The Aging Japanese Society and the Formation of the Community Care System

　The purpose of my report is to clarify the relationship between the ongoing aging of Japanese society and the formation of a community care system. A community care system is a social network that provides necessary services for elderly people and their families in a certain area. This system consists of administrative agencies, medical institutions, welfare facilities, and community organizations.

Sun 15th Dec 2019, 10:00-12:00 Working Group 5: Progress Reports

Chair: Ono, Naoyukii, Mr Prof, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University

 

Wu, Peiyao（Ms. Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University）: The Formation of “Faith” in Modern Japan: On the Intellectual Enterprise of Sakaino Kōyō

 

     As described in several recent studies, the appropriation of the concept “religion” in modern Japan made “Buddhism” enter a transformation process that led, ultimately, to the reimagining of its very content: according to historian of religions Isomae Junichi, one of these elements was, for instance, an emphasis on “belief” to the detriment of “practice.” While this dichotomy of “belief” and “practice” need to be reconsidered, the construction of the concept of “faith (shinkō)” is of importance in modern Japanese Buddhism.

Often considered the epitome of this “belief-centered” version of the dharma, the so-called New Buddhism Movement (shinbukkyō undō) that occurred in the turn of the century played a fundamental role in terms of establishing the concept of “faith.” There is, however, very little research in both Japan and elsewhere focusing on the intellectual development of its key-figures. In this presentation, I will attempt to explore the formation of “faith” in modern Japan by focusing on Sakaino Kōyō (1871-1933), a pioneer of Chinese Buddhist studies in Modern Japan and one of the main leaders of the Movement. In order to explore his intellectual enterprise as a whole, I will explore his ideas of shinkō, and how it was developed both in his reformist attempt and his historiographical narrative of Chinese Buddhism.

After providing a brief biographical overview, I will firstly discuss Sakaino’s idea of “Poetic Buddhism” (shiteki bukkyō) in the 1890s, a method he offered for interpreting scripture and consequently, for building “correct faith” rather than superstition. Secondly, I will turn to the 1900s, a period when shinkō came to be the key word among Buddhist intellectual, as pointed out by the religious studies scholar Hoshino Seiji. I will examine how, by advocating “a sound faith”, a central proposal in the Movement, Sakaino aimed at making a balance between religion and scientific knowledge. Last but not the least, I will analyze his discourse on Chinese Buddhism, which was constructed as “the other” to Japanese Buddhism and argue how it echoes with his idea of New Buddhism, including the central place of “faith”.

 

Kagami, Yoko（Ms. Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University）: A Study of Polite Form “desu/masu” in “kara” Clause in Japanese Language

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

 

     In Japanese language, there are two styles: casual style and formal style. In formal style, we normally use polite forms “desu/masu” at the end of a clause or sentence. However, sometimes polite forms do not appear in clauses, even the whole sentences are written in formal style. In this presentation, I focus on one kind of those clauses with the particle “kara” and try to clarify what factors limit the appearance of polite forms.

     In this study, I used the database of written Japanese language as research data. From this database, I picked up the sentences that include “kara” clauses written in formal style, and classified them according to whether polite forms appear in those clauses or not.

Results suggest that there may be two types of factors that limit the appearance of polite forms. One type is “syntactic factors” that relate to grammatical rules: polite forms do not appear in the “kara” clauses which are in indirect quotations (Ex.(1), [ ] shows an indirect quotation) or include “focus” showing which are main parts in the sentences (Ex.(2), [ ] shows a focus), because these clauses can’t be independent as a sentence.

 

(1) [生きているときに死後の世界を信じていないから]といって、霊界の門のまえで追い払われるということはありません。（『霊能者』）

(2) [天然素材だからこそ]、木の上を歩くやわらかい感触や重厚感を味わうことができるのです。（『エコハウスに住みたい』）

 

The other type is “pragmatic factors” that relate to consideration for others: polite forms tend not to appear in the “kara” clauses that are in the context of fashion magazines(Ex.(3)) or in the sentences that recommend something(Ex.(4)), by reason of giving a sense of familiarity.

 

(3) インパクト大で、これ１枚でコーディネートがクールに見えるから、大満足の買い物でした。（『CanCam』）

(4) シンク下にスペースのあるフットインキャビネットだから、イスに腰掛けても膝が当たらず、調理作業がラクにできます。（『ハウスメーカー住宅１００選（別冊・新しい住まいの設計）』）

 

In summary, by comparing two different cases that polite forms appear in “kara” clauses or not, we found two types of factors (syntactic factors and pragmatic factors) that may limit the appearance of polite forms.

 

Wang, Yuling（Ms. Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University）: Foreign Tourists and Xenophobia in Japan

 

     With the rapid increase of immigrants, xenophobia has also been rising in the world. On the one hand, the increasing number of immigrants are considered to trigger economic and cultural threats among local people, resulting in rising xenophobia, however rising number of immigrants also increases intergroup contact opportunities which are considered can reduce xenophobic attitudes. The perception of local people and interactions with immigrants involves complicated economic, cultural concerns, However, previous studies have been solely focused on the effect of long-term immigrants’ number on xenophobia. Under the background of globalization, foreign tourists have also been increasing all around the world and should also be considered. According to the group threat theory, people of the host country tend to see minorities as threatening competitors for finite material or symbolic resources, especially when the minority population becomes large in relation to the majority population. If locals can not distinguish foreign tourists from immigrants, the number of immigrants may be overestimated, resulting in an increase in xenophobia. Also, there remains another question of whether or not attitudes toward foreign tourists would remain unchanged if the residents of the host country were better able to distinguish immigrants from foreign tourists because foreign tourists have been suggested have both etiquette problem and economic contribution to Japanese society. This time, I used the “Opinion survey on internationalization and citizen’s political participation” survey data collected in 2017 to examine the role of foreign tourists played in Japan. The empirical results show that more foreign tourists do not contribute the overestimation of immigrants in Japan, also, no increasing threat perception because of foreign tourists. On the contrary, with an increase in foreign tourists, locals tend to have a positive evaluation of immigrants’ sociotropic contribution. Consequently, xenophobia is reduced. Compared to foreign tourists, objective immigrants’ number goes along with subjective immigrants’ number, also, subjective perceptions of larger immigrant groups are associated with higher threats, so xenophobia increases. Simultaneously, larger immigrants number bring more intergroup contact opportunities which reduce xenophobia, but in the aggregate, an increasing number in immigrants’ number goes along with higher xenophobia. More foreign tourists do not have a positive effect on contact opportunities, suggests the lack of interpersonal contact between locals and foreign tourists in Japanese inbound market. Lastly, Through the comparison of the two groups, I found sociotropic evaluation theory also holds on in the Japanese context.