Japan's Lost Generation

ICJS Wakai Project Youth Conference: Youth Work in Contemporary Japan

I've had a busy summer in 2009, I thought my blog might be a good forum to discuss some events I attended as it relates to the focus of this blog.

The big event in June was attending and presenting at my second conference on my Master's thesis research topic, hikikomori. (My thesis is now available via the Proquest service as a downloadable pdf. You can find more details in a earlier post on the subject here. If you are attending a university, your institution should have a subscription to the Proquest service and you can get free access that way.)

The first conference was the 2008 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting (ASA) in Boston last summer in which I discuss and provide a free link to my paper as a PDF here. Actually the 2009 ASA Conference is being held in San Francisco August 8-11th. As much as I'd like to go this year as well, I've been pretty busy preparing for my dissertation research which starts in September, so I'll have to pass.

I was in Tokyo from June 25th to the 30th to present at Temple University's ICJS Wakai Project Youth Conference: Youth Work in Contemporary Japan. This is the third year the Temple University campus in Japan has held a Wakai Project Youth Conference. Last year the theme was youth and digital content this year its youth and work, which is my area of research interest, so I went ahead and applied to present.

A PDF of all the presentation abstracts and conference schedule is available here.

I was very excited to be able attend this conference and doubly so when I was selected to present on day two of the conference.

One reason was due to the fact that the presenters for day one of the conference were Mary Brinton (Harvard University), Genda Yuji (Tokyo University) and Kosugi Reiko (Japan Institute of Labor). As a researcher, I have cited their publications numerous times in my own papers and their work is who I go to first in order to get a solid quantitative picture of what's happening in Japan's contemporary labor markets. So you can imagine, it was really rewarding to hear them present in person about their research.

I should point out that a great deal of economic and labor related data on Freeters, NEET and hikikomori has been produced by the Japan Institute of Labor (JIL for short) over the last decade. The researchers there are primarily economists, but thier analysis on issues relating to Japanese youth labor and Japanese government policy is top notch. Even if you are a psychologist or anthropologist and looking at issues relating to specific populations of Freeter, NEET, Hikikomori, et.al., for which you intend to perform an ethnographic study on, it's constructive to understand the macro structural context of the national labor scene and Japanese labor policies in which these young Japanese find their lives situated within.

So, I found the Temple University conference very constructive on many levels.

Personally, it was the first time in five years that I had been in Tokyo, and was the first time in ten years that I actually stayed and explored Tokyo rather than just passing through to another destination. As with any big metropolis, some landmarks remain the same while the character of the areas around them morph into something totally new. Yoyogi, Akihabara (now nicknamed Akiba), Harajuku and Shinagawa to name a few areas that are familiar and yet, so very different from the late 1990s when I last lived in Tokyo.

Professionally, I met some fascinating people doing very intriguing research. I look forward to catching up with them when I set up shop in Tokyo in September. And so many anthropologists! Talk about culture clash. I had more than a few vigorous conversations about theoretical framing over beers. It was great fun. All in all, I was very fortunate to have gone to the conference.

I had heard that they may be interested in gathering all the presentations at the conference into an edited book. But that remains unconfirmed. In the meantime, here's an abstract of my presentation:

Building a Working Class Future: Rehabilitating Middle-class Hikikomori with Normalized Working-Class Expectations.

Michael DZIESINSKI

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Hikikomori are Japanese youth who shut out contact with society by hiding within parents’ homes for months or even years. During these long periods of isolation from traditional school and work environments, hikikomori lack the socialization needed for adulthood. Due to the established school-to-work system in Japan, youth with a history as hikikomori have limited options for reentry into society as middle-class adults. This paper is based upon primary field data collected over a ten-month period at a private rehabilitation institution for hikikomori in Tokyo, Japan. Over the three years of this program, hikikomori youth are exposed to daily social rehabilitation structured around an idealized working class norm of conduct through group participation, routinization, and repetition. This process of hikikomori rehabilitation also takes on the dimensions of gender and class socialization: the normalization of hikikomori youth with middle class backgrounds into a more viable adult gendered working class identity.

~M. Dziesinski

Anti-Japanese Sentiments in China continues with a drilling dispute

Well, it looks like the national tension between Japan and China is not dying down. The tensions caused by the original textbook debate has maintained it's momentum in China and is being furthered by a dispute over gas drilling rights between the two countries.

According to this excellent analysis in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Acrimony grows in East Asia”

— the bigger issue here may be China, in part, flexing its newfound economic muscle in the region. Also according to the article, China is ᡢecoming further emboldened because the communist nation is finding that Japan's traditional allies like the United States do not want to get involved in the China-Japan dispute and are only issuing travel advisories for it's own citizens traveling in China.

Also complicating matters is that the United States is pushing Japan to take a more active defensive role in the region as the U.S. plans to pull its 30,000 troops out of Okinawa and only leave a small contingent near Tokyo.

Are we seeing a shift in political-economic power in East Asia?

China does appear to be trying to make some diplomatic effort to dampen the anti-japanese rallies, as reported by the BBC:

China warns against Japan Rallies

As I said before, I'm interested in this crisis between Japan and its neighbors as far as it will effect Japan in the coming years— I hold NO OPINION on the issue proper, just the effects it will leave in it's wake.

Framed in those terms, the question is: what role does Japan's younger generation have to look forward to for their own country of Japan and so their self-identity, if there is a drastic shift in political-economic power towards China in the coming decades?

How will the next generation of Japanese deal with those outside Asia seeing China as a near-hegemonic force in Asia, while China continues a policy of suppression of Japanese interest based upon issues from the past?

I'm guessing that we may well see hints to the possible future dynamics in East Asia based upon whether or not the friction between China and Japan calms down or builds to a fever pitch in the coming days.

Image copyright Getty Images.

Follow-up to post on Anti-Japanese sentiments

It appears that the anti-Japanese sentiments in China has given Japan's Ambassador cause to call on the Chinese government to protect Japanese citizens currently in China. It does seem the issue is intensifying:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/10/china.japan.protest.media/

And because some seem to think I'm oversimplifying the issue, here is an editorial from the Japan Times on political and economic aspects of the anti-japanese sentiment and why its 'dangerous to hold Japan back' in the future using Japan's actions in the past as a 'club':

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050411tp.htm

As I said in the last post, I'm gathering the news here and providing analysis, I'm not trying to sell you on any point of view, so personal attacks are not welcome.

All I'm asking is to consider how this geopolitical mess will impact the next generation of adults in Japan who will be running the show in the next few decades.

Obviously this is a hot issue which is why I'm getting some of the feedback I am, but I would prefer NOT to wade into the political area, but keep it an academic inquiry.

Anti-Japanese Sentiments Heat Up in China and Korea

I wonder at times what type of relationship Japan's young generation will have with Japan's Asian neighbors when those young people reach the age where they are setting policy decisions as Japan's leaders.

Though nearly two generations have passed since the events of WWII, China and Korea still harbors resentment towards Japan for its aggressions in WWII reflected in the current events of today; Some memories die hard and are passed from parent to child. Complicating matters is the fact that China is quickly becoming the economic hedgemon of Asia, overshadowing “Japan Inc.'s” economic miracle in the 1990's.

How will Japan's new working class of the 21st century deal with a rising tide of anti-Japanese sentiment in Asia?

And do they even know the reasons why China and Korea are so hostile to Japan?

Just to illustrate how much China and Korea STILL hold intense national animosity towards Japan today from the actions of Imperial Japan in the 1930s, three issues have flared up in the past few weeks sparking intense anti-Japanese resentment in those two countries.

I normally wouldn't comment on this sort of thing in my blog, but the Japanese textbook issue does pertain to the current young generation in Japan. My purpose here is to just bring the reader up to speed on the issue of anti-Japanese sentiment flaring up in Asia, not really take one side or the other in the disputes. I would only like to consider the effect it is having on Japan's Lost Generation.

The Japan Middle School Textbook Issue

The newest rekindled debate arose when a new edition of textbooks for Japanese school nationwide were approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education this week. The accusations from China and Korea are that the Japanese publisher of the Japanese middle school textbooks are guilty of 'whitewashing' Japan's role in WWII as an aggressor nation: the textbooks barely mentions the Nanking Massacre, Comfort Women, or the annexation of Korea.

The idea being that young Japanese have no knowledge of their country’s true historical involvement in those WWII events (and so are doomed to repeat the mistakes of their grandfather's generation). The thinking put forth by the articles below by Chinese and Korean sources are that these textbooks are ultranationalist and right wing in their presentation. These textbooks, cleansed of ugly historical events, will shape the way young Japanese view the world not by what they say, so much as what the textbooks don't say to the young reader by omission.

The fear in China and Korea is that the cleansed textbooks may create a jingoistic generation of Japanese who might once again try to establish militaristic Japan in hegemonic role in Asia.

The most heated response from the Japan side is that the textbook writers don’t want young Japanese growing up to feel depressed or ashamed of their country:

http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179790.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4415147.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4416593.stm
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5660053&cKey=1112763920000
http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=1&story_id=32764


China moves to block a greater role for Japan in the UN

The second and related issue spurring ant-Japanese sentiment is China's bid to stop Japan's inclusion in the UN Security Council. With anti-Japanese riots and the boycotting of Japanese goods in China in recent days due to the textbook issue, China finds it hard to satisfy the nationalist fervor at home against the Japanese while trying to come across as globalist in the eyes of the UN. Japanese products like Asahi Beer have been pulled from the shelves in China and protesters assemble outside of Japanese embassies:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GD07Ad06.html
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/04/05/chinese_campaign_to_block_japan_from_un/
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200504%5CFOR20050405b.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503300041.html

The Korean/Japanese territorial dispute over Dokdo/Takeshima

The third issue is the heated territorial dispute over a small chunk of rocks that Japan calls Takeshima and Korea calls Dokdo in the Sea of Japan that both Japan and South Korea claim to be their national territory. To understand the bitterness of this dispute you need to understand the history between Japan and Korea in the 20th century. The articles that follow offer a much more detailed description of the history behind this, but suffice to say the annexation of Korea 1910-1945 by Imperial Japan left behind many bad feelings on both sides.

And this issue has heated up beyond civilian action to the point that both governments have taken overt steps to prove they have rightful claim to these islands. The Japanese Self Defense Forces have apparently flown over the islands and there exists plans by the South Korean military to fire on anyone who nears the islands.

Again, the new Japanese middle-school textbooks tie into this issue as well, as the textbooks claim that the disputed islands belong in fact to Japan.

This dispute sparked a wave of violent protests across South Korea in Mid-March and the textbook issue this week has only intensified the issue. Anti-Japanese protests in Seoul have even reportedly involved an old Korean women cutting her pinky off, people stabbing themselves to death, or setting themselves on fire outside the Japanese embassies in Korea in protest:

The most interesting link—
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=86689

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/18/200503180025.asp
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/03/30/japan-southkorea050330.html
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2005040704878
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504060021.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050406-06432300-bc-skorea-japan-analysis.xml
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aY5airJkwb4A&refer=asia
http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179725.html
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/04/07/200504070013.asp
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/03/18/200503180025.asp
http://english.people.com.cn/200504/06/eng20050406_179725.html
http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=4/6/2005&section_id=5&newsid=17895&spcl=no

Image Sources:
Image 1: People's Daily Online
Image 2: Kim Dong-hoon / The Korea Herald
Image 3: CBC News