Abstract Research on immigrant life satisfaction rarely examines Japan’s rapidly expanding foreign population. Applying social production function theory, we examine how neighborhood participation influences life satisfaction among foreign nationals in Nagoya. Using ordered logit regression analysis of survey data from 1,496 foreign residents collected in 2015, we test effects of four participation forms: social contact with Japanese neighbors, membership in neighborhood household associations (NHAs), volunteering, and event participation. Social contact and event participation positively predict life satisfaction, while NHA membership unexpectedly predicts lower satisfaction. Some of these effects vary by nationality, with Brazilians benefiting less from contact with Japanese neighbors and Vietnamese showing weaker gains from event participation. These findings reveal that formal membership in an institution that builds social capital among Japanese citizens reduces life satisfaction among foreign residents. It may be that organizational membership imposes burdens that outweigh benefits for non-citizens. Our results demonstrate that neighborhood participation effects are neither uniform nor universally beneficial, challenging assumptions that institutions serving majority populations automatically benefit minorities.
What factors determine voters' evaluations of politicians? Previous studies have focused on two categories-policy-based and non-policy factors. However, they have overlooked politicians' displays of effort as a non-policy factor, a trait that garnered considerable media attention during recent crises in Japan. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake and during the COVID-2019 pandemic, news outlets frequently showed footage of political leaders working hard to manage the crisis response. Despite the prevalence of such imagery, how displays of effort affect voters' evaluations of politicians have not yet been empirically studied. To address this shortcoming, this study conducts a vignette experiment to test how several attributes linked to effort cues influence voters' evaluations of politicians. More specifically, it investigates the extent to which effort cues improve voters' evaluations of politicians' ability to keep campaign promises and their likeability. The results confirm that voters see hard-working politicians as both more trustworthy and more likeable.
This study examines the factors shaping symbolic threat perception and its relationship with anti-immigrant attitudes. While previous research has shown that perceiving immigrants as threats to national culture, security, or public order is closely linked to anti-immigration sentiment, the mechanisms underlying symbolic threat perception remain insufficiently explored. Focusing on Japan-a context with limited far-right mobilization and a relatively small immigrant population-this study uses survey data to analyze the role of nationalism in structuring symbolic threat perceptions. Nationalism is conceptualized broadly to include both hot nationalism and banal nationalism. The findings show that symbolic threat perceptions are strongly associated with anti-immigration attitudes and that differences across immigrant groups are not primarily driven by immigrants' origins. Overall, the study demonstrates that a broader conceptualization of nationalism provides a more comprehensive understanding of how anti-immigrant sentiment is discursively structured.
The purpose of this study is to identify factors that determine negative reactions to political comments by celebrities in Japan. In a democratic society, celebrities can serve an important function as intermediaries through whom large numbers of people can encounter diverse points of view. The prevailing atmosphere in Japan has little tolerance for political comments by celebrities, however, as exhibited by the commonly heard assertion that entertainers should not talk about politics. The impact of this atmosphere on democracy itself cannot be ignored. Even so, there has been no previous research in Japan devoted to empirically verifying people's attitudes toward political comments by celebrities. In this study, a randomized factorial survey experiment has been employed to test three hypotheses concerning the influence of the following factors: (1) the speaker's status as a celebrity, (2) incongruent political preferences between speaker and listener, and (3) interaction between the speaker's status as a celebrity and incongruent political preferences between speaker and listener. Based on the results, we have ascertained that political comments by celebrities are more likely to elicit a negative reaction than political comments by non-celebrities and that incongruent political preferences are associated with stronger aversion to such comments. However, the hypothesis that aversion to such comments would be intensified by concern that celebrity influence might popularize views to which the listener is opposed is not supported by the results. The findings of this study have theoretical implications concerning tolerance for diverse viewpoints in Japan's democratic society and value judgments about political comments.
This Research Note analyses how volunteer-run International Friendship Associations (IFAs) in peri-urban Ibaraki bridged gaps in migrant support during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Fieldwork in K & omacr;ga and Toride combined twenty semi-structured interviews with IFA officers and volunteers, migrant residents (Specified Skilled Worker [SSW], long-term, family, naturalized), and municipal liaisons, with participant observation and organizational records. Routine activities became crisis infrastructure. IFAs performed three linked functions: language access, which translated shifting rules into actionable steps; administrative and legal mediation through trust-based accompaniment to schools, municipal counters, labour standards offices, H & omacr;terasu, and immigration; and modest livelihood support, such as food parcels and school supplies, that stabilized households while paperwork progressed. These roles unfolded within a regime that prioritizes labour control through Technical Intern Training Program and layers SSW statuses without a universal, publicly funded Japanese-as-a-Second-Language baseline, producing marunage ((sic)(sic)(sic)), delegation without resources, to municipalities and civic groups. The cases, typical of peri-urban ecologies beyond metropolitan cores, clarify limits (ageing volunteers, thin budgets, borrowed rooms, no mandate) and enabling conditions (municipal adjacency, trusted networks, multilingual capacity). Recognizing migrant support as a public good implies baseline funding for multilingual access and embedding professional mediators in city halls, with IFAs supplementing rather than substituting for public provision.
This study examines Japan's prolonged public silence despite widespread awareness of Johnny Kitagawa's decades-long sexual abuse, a prominent business magnate, and talent producer. The case demonstrates that conventional gender-based explanations for silence are insufficient, particularly in contexts involving male victims. The analysis highlights socially embedded mechanisms in Japan that shape individual and collective behaviour. The primary focus is the social construct of seken (often translated as 'society'), which provides the normative framework that underpins the social order. In addition, social scripts, such as k & umacr;ki o yomu ('reading the mood or situation') and sontaku ('anticipatory obedience'), are equally significant. These practices generate implicit expectations of conformity, thereby contributing to the maintenance of the social order of seken. Rather than treating them solely as cultural traits, this study conceptualizes them as mechanisms through which social norms are enacted and complicity is reinforced. By examining these micro-social dynamics, the study clarifies how avoidance, indirectness, and compliance are normalized, sustaining public silence. This framework offers a more rigorous lens for analysing societal responses to sexual abuse in Japan and contributes to broader debates on the social conditions that perpetuate silence and enable abuse.
This study investigates whether Tokyo Tower's visibility premium persisted around the coronavirus disease 2019 shock. By measuring Tower views using three-dimensional geographic analysis in ArcGIS Pro, this hedonic study applies a quantile difference-in-differences model using online condominium sales (2017-22) in seven Tokyo wards to compare pandemic-era price appreciation for residential units with and without a Tower view. This study finds that most fundamental variables exhibit consistent effects on property values, while Japan-oriented features (e.g. south-facing and corner units) show nonlinear impacts across price ranges. Scenic access to Tokyo Tower enhances appeal across all price quantiles, reflecting its historical significance and the increasing scarcity of unobstructed Tower views in Tokyo's densifying skyline. During the pandemic, condominiums with a Tokyo Tower view appreciated more than those without, particularly in the upper-end market, suggesting that landmark visibility remains a valued amenity with stronger post-pandemic salience. Higher-priced properties with scenic views reflect broader market adjustments; developers may prioritize premium sites with view-related advantages, while higher-end buyers place greater value on scarce view amenities, thereby reinforcing price differentials across neighbourhoods. Overall, these findings clarify spatial and distributional variation in housing demand and illustrate how skyline change, view governance, and landmark-view valuation shape housing-market differentiation in high-density cities.
This study investigates how inequalities in the Tokyo metropolitan area shape residents' perceptions of social class. I focus on two aspects of social class perceptions: images of social structure (ISS) and subjective social status (SSS). Given that these two aspects are direct perceptions of social structure, the rapid increase in income inequality and polarization that have developed in the Tokyo area in recent years may have significantly affected ISS and SSS. However, the relationship has not yet been fully examined. Using data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Residents 2016 survey, the Stratification and Social Psychology Survey 2010 (SSPI-2010), and the Social Stratification and Social Mobility (SSM) surveys conducted in 1985 and 2015 (ages 20-69), I employ logistic and multilevel regression models. The results show that the ISS of Tokyo residents is significantly more non-egalitarian than that observed in both past and contemporary Japan. Additionally, SSS is strongly influenced by neighborhood-level income. The findings further reveal a robust link between ISS and SSS: individuals who perceive society as pyramid-shaped tend to report lower SSS, even after controlling for individual socioeconomic characteristics.
Japan has long been portrayed as a relatively egalitarian society. Yet, growing economic disparities have raised questions about how inequality is perceived and politicized. This study examines whether regional economic inequality shapes individuals' perceptions of rich-poor conflict and how such perceptions translate into political preferences. Using individual-level data from the SmartNews, Media, Politics, and Public Opinion Survey (SMPP Survey) combined with prefectural indicators of inequality, income, and unemployment, the analysis adopts a multilevel framework to link structural conditions with individual attitudes. The findings show that individuals residing in more unequal regions are significantly more likely to perceive pronounced rich-poor divisions and to develop partisan attachments. Furthermore, perceived rich-poor conflict emerges as a robust predictor of support for equality- and welfare-oriented parties across different regional income contexts. Rather than operating only under specific economic conditions, regional affluence and hardship primarily shape how perceptions of inequality are politically articulated. These results challenge the notion that perceptions of inequality are politically inert in Japan and underscore the role of local economic environments in structuring the relationship between subjective inequality and political behavior.
This study adopts a cliometric approach, using long-term individual-level data to analyse donation behaviour in Japan. In 1880, Keio, a private school in Japan, was at risk of closure. To address this, the school launched a fundraising campaign in the 1880-90 period. Established in 1857, the school has distributed a list covering all students' academic records to teachers and students since 1861. Individual-level historical academic records were integrated with the list of contributors. Using this data, this study compares individuals who had studied at Keio before and after the system was introduced. The main findings are as follows: first, graduates who shared their academic records were more likely to contribute, and their donations were larger; second, class size was negatively correlated with the likelihood of contributing and the amount donated; and third, academic performance, as shown in the lists, was positively correlated with the likelihood of contributing, but not with the amount donated, using a sub-sample of those who shared their lists. These findings suggest that the introduction of the system strengthened the community network and the social image shared by its members, thereby leading to the first successful school fundraising campaign in Japan.
Understanding the ideological positions of political parties is crucial for empirically testing various theories in political science. In Japan, some studies have assessed each party's policy outlook through electoral platforms, candidate surveys, or expert surveys, with most studies focusing on the past thirty years. However, limited efforts have comprehensively and longitudinally quantified the conflicts between political parties. Although previous studies have used election-related data to reveal interparty conflicts during elections, interparty conflicts between elections remain unclear. This study determines the stance of Japanese political parties during parliamentary debates. We collected text data from committee speeches from the Diet Proceedings Database from 1959 to 2019 and conducted a quantitative text analysis. By applying the Wordshoal method, we first estimated political party positions on specific policy topics in the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors. Then, we aggregated these policy-specific positions yearly via dynamic factor analysis. Consequently, we succeeded in discerning the axis of conflict in Japanese parliamentary debates and evaluated the longitudinal one-dimensional ideal points for political parties. Additionally, we visualized the changes in each party's ideological position, identified controversial topics, and explored how these topics changed over time, providing new insights into the study of Japanese politics.
