1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Persisting Aspects of Social Institutions in Japanese Society

Research Project

Project/Area Number	08451048
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	社会学(含社会福祉関係)
Research Institution	Japan Women's University
Principal Investigator	SHIMPO Mitsuru Japan Women's University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Social Sciences Professor, 人間社会学部, 教授 (60235778)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	WAZAKI Haruka Japan Women's University Faculty of Integrated Arts and Social Sciences Professo, 人間社会学部, 教授 (40230940) MATSUDA Sonoko Shukutoku University College of Sociology Professor, 社会学部, 教授 (30100986)
Project Period (FY)	1996 – 1998
Keywords	basic institutions / Dozoku (=federated house holds) / employment in non-agricultural sectors / evets / folklore / Ie (=household) / living-time / mechanization
Research Abstract	The three of us approached the above theme from different theoretical perspectives. Shimpo adopted two research methods. First, he employed systems theory to explain persisting aspects of farming communities. He postulated the open.market policy for agricultural products and reduced rice.growing policy as inputs from the environment, and mechanization and employment in non.agricultural sectors as outputs from the system. He conducted in-depth interviews to explore functional requisites of social institutions in the newly achieved social equilibrium. Secondly, he conducted three surveys of members of the Kazuno Agricultural Cooperative during the period 1996 to 1998. He collected 1,211 completed forms, which will be analyzed in the coming years. Metsudn dividcd the subjocts' lifa-hours into three cotegories in terms of humanactivities : biological activities, production activities and consumption activities. She made use of data from the 1950s, and more recently produced data from the 1980s pertaining to two fnrming communities. Comparing these two sets of data. she found that changes in production activities affect both biological and consumption activities. Through her contribution to the project, the changes have been established in quantitative torms. Wazaki focused on two key concepts folklore and popular events. The former represents persisting aspects and the latter, changing aspects. lIe examined the case of Daimonji, a traditional rite of ancestor worship in Kyoto. This rite has been carried out by a specific socinl group fnr several centuries. Recently, numerous formal organizations and informn&l groups have developed their own octivities in relation to this rite. As a consequence, the rite hns become en established festival in ICyoto. Using these cinta, we are attempting to develop a more general theory which is capable of explnining persisting aspects of socini institutions in Japiinese society.