Author Archives: japansociology

Framing in Political Activities in Japan

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by Yukari Deguchi

Framing is useful to organize social movement and mainly citizen usually use it. But I think its features fit into political acts, especially general election in Japan, whose official announcement will be made on Dec. 4, 2012.

Remarkable tendency can be seen on new minor parties which are called “Daisannkyoku (第三極)” such as “Stand up, Japan”, “Japan Restoration Party”, “People’s Life First”, and “Japan Tax Cut Party Aimed to Achieve Anti TTP and Abandon Nuclear Power Generation” (It’s hard for me to translate its formal name into English). These new parties were formed by former Democrats who feel antipathy to their party’s policy. They left the party and formed new parties one after another as they want to do.

Most of these parties argue similar idea of antinuclear. Therefore, to win the election, they are considering making union or coalescing parties which have similar idea about nuclear policy. I think this situation is because framing system is working well. They are lively exchanging views and accelerate political actives. This is good aspects of framing.

These parties seem to be simply antinuclear. But if you read their policies, you can find that there are differences between each party’s ways to approach to achieve their nuclear policy. Some of them claim Datsu Genpatsu (脱原発), means breaking with nuclear power plants, while others claim Sotsu Genpatsu (卒原発), means fade out the presence of nuclear power plants and lower the dependence of nuclear, and switch to alternative energy like solar power and wind power. In addition, there are parties who claim Shuku Genpatsu (縮原発), means breaking dependence on nuclear power in the medium- and long-term.

At the moment, despite of these differences, they cooperate with each other and exchange views because it is more advantageous to such new small parties to secure more seats through the election. But when the election is over, what do they do? I think they will quarrel about which approach is correct. If they do so, all of them can’t achieve antinuclear. What was worse, there is more serious problem―many of voters can’t understand the differences between Datsu Genpatsy, Sotsu Genpatsu, and Shuku Genpatsu. These are confusing for the voters. Under the rule of thumbs concept, they can work well. But without managing and coming together their ideas, it may lead to all sorts of trouble later. It is chaotic, so they can’t get voters’ cooperation and build a feeling of distance to voters. These situations are bad aspect of framing.

If they really want to achieve antinuclear, they have to manage their idea, and explain it clearly and simply to make voters understand. If they want to win the election rather than achieving antinuclear, this can be abuse of framing.

Valuing Lightness and Darkness

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by Karen Mori

This week’s reading might seem a historical fact of the rise and fall of the skin lighteners, but I think this history of the skin lightener is not so important. To me, the most essential part is the hidden desire for people to improve themselves for socio-economic reasons or embedded idea of beauty that can be seen through the use of skin lighteners. The author of the reading (Lynn Thomas) states that the spread of skin lighteners across the world is a result of U.S. commodities and ideologies of race which became a motivation to sell those products. This skin-lighteners market eventually became entangled with economic relations, and racial hierarchies gave a meaning to “whiteness” that it is better than being darker. The reason why the use of skin lighteners were so popular despite the fact that it is symbolizing whiteness=better is because of how society was structured and how society pushed the ideology of skin color through advertisement. As a result, Black women’s concept of beauty became deeply affected by Whites.

The author mentions that “it is difficult to discern whether such valuing of lighter colored skin was rooted in pre-colonial conception of beauty, a product of racial hierarchies introduced through colonialism and segregation, or entanglement of the two,” despite the fact that the author think the concept of skin color is affected by structural forces from advertisement and social hierarchy. When I read the reading, I definitely thought yes, the concept of “being white is better than being darker” is socially created through colonialism. However when I reflected to Japan, my country, I feel little uncomfortable when I think about valuing “Bihaku” (whiteness) is affected by the West.

I personally prefer being white for no reason but I don’t think being tan is not so bad because maybe I lived in America and Americans valued being tan. When I met my friend after summer break, she was really tan, and I said “Kurokunattane” meaning you got darker (not so offensive in Japanese) and she got so upset said “hidoi” (how mean you are). I was so surprised that darkness is considered bad in Japan. Anyway, saying that whiteness is valued in Japan, some people say that Japanese adoration toward the West since Meiji period to become modernized is still affecting our value of whiteness or taller nose or longer legs. I cannot believe that Japanese are affected by historical social structure. However, when I go back to the reading what I am saying is that Black Africans prefer to have light skin not because they are affected by White.

Miss Bronze: Double Consciousness of Black Women

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by Ayano Tsukada

On June 9, 1961, a California black newspaper announced the beginning of the very first major beauty contests for black women held in Northern California. This beauty pageant, however, was not like one of normal beauty pageants that you would think of. To become Miss Bronze, African American women couldn’t just be beautiful. They had to be more than that: a representative of the African American race. It doesn’t sound very difficult, however, for the contestants of the pageant, it was.

In the United States, features of bodies are given meaning by culturally diffused “systems of representation” and two systems of representation circulated within black communities. One big system is a nationally dominant system of representation corresponding to dominant standards of beauty; beauty from the white point-of-view. The other system is a black system of representation that is used only among blacks. Historically white systems of representation excluded black women in general, but put some light-skinned women as “exotic” types. Light-skinned women were considered beautiful in black system of representation as well, but were not considered “exotic” within the black content. Light skin was a representation of economic and social privilege. Because there was more than one system existing in black communities, black women were made to look at themselves through the two systems of representation, which made it very difficult to be both beautiful and representative of their race at the same time. The contestants had to be beautiful enough in the white system of representation but had to be black enough so that they can represent their race. For example, a light-skinned contestant cut her hair short because long hair represents whiteness. Not too black, but not too white, this was their challenge.

Though African American women had never been and will never be considered as White, they still have to be judged in the white system of representation. This was what was happening in the Miss Bronze contest. However, Black women are not the only ones that have double consciousness. Black men have double consciousness, too. For example, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, changes the way he speaks and acts in front of white audiences and black audiences. Women also see themselves through both women’s point-of-view and men’s point-of-view. We know how to act in the society where men are dominant. We internalize dominant views of ourselves and at the same time, we criticize them. This may not sound good, but I would like to think of double consciousness as a gift. The double consciousness allows them to step back and take an objective view of themselves. Like it or not, we are living in the world with different people and we cannot run away from that. Then isn’t better to have the eye of others inside of you?

Skin tone, achievement, and self-esteem

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by Hanh Le

The chapter explores the linkages between skin tone, socioeconomic achievement and self-esteem among African American women.

Self-esteem is defined as a confidence and satisfaction in oneself, a person’s overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. We are living in a color struck world where distinctions based on skin tone have historically intersected with racism, sexism and class to influence how African American and other women of color evaluate themselves. As a dark-skinned woman, the message is often that everything seems to be wrong with her because she is so different. She looks different. Her hair is different. Her facial features are different.

Complexion, along with other Eurocentric physical features – blue, gray or green eyes, straight hair texture, thin lips, and a narrow nose – has been accorded higher status both within and outside the African American community. Conversely, dark complexion and Afrocentric features – broad nose, kinky hair, full lips and brown eyes – has been devalued.

Then are Black women truly proud and comfortable with who they are and what they look like?

For nearly three quarters of a century, researchers have documented many ways that colorism affects the African American community. Since whiteness of skin is a highly esteemed dimension of idealized beauty, women with darker skin and Afrocentric features are at a disadvantage. As a marker of beauty, skin tone is also a form of social capital that grants access to resources of many different types, including marriage to higher status men, higher self-esteem and access to visible occupations.

Regarding the relationship between complexion and achievement, Keith introduced some analyses by NSBA indicating that lighter skin tone is associated with higher socioeconomic status. The author used those data by NSBA to assess whether the effects of skin tone on women’s achievement and self-esteem were conditioned by age or not, and it shows that complexion continued to matter for African American women’s educational attainment, occupational standing, and family income net of family background and other characteristics. However no interaction effects by age were found.

Skin tone and Self – Concept

African American, despite their status as being a racialized minority, has higher or equivalent levels of global self-esteem when compared with whites, except during preschool years and extreme old age.

Because appearance matters more for women, self-esteem is generally lower for females than males. But interestingly, the gender difference is less pronounced or nonexistent among blacks. One explanation by the author is that African American females are more satisfied with their  body image than white females. Anyway, by using data from the original 1979 – 1980 NSBA, it is concluded that skin tone was a more important predictor for women than for men.

According to the Thompson and Keith studies, skin tone interacted with both personal income and attractiveness to influence self-esteem (fig.2.4). But a recent study by Harvey and his associates points to a reversal in the relationship between skin tone, self-concept and racial consonance, from which Keith concluded that black adolescent females rated as light brown and white had slightly lower self-esteem than medium and darker girls (fig.2.5).

A plausible explanation for this reversal is that the racial activism in the 1960s and 1970s instilled pride in African American culture and history, but that the full force of these changes as they pertain to complexion are only just now being reflected in young cohorts.

In conclusion, there is still controversy among scholars whether complexion is still relevant for status achievement and self-esteem or not. It takes long time to research but we still know very little how complexion differences actually come to matter. Are little dark-skinned girls still told to “try to get a light-skinned husband” to compensate for their “devalued, stigmatized features”? Or should they be told that how important, smart and beautiful they are, in order to build up their self-esteem and to stop those burdens which this color struck society is putting on them until their adulthood? To understand fully the impact of colorism on the lives of African American women, we need both survey and ethnographic studies that integrate questions concerning achievement and personal psychology.

Many Shades of Beauty

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by Hanh Le

The chapter looks at how skin tone matters with Miss Bronze, a black beauty contest that took place between 1961 and 1968 and began in Southern California. “Bronze” suggests both a color and a valuable metal associated with statues. However, this “bronze” did not signify a specific skin color, because during 1960s, black women of a range of shades entered the Miss bronze and won the title.

Color mattered in the Miss Bronze contests, but not the same as it did in earlier black contests in first half of 20th century. In many past contests, winners were chosen on a basis of beauty criteria that excluded dark women. The winners usually had light skin tones, and women with dark skin tones had little or no chance of winning. The Miss Bronze, in contrast, allowed women of a range of shades to enter. During its existence, light -skinned women, browned-skinned women and dark-skinned women wore the Miss Bronze crown.

However, it avoided those women who are too Caucasian in feature. And although skin color varies, it seemed that the fairer she is, the less chance she seems to have of winning. The winner should look like a Negro.

The Miss Bronze judges’ selecting dark-skinned girl to be the winner in 1961 seemed to end the colorist regime.  However, after this beginning, the contest returned to the long-established pattern of crowning light-skinned winners in black beauty contests as we could see from the light-skinned winners of 1962, 1963 and 1964.

So what is the right color to represent Miss Bronze?

By the mid 1960s, beauty’s definition had expanded to include a range of skin tones. Light-skinned women continued to be identified as beauties but “especially light” women were unlikely to be chosen as black beauty queens. Color was still one element of signifier in a system of representing race, gender and class.

Recent beauty contests for black women somewhat showed changes in significance of skin color. Miss Black USA Pageant which began in 1987 was an example. Miss Black USA Pageant was founded to celebrate the talent, beauty and intellect of young women who were often overlooked by mainstream pageants, created opportunities that wouldn’t be available to them before. As Miss Black USA 2012, Watkins said: “The pageant isn’t just a pageant, it’s a movement.”

Throughout the centuries, beauty has so often been linked to “the fair”, automatically implying that there is something foul about being dark. It was only around the decade that Negro girls began winning beauty white-sponsored contests. The trend has changed and Negro girls of all hues are at last, being honored. Such beauty contest as Miss Cannes Film Festival, Miss Universe Contest, Miss Bronze, Miss Black USA…etc to a certain extent, succeeded in penetrating the color curtain. Let me conclude by citing Miss Bronze 1963 – Stephani Swanigan’s answer when asked about her hope for social change: “she hoped for a day when there would not have to be a separate contest for black women”.

For the sake of a society without color–based discrimination, I think that beauty contests should act as pioneers, honoring both black and white women with true beauty of inside and outside, regardless of their skin color.

The Color of an Ideal Beauty Queen

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by Cherry Zhou

This chapter discusses how skin color matters in a beauty contest. In the hope of challenging racial exclusion outside of contest and colorism within it, the Miss Bronze contest was held first in 1961. One must not ignore a strong social background during the period, when the American society was in the middle of a transformation in black consciousness that emerged from the Civil Right and Black Power Movements. By crowning dark-skinned beauties, dark-skinned women come to realize that they can be seen as beautiful! Miss Bronze’s attractive face and body shape could refute disparaging representations of black women. Such contest encouraged dark-skinned women to be proud of whom they are and created the climate for media to look at black beauty. However, it is because that the black beauty standards were shaped by social movements, when the movements decline, the meanings that they supported weaken. Mass media could then redefine the concept of beauty as social background changes.

Moreover, I believe a beauty pageant is not only just about appearance (including skin color), but more importantly, it could be seen as a major event that celebrates and honors ethnic values. The winner usually serve as a role model of female and through training and education, the beauty is more like a symbol of a certain group and she has the power to unify the group and thus to strengthen it. For example, in Miss Bronze contest, the assumption seems to be that with a little make-up, a home-sewn gown, and charm school courses, any daughter of the striving African American working class could perfect the performance of middle-class, heterosexual, femininity. The winner usually claims positions of exemplary middle-class femininity for black women.

Another point I would like to make is that the social media has a great influence on promoting the image of beauty. What is beauty? It appears that the definition of beauty changes through time as the social climate changes. As I was googling information for this presentation, I found many examples claiming that mass media somehow communicate false/unrealistic image of beauty especially for women to follow. Does media has the power to define beauty in this information era? Few would argue that media defines beauty, but the reality is all we see on TV, magazines, the internet and etc. are sending messages that what kind of look is considered as attractive. The media assaults us daily with images of “beautiful” people and articles on how to make ourselves look just more like them. In Japan, pick up any women’s magazine and there must be articles on how to have a more balanced diet, how to wear better makeup … Society always has an expectation of what is considered attractive. The Miss Bronze Contest challenged the expectation of beauty at that time, but what about now? At the end of the day, it’s not just about appearance. Everyone is beautiful in their way but no one is perfect. Human bodies come in all shapes and sizes and yet the fact is only a few are just like those who are on TV or on magazine covers. Body image can be a very deceptive realm that we all are susceptible to and if people all strive to look like the “beauty” that media creates, which to a large extent very hard to replicate, it is without doubt that they will end up with low self-esteem. There are so many reasons behind the model “beauty image” that media creates such as advertising and other commercial benefits that they are getting; however, I think it will be helpful to build up people’s self-esteem if more positive images and the portrayal of more realistic and healthy instead of pencil-like skinny body types are presented in the media.

Refugees in Japan

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by Misa Takahashi

I learned a lot of things about ‘Refugees in Japan’ in this class, and I feel that there are two alienations for refugees in Japan through this class. One of the alienations is ‘aspect of mental alienation’. The other is ‘aspect of system’. I would like to talk about this two alienations, and then I consider about solutions for refugee in Japan problems.

First is ‘mental alienation’. For example, languages and culture barriers, no jobs, and children struggle in school. Of course, these infringe on the life of refugees. Especially, no jobs are serious problem. In Japan, money is most important for living, so no way to work means that no way to live. In fact, if there is jobs for them, these jobs generally something calling ‘3K’. It means that the works of bad situation, kitanai (duty), kitsui (hard), kiken (danger) in Japanese. These are low wages, they can’t have enough income for living. Also, languages and culture barriers and children struggle in school break their mental, difficult to live in Japanese society.

Second is ‘system alienation’. According to the Ministry of Justice, the number of refugees who apply to the institution for refugee admission is 1,867, but only 21 people are admitted. Moreover, these 14 of 21 admitted people once weren’t admitted. They didn’t become admitted refugees until they lodge the not-admitted for the institution. As I have said, Japan system for refugees disturb that they live in Japan.

Considering above mentioned, two alienations for refugees disturb their lives in Japan. On the other hands, words of migration and refugee are not familiar for Japanese. The reason I think are that education about migration and refugee is not enough, the number of admitted refugees is very few, and there is discrimination for foreigners. I think that these are roots the two alienations. We are unfamiliar with refugees, not enough educated, discriminate against foreigners, so there are these issues in our society, I think. To solve these issues, we have to solve the that fundamental problems first.

Reference

Ministry of justice http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri03_00085.html (final readings 2012,11,13)

Refugees in Japan

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by Yuu Yokoyama

I think Japan should receive more refugees and give more support for them. Japan started to receive Indochina refugees in 1978 and joined United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (UNHCR) in 1981. It is the international organization for refugee. Then, in 2010, Japan decided to admit refugee to live in Japan as the third county resettlement for the first time in Asia. Japan contributes many refugee support programs. On the other hand, there are some problems in the system for refugees.

First, the support for refugees is very weak. For example, while they wait the recognition of the refugee application, refugees can get money to live in Japan from government. This is because they have no means to earn money, I mean, they are not permitted to work any place in Japan. However, in fact, this support money is very little; only 1,500 yen as life cost per day and about 40,000 yen as house rent per month, this means only 85,000 yen per month. There are many refugees who have disorder in their body because they barely escaped from their country in their life. Such refugees want to go to hospital, but refugees do not have enough money to take even medical examination. In addition, they cannot entry health service, so they have to pay more much money to take medical care. In 2010, the budget for refugee is not enough, so government cut support money of 100 people. This makes more refugees suffer.

Second, the number that Japan gives approval of refugee is very few. At first, in 1982, Japan gave approval of 63 refugee compared to 530 people applied to permission to live in Japan as refugee. This means one person per 9 people could be approved as refugee. However, in 2010, although about 1,800 people requested refugee application, only 21 people could get it. This means one person per 90 people, the number is very small. This is because the regulation of giving approval is very strict.

Third, there are some people who have the prejudice for refugees. People sometimes watch the news that illegal foreign people commit a crime such as violence, theft… so people think that immigration has the possibility which they commit a crime. However, news focuses too much on only foreign people although Japanese also commit crimes every day. For example, according to the research in 2007, the ratio of the crime by Philippine is only 0.3 compared to that by Japanese is 1. Thus, refugee is not dangerous, we make refugees dangerous.

I think many people don’t know there are a lot of refugees in Japan because they think refugee is the problem which happens in far countries from Japan. However, it is not. Refugee is suffering now in Japan, too. We have to corporate with each other and create society which refugees can live safely and comfortably.

What Japan Can Do for Refugees

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by Satomi Toba

In this short report, I’ll look over the present refugee situation in the world and then, refer to what can we, Japanese people do for this issue. It is said that in the world, in 2010, there are about 15 million people who have been exiled from their native countries because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion (the 1951 Convention). What is worse, it is estimated that the number of refugee records the highest number after 2000. What they have faced under the daily life is usually stricter than people think of: most of the refugees are women and young children whose husband/father was usually passed away because of conflicts. Those refugees have to live under harsh condition, including violence and social discrimination.

‘Arab Spring’ is regarded as an epoch-making incident for citizens and countries where dictatorship has lasted for a long time. It gathers the world’s attention and the big aftereffects are still on. At the same time, we must focus on some people who have become new refugees. The exact number isn’t available, however, Reuter reported that in 2011 the number of people who applied for refugee status increased by 20 %, compared to the last year’s one, due to that democratic movement. It reaches to 441 thousand in 44 developed countries.

Through the last 2 or 3 classes, I’ve learned that the Japanese system or foundation for refugees is smaller-scale, compared to that of other developed countries. Especially, I doubt of an odd system, which after they apply for refugee status, they are not allowed to work and earn money until the judge will be cleared. Usually, it takes about from 6 months to 1 year. As it is known widely, Japanese government doesn’t receive so many refugees like other countries. Thus, it can be said that the refugees inevitably face the economic problem while the application term, nevertheless the possibility to be recognized as formal refugee is too low. I strongly think that it is time for Japan to rethink about them, and not only do that but also take actions. For the first step, I suggest that Japanese government should do away with the strict rule on work activity while the application term. Instead of prohibiting working, it’s better to let them work as they want to. I think it will create new human relationship and social relationship between the refugees and our society. Then, more Japanese people will come to notice this severe problem and speak it out together. I think it is the start point.

Refugees in Japan: Problems and Solutions

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by Tomoka Otani

When we started to learn about refugees in Japan, I did not have any idea what their problems are or I did not care much about them because I have never met refugees in Japan. However, as I studied the situations of refugees in Japan, I came to think that we needed to improve the Japanese system of accepting refugees in order to provide them with better lives in terms of supporting them economically and mentally.

As we talked about the current situation of accepting refugees in Japan, I came to realize that the process which refugees are going through in order to become officially accepted refugees is quite tough. For example, from 1981 to 2005, Japan accepted only 376 people as refugees though it received 3928 applications from all over the world, and it is extremely few numbers compare to other developed countries. Why does Japan accept many fewer refugees than other developed nations? The biggest reason is that there are still discrimination and prejudice against foreigners in Japan especially in terms of immigrants and refugees who are thought to be unstable in Japanese society. They may have been discriminated against at work, daily lives, or school just by their looks or their status that they are immigrants or refugees. However, it is not surprising for me because I have never met people who are immigrants or refugees from other countries. I think, in generally, Japanese people are not familiar with living with foreigner, immigrants and refugees in the same society.

As I mentioned the biggest problem of accepting refugees in Japan, I am going to state solutions for the current situation of accepting refugees. Firstly, I think Japanese people have to be aware of the existence of refugees in Japan, we may have heard about them on the news or in the newspapers but we naturally think it is the problem of other countries because there are not many refugees around us. We need to change our educational system in order to introduce the existence of refugees and what they have been though in their home countries. Secondly, we need to change the governmental economical support for the refugees because their lives are not stable at first and they might not have enough money to support themselves.

As I mentioned above, changing people’s attitude toward refugees and economical support are the two main solutions that I think it is important in order to improve the current situation of accepting refugees and to provide refugees with better lives after their struggles. I know it is extremely difficult for Japanese people to accept foreign refugees because of our cultures and prejudice against them, however, refugees do not have any choice but to live in another society because of various threats from their home countries, and I personally think we need to reconsider the reasons why they had to escape from their home countries and we must treat them with some kind of respect.