Living with suicidal feelings: Japanese non-profit organizations for suicide prevention amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The number of suicides in Japan increased for the first time in 11 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend is particularly high among employed women and students. The Japanese government expanded its budget for providing telephone and social network service (SNS) counseling by prefectures and non-profit organizations (NPOs). On the basis of interviews with the chairman as well as counselors of an NPO in Osaka (Japan) that has provided telephone counseling services on suicide for over 40 years, this study examines suicide and suicide prevention amid the COVID-19 pandemic with a particular focus on how suicidal feelings are accepted. The results clarify that people do not wish to die just because of financial troubles or health problems; rather, they have lost the meaning in their life in the conflicts between social conditions and their personal life histories. Additionally, as volunteer counselors often experience the suicide of close relatives, their empathy for a caller may be based on their experiences of being overwhelmed by the realization of the otherness of others. They do not regard the acceptance of suicidal feelings as a “job,” but act as “friends.” Although modern society conceals death and suicide cases, the key to achieving a society where no one is driven into committing suicide is to place human life and human rights first as well as to talk about suicide and suicidal feelings without making the subject taboo or an aberration.     

Japanese urban sociology: Development and current trends

This article focuses on current trends in Japanese urban sociology as they developed historically. They can be understood in the distinctive context of Japanese sociology, as the products of an interaction between Western sociological theories and their adaptation to Japan’s own materials. The article begins with the historical context of urban development and provides an overview of the development of urban studies in Japan, including issues in the theory of urbanization, the distinctive character of the neighborhood association, Cbonaikai, and the formation of new local communities in suburban areas. The current trends since the 1980s involve the macro approach to urban restructuring, studies on urban ethnicity, and social network analysis. Overall, it is suggested that the influence of American sociology makes Japanese urban analysis comparative. I thank Claude S. Fischer and Tazuko Hanzawa for their help with editing this paper. Remain-ing deficiencies are mine.     

关于创新城市社区管理服务的几点重要思考

创新城市社区管理服务涉及到城市社区管理的方方面面,但当前的城市社区管理实践所反映的问题主要出现在社区基本理论依据、党政组织机构的地位作用、社区治理结构健全和运行机制等几个领域。主要问题是缺少对中国城市社区管理实情的客观认识,缺失从基层社区实际出发的解决问题的正确路线和缺乏对城市社区管理体系的系统、长远的考虑。本文正是从这些重要问题出发,思考、探讨城市社区管理创新的新思维、新路线,力求破解当前城市社区管理创新的困局。     

Are we there yet? En route to professionalism

The debate on the professional status of Communication Management/Public relations¹ has been high on the worldwide agenda for decades. While previous research has focused on the criteria for professionalism in this field, practitioners and academics often question the efforts of professional associations to adequately address the issue of implementing systems to facilitate professional status. The emergence of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) as an umbrella body for various regional professional associations, as well as the increased emphasis on regulation, standards and governance in all spheres of the global business environment, have led to renewed questions about global efforts to achieve professional status for this field. This study focused on the goals and actions of member associations of the GA in relation to the question of professional status. In order to understand the current state of affairs an exploratory qualitative approach was followed in which member associations were surveyed and their websites reviewed. The fact that fewer than half of the 27 member associations responded to the survey suggests that a study about this matter is not deemed particularly important and/or that the issue of professional status is not widely pursued. However, the associations that participated in this study agree that professional status is important. The study has also found that many similarities exist across continents in terms of the mechanisms utilized to achieve professional status. Codes of ethics, contributions to a body of the knowledge and the provision of professional training opportunities are regarded as quite important while divergent viewpoints exist in relation to issues like accreditation and a standardized tertiary curriculum.     

Balancing strategy and accountability: A model for the governance of professional associations

An erratum has been published for this article in Nonprofit Management and Leadership 15(4) 2005, 487 [ ]. Professional associations are operating in a context of uncertainty and change, with which their traditional governance structures struggle to manage. After describing this context and presenting a brief overview of relevant governance literature, a project aimed at supporting the redesign of governance structures and procedures among five professional associations in the United Kingdom is outlined. Three specific governance issues are examined: size of councils (council is the term used for a governing body of a U.K. professional association), their composition in relation to electoral processes, and the development of inner councils, or executive boards, within councils. Finally, we present a normative model, the cupped hands model, that has arisen from the research. This model offers a possible means of balancing the representation required by their status as membership associations with the requirement that professional associations become more strategic and proactive.     

A STUDY OF INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONSHIPS: THE GROWING ETHNIC COMPLEXITY IN THE JAPANESE CITY

Abstract  In examining the growing inter-ethnic complexity as an issue of social change in major Japanese cities since the mid-1980s, it is essential that in addition to learning from the experience of Western society.

• 1) 

  this discussion be carried out in the context of research on Korean residents in Japan, and
• 2) 

  the analysis include an examination of the inter-ethnic relationships.

These two essential points have largely been ignored in previous research on the internationalization of the Japanese city. This paper is based on field research from the Ikaino district of Osaka city, which is the largest non-Japanese "ethnic" community in Japan. The research reveals hitherto neglected aspects of contemporary urban internationalization by examining the Korean community from the point of view of the relationship between the Korean and Japanese communities. We find that:

• 1) 

  A Japanese community exists within Ikaino (widely known as "Korea town").
• 2) 

  The Korean and Japanese communities live side by side but emphasize their separate identities.
• 3) 

  The only condition which offers hope for cooperation between the two groups is a common feeling of loss and deprivation.

Arguments for and against the employment of unskilled foreign laborers continue to be heard. It is the task of the sociologist to provide an objective, unbiased analysis and to accumulate relevant data, rather than to attempt a quick resolution by supporting one side or the other.     

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.     

Functional Transition of Corporation in Governance Corporate Citizens from the Viewpoint of CSR

The research work of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is a topic of world interest, and as is well known, has been frequently discussed. We try to demonstrate a functional transition of the corporation in governance society, utilizing the viewpoint of CSR. The importance of CSR is recognized by most, almost a boom. However we doubt that they understand the real meaning of the CSR. First of all, we would like to focus on the current understanding of CSR in Japan. We insist that CSR is sharing the implementation of public policy between Private Corporations and Government. A gap is occurring between the private sector and the public sector due to a lack of intermediate organization. CSR may be a bridge for the gap between Private and Public, utilizing a corporation’s business process. To simplify matters, we concentrate on how corporations should be and what they should to do. We shall show a few examples of serious problems that have occurred in our society: low birth rate, an adjustment for the difference among people, and avoidance of suicide. And we would like to refer to Japanese traditional companies existing for more than a century. Those companies have chosen to serve a purpose rather than just simply to focus on making a profit, showing attention to their values and missions. Hence, their interest in CSR, sharing the implementation of public policy between Private Corporations and Government, and their high expectations of it.     

Adaptive governance to promote ecosystem services in urban green spaces

Managing urban green space as part of an ongoing social-ecological transformation poses novel governance issues, particularly in post-industrial settings. Urban green spaces operate as small-scale nodes in larger networks of ecological reserves that provide and maintain key ecosystem services such as pollination, water retention and infiltration, and sustainable food production. In an urban mosaic, a myriad of social and ecological components factor into aggregating and managing land to maintain or increase the flow of ecosystem services associated with green spaces. Vacant lots (a form of urban green space) are being repurposed for multiple functions, such as habitat for biodiversity, including arthropods that provide pollination services to other green areas; to capture urban runoff that eases the burden on ageing wastewater systems and other civic infrastructure; and to reduce urban heat island effects. Because of the uncertainty and complexities of managing for ecosystem services in urban settings, we advocate for a governance approach that is adaptive and iterative in nature—adaptive governance—to address the ever changing social order underlying post-industrial cities and offer the rise of land banks as an example of governance innovation.     

Strangers asking strange questions? A methodological narrative of researching belonging and identity in English rural communities

This paper emerges from a current research project that examines the relationship between contemporary English rurality and notions of identity and belonging. While this is primarily a methodological narrative we argue that this narrative speaks to an analysis of current rural relations. The paper concerns itself with two key methodological issues that have arisen during the ‘doing’ of the research. First, it examines our own relationship, as ‘outsider’, urban-based researchers, to the rural and the use and/or relevance of our biographies as resources for making ourselves seem less ‘strange’ and for accessing, and being in, rural environments. At the same time as providing us with a map into our micro rural worlds the paper draws on this biographic-research relation in order to problematize notions of homogenous rural identities and polarized rural/urban identities. The second part of the paper argues that who we were/how we were perceived had a relation to what ‘truths’ and accounts we were told by our respondents. More particularly, we show how our use of focus group interviews had a direct role in the rehearsal and presentation of these ‘truths’. Given the current contestations and tensions over what and who ‘the rural’ is, it was clear that those involved in the focus group discussions wanted to give us particular stories that often fell into a consensus pattern of either ‘rural idyll’ or ‘rural crisis’ narratives. Drawing on Simmel's notion of the stranger and focus group data we argue that for these narratives to be told we, as researchers, were ascribed by the group members to shifting positions of intimacy and remoteness.     

南京、镇江、扬州同城化研究

在区域经济一体化背景下,城市区域化步伐不断加快。区域合作越来越成为新型城镇化道路的主导方向。同城化是一种实现良性区域合作的新型制度安排。依据同城化发展基本理论,南京、镇江、扬州(简称宁镇扬)地区在区位条件、人文背景等方面已具备同城化的生成条件;宁镇扬同城化发展得到来自市场力量和政府力量等制度方面的巨大支持。     

Does Attitudinal Consensus Lead to Neighborhood Collaboration? An Exploratory Analysis of an Urban Community

This article examines whether high levels of attitudinal consensus on community needs and civic responsibilities among a community's residents are associated with effective collaborative efforts among that community's neighborhood associations. Drawing upon both quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of an umbrella organization in an urban community, the authors found only a weak connection between attitudinal consensus, which was strong to moderate on most issues, and effective neighborhood association collaboration. The authors conclude that attitudinal consensus may be a necessary first step toward building effective collaboration but is far from sufficient to foster meaningful and stable partnerships. The authors explore the reasons for the lack of effective collaboration, offer suggestions for addressing barriers to collaboration, and discuss the implications of the findings for community building initiatives that aim to build social capital, particularly across “difference,” in distressed and diverse urban communities.     

The multi-scalar embeddedness of support policies for migrant entrepreneurship in Japan

Contextual entrepreneurship and mixed embeddedness approach alike emphasize the importance of the political-institutional embeddedness next to social embeddedness along with further contexts for migrant entrepreneurship, yet the aspect of international migration policies as an important institutional framework has been somewhat neglected. This paper introduces the case of political-institutional embeddedness of migrant entrepreneurship in Japan from an international migration policy perspective, discussing embeddedness of migrant entrepreneurs and their support institutions from a multi-scalar perspective. By analysing the migration policy context of migrant entrepreneurship at different policy levels, that is, national, regional and urban scales, it demonstrates the analytical value of differentiating policies along these scales and also their inter-connectedness, conceptually proposing the inter- and trans-scalarity of these policy contexts. By bringing issues of migration regimes and particularly the East Asian developmental state as a lens to analyse migrant entrepreneurship, it brings further approaches in comparatively analysing different entrepreneurial contexts for future research.     

Making Heterogeneous Space: Land Development and the Proletarianization of Urban Underclass in Post War Japan

This paper aims to focus on a correlation between urban land development and a “proletarianization” of day‐laborers by examining Mitsui Fudosan Group [Mitsui Real Estate Group] as an agent of urban developments and construction industry in Japan, with examining daylaborers’ riots and moral economy as a counter‐culture against gentrified urban spaces.It is necessary to acknowledge the fact that the national projects – maintained by the closed market and the subcontracting labor system in the construction industry – also induce a radical opposition against the urban development. Although national projects are inevitably accompanied by gentrification, eviction of the homeless, and social exclusion of the underclass, unavoidable transgression or deviation conflicts with urban development, such as periodic and spontaneous riots by day‐laborers, demonstrates a vulnerability of the national unity. In fact, the day‐laborers changed the street labor market into their own field in order to overturn the hierarchy determined by the subcontracting structure in the construction industry. Their bodily expression in the form of riots had radically transgressed the ideas promoted in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as “One World,” or the 1970 Osaka Expo as “Progress and Harmony for Mankind.” The Olympic legacy was disrupted boldly and transformed into a radical egalitarian thought in this sense. The underclass is immediately defined and commodified by national projects, however, it does not mean that its body is completely involved in its time and space.     

The neoliberal multicultural state and the urban Indigenous associative model in Santiago de Chile

This article argues that since the recovery of democracy in Chile in the early 1990s, the state has been reshaping the Indigenous socio-political landscape by adopting neoliberal multiculturalism as a governance model. By not posing significant challenges to the state's neoliberal political and economic priorities, Indigenous cultural activity has been carefully channelled to meet state expectations of what constitutes urban indigeneity. Drawing on the minority and multicultural studies literature and ongoing ethnographic fieldwork, this article analyses how Mapuche civil society navigates the complexities of two relational models of state/ethnic minority interaction: ethno-bureaucracy and strategic essentialism. Although Mapuche associations have tried to accommodate their interests within the limits of neoliberal multiculturalism, the article argues that this governance model has established incentives for inclusion and exclusion in the socio-political apparatus, resulting in a fragmentation of the Mapuche associative landscape in urban Chile.     

Continuation of Festivals and Community Resilience during COVID-19: The Case of Nagahama Hikiyama Festival in Shiga Prefecture,Japan

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the way of life of communities in Japan. This study examines the pandemic's impact by focusing on a popular activity in Japanese townships: participation in traditional festivals with roots dating back to before the Edo period. These festivals display the social customs of each community and their prosperity from the past to the present. Residents participating in local festivals gain a deep understanding of their personal importance within the community. However, many communities were forced to cancel their festivals in 2020 because of the pandemic. In 2021, many communities attempted to reinstate their traditional festivals, and some of them resumed the festivities with infection control measures in place. This case study examines how people resumed festivals in their communities and the conditions needed for them to reengage with their traditions. Focusing on the Nagahama Hikiyama Festival in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, we demonstrate the resilience of traditional communities in Japan. This study analyzes the reasons for and process of reviving and subsequently implementing traditional festivals and clarifies the positive factors contributing to the resumption of festivals in local communities. It examines the sources of resilience that have been cultivated in these communities and explains how their social capital bridges the gaps between local governments, schools, and broadcasters.     

Korean ethnic education in Japanese public schools

Korean ethnic education in Japanese public schools has played an important role in the persistence of Korean ethnicity in Japan. In Osaka Prefecture, it began as an educational movement at the end of the 1960s. Japanese and Korean activists who led the movement had different political commitments and developed two approaches. Those interested in Korean homeland politics stressed the importance of teaching the ethnic culture of the homeland and tried to develop an ethno-national identity among Korean children. Those involved in civil rights politics in the context of Japan focused on the problem of ethnic discrimination and facilitated the formation of a political subjectivity among Korean children. The old practice of Korean ethnic education is a form of multicultural education and provides many useful ideas for today's multiculturalist teachers in Japan, who are dealing with children of newcomer foreigners.     

Tokens or Stakeholders in Global Migration Governance? The Role of Affected Communities and Civil Society in the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees

Focussing on the inclusion of those primarily affected as stakeholders (refugees and other migrants), this article addresses a key ambition of the compacts themselves. We employ an ‘inside‐outside’ perspective and firstly ask: which groups participated in the consultative processes, what agenda did they set ‘inside’ the meetings, what alliances did they establish and how did they influence the outcomes? Secondly, we investigate what kind of advocacy took place ‘outside’ of these formalized spaces and what impact it had? By this, we not only contribute to an evaluation of the processes themselves, but also advance current academic debates on strategies, spaces and political opportunity structures for civil society and particularly migrant involvement in global migration governance from below and the larger debate on democratizing global institutions.     

我国城市社区民主治理的困境与出路

积极推进城市社区民主治理对我国民主政治建设和法治进程具有重要而深远的影响,但宥于我国历史传统和民主法治国情,城市社区民主治理仍存在民主权利与民主需求、民主需求与民主实践、民主实践与民主权利之间不相协调一致的问题,使得社区民主治理陷入“权利-需求-实践”的困境,这严重阻碍着中国城市社区建设及基层民主政治的健康发展。当务之急是结合我国实际,完善民主权利,满足民主需求,深化民主实践,积极探索具有我国特色的城市社区民主治理之路。     

Consequences of governance restructuring for quality of urban living in the transformation era in Beijing: A view of job accessibility

One of the major issues concerning present-day public policy in a transitional and developing country is its ability to enhance the quality of urban living and individual social well-being in the context of rapid urban growth. A dramatic decline in overall job accessibility due to increases in commuting time is already a serious problem affecting the quality of urban living in Beijing. Understanding the impact of governance restructuring on overall job accessibility is of primary importance if politicians are to make policy innovations in development management. This paper applies the institutionalist approach to analyse the impact of governance restructuring on job accessibility. The analysis shows that current governance restructuring has a negative effect on overall job accessibility due to competition between different local governments increasing the degree of spatial fragmentation; revenue-enhancing development introducing constraints affecting the local jobs-housing balance; and the coexistence of the old planning system alongside the new market system leading to a fragmented land-use right transfer mechanism, intensifying scattered and low-density development. With respect to future policy, stronger municipal development management might be one direction in implementing public policy to enhance overall job accessibility, insofar as it addresses the negative impact of fragmented development management in the current transformation process.