When the main job tasks are perceived to be ‘irrelevant’ in the workplace: the internal uselessness of corporate social responsibility work in Japan

ABSTRACT

Despite a symbolic shift toward ‘emotional taint’ in dirty work literature, the role of the workplace has not been studied in relation to socially admired professions, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. This article carries out an in-depth, critical examination of CSR as an emotionally tainted occupation in Japan. Its findings, substantiated by an analysis of 34 CSR workers’ rhetoric, help conceptualise ‘internal uselessness’. This emerges when workers feel their organisations publicly foster an image of their work that is decoupled from its internal reality, assigning them chief tasks they consider irrelevant. This leads to negative consequences that damage their workplace social relationships, professional aspirations and emotional well-being. The findings ultimately show that these CSR workers in Japan attempt to counterbalance internal uselessness through a social quest with peers outside their workplace, but also manage their emotions by rationalising their job status as inescapable, influenced by situated commitment norms.     

Supply Constraint from Earthquakes in Japan in Input–Output Analysis

Disasters often cause exogenous flow damage (i.e., the [hypothetical] difference in economic scale with and without a disaster in a certain period) to production (“supply constraint”). However, input-output (IO) analysis (IOA) cannot usually consider it, because the Leontief quantity model (LQM) assumes that production is endogenous; the Ghosh quantity model (GQM) is considered implausible; and the Leontief price model (LPM) and the Ghosh price model (GPM) assume that quantity is fixed. This study proposes to consider a supply constraint in the LPM, introducing the price elasticity of demand. This study uses the loss of social surplus (SS) as a damage estimation because production (sales) is less informative as a damage index than profit (margin); that is, production can be any amount if without considering profit, and it does not tell exactly how much profit is lost for each supplier (upstream sector) and buyer (downstream sector). As a model application, this study examines Japan's largest five earthquakes from 1995 to 2017 and the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) in March 2011. The worst earthquake at the peak tends to increase price by 10–20% and decrease SS by 20–30%, when compared with the initial month's prices/production. The worst damage tends to last eight months at most, accumulating 0.5-month-production damage (i.e., the sum of [hypothetical] differences in SS with and without an earthquake [for eight months] is 50% of the initial month production). Meanwhile, the GEJE in the five prefectures had cumulatively, a 25-month-production damage until the temporal recovery at the 37th month.     

日本国立民族学博物馆所藏涉藏资料研究

日本国立民族学博物馆是一所兼具博物馆功能、培养博士研究生教育功能、大学共同利用机构功能为一体的世界一流民族学(文化人类学)研究中心。国立民族学博物馆对涉藏资料的收集整理工作前后分为三个时期:初期主要是20世纪初由青木文教从西藏带回日本的民族志资料;其次是20世纪50年代日本学者川喜田二郎等人组织的社会调查队在尼泊尔等喜玛拉雅藏系社会的调查资料;第三个时期是中日建交后通过“中国民族文化宫”收购的一批民族文化资料中的涉藏部分。这些资料对今后的藏学研究具有重要的参考价值。     

体系变革、战略塑造与近代日本的海权兴衰

本文提出了地缘政治学的三种研究路径:地理要素、权力政治、战略分析。针对1868年明治维新至1941年的太平洋战争这段时期,日本的海权崛起为何逐渐走向失控这个议题,提出的自变量解释是体系变革,它涵盖权力结构、地理因素与攻防平衡交互影响等;国家的战略塑造能力是中介变量,包括:战略对手的塑造、国内共识的形成、地缘学说的吸收和运用、联盟战略构成等。结合海军与陆军部门的竞争关系、国内政治与外部战略环境的交互影响、地理与历史的基础性作用、对马汉、豪斯浩弗等地缘学者的历史影响考察,以及近代日本先后针对中国、俄国(苏联)和美国进行的战略调整优劣进行评估。最后得出结论:国家的海权发展应有大战略思维,片面追求军国主义和穷兵黩武不利于国家的长远利益。     

The COVID‐19 Pandemic and Families in Japan

This paper, which is authored by members of the Japanese Association of Family Therapy (JAFT), describes the COVID‐19 pandemic in Japan from a family systems perspective. The authors are active members of JAFT and include current and past presidents and officers. We describe the course of the pandemic and the ways in which government policies to mitigate the pandemic have affected Japanese families. Challenges that affect Japanese families include the inability to participate in family and social rituals, prescribed gender roles that specifically affect women, high suicide rates, and prejudice against those who are at risk of spreading the infection. The need to shelter in place has also forced family homes to function as a workplace for parents, classrooms for children, and day care services for frail elders, which has resulted in psychological distress among individuals and conflicts among families. We discuss ways that therapists have worked with Japanese families using online therapy.     

日本新订高中历史课程之特点与启示

2018年3月,日本发布新的《高等学校学习指导要领》。这是日本自第二次世界大战后70多年来,对高中课程最大规模的一次修订,体现了日本高中教育发展的新趋势,标志着日本从此告别“宽松教育”而走向“生存能力”教育。由“历史综合”“日本史探究”“世界史探究”组成的新高中历史课程,立足“人”的发展,构建了“必修+选修、通史+专题”的课程体系,课程内容更加突出本国史与世界史的联系,课程学习倡导“主题+探究”的学习方式。日本高中历史课程的内容设置及特点启示我们,高中历史课程编制应加强中国史与世界史的横向关联,课程内容应体现探究性学习要求。     

近百年来日本中国史研究著作中辽金史相关内容提要——《20世纪以来日本中国史学著作编年》读后感

胡宝华先生的《20世纪以来日本中国史学著作编年》一书,2012年由中华书局正式出版。该书共收录了近百年来日本学界关于中国古代史研究的相关学术著作1200余部。作者在书中以“章目提要”的方式介绍了20世纪以来日本中国史研究的成果,为我们客观掌握原著的基本信息提供了可能。同时作者在编写此书时,审慎参考了大量相关书评,为入选...     

论团结抗日民族政策的历史作用

为了抗日图存,中国共产党制定了团结抗日的民族政策———建立抗日民族统一战线,主张民族平等和民族团结,各少数民族有自治之权,帮助少数民族发展经济文化,尊重其语言文字和宗教习惯的自由。陕甘宁边区和其他抗日根据地认真贯彻执行了党的民族政策,从而有力地推动了各少数民族的英勇抗战,赢得了抗日战争的最后胜利。     

中日音乐文化交流的历史渊源

本文追溯了中日音乐文化交流的历史渊源,认为两国历史上音乐文化的交流是相互的,友好的,促进了两国音乐文化的发展。     

晚明澳门与日本贸易中的中国丝织品

大量史料证明,在晚明近百年间,经澳门葡萄牙商人之手输往日本即所谓澳（门）日（本）贸易中的中国丝织品,数量庞大,品种丰富,贸易价值亦相当可观。由于丝织品本身的特性,它不像生丝那样使用总括议价的一次性批发方式进行销售,而是采取更为市场化的方式逐一售买。作为晚明海上丝路文明的重要一环,相关细节的考证可为大航海时代的整体研究提供借鉴与帮助。