{"title":"Decline of Real Love and Rise of Virtual Love: Love in Asia","authors":"Masahiro Yamada","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12066","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12066","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In Japan, marriage rates have declined since 1980, and interest in romantic relationships has declined in the 21st century. This article shows, mainly based on the official statistics and surveys, that (i) people in contemporary Japanese society have become less willing to get married or even date; (ii) various forms of virtual love have emerged; and (iii) they have spread in East Asian countries in general. Marriage stems from romantic relationships. Simultaneously, it brings with it new economic life. In Japan and other East Asian countries there is an unwritten norm that marriage should be part of economic life. Therefore, satisfying romantic emotions outside real love and marriage is accepted.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"6-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12066","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46903938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trends and Determinants of Premarital Conception: Love in Korea","authors":"Keuntae Kim","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12062","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12062","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite the heightened interest in human reproduction and the significant implications of premarital pregnancy for children’s health, strikingly little research has paid attention to the determinants or premarital pregnancy compared with more conventional fertility behavior. To fill this gap in the literature, this study drew data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (<i>N</i> = 4333) and estimated discrete-time event history models using multinomial logistic regressions. Results from descriptive analyses indicate that the share of premarital pregnancy among all births registered increased roughly two and a half times between 1997 and 2014. Also, while premarital conception increased in women at all educational levels, high school graduates and those with less than an elementary school education showed the largest increase in the share of premarital pregnancy. The results from multivariate models suggest that the characteristics of the women’s family of origin, such as being the firstborn child, the mother’s education, their living arrangements during adolescence, and their region of residence have enduring effects on both premarital and post-martial pregnancy. Women’s achieved socioeconomic status, however, showed a weaker effect on the odds of premarital pregnancy than expected. The predicted probabilities of premarital pregnancy by age at first marriage across birth cohorts born between the 1940s and 1970s suggest that premarital pregnancy is particularly pronounced among women who marry in their early twenties. Moreover, at a given age at first marriage, the predicted probability of premarital pregnancy monotonically increases in more recent birth cohorts, suggesting that bridal pregnancy is increasingly prevalent among modern Korean women.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"23-38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43827129","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Better Must Come: Exiting Homelessness in Two Global Cities, by Matthew Marr. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015, pp. 223, $75.00 (hardback ISBN-13 9780801453380, paperback ISBN-13 978–0–8014–7970–0)","authors":"Kahoruko Yamamoto","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12060","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12060","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"114-116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12060","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43611937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Role of Lumber Networks in Forest Devastation: Economic Sociology of Rural Forest Household Business in Japan","authors":"Suehisa Ohkura","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12068","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12068","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article, I utilize the perspectives of economic sociology to examine the structural background of forest devastation in Japan. First, I explore the factors behind cited problems for the forestry industry and demonstrate that expanded imports of inexpensively priced foreign-sourced logs do not sufficiently explain those issues. On that basis, I then demonstrate that the concepts and analytical tools offered by economic sociology are essential to a full understanding of relevant problems. Next, to understand how the current crisis differs from that experienced by forestry households in the 1980s, I turn my focus to changes in the social networks that supported the trade in wood products. The crisis witnessed a transformation that involved disembedding sawmills from the traditional wood trading networks that had relied on cooperative ties with forestry households. Eventually, social relationships between forestry households and sawmills were severed and these households became unable to address their economic difficulties through their existing practices. Given that context, I then examine the contrasting economic behavior of sawmills and forestry households and demonstrate that exposure to global price competition forced forestry households into uncontrolled over-cutting. Finally, I assert that economic sociology is better able to provide a more precise understanding of the true nature of the problems facing forestry in modern-day Japan than conventional economics with its adherence to the useful but insufficient principles of market competition and economic efficiency.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"96-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12068","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43696879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Mentality in Contemporary Japan: Quantitative Social Consciousness Studies, by Toru Kikkawa. Osaka: Osaka University Press, 2016, 186 pp., ¥3,200 (pbk ISBN 978-4-87259-546-8)","authors":"Tatsuo Komorida","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12059","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12059","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"112-114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12059","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44002711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Influence of Living in Two Places on Conjugal Relations: “Instrumental” Characteristic of Norm of Love in China","authors":"Jianming Yu","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12061","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12061","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This research focuses on dual residences (living in two places) on Chinese married couples, a phenomenon with a unique Chinese social background, based on the analysis of 15 cases sampled in the form of interviews, exploring the influence of having dual residences on husband-wife relations and then further exploring its influence of the norm of love and how it works in China. There are three main conclusions. First, compulsory dual residence is closely connected to the rigorous systems of household registration and job allocation during the planned economy period. Voluntary dual residence is related to utilitarian values, including the pursuit of social status and income, against the background of the market economy. Second, at a time when to be working was the first and foremost goal for both men and women, compulsory dual residence was influenced by mainstream social norms that gave priority to work over relationships. Such recognition weakens the influence of dual residences on husband-wife relations. The influence of voluntarily having dual residences on husband-wife relations is mainly connected with how this situation comes to an end. Third, in China, the norm of love in coexistence with multiple values has not been shown to have a decisive influence no matter how the spouses were selected selection or how husband-wife relations are maintained.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"39-51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12061","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45958067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Power in Contemporary Japan, Ed. by Gill Steel. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 263, £86.00 (hbk ISBN-10 1137601663)","authors":"Christopher Bondy","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12058","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12058","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"111-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12058","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41792829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Discourses on Non-conforming Marriages: Love in Taiwan","authors":"Hong-Zen Wang, Mei-Hua Chen","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12063","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12063","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In contemporary Taiwan, arranged marriage seems a remote legend. However, the mainstream ideology of romantic love and marriage is a recent phenomenon that started only half a century ago. The debate on love and marriage that took place a hundred years ago has been reopened in current Taiwanese society on transnational marriage and same-sex marriage debates, which are regarded as non-conforming marriages in a specific historical period. We argue that the hegemonic ideology of romantic love has produced a powerful exclusionary effect on cross-border marriages based on ethnic and class discrimination, but also an inclusive effect on same-sex marriage in present Taiwan society, which underscores the power of the discourse of love in modern Taiwanese social life. The love discourse can be progressive in a specific historical conjuncture, but it can also be regressive by excluding other forms of intimacy.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"52-66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12063","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42634840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Have Japanese People Become Asexual? Love in Japan","authors":"Jun Kobayashi","doi":"10.1111/ijjs.12067","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ijjs.12067","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines changing romantic relationships in contemporary Japanese society. It specifically investigates whether Japanese people in their twenties and thirties have become asexual; that is, whether they tend to have few sexual experiences or interests. Data were collected through an internet survey; this article uses a subsample of 9,940 respondents. The dependent variables were the number of lovers respondents had during and after junior high school; the independent variable was the respondents’ age. Regression analyses found a clear trend toward asexual behavior among young men (in their twenties and thirties). However, young women are not as asexual as the previous generation. This asexualization of men may have contributed to Japan’s sharply declining marriage and birth rates. If so, other Asian societies may learn lessons from Japan’s experiences in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":29652,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Sociology","volume":"26 1","pages":"13-22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/ijjs.12067","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41477801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}