Tuukka Toivonen

Unable to Conform, Unwilling to Rebel? Youth, Culture, and Motivation in Globalizing Japan

This paper investigates the effects of globalization on Japanese young adults from sociological and psychological perspectives. While Japan’s socio-economic institutions have shown mainly resistant (or “hot”) reactions to globalization, individual-level adaptations remain oriented toward conformity to dominant life expectations, which remain largely unchanged, despite decreasing rewards. However, a socially withdrawn sub-group (the so-called hikikomori) appears to be unable to conform yet is also unwilling to rebel. The experimental evidence we review suggests such youth deviate from typical Japanese motivational patterns but have not necessarily become more Western. This poses serious problems in an interdependence-oriented culture, but the paralysis of this group seems to be an outcome of labor market change rather than a psychopathology. Finally, we also identify a contrasting group – whom we call the quiet mavericks – that adapts in creative and integrative (or “cool”) ways by negotiating conformist pressures tactfully. Our account sheds light on just how complex and painful the psychological and sociological effects of globalization can be for young people in conformist societies, with implications to policy and social sustainability.

‘Don't let your child become a NEET!’ The strategic foundations of a Japanese youth scare

Abstract This article contributes to the growing body of literature on Japanese youth problems by tracing and unpacking a recent moral panic surrounding young people identified as ‘NEETs’ for being ‘not in education, employment or training’. While sharing many key features with other mainstream youth problems in Japan, the case of ‘NEETs’ illuminates particularly well the strategic interplay of social labels and more technical policy categories. To this end, a clear distinction is made between the social category nīto and the policy target group ‘NEET’. Close attention is paid to how these were re-defined in the Japanese context, including how the latter came apply to a remarkably expansive age group (15–34-year-olds). Most importantly however, the account highlights the central actors and interrogates their respective interests, providing strong support for the argument that the ‘NEET problem’ amounted ultimately to a strategic campaign designed to clear the way for new youth policies. The findings explicated will contribute to our understanding of high-profile youth scares as well as other social problems in Japan that operate through the media but are intimately linked to policy-making.

What is the Social Innovation Community? Conceptualizing an Emergent Collaborative Organization

Abstract Although social innovation is stimulating tremendous interest among scholars and policy-makers, its emergent catalysts are insufficiently understood. This paper thus identifies and explores a relevant collaborative organization, the social innovation community (SIC). Found in cosmopolitan cities, SICs are held together by recognizable shared cultures and online/offline spaces. This account sets out a basic categorization of SICs, profiles their salient features, and offers an original definition. SICs support early-stage social entrepreneurship but may also help to introduce social innovation into new cultural settings, re-programme wider innovation circuits, and promote productive collaboration amid diversity.

Transcending labels and panics: the logic of Japanese youth problems

Abstract Social scientific research on Japanese youth experienced something of a boom in the 2000s and is attracting further attention following the triple disaster of 11 March 2011. But while advances have been made in understanding young people’s relationship to work, marginalization, and activism, for instance, the premises of this emerging field of research remain shaky. Despite cursory critiques of associated labels and recurring “moral panics,” the dynamics of youth problems have not yet been sufficiently understood. This paper draws on the well-known case of the “nerdy” otaku to illustrate how youth problems arise from the complex interaction of labels, incidents, and prominent actors – that is, their more visible side – with underlying assumptions, strategies, and interests – that is, the less salient dimension of such problems. After highlighting important connections between the otaku phenomenon and the two subsequent phenomena of hikikomori and NEET, four key mechanisms are set out that govern the way youth problem debates emerge and evolve more generally (i.e., the respective roles of “industries,” “translators,” rhetorical strategies, and youth as a “muted group”). The paper concludes by relating the findings to post-tsunami Japan, arguing that the way in which young people are debated in the 2010s may turn out surprisingly similar to the debates in the 2000s, unless the very configuration of the institutions and actors that construct youth debates changes.