Author Archives: japansociology

The inequitable situations in work places

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by Sungryoung Yoon

Inequitable situations appear while the globalization is being advanced in the world. Japan is generally said to be an affluent country, but inequitable situations are also coming to Japan and I think it is a problem for which we have to find a solution. So I am going to pick up one of the inequitable situations about contract workers, in Japan and am going to write how the situation is going on compared to regular workers.

The number of contract works has been increasing since the beginning of 1990 while the number of the regular workers has been decreasing. Then don’t we have any problems about these situations between the regular workers and the contract workers? The answer would be “NO”. So I am going to talk about why the answer is “NO”.

I pick up four inequitable situations of the contract workers. Firstly, the pay style is totally different from the regular workers. The contract workers don’t have both bonus and retirement allowance, which the regular workers could get. Also the pay per unit time is much lower than the regular workers. These situation makes the other situations that they could not get to buy such a car and home by loan because of low pay. Secondly, employment is less stable compared to regular workers. Most companies employ contract workers for only 1 year to 2 years, and lay off them after that. As I said previously, they could not get the retirement allowance even if they get laid off. Thirdly, their career is not guaranteed at all too. The regular workers usually have some chances a year for advancement and then they could get higher pay and position than before. But the contract workers could get not as same as the situation the regular workers have. Finally, the contract workers don’t have social and employment insurances.

I wrote about four inequitable situations for the contract workers but the four situations are only a few examples of all problems about it. If both of them are working and doing same jobs in same company, they should get same situations with the regular workers. We usually say, the globalization brought the equal society, new society and situations but we haven’t focused on the real situations of inequality yet if we keep saying such a thing.

http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3240.html

http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3250.html

http://hiseiki.com/qa/

http://www.caa.go.jp/seikatsu/2001/0622kazoku-lifestyle/houkoku.pdf

Dream From Cultural Globalization

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by Chika Yamamoto

Nowadays you see western culture everywhere in Japan. If you turn on TV, there are very gorgeous actors and actresses in many advertisements. If you watch western movies or dramas, you see their rich style of living like having gorgeous dinner and going abroad for vacation and people wearing very elegant clothes. The same things happen in other non-western countries, too. Having a huge influence of western culture makes our culture and idea change little by little. It somehow differentiates us from western people and our way of living from their way of living. By watching those affluent lives and people, people in non-western countries start to wish to have their lifestyle someday. It becomes very ideal and utopia for those people to have the western way of lifestyle that is seen in movies and magazines. People tend to have such a very attractive image especially for America besides the concept of American dream. These people dream of having such a great lifestyle if they can go to America. That is because the images shown in magazines and movies are so strong that they can easily believe in them. It gives them very narrow view, which they just look at the only positive image of America not any negative sides. Those huge influences of cultural globalization have some issues for people who believe in the dream.

The problem caused by this culture image is linked to immigration issue in some ways. When people in developing countries see very rich culture such as American gorgeous culture often on screen or TV, they notice how different their way of living is. Because western culture is very different from their lifestyle, they somehow compare their current lifestyle to western lifestyle and think it is inferior to western lifestyle. It starts to change the idea into dream that if they can move to America, they might have chance to have such a lifestyle. It is not only because of cultural globalization but also American dream, too. These people assume that there are opportunities to make their life better like what they see in magazines and on TV by making efforts there. That goes with some of the reasons of immigrants in America. Those immigrants work super hard and keep waiting patiently for time when they can have better life relying on the dream they have from cultural image. However, even though there is a concept of American dream, almost all of immigrants can never be promoted and have such a lifestyle they have dreamed of. It is very rare for immigrants to be half top of American society regardless of their efforts. For me the cultural image and a little bit of American dream seem to just provide them motivation to work hard in the very unfair system of society. The result is either quitting their jobs and dreams of having rich lifestyle or keep working harder and harder so that they can have better lives. It is far different from what they dream of when they decide to immigrate. The gap between the dream from cultural image and the reality is biggest factor for this.

The influence of cultural globalization is still strong today. Especially nice image of western culture gives us so many feelings and ideas in non-western countries. But I think it is very important not to look at just bright side image seen on magazines and TVs but to see other side of the culture and country. Also, looking at other culture makes you realize the significance of your culture, too. I am not saying that globalization of culture is not preferable. I believe that looking at the world not only with a frame provided in cultural globalization but also with a frame that is different side of the image frame is very important in globalized world today.

Is inequality discrimination?

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by Sayaka Umei

There is inequality, such as economy, education, income, ability, wealth etc. Some people claim that we should avoid inequality because inequality contributes economic growth, according to Lane Kenworthy. However, I argue that they are not connected each other, and we need inequality to keep creating valuable things. Kenworthy is talking about the country base, but I would like to apply it to the nation base.

In Japan, some elementary schools have stopped the competition on a sports day because the competition is not equal. For example, children start running toward a goal, and just before the goal they have to wait for their friends who have not been near goal yet, then reach the goal together. So everyone can get 1st prize. They do this because children should be equal, no discrimination.

For another point of this, in the United States there is no public insurance, which is different from Japan. Japan thinks every nation should have equal opportunity for medical care because everyone has the same human right to live. However, there is a problem that this insurance is paid by taxes from nations, so in the theory poor people use the money of rich people. American people point out this problem. They think the richer should get the richer quality of medical care to use their own money for themselves. This is too reasonable.

In Japan people used to think that inequality is not good, so it should be removed. Thus even Japanese society reflects this trend. Japanese companies raise their employees’ salary as a reward for long service because everyone can get their salaries as the term of their engagement. However, this idea has been changing in this recession into the base of people’s ability, which means employees can get their salaries based on their results. More good companies would like to hire more good people who have the ability to grow that company up because it has to survive in this competitive society of this recession. So the company has to pay more to the people who have good abilities to motivate them. It works; this kind of companies such as consulting companies or foreign investment banks can earn more money and they can also get more good people.

In conclusion, in this changeable, international, and competitive society, inequality is unavoidable or necessary to survive. Considered this situation, Japanese people have to understand this trend, and train their children to survive in this society. I would like to warn people who think the inequality is discrimination. Since every person is not the same as everyone knows, they cannot say the inequality is discrimination.

Advantages of globalization

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by Mayu Uehara

When a country tries to be open-minded or accept new idea, it always faces pros and cons of its action. Globalization, for example, it’s a controversial topic for any country. In Japan, after World War Ⅱ, we approved American ideas in Japanese law, and we have developed our country since then. Now, India is the one which has been westernized day by day. Though there are lots of opinions against globalization, globalization is one of the best ways to be promoted. There are three reasons: development of country, diversification of lifestyles, and improvement of right.

First, globalization can highly effect social, economic, and financial development. Now in India, new job opportunity for working in call center which uses English and deal with any questions or complaint of purchasers. Not only conditions of citizen’s life style but also country can be well activated. When the country only decides to be open-minded and foreign corporate build its firm in it, it can provide people bunch of employment; people for building the firm, gathering products which is necessary for building, people who works for trading can also have opportunity to be involved in its projects, people who works in the corporate, and more and more. Moreover, the conditions around the building can be developed, such as public transportation, restaurants, department stores, and so on. Only one movement can lead social, economic and financial development. Some who oppose globalization argue that it causes gaps between rich and poor; however, it is avoidable to accept free trade so that they can get cheaper products which comes from outside of country. It’s better having cheaper food rather than suffering poverty because of expensive domestic products.

Second, lifestyles of citizens can be diversity. Now in Japan, people, studying abroad and speaking second language, has increased. To be open-minded leads people having a broad outlook on their life. Having broad outlook can also support people having ideas or hopes for future and it allow them to find new market share. Though, due to globalization, cultural death has discussed and Japan is the one which has struggled to balance westernized and protecting Japanese culture, threatening of cultural fading promotes protecting national identity. Facing another culture let us recognize our own culture because when we face new idea, we often realize about our nationality which is barely discover when we are get together with same nationality. Furthermore, culture has taken over generation to generation, and we are sharing same identity with genetic so culture is hardly faded away.

Third, globalization can improve rights for social weak. In India, it’s unequal between men and women. Men works outside of house and women have to do house works. Also, men have power more than women in India; therefore, women tend to build up their stress. Women should have equal right to speak out opinions. Why woman’s right has not been accepted is because women don’t even have ideas to get their right because of lack of information. They tend to live in narrow outlook of life and just follow ways which is prepared by social culture. If they choose to stay at home for house job, it’s fine because it’s their choice; however, right to have equal opportunities should be protected in society.

Above all, opinions of acceptation of globalization is supported by three aspects, which are economic, financial, and social development, diversifications of lifestyles and improvement of right. Globalization can support activating society and also citizen’s lifestyles therefore, country should be open-minded to promote globalization.

Country’s status and culture

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by Rina Terasaki

In this globalized time, I often happen to see foreign cultures in Japan. Also, Japan expresses many of its traditional and pop ‘culture’ to the world at the same time. It is interesting that ‘only’ culture, but it has relation with its home country’s governance.

I have heard of such insistence in a book written by a Japanese author: ‘When a country is developed enough, the culture of the country would be able to be recognized.’ It means when people see culture (including; music, arts, dramas) of different country, they firstly tend to see its background’s status. If the status is high enough, in other words the economy is at high level, finally it can be recognized. For example, Korean movies and music were not familiar to Japanese people several decades ago, but with growth of Korean economy, those movies and K-pop music started to be recognized by Japanese people and even spread around the world. It does not only simply mean Japanese people recognized the K-pop music and Korean movies, but also means they recognized ‘Korea’ nation itself as well-developed.

In globalized society, a large number of information swirling around us. In such situation, media takes a big role to give various impressions in people’s mind. Therefore, media are used to export ideas in this way. Some say behind K-pop’s popularity there is strategy of the government. Korean Deputy Foreign Minister included additional about five billion Korean won for cultural exchange in this September, and it is said most of it is going to be spent for K-pop market. It is thought that attracts of culture can make the country itself effective for foreign diplomacy.

It seems like a new way of diplomacy, however, Japanese government in colonial age used the same way to stand its status ahead western powerful countries. For example, Ukiyoe (art), Kabuki, Sumo and other ‘traditional’ Japanese culture were exported abroad in this period and it made an effort to express ‘Japan’ to western life and to insist existence of Japan as a ‘nation.’

As I mentioned, it can be said that image of culture are strongly connected to country’s diplomatic achievement. Also, media takes its part to spread cultural information much easily that brings people many positive images of the country.

Resources:

http://japanese.joins.com/article/266/160266.html

岩渕功一『越える文化・交錯する境界』2004，山川出版社

Global market

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by Sian Taylor

In my last blog post I would like to examine once again the Global Market and what it is doing to people. Initially I would like to refresh the arguments of these new influences from the Western world in India and what this is doing to arranged marriages. In a second moment I would like to talk about what marketing is doing in Asia and the developing countries and the absurdity of what companies are trying to sell to people.

By broadcasting American and European films and series in India, the 20% of the upper class and middle class, either try to westernise themselves as much as possible in the first case, or would like to follow the western lifestyle, but don’t have the money to do so.

By watching these kind of television programs, women want to copy what their idols do, and marry for love, but unfortunately, in most cases, they won’t be able to do so and they will probably live in dissatisfaction.

But what to do? The answer is not simple: On one hand people western people look at the arranged marriages as something barbaric and feel that they should help India to become more Westernised and “civilized”. On the other, this globalization and this will to copy globalised countries is bringing India many problems. Women want to be like the western women, free to do what they want, men want to continue with the traditions and think of the western culture as something that brings disruption and un-harmony.

India is trying to adopt globalization to try to improve its level of poverty, but I think it’s just the wrong way to act about things. Trying to change India into another copy of America and Europe, is just really the wrong way to try to resolve issues, that will bring many other, more complicated issues. By trying to make Indian women become American, in order to improve their lifestyles, will just bring many marriage disruptions and tensions in the society.

Related to this is the globalist marketing that is creating in people problems and dissatisfaction with themselves, and the need to spend loads of money to look like a western person. Girls all over Asia put their bodies through traumatising experiences in order to look thinner, with bigger eyes, bigger breasts etc, to look like something that they will never look like, and that, to tell the truth is neither pretty or sexy, but, in most cases, just artificial and fake.

Finally the most shocking example of how global marketing is playing with people’s minds, I think is the skin lightening and darkening creams. More and more common in Asia, are these lightening creams, because it is thought that the lighter the skin is, the more beautiful and successful you become. The “funny” thing is though, that in Europe and America, it’s exactly the opposite!

People spend more and more money on these fake tan, darkening skin products, to look more beautiful. I think this should really make us think about what we are doing to ourselves, and start to think with our own minds, instead of what people want to make us think.

There are many different types of beauty, at least one for every different person in the world, so trying to all become the same person, appears to be the wrong way to go about things.

Media and Gender: Do Japanese TV Commercials Deepen Gender Gap?

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by Sanae Tanaka

On Japanese TV, you see a lot of advertisement commercials for alcohol, such as beers, whiskey and non-alcoholic drinks. In these TV commercials, mostly beautiful women are holding the product and smiling to the camera. This is something very “traditional” to use woman as a symbolic character in alcohol advertisement, because advertisement itself is often targeting male consumers. For example, every year, many Japanese alcohol companies have competition for “Campaign girl of the year” and recruit young girls as a “campaign girl”. In the poster and advertisement of the “campaign girl”, the girl is always wearing bikini or sexy dress and the advertisement is spreading and will be posted all over the pubs and bars in Japan every year.

It is obvious that women have been “sexual object” as a product for men in Japan. Beautiful women wearing sexy clothes and holding alcohol is very male domineering and happened to be good tool to selling these products. However the problem is that alcohol advertisements have not changed so much for long time. There are more feminism movements than before in Japan and they have become popular. However, although feminism and post-feminism ideas have become gradually known to Japanese, the way of advertising men targeted products have not changed their idea. That men dominate women socially, culturally, traditionally and sometimes as sexual objects is the reality of Japanese media.

It is obvious that in Japan, even in the media field, male dominant situations still strongly exist and the ideal women’s role is still being men’s dream. Women are still being sexual object for men and even for commercial as a product. Strong women are only accepted for women itself, and men’s idea towards women have not changed much. Because we see the media all around us everywhere, we can say that it has strong impact on our idea.

To change the present gender stereotype situation, the role of media is necessary, however, to change the gender stereotype is not only a problem with media, but the things that consist media, such as culture, history, tradition, morals and national identity, are very significant and cannot be ignored and should be considered carefully.

References

van Zoonen, Liesbet (1994) Feminist Media Studies. London: Sage.

Dow, B.J. and Wood, J.T. (eds.) (2006) The SAGE handbook of Gender and Communication. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Parts: Evolution of Gender and Communication Research, Feminism and/in Mass Media

Hausman, R, K Tyson, and S Zahidi. World economic forum. Gender Gap Report 2010. Geneva: World Economic Forum, 2010. Web. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2010.pdf.

Individual Responsibility and Inequality

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by Ryo Tanaka

Inequality has always been one of the common issues in many aspects of society, such as labor market and education. Here I define inequality as the situation in which an individual or a group of people is socially or economically disadvantaged for factors he/she is not responsible for. The idea that inequality should be reduced is based on humanitarianism that suggests “those who have suffered through no fault of their own should be helped” (Aguirre & Tuner, 2011, p. 55). But depending on what kind of inequality to look at, equalization could not contribute to growth. To take income inequality as an example, Kenworthy (2007) argues that “the smaller the income share of the rich (i.e., the less inequality), the less investment there is” (p. 29). The wealthy are expected to invest much of their money to accelerate capitalist economy. Otherwise, widened income gaps “may weaken consumer demand”, reduce “employee motivation and work place cooperation”, and “reduce the share of the population that is able to invest in higher education” (p. 29). Therefore, a certain degree of inequality should be kept to maintain economic well-being.

Now the question is how much (or what kind of) inequality should be kept to encourage people’s consumption, sustain people’s motivation to work, ensure opportunities to go on to higher education, and ultimately achieve the society that satisfies everyone’s will? At the same time, another big question is what should be equated? As mentioned above, income inequality should not be completely equalized because equal distribution of wealth is too egalitarian to encourage further economic growth. In order that individuals get higher standards of living and the whole society grows economically, individuals should be responsible for their own effort and every outcome of their effort. In this sense, they are even responsible for inequality of income.

At this point, inequality of outcomes is individuals’ responsibility. But it should be noted that they become really responsible for outcomes of their efforts as long as they are given opportunities to make efforts. For instance, if they have no access to school, simply they have no chances to make own efforts and expect responsive outcomes such as graduation degrees and other qualifications. Equal opportunities to learn should be guaranteed for everyone to allow everyone to participate in the given society.

In summary, I discussed how much individuals are responsible for their fate and the nature of inequality in relation to individual responsibility. At least they are responsible for outcomes of their effort including test scores and the amount of income. However, they become responsible only if the opportunity to make their own effort is given. By “own effort” I mean a certain amount of effort that an individual needs to make depending on his/her prospect about what he/she wants to achieve. In other words, everyone should have the right to decide how much effort he/she makes. If an institution like school controls how his/her make an effort for his/her own sake, it would manipulate the outcome of his/her effort. He/she then has no idea about how to be responsive to the outcome that does not depend on his/her own effort. Therefore, equal opportunities to make own effort are more essential than immediate financial control like redistribution of income. Inequality of outcomes is OK; inequality of opportunities is not OK.

Reference

Aguirre, A. & Turner, J. H. (2011). American Ethnicity: The Dynamics and Consequences of Discrimination (7th edition). New York: McGraw Hill.

Kenworthy, L. (2007). Is Inequality Feasible? Contexts, Vol. 6, Number 3, pp 28-32.

Environmental discrimination in Canada’s proposed oil pipeline

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by Sherry Stanczyk

The term ‘environmental inequality’ is defined as the unequal allocation of pollution across the globe that unfairly falls onto poorer communities. Take for example landfills being built close to poorer neighbourhoods, or the construction of environmentally unsustainable factories in poorer countries where environmental regulation is not as strict. I also believe that the destruction of the environment by businesses or the government at the expense of indigenous populations also falls under the category of environmental discrimination and injustice. The majority of indigenous populations still choose to live off the land, and many times the devastation of the environment comes at a cost to their livelihood and the lands that they own and live on.

This issue can be seen currently in British Columbia, Canada, where the proposal to build an oil pipeline from neighbouring province to Alberta’s oil sands is currently on the plate. The creation of the oil pipeline would bring in a large amount of money into the Canadian economy, create jobs, and strengthen trading ties with Asia. However, because a large portion of the pipeline will be built on native land, and the chance of an oil spill could destroy the habitat of fish, the construction of the pipeline has been met with protest from native groups.

Although the construction of an oil pipeline and the chances of a possible oil spill are environmental issues that affect everyone in the area, the pipeline still effects and causes the most damage to the minority group of natives more than it does the typical Canadian. If the pipeline directly affected more people, it’s very likely that there would be more opposition, and that the idea for the pipeline would maybe not have been proposed in the first place. Is it fair to sideline a minority group for the ‘greater good’ of the economy? Just like discrimination of any other nature, overlooking the rights of a group of people is unethical. Utilitarianism may seem like the better option, but it’s not necessary the best choice for the long run. One could argue that the money from made from the pipeline could go back into programs and support to the effected native populations, but there is no guarantee this payback will be sufficient or will make up for the environmental damage to their lands. Instead, we need to protect our environment and vulnerable groups of people, and look into plans that are more sustainable for the long term.

It’s good to see that the protests against the pipeline in British Columbia have been fairly successful, and others are also adding their voices to the protest alongside the native bands. As of now the whether the project will go through is still up in air, and there is a chance it may never come into action.

Globalization: The Regional Goldilocks Approach

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by Samuel Slaten

Globalization; it is a term thrown around loosely in today’s societies. However, when people say “globalization,” what do they actually mean? Increasing employment from foreign companies? The spread and mixture of cultures; or could it the growing interdependency between the current nation-states of the world? Well, according to an entry in the Oxford dictionary it is in a general sense, “the increasing worldwide integration of economic, cultural, political, religious, and social systems” (Black, Hashimzade, and Myles). So as one can see the term is very vague. However, due to the growing number of complications caused by this phenomenon (globalization), it is becoming increasingly important to narrow down globalization and focus on each aspect independently so we can address the unique problems each one causes. So how can one separate the positive aspects of globalization from the negative? I believe the solution comes from a popular principle known as the Goldilocks Principle. According to Bill Tierney, the Goldilocks Principle “states that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes” (Tierney). Thus, in the following paper I will focus on the cultural aspect of globalization and by using the Goldilocks Principle analyze different problems associated with the mixing of cultures.

The first extreme that needs to be balanced is the degree to which cultures are introduced. Instead of replacing whole communities with new foreign strip malls or putting one culture’s products on a lower tier than another, we should slowly mix foreign cultural products with indigenous products. Building a global market which would sell imported goods along side domestic might be good way to for a community grow accustomed to the idea of foreign products without totally removing their own cultural identity. However, if the demand for slower cultural spread is too great, the possibility of censorship or negative stereotypes being implemented is ever present. Thus the idea would be to allow for a steady flow of culture yet at a pace that suits each society’s needs.

However, closely tied with culture are the social norms of a society. These can vary greatly even between regions within a country, let alone countries themselves. Take my own country for example. America has greatly different values just based on the regions one is from. For example, what may be considered normal in the western United States might be viewed entirely different in the southern or northern United States. We can see this with such topics as gun control, abortion, the environment, and much more. So if different regions can differ so greatly about their own country’s cultural norms, how can they be expected to adapt to another country’s cultural influence in the same manner as each other? Thus, I think each region (based on each country) should be balanced according to their rate of acceptation while catering to the needs of the migrant populations, who are helping to speed along this phenomenon of globalization.

However, balancing cultural globalization can at times encroach on the productiveness of the other aspects of globalization, such as the economic and social aspects. So then the problem becomes how do we balance between the difference in ideals between the categories of globalization? The answer is not easy because what might benefit one aspect might hurt another. Thus once again I believe the answer relies on regional-based analysis. Not only can we cater to a region’s cultural needs more efficiently but we can also cater to their economic situations. Just as regions have different social norms such as family values, each region has different social standings and economic situations. We can observe negative impact caused by this in India, where the standard of the economic gains are being standardized based on more prosperous cites like Bangalore while affecting the less developed cities’ cultural standards and self-identity. Here is a good example of different aspects of globalization affecting one another. This happens because instead of basing economic aspirations on the region’s cultural adaptability, people are basing it on the the more prosperous and faster growing regions which usually have a more global population than the other regions, or, in other words, are the less traditional regions.

Thus, in the end I think the best approach to cultural globalization is trying to find a balance between regions and catering to each in a different way.

References

Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade , and Gareth Myles. “Oxford Index.” http://oxfordindex.oup.com. Web. 23 Dec 2012. <http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095855259?rskey=vi9FKm&result=0&q=globalization&gt;.

Tierney, Bill. “21stcenturyscholar.” http://21stcenturyscholar.org. University of Southern California, 25 2012. Web. 23 Dec 2012. <http://21stcenturyscholar.org/2012/07/25/the-goldilocks-principle/&gt;.