Deviance and Inequality in Japan: Japanese Youth and Foreign Migrants

242 Pages·2011·1.303 MB·English

by  Robert Stuart Yoder

Deviance anD inequality in
Japanese youth and foreign migrants
RobeRt StuaRt YodeR
Deviance anD inequality
in Japan
Japanese youth and foreign migrants
Robert Stuart Yoder
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
The Policy Press
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ISBN 978 1 84742 832 5 hardcover
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In memory of my mother

contents
About the author vii
Acknowledgements viii
one Introduction: power, inequality and deviance in Japan 1
two Japanese youth: inequality and deviance 19
three Foreign migrants: inequality and deviance 59
Part One: Ten largest foreign migrant groups 71
Part Two: Smaller populated foreign migrant groups 98
Part Three: Foreign migrants: subordinate status 116
four Labelling conflict theory: inequality and deviance 167
five Conclusion 183
References 207
Appendix A: Notes on methodology 191
Appendix B: Issues and cases of inequality and deviance 201
Index 221
v

about the author
Robert Stuart Yoder has taught at a number of American and Japanese universities,
including the University of California, Irvine and Sophia University in Tokyo. The
author has lived in Japan for 30 years at four different time periods, beginning in
1972 as a student at Sophia University. This book stems from years of fieldwork,
publications and concern with deviance and inequality in Japan. At present, Dr
Yoder is Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Sociology at Japan Branch, Lakeland
College in Tokyo and also teaches at a number of Japanese universities.
vii
Deviance and inequality in Japan
acknowledgments
This book is dedicated in memory of my mother, Ruth Kathleen Yoder. How
she managed with six children while working full time is remarkable.
The late Dr Masaaki Takane was my first mentor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
A scholar of the highest calibre, Dr Takane formed a network of relationships
among his students that has continued to this day.
Dr Gene Kassebaum and Dr Patricia Steinhoff at the University of Hawaii
at Manoa are ‘true’ teachers. I can never thank them enough for their guidance
through the years.
The initial manuscript for this book underwent a thorough review, and I want to
thank the referees: Dr Dag Leonardsen, Dr Monica Barry, Dr Rebecca Fukuzawa
and Dr Brian McVeigh. Their comments and criticisms greatly improved upon
this author’s shortcomings.
I have had the good fortune to work with The Policy Press. The senior
commissioning editor, Karen Bowler, is simply one of the best. Leila Ebrahimi,
editorial assistant, gave excellent advice and consultation. Charlotte Skelton and
Kathryn King in marketing, Laura Vickers, publishing assistant, and Laura Greaves,
production editor, all did a marvellous job. It has been a privilege to be a part of
The Policy Press team.
viii
ONE
introduction: power, inequality and
deviance in Japan
inequality and deviance in Japan
It may be a surprise to many why Japanese youth and foreign migrants are paired
together in a book on inequality and deviance in Japan. The life situation, however,
of these two subculture group’s ties in with inequality as a precursor to deviance
in a strikingly similar manner. Japanese youth and foreign migrants are powerless
and yet perceived to be a major threat to the status quo. Both subcultural groups
have consistently been the main targets of tight and restrictive formal and informal
social controls propagated by sensationalised accounts of their deviance. Inequality,
setting the stage for deviant reactions pertaining to these two subcultural groups,
clearly shows that conflict is as an integral and dynamic feature of Japanese society,
a contrast to the harmony or nihonjinron (theories of Japanese) perspective.
It is astonishing that so much has been made of societal togetherness in Japan. In
scholarly writings and popular fiction, in the mass media, in Hollywood movies,
at academic conferences or as a topic of conversation, Japan has been consistently
viewed as a society of wa (harmony), racial homogeneity, egalitarianism and group
solidarity. Inequality and deviance at best are considered a minor issue and when
the subject is approached, attention is given to the uniqueness of Japanese culture
that somehow makes aberrant behaviour and class conflict less of a social problem
compared to Western countries. This nihonjinron model is challenged in this book,
showing that inequality, conflict and deviance in Japan is no less a part of human
relations than harmony.
Near the train station, boys and girls from a low-ranked high school in Kanagawa
prefecture mockingly wearing a school uniform light up their cigarettes. The
boys with school trousers pulled half way down their buttocks, shirts open and
unconventional hairstyle try to look cool and give off an ‘I don’t give a damn'
attitude. The girls wear conspicuous long shorts under skirts pulled way up near
their upper thigh. They have bleached brown and blond hair and pierced body
parts. Such dress and rebellion is commonplace among students at their high
school, a school with a bad reputation. It is a place where ‘student misfits’, most
from the lower class, are sent to by a class tracking school system.
The largest employer of native English language teachers, the English language
school chain Nova, becomes bankrupted. For the past couple of months, 4,000
English language teachers (mainly Australians, Britons and North Americans) have
not been paid and are out of a job (The Japan Times, 2007d, p 1; Yoshida, 2007).
1