A Historical Sociological Study on "Social Inclusion" in Postwar Japan: Focusing on the "Right to Live"

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25870085
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sociology; Social welfare and social work studies
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: TOMIE Naoko 茨城大学, 人文学部, 准教授 (20451784)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 生存権 / 貧困 / 救貧 / 社会的包摂 / 歴史社会学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Social inclusion or citizenship has been the basic idea in the discourses and practices of public relief since the dawn of modern Japan. But that is not the only possible way to argue for the "right to live" of the needy people. Looking back into the past we can see different ways of thinking about public relief.
In this study I explored the notions of "right to live" in early-modern and modern Japan. And I found two ideas that provided the logical and ethical bases for the "right to live" besides the idea of citizenship: moral economy and human rights. Through the sociological and historical analysis of contending arguments concerning the "right to live", I depicted the logic and the politics of the modernization of relief system.

Free Research Field

社会学