Dear readers,
As we enter the fourth quarter of 2023, it seems like the more things change the more they stay the same. New variants of COVID-19 are emerging amidst an increasing lack of concern in most societies. The war in Ukraine drags on with more weapons and more casualties. We are facing unprecedentedly hot temperatures and extreme weather around the globe – every year is a new record. The radioactive and reputational fallout from the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear meltdown continues to cause problems for Japan and concern among neighbors. And in the U.S., there may be a rerun of the Trump vs. Biden presidential race, with a new round of circus acts. Amidst these global issues and uncertainties, how can social scientists contribute to coping with the challenges faced by our societies?
While being focused on Japan, CJ’s contributors offer various ways of analyzing and understanding the changes facing contemporary society, both in and beyond Japan. In Volume 35 Issue 2, our authors cover issues of changing gender, family, and work configurations as well as nationalist politics in Japanese schools and growing demands for ICT to combat Japan’s demographic crisis. This issue includes a Special Section on “Gender, Family and Work in the 21st Century: Challenges and Transformations,” two research articles, and our book review section. The Special Section features an Introduction by Glenda Roberts, which frames how transformations in employment and family forms are articulated with gender norms and well-being, and the ways that women and men imagine their futures and negotiate issues of work and domestic life. The first paper is a translation of a recent reflective work by the foundational scholar of men’s and masculinity studies in Japan, Itō Kimio (translated by Allison Alexy). The next two papers look at young women’s attitudes toward work and family (Mirza) and women’s and men’s perceptions of work-life-balance among couples in Japan and France (Roberts and Costantini). We also have two original research articles that investigate the influence of nationalist politics in moral education (Fukuoka) and the actual use and reception of robotic devices and ICT in healthcare settings (Vogt and König). Once again, our book review section covers a range of publications, including issues of censorship in adult film, education and social justice, and immigration and belonging in Japan.
Lastly, I am happy to announce the winner of our biennial Best Paper Prize. After careful review of 17 publications from 2020-2021 by our Editorial Board, the overwhelming winner is “Who am I with others?: Selfhood and shuwa among mainstream educated deaf and hard-of-hearing Japanese youth,” by Jennifer McGuire (Volume 32(2): 197-217; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2020.1766646). Runners up were Tobias Weiss’s “Uniformity or polarization? The nuclear power debate in Japanese newspapers and political coalitions, 1973–2014” (Volume 33(1): 57-122, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2020.1824647) and Nils Dahl’s “Governing through kodokushi. Japan’s lonely deaths and their impact on community self-government” (Volume 32(1): 83-102, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2019.1680512). The articles selected will be made Free Access for one year. Congratulations to our winner and our Runners-Up, and to all of our authors for their great contributions to our journal and to Japanese Studies.
To circle back to my opening remarks – some things seem to stay the same in terms of positive change as well: CJ continues to grow in visibility, readership, and depth of content. All of this could not be done without the support of our authors, readers, reviewers, and editorial board. Thank you.