OR 28.40; 95% CI, 5.63-143.28). Though regular alcohol drinking was a common feature among male leukoplakia cases, heavy alcohol misuse was not encountered. None reported an intake of five or more portions of fruits or vegetables. The Japanese nationals working in managerial positions in the UK and daily regular smokers in the industries visited were found to be at a high risk of oral pre-cancer. Regular dental/oral check up and tobacco education programmes are encouraged for oral cancer/pre-cancer control in industrial settings.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN DEGREE OF LIKING OF ASIAN WHITE RADISH (RAPHANUS SATIVUS L.)

ABSTRACTAsian white radish processed foods are commonly consumed in Japan and Korea and are increasingly available in many Western countries. The major flavor constituent of Asian white radish, 4‐methylthio‐3‐trans‐butenyl isothiocyanate (MTBITC), was extracted as an oil and added in varying concentrations to an unflavored cracker biscuit. Untrained taste panels of Japanese, Korean and Australian nationals were presented with treated biscuits and their concentration preference for MTBITC determined. The taste preferences (degree of liking) of the Japanese and Koreans differed markedly with the Japanese preferring biscuits containing 110 μmole MTBITC/100 g while the Koreans preferred < 50 μmole/100 g (the lowest concentration tested). The difference is attributed to the Korean use of Asian white radish in highly spiced foods compared to the Japanese use without the addition of strongly flavored ingredients. The Australians also preferred <50 μmole/100 g but this was probably due to unfamiliarity with eating white radish.

Comparison of body size and composition between young adult Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals in the 1980s

Background : Data on body composition of American-born Japanese (Japanese-Americans) are scarce. Studies on differences of body composition between Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals at various stages of life as well as at various times of measurements are useful for understanding the impact of lifestyle changes on body composition in the two societies. Aim : To see the differences in body size and composition between young adult Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals. Subjects and Methods : Body size and composition of 50 Japanese-Americans consisting of 28 males and 22 females ranging in age from 18 to 23 years were compared with Japanese nationals matched for age and height. Body composition was measured using the underwater weighing method. The study was conducted in the 1980s in the USA and Japan. Results : The average percentage body fat of males was 13.7% for both Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals, and that of females was approximately 24% for both groups, even though Japanese-American males and females had significantly greater body weight, fat-free mass, and body mass index than Japanese nationals. Conclusion : Although young adult Japanese-Americans showed larger body size than Japanese nationals, their percentage fat did not differ at this stage of life in the 1980s.