Search results for ""Trans Pacific Press""

The first part of this book presents the philosophy behind Kasetsu Hypothesis–Experiment classes and Classbooks (Jugyosho). The second part includes English versions of four of the HEC Classbooks. Teachers are encouraged to find ways of allowing students' own curiosity and thinking to guide their discovery of scientific ideas.

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The challenges we face today are growing conspicuously broad in scale and complex in nature. Human Survivability Studies is a new transdisciplinary field born from the growing awareness of the urgent need to tackle the large-scale environmental and social issues at crisis point in the world today.Based at Kyoto University, the recently established Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability is seeking to develop leaders able to challenge global problems on a number of fronts. Each of the twenty chapters in this volume, written by academics from the Graduate School, looks at critical issues facing humanity from a different perspective, discussing new ideas and scientific methods that will form the basis of human survivability. The aim here is to outline the framework behind the ideas, methodology, and practice of this new scientific paradigm that incorporates knowledge from both the social and natural sciences.

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Throughout twenty-seven years of military occupation, US public affairs activities aimed to persuade the local Okinawan public that the US administration of Okinawa should be maintained. The US maintains military bases around the globe while advocating democratic ideals, including freedom of the press. Yet, while declaring the occupation of Okinawa necessary for the defence of democracy, the US military administration vigorously repressed freedoms of speech, assembly, the media, and self-determination. This landmark study explores and uncovers the labyrinthine manipulations and mechanisms established to continue to defend the hard deployment of military forces through the soft power techniques of public relations.

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Rapidly advancing globalization impacts indigenous people worldwide. In this long-term study of a remote village famous for its World Heritage-listed rice terraces, where the people actively confront globalization, Shimizu Hiromu considers the extent to which globalization has penetrated even the remote mountains of the Philippines at the grassroots level. The book examines globalization in Ifugao Province since Spain's colonization of the Philippines through to the new wave of migrant workers traveling overseas. By focusing on the village of Hapao and its reforestation and cultural revival movement led by Lopez Nauyac, as well as the work of world-renowned film director Kidlat Tahimik and his attempt to remake himself as an authentic Filipino, this book examines globalization from the periphery and shows that we are all deeply connected in the contemporary era of globalization.

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As the sequel to Groups (2013) and Institutions (2017), Others is the third work produced by a collaborative research project involving primatologists and anthropologists on the evolutionary historical foundations of human sociality. This book presents cutting edge research into the meaning of "the other" and the dynamic process of "othering".Each of the eighteen chapters examines various aspects of "others" via the researchers' specialties, with subject matter ranging from the disappearance of the alpha male in a chimpanzees group to the way the other is produced amongst Canadian Inuit through their relationship with wild animals. What is generated is a unique collection of essays that is both grounded in empirical evidence and strengthened by its intricate engagement with the depth and breadth of theoretical work on the topic of "the other", as it furthers our understanding of the nature of human sociality.

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This collection of twelve life stories delves into the experiences of families of Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) patients who tell their own stories in their own words. In detailed interviews spanning more than ten years, Ai Kurosaka presents their struggles from the previously neglected perspective of family members of patients. The storytellers tell how they were torn by experiences of separation, discrimination and broken relationships. Like fugitives, many spent years hiding the truth and deceiving others to protect themselves and their families, and they reveal how this affected their relationships with others, but also with themselves. These recollections reveal agony and repentance, but are also stories of resilience that show the courage of the storytellers in speaking up and in challenging the government's policy on Hansen's Disease. This book breaks the silence of families of Hansen's Disease patients and seeks to restore relationships for families of patients and the wider society.

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Cognition is a form of adaptation to the environment. It has been invented by organisms with well-developed neural systems. Consequently, like other adaptive characteristics, cognition is, on one hand, supposedly continuous among species; on the other, it is diverse and depends upon the two constraints-phylogenetic constraints, which restrain the body structure of the organism, and ecological constraints, which correlate with the lifestyle of the organism.This book highlights the diverse aspects of cognition among a wide variety of organisms. Seventeen leading researchers in the field from seven countries illustrate the diverse aspects of cognition among various organisms ranging from insects to humans of different ages and pathological states. This volume will inspire scientists and students who strive to understand cognition and, in particular, those who aim at doing so from genetic and adaptive perspectives.

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Groups: The Evolution of Human Sociality is the product of a collaborative project based at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.Researchers primarily involved in three fields - primate sociology and ecology, ecological anthropology, and socio-cultural anthropology - came together to discuss the shape and variations of groups as sympatric entities, and the evolutionary historical foundations that have led to the orientation of groups in present-day human society. To that end, the book turns to non-human primates for comparative purposes to consider the nature of the evolutionary historical foundations of sociality.In place of the past objective of 'reconstructing' the ecology and society of early humans, the book's contributions instead re-identify the creation and evolution of that which is social and challenge the prevailing theory of groups in socio-cultural anthropology. Specialists on research into human beings and those studying non-human primates develop the debate about groups in the context of their own areas of expertise, at times in ways that extend beyond the boundaries of their fields.

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After the collapse of Japan's bubble-economy in the late 1980s, a wide range of neo-liberal reforms were introduced which dramatically affected the nature of the labour market. These reforms expanded and consolidated a two-tier market, widening the gap between those who benefit from the 'company citizenship' of 'regular' (long-term, secure) employment conditions and those who are increasingly disadvantaged by reduced income and security in the peripheral non-regular system of casual and short-term employment.The contributions in this volume use the 2005 Social Stratification and Mobility (SSM) survey data to analyse the effects of Japanese labour market reforms on social mobility, social welfare, company 'citizenship', incomes, as well as the policy implications for homelessness.

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The Limits of Tradition explores the discourse of adat (customary or traditional) landownership that played an important role in peasant resistance against Indonesia's state development programmes and demonstrates its inherent limits as a viable instrument for enhancing the rights of forest-dwelling communities.The book traces the process in which the Indonesian government, as well as NGOs, developed competing interpretations of the discourse, and it presents fieldwork reports on how the lower classes appropriated it. It represents an in-depth study on the role of subaltern elites in creating and organising counter-hegemonic culture.

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After a decade of deregulation and economic liberalisation, the high levels of unity and social harmony that had been achieved during Japan's decades of rapid economic growth are under threat. Social conflict is rapidly increasing as economic disparities continue to grow, as the economy remains stagnant, and as new generations of workers find it increasingly difficult to find positions in the lifetime employment system.Against this backdrop, this book reports on the latest social psychology research into social conflict in Japan and how it is managed. Recognising that social justice is an important factor in many forms of social conflict, each chapter of the book addresses the issue of conflict resolution from a social justice perspective. The first part of the book analyzes the growing disparities and perceptions of injustice in Japan today from the perspectives of social class, value, social principle, culture, and legitimisation. The second part includes empirical research on the mechanisms of conflict and cooperation in social relations.

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In the past two decades, as the tsunami of globalism followed Marxism's collapse, and the seemingly ubiquitous and transparent principle of 'the market' came to forge a direct link between worldwide economic activity and individual livelihoods, the ideology called liberalism has offered an influential framework for the analysis of society and its diverse issues, from human cloning to cultural pluralism.In this comprehensive, historical, and contemporary exploration of liberalism's many facets and its prominent thinkers (both Western and Japanese), author Kazuo Seiyama critiques the triumphs and shortcomings of that ideology, while aiming to dispel common misapprehensions about the ideas of its foremost theorist, John Rawls.

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For 25 years, author Toshio Kawabe and his colleagues periodically lived and worked among the Gidra people of the tropical wet lowland of Papua New Guinea.In this book, Kawabe reports on a continuing traditional hunter-gatherer-cultivator lifestyle, describing the way of life and the major subsistence activities in the diverse environment of the Gidraland, as well as examining the skills that have sustained the Gidra culture since the Stone Age. The Gidra live within a treasure trove of rich flora and fauna, but the decline of tropical forests has been recognised as a global environmental issue.Kawabe examines the importance of such forests as complex ecosystems and discusses the lessons that developed nations can learn from people who live closely within nature about how to survive environmental changes.

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China encompasses a wide range of natural environments and human communities. Focusing on specific regional changes over time, this book presents empirical studies that examine the diversity of interactions between peoples and their environments in China. Good Earths is organised around the themes of land, trees, water, and grasses - as scholars from China and beyond assess particular regional environmental issues drawing on both contemporary and historical sources. Each chapter examines a specific topic that sheds light on the relationship between peoples and environments in China, from the formation of the Pearl River Delta to the effects of the Three Gorges Dam Project and the socio-environmental significance of bamboo.Ecologically fragile belts, ethnic and environmental margins, ecologically motivated migration, deforestation and reforestation, pollution, and water use are just some of the issues examined. Good Earths thus provides an important account of key environmental issues facing China today.

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Brings together various analyses from the three major tropical regions - Southeast Asia, the Amazon basin, and Sub-Saharan Africa - and by challenging simplistic correlations, the authors explore the complex relationships between deforestation and migration.The book provides both an historical overview of migration into these regions, and presents contemporary case studies to reveal the complex interplay of factors motivating migration. The scope of the discussion is extensive, covering historical issues such as the impact of the slave trade on Sub-Saharan African forests and communities, and contemporary dilemmas like the over-exploitation of natural forest products in Vietnam.The authors look at the broader picture of intertwining political, social, geographical, environmental, and historical influences, without seeking quick-fix solutions to the social and environmental issues arising from increasing forest cover loss. The analyses are spatially and temporally contextualised, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data to provide a useful resource for studying the societies of tropical regions and their social ecology.

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Motivated by on-the-ground experiences during Indonesia's period of political turmoil in the early 2000s following the collapse of the Suharto regime, this book systematically explains the structure of the Suharto regime while revealing its political dynamism. The primary goal is to account for the transformations that Suharto's personal rule underwent during 30 years in power and explain its end.The book focuses on the 'personal rule system' that Suharto employed, analyzing its transition and collapse in a groundbreaking thesis that draws on archival materials from major political institutions, as well as interviews with some of the key political protagonists. The concept 'co-opting type personal rule' is proposed to address the following questions: What concept can best capture the Suharto regime and the diverse array of personal rule systems and better explain the characteristics of each type? How can we analyze personal rule regimes that end in relatively peaceful transitions rather than revolution or violent coup?

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In this study, Hayami suggests that the Karen in northwestern Thailand are located 'betwixt and between' the peripheries and the mainstream of the modern nation-state. It demonstrates how the Karen actively adopt new religious practices in ways that enable them to maintain communal boundaries and cultural particularity at the same time as they integrate themselves into the broader stream of Thai society.

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Japan's national identity associates the 'Japanese people' with the Japanese land, making the farmer the backbone of the nation. Others in Japanese Agriculture challenges this mythology, revealing the changing faces of Japanese farmers during the colonial and post-war eras. First, it traces the tangled trail of Koreans brought into farming villages as a result of war mobilization and capitalist development. Second, it discusses the plight of those who evacuated from cities as they attempted to eke out a living on marginal land. Third, it points out that settlers repatriated from the colonies were met with hostility from villagers and indifference from authorities. Finally, it explores how those who were encouraged to emigrate for 'the good of the nation' in post-war Japan, found themselves victims of agrarian reforms, which severed their ties.In sum, despite being lauded as the 'backbone of the nation' Japanese farmers have been repeatedly marginalized and othered.

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This the parallel volume to The Boundaries of 'the Japanese': Volume 1: Okinawa 1818-1972, publisher in 2014, renowned historical sociologist Eiji Oguma further explores the fluctuating political, geographical, ethnic, and sociocultural borders of Japan and the Japanese from the latter years of the Tokugawa shogunate to the mid-20th century. Focus is placed first upon the northern island of Hokkaido with its indigenous Ainu inhabitants, and then upon the mainstays of Japan's colonial empire - Taiwan and Korea. In continuing to elaborate on the theme of inclusion and exclusion, the author comprehensively recounts and analyzes the events, actions, campaigns, and attitudes of both the rulers and the ruled as Japan endeavoured both to be seen as a strong, civilized nation by the wider world, and to 'civilize' its disparate subjects on its own terms.

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Multiple discourses circulate Japanese society surrounding the relationship between Japanese people and the English language. For example, 'Japanese people are the worst English speakers in Asia', 'Japanese women love the English language' and 'learning English leads to increased income and career opportunities.' From a sociological perspective, this book tests the veracity of these discourses, using social statistical data. The aim here is to paint an accurate picture of society to assist the argument for evidence-based policy in English language education, and to challenge the myths about Japanese people and the English language propagated by various interest groups, including the government and the business community. This important book reveals that the English language discourses that exist in Japan today are largely based on misconceptions, pointing to the urgent need to challenge the education policies based on such falsehoods.

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This book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the history of a region from the perspective of the interactions that occurred on and were facilitated by the sea. The book is divided into three parts that each focus on a different hundred-year period between 1250 and 1800. The chapters in each part examine the people, goods, and information that flowed across the seas of the East Asian maritime world, facilitating cultural exchange and hybridity. The intricate and often fraught relations between China, Japan, and Korea feature throughout, as well as those between these polities and the waves of outsiders that sought to trade with them and to conquer them. Regional diplomacy, ship-building technology, weaponry, Wokou pirate bands, the fates of castaways, and the development of international trade networks are just some of the topics that paint a vivid picture of the interconnected world of the East Asian maritime region during this period.

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Homelessness has been recognized as a serious problem in Japan since the 1990s, but the dominant model of a "homeless person" has been that of an unemployed male labourer - a model that has largely excluded women, who experience homelessness in different forms. This study gives the homeless women of Japan a voice at last.Based on extensive fieldwork, the author paints a vivid picture of the unique experiences of homeless women living in a diverse range of environments. By introducing a gender perspective to the analytic framework and challenging the conception of the homeless individual as a rational, autonomous subject, the author invites a critical reconsideration of homeless studies and of public policy.

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This book is a comprehensive account of the nativist movement in Japan today. Naoto Higuchi uses the life histories of activists to establish that the basis of their support for the movement is their conservativism rather than social or economic stress. He reveals the logic behind the emergence of the nativist movement by highlighting its links with developments in the existing right wing and Japan's conservative powers. A common interest in historical revisionism and conflict with neighbouring countries provides a further logic that underpins the nativist movement's particular focus on "special privileges" for permanent Koreans resident in Japan. The book examines the role of the internet in the recruitment of nativist activists and in lending a veil of historical "truth" to the falsehoods concerning these special privileges. Finally, Higuchi considers the issue of voting rights for foreign residents in the context of East Asian geopolitics and increasing securitization, and warns about the dangers of not resisting securitization.

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Japan's Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 destroyed the homes, livelihoods, and communities of many elderly people. Some of the most vulnerable survivors spent up to five years in temporary shelters before settling into publicly subsidised apartments or dispersing into the general population. Public scrutiny of the post-earthquake recovery drew attention to the challenges of community generation and the loneliness, isolation, and death experienced by elderly earthquake victims.Bringing together quantitative and qualitative analysis of media discourse, public policy, and ethnographic fieldwork, this book examines the earthquake's long-term effects of temporary shelters and public reconstruction housing for elderly residents. The first study to utilize NVivo qualitative research software in a Japanese research context, this is an original contribution to natural disaster literature, as well as health and welfare policy in societies that, like Japan, are undergoing rapid urbanisation and population ageing.

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Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011, Japan has seen a significant revival in its social activism. Large-scale social movements sprang up in response to such issues as denuclearization, proposed new US military bases in Okinawa and the 2015 National Security Legislation, propelled by dissatisfaction with the national government’s stance on these fronts. In the context of the broader ‘amorphization’ of Japanese society, this book characterizes these movements as ‘amorphous’ based on the phenomenon in which movements are formed by diverse and disparate people and display disparate, disorganized and undefined elements in stark contrast to Japanese social movements of the past which were of a highly structured organizational type. The authors have direct, first-hand experience of these social movements and paint vivid pictures of their diverse activities. Chapters focus on issues such as opposition to hate speech and US military bases in Okinawa, and examine in detail movements such as SEALDs, Hangenren and Amateur Revolt, perhaps the most amorphous social movement in Japan of this period.

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With a focus on Brazilian migrant workers in Japan, this study produces a comprehensive picture of the forces driving transnational labour migration, both in the countries of origin of foreign workers and within Japan. How are Japan's labour institutions changing under globalisation? What are the implications of these changes for the lives of people in Japan?Asking these and other questions, the book demonstrates how Japan's labour shortage has established a 'trans-national employment system' and shows that globalisation is 'the very cause of the breaking up of Japan as a middle class society'. It also discusses the impact of concepts of nationality and family registration on the lives of foreign-born workers of Japanese descent within Japan.

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This study challenges the prevailing view that Thailand's democratisation process in the 1990s was led by the active middle class. It presents an alternative explanation, examining certain 'passive' forces. The author argues the need to break free from the spell of the assumption that the middle class is pro-democracy and turn attention toward anti-democratisation forces because the pace of political democratisation was slowed down by the presence of such forces.This book will emphasise the fresh point of view that democratisation was advanced by appeasement of the forces that were reluctant to democratisation.

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Highlights the important roles that things play in our everyday lives by examining how things and humans interact. Based on ethnographical data from Asia, Africa, and Oceania, the included essays challenge the instrumentalist idea that humans alone are subjects with agency (freedom to act) while things are merely objects at their disposal. Anthropologists have, typically, viewed things through anthropocentric lenses; reducing things to social function or cultural meaning.The book's approach is to shift the question from "what do things mean?" to "what do they do (cause)?" - a shift from meaning to agency. Using an interdisciplinary approach, including researchers from archaeology, ecological anthropology and primatology, as well as cultural anthropologists, and taking the broadest understanding of things, this book probes the permeable boundaries between subject and object, mind and body, and between humans and things to demonstrate that cultures and things are mutually constitutive.This book was published as a joint publication with Kyoto University Press.

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Having experienced a large-scale reorganisation of social order over the past decade, people of the Malay world have struggled to position themselves. They have been classified - and have classified themselves - with categories as bangsa (nation/ethnic group) and umma (Islamic network).In connection with these key concepts, this study explores a variety of dimensions of these and other 'people-grouping' classifications, which also include Malayu, Jawi, and Paranakan. This book examines how these categories played a significant part in the colonial and post-colonial periods in areas ranging from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It demonstrates the extent to which shifting social conditions interact with the contours of group identity. This is a collaborative work by scholars based in the US, Japan, Malaysia, and Australia.

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After the collapse of Japan's bubble-economy in the late 1980s, a wide range of neo-liberal reforms were introduced which dramatically affected the nature of the labour market. These reforms expanded and consolidated a two-tier market, widening the gap between those who benefit from the 'company citizenship' of 'regular' (long-term, secure) employment conditions and those who are increasingly disadvantaged by reduced income and security in the peripheral non-regular system of casual and short-term employment.The contributions in this volume use the 2005 Social Stratification and Mobility (SSM) survey data to analyse the effects of Japanese labour market reforms on social mobility, social welfare, company 'citizenship', incomes, as well as the policy implications for homelessness.

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In the face of the financial crisis of East Asia in 1997, Japan successfully pressed forth the Miyazawa Plan and other efficient rescue packages while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank failed to present effective programs. With its presence established, Japan kept playing a leading role in formulating the Chiang Mai Initiative which facilitated bilateral and regional economic cooperation in the area.Based on the analysis of the process, this book examines the ways in which East Asia has grappled with the regional integration of the economies of the area. The study focuses upon competing developmental models, the effects of the Free Trade Agreement and the Economic Partnership Agreement, the initiatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, investments, and trades in the region.The contributors to the book then inquire what can be done in financial and monetary domains, with special attention paid to the effects of the depreciation of currencies and the consequences of the IMF emergency policies. The study also addresses the issues of productivity, problems of agrarian small states, and difficulties of the socially weak in the region.

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This is a study of Japan's home-grown concept of seikatsusha that resembles 'citizen', 'people', 'consumer', 'common man', and 'the public', though not exactly identical with any of them. The idea has occupied an important place in Japanese everyday life, academia, and progressive movements.This book presents an extensive genealogy of the concept of seikatsusha, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. While examining the philosophy of such thinkers as Kiyoshi Miki, Nobuyuki Onuma, and Shunsuke Tsurumi, the book scrutinises the debate over seikatsusha, which has been undertaken by a variety of political and intellectual movements, including Shiso no kagaku (Science of thought), Beheiren (Citizens for Peace in Vietnam), and the Seikatsu Club.The book points to the viability of the idea of seikatsusha in a sustainable welfare society in the 21st century and is the first in English to fully investigate the concept within Japan's historical and structural context.

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As the plight of refugees around the world looms large as one of the central problems facing the international political community at the beginning of the 21st century, the situations facing displaced persons in Africa are both acute manifestations of this global trend, and unique in their particularities.As the powerful nations of the world are mobilised to tackle domestic conflicts and their ensuing refugee problems in the Balkans, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, African societies have typically been abandoned by the international community to resolving their own conflicts through their own means. The authors of this volume examine both causes and effects of displacement in terms of both local and global politics, environmental risks, socio-economic costs, and policy and identity issues. Combined, these papers provide a powerful if not comprehensive overview of the variety and complexity of circumstances concerning displaced persons.

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This book is a fascinating exploration into how European attitudes that measure human achievements by their extent of control over nature is a cultural and historical product of the ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean world. The subject matter is the emergence of domestication, the history and role of shepherds, and the Bible. Drawing on fieldwork spanning more than four decades, Part I looks at the domestication process of sheep and goats, and the emergence of the profession of shepherd. Part II focuses on how God's pronouncements concerning animals in the Old Testament came to take unique forms in the ancient Middle East, reflecting the relationships between city-states' ruling chiefs as large herd owners, and local pastoralists as entrusted shepherds pivoting around domesticated animal life. This book is published jointly with Kyoto University Press.

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Do places influence human behavior?In everyday thinking, spaces and places are generally seen as empty vessels where human activity occurs. Digging a bit deeper, we can distinguish spaces from places: places are spaces that have meanings attached – an empty room becomes a classroom or a bedroom depending on what people do in it. Focusing on the Japanese concept ba – usually translated as 'place' – this study recognizes that places imbued with social meaning influence human behavior. Ba takes into account the social context, the norms that dictate behavior, the mood of a place, and the individual's feelings about it. Conceptualized as ba, places limit and direct what we can do, and in the process, shape who we are. Drawing from a wide array of ethnographic studies, this collection illustrates various ways in which place and human agency co-emerge.

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Tibetan monkeys (Macaca thibetana) live at Mount Huangshan in Anhui province, China. They are called 'Duanweihou' in Chinese ('Duan' means short, 'wei' means tail, and 'hou' means monkey). They belong to the genus Macaca, in which Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) are also included.Like Japanese monkeys, Tibetan monkeys live in multi-male multi-female groups. Compared to Japanese monkeys, however, Tibetan monkeys are peculiar in that they engage in some interesting social behaviors that we cannot observe in other monkeys.Originally written and published in Japanese, this translated book introduces the social relationships and behaviors of the Tibetan monkeys.

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Based on comparative and collaborative studies of Japanese and Norwegian specialists, this book focuses upon the critical analysis of 'rationality of care' with an empirical examination of care services in the two countries.The book argues that elder care is not simply the act of labor, but that of love, and it looks at such aspects of care as home help, new public management, and social enterprise. Predicated on the historical experience and contemporary reality of elder care in both countries, the study confronts the commercial rationalisation of care practices and explores their desirable forms.

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Japan faces multiple challenges in an era of population decline. Problems such as ageing and a decreasing working-age population are expected to increase in severity, so tackling these challenges and examining the contributions that immigrants can make to society are vital for Japan's future. What contributions do foreign residents make to Japan, especially in the labour market? How do national and local government policies effect the settlement and permanent residence of foreign nationals? Are issues - such as social mobility and quality of life of foreigners, the fertility of foreign women, and long-term trends in naturalisation - important? What support does Japan offer to immigrants? As a 'new' country of immigration, the need to examine such questions is growing.This book takes a geographical perspective in examining the necessity of immigration and how foreign residents are helping to alleviate the problem of population decline in contemporary Japan.

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Diversity' is a crucial concept describing the recent shift in minority studies away from its focus on social stratification and inequality. In recent times, new theories and concepts that suggest 'positive' meanings are emerging.Minorities and Diversity is a collaborative work emerging from the Division of the Study of Minorities at Tohoku University in Japan. The book's focus is on empirically analysing the mechanisms that produce alienation and discrimination, as well as normatively exploring the social conditions that connect minority groups and social diversity to creativity and dynamism.Chapters in this volume delve into: The status of women in Japan in relation to marriage and single motherhood. Gendered roles and norms in the early modern period. The Japanese American reparation movement. Korean and Muslim ethnic minorities in Japan and the UK. Mutual aid in Okinawa. The role of non-governmental organisations and non-profit organisations in fostering social diversity. This insightful work suggests that, in order to broaden our understanding of minorities, we should examine the ways in which these groups promote the enrichment of society.

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Orang Asli is a generic name given to the indigenous people living on the Malay Peninsula. Using extensive ethnographic data, Living on the Periphery reveals the way in which state-initiated development projects and the process of Islamisation influence the life world of the Orang Asli in the name of national unity. The Malaysian government stands behind the Muslim Orang Asli and regards anyone resisting Islamisation as a rebel against the nation state.The Islamisation program that aims at state-based integration brought about large-scale socioeconomic changes and created class divides, splits, and disharmonies in the community. Conflicts escalated notably between the Muslims supported by the government and the non-Muslims that are subjected to repressive forces of the state.

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This book is a collection of essays on the critical subject of migration in a global context. The book offers insights into the broad range of experiences of migrants in diverse settings. It also examines multi-layered local community issues that have emerged in the light of the increasing flow of people across the globe. The key question informing the arguments in the book has to do with the relationship between nationality and citizenship.Part I of the book looks at the situation of emigrant workers, discussing the opportunities and problems they face in their experiences overseas. Part II focuses on the transformation of ethnic communities, painting a picture of various forms of migrants based on the constellation of such factors as safe and secure town planning, redevelopment, and kou (rotating savings and credit associations). Finally, Part III addresses migrant education and language, and also discusses identity formation and generational succession of minority children who live in a multicultural symbiotic society.

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Fluidity of Place presents an interdisciplinary conversation with theories of space-time, place, and globalisation at the cutting edge of social theory. Focusing on the construction of urban space in the context of hyper-mobility, it examines the social relations that form 'place' in a globalised world.The first half of the book discusses globalisation theory and looks at place in relation to the fluidity brought about by recent technological advances. The second half details the construction of understandings of Asian mega-cities, particularly Jakarta, and examines the realities behind narratives of over-urbanisation in light of globalisation and the concomitant fluidity of place.The book makes a compelling argument about the competing claims to place in a world where the nation-state has lost control of its borders.

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In this study, eight young Japanese sociologists analyse quantitative social survey data to understand the new phase of Japanese nationalism. They asked ordinary Japanese people to share their views on foreign residents, using their responses to shed light on Japanese political behaviour. Do patriotic statements reflect hostile attitudes to foreign residents? To what extent do Japanese nationals support the extension of their rights to foreigners? How can we understand political and social exclusion? In examining these issues, the book reveals the links between voter behaviour and personal orientations towards nationalism, neo-liberalism, populism, and the rights of foreigners, among other attitudes.

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Written in the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station of March 2011, Koichi Hasegawa's Beyond Fukushima presents a compelling account of the events of 3/11 against the backdrop of the history and geopolitics of the nuclear industry worldwide.The book begins with the accident and its immediate impact on Japan and then expands to form a critical analysis of the global nuclear power industry, providing a framework through which to explain Japan's continued reliance on nuclear power despite widespread public concern. Hasegawa's analysis is convincing. He argues passionately for denuclearisation and is highly critical of the Japanese Government for failing to phase out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima accident. In the final chapter, Hasegawa outlines steps toward a post-nuclear society, arguing strongly that this transformation must be made to avoid further catastrophe.

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In this English translation of a semi-classic study, readers have the opportunity to explore the manner in which both credentialism and the various levels of the modern education system have developed in Japan.Professor Ikuo Amano, the author of extensive works on Japanese education and examination systems, takes the reader through a detailed analysis of the process by which education and academic qualifications have become the crucial factors in determining social position. Using Japan as a concrete example of an industrial society thoroughly permeated by credentialism, Amano's book makes explicit the relationship between social selection and education, and, in so doing, points the way to why credentialism has come to dominate industrial societies.The book also includes a comparative consideration of the development of education, qualification, and selection mechanisms in both Japan and Europe.

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With a focus on Brazilian migrant workers in Japan, this study produces a comprehensive picture of the forces driving transnational labour migration, both in the countries of origin of foreign workers and within Japan. How are Japan's labour institutions changing under globalisation? What are the implications of these changes for the lives of people in Japan?Asking these and other questions, the book demonstrates how Japan's labour shortage has established a 'trans-national employment system' and shows that globalisation is 'the very cause of the breaking up of Japan as a middle class society'. It also discusses the impact of concepts of nationality and family registration on the lives of foreign-born workers of Japanese descent within Japan.

Read more less

This is a study of Japan's home-grown concept of seikatsusha that resembles 'citizen', 'people', 'consumer', 'common man', and 'the public', though not exactly identical with any of them. The idea has occupied an important place in Japanese everyday life, academia, and progressive movements.This book presents an extensive genealogy of the concept of seikatsusha, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. While examining the philosophy of such thinkers as Kiyoshi Miki, Nobuyuki Onuma, and Shunsuke Tsurumi, the book scrutinises the debate over seikatsusha, which has been undertaken by a variety of political and intellectual movements, including Shiso no kagaku (Science of thought), Beheiren (Citizens for Peace in Vietnam), and the Seikatsu Club.The book points to the viability of the idea of seikatsusha in a sustainable welfare society in the 21st century and is the first in English to fully investigate the concept within Japan's historical and structural context.

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The global environment is ubiquitously contaminated by a myriad of toxic chemicals, having teratogenic, carcinogenic, immunosuppressive, and endocrine disruptive actions. Twelve of these persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been categorised as requiring immediate attention by a treaty adopted at a multi-national meeting in Stockholm in 2001 and became legally binding in May 2004 after its ratification by 50 states.While the developed nations are making efforts to monitor and control the levels of pollution by all the twelve POP chemicals in their environment, the poor developing nations remain extremely hesitant to adopt planned monitoring. The prime reasons are the economy and the lack of man-power and facilities for such evaluations. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has recently included POPs into one of its operational programs. Bioindicators of POPs examines this environmental concern.The book will be essential for all those who are involved in the monitoring of POPs-the policy makers, scientists, research students, laboratory technicians, university students, and nongovernmental institutions.

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