2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Social Mobility and Network of migrant in Setouchi Region in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
16530346
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Sociology
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| Research Institution | Musashi University |
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Principal Investigator |
TAKEDA Naoko Musashi University, 社会学部, Associate Professor (30339527)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | community / island / comparative research / migration / settlement / social capital / life history / Social Capital |
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| Research Abstract |
This study comes out of an extended survey of the hamlet society on the Tajima island(Hiroshima prefecture), one of many islets in the Seto Inland Sea lying between Honshu and Shikoku in western Japan. It examines the social changes that took place there since the end of World War II. The study analyzes the relationships between the hamlet's industries, employment structure, and living practices, paying attention to both people who remained on the island as well as those who chose to leave. Since the end of World War II, many islanders have gone back and forth between the island of Tajima and the outside world, working in Antarctic whaling, Seto Inland Sea shipping lanes(e.g., coal ships connecting Kyushu and the Osaka area), shipbuilding, and other sea-related industries. For these islanders, travel is thus an integral part of work and life. Each social stratum on the island has its own distinct network that affects the job opportunities and choices of its members. The island is home
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to several hamlets, each of which pursued separate developmental paths from the Edo period until World War II. The resulting differences in resources accumulated by each hamlet continued to influence employment structures in the postwar era. My research examines post-World War II changes in the village of Machi as revealed through its industry, employment structure, and ways of life, utilizing both micro-level perspectives taking into account the individual circumstances of the hamlet as well as macro-level perspectives covering emigration and occupational trends extending beyond the island.
The subjects of the study come from a seafaring culture and are accustomed to traveling aboard ships. The research accordingly deals with people for whom wandering is a way of life, unlike most of previous works on postwar migration in Japan, which focus on farmers and where fixed settlement either in the home village or in urban areas is regarded as the norm. My work thus offers the seeds of a new theoretical framework for rethinking the concepts of migration and settlement as they apply to modern and contemporary Japan. Less
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