Message to the World from the Stricken Area:
Tohoku Sociological Society

Tohoku Sociological Society
KOBAYASHI Kazuho, Chairperson
1History
The Tohoku Sociological Society (Tohoku Shakai Gakkai) was established in 1954. Its firstchairperson was SHINMEI Masamichi, who was a researcher who exemplified the nascent stages ofJapanese sociology.
Tohoku refers to a region in the northeastern part of Japan, and consists of Aomori, Iwate, Akita,
Miyagi, Yamagata, and Fukushima Prefectures. The society’s members mainly consist of researchers
who graduated from universities located within the Tohoku Region of Japan, as well as researchersand graduate students who are active in universities and research institutes in the Tohoku Region andits surrounding environs, but its members reside in areas all across Japan. There are no regional
restrictions for membership eligibility. The current number of members is approximately 250.
The Tohoku Sociological Society has been publishing Newsletters since it was first established,in addition to which in FY1963 it launched the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society(Shakaigaku Nenpo). This was accompanied by a change in the name of its Newsletters to Society
Newsletters. Moreover, it also holds annual meetings every year in early summer. The venues forthese meetings are established on a rotating basis in the above mentioned six prefectures plus theseventh prefecture of Niigata. In addition, regular research meetings are held several times a year.
The papers that are published in the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society come in
two types: special feature papers that authors were commissioned to write by the editorial board, andpapers that were freely submitted by members. The publication status for papers since the time of thereport’s launch is listed below.
1963 (Vol. 1) (No special feature)
1966 (Vol. 2) Urban and Rural Communities Today1968 (Vol. 3) (No special feature)1970 (Vol. 4) Issues in Marxian Social Theories
1971 (Vol. 5) (No special feature)
1975 (Vol. 6) Structuralism and Sociology
1979 (Vol. 7) (No special feature)1980 (Vol. 8) (No special feature)(Vol. 9) (No special feature)

1981 (Vol. 10) (No special feature)
1982 (Vol. 11) On French and German Sociology
1983 (Vol. 12) New Trends of Rural Society Studies
1984 (Vol. 13) Luhmannian Sociology in Japan107

1985 (Vol. 14) Language and Social Action
1986 (Vol. 15) Issues in Mathematical Sociology
1987 (Vol. 16) Methodology of Urban Community Studies
1988 (Vol. 17) Transformations of Japanese Youth
1989 (Vol. 18) Rationality and Sociology
1990 (Vol. 19) (No special feature)
1991 (Vol. 20) Problems of the Aged in Japanese Rural Communities
1992 (Vol. 21) Decline and Rebirth of Urban Communities
1993 (Vol. 22) Rethinking Modern Individualism
1994 (Vol. 23) Rethinking Ie/Mura in Today’s Agricultural Rural Communities
1995 (Vol. 24) Individuality and Sociality in Contemporary Society
1996 (Vol. 25) Information, Space, and Modernity
1997 (Vol. 26) Tohoku Society at the Turn of the Century
1998 (Vol. 27) The Welfare State and Citizenship Theory
1999 (Vol. 28) Nuclear Power Generation and Resident Self-Governance
Since its launch in FY1963 up through the 1970s, a situation persisted in which it was difficult
to constantly publish reports once every year for financial reasons. The steady publication of thereports only became possible starting in the 1980s.
As for the themes of the special features, one major strand of these has consisted of research
related to classical and contemporary sociological theories, while another major strand of these
consisted of research related to local communities (including those in both urban and rural areas). In
terms of the classical theories, examples of these include Vol. 4, which featured a theoreticalinvestigation of Marxism, as well as Vol. 11, which undertook a study concerning the Durkheimian
school of thought and Helmut SCHELSKY. With respect to contemporary social theory, in Vol. 6 aspecial feature was assembled that focused mainly on the structuralism of Claude LÉVI-STRAUSS,
while Vol. 13 examined Luhmannian social systems theory. Special features were also produced thatplaced their focus on linguistic turns and the Japanese Association for Mathematical Sociology.
Since the later half of the 1990s, special features began to be produced on themes concernedwith new challenges for contemporary sociology that had not existed previously. Namely, special
features related to information society theories and the transitions of the welfare state were produced,
and new challenges related to the various problems confronting modern sociology sprang up. The
fact that issues surrounding nuclear power plants were already being taken up by the end of the
1990s is a point that is worthy of special mention.

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Recent Research Focus
1) Special Features from the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society
The special features of the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society are compiled toreflect the content of the symposia from the annual meeting of the previous fiscal year. It is notuncommon for non-member researchers who are suited to each theme to be specially invited as108authors of the special features (i.e., keynote speakers at the symposia), and so strictly speaking thespecial feature themes do not exhibit the trait of being restricted to the research activities of thesociety’s members. Yet this is because the invitations of non-member researchers are planned based
upon an extensive survey of academic trends and social conditions in Japan and around the world.
Consequently, the special feature themes express the myriad connections that the society has forgedwith national and global research trends and research topics. Moreover, the society’s members
customarily serve as coordinators while the majority of the reporters and commentators are also
comprised of its members. As a result, they can also be viewed as an expression of the trends in the
research results that have been amassed by the society. As this demonstrates, the meeting symposia
and the special features of the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society could be describedas materials that are reflective of both the accumulation and development of its members’ research
activities, as well as of the traditional and the innovative, so to speak.
The themes of the special features (meeting symposia) since the year 2000 have been
enumerated below.
2000 (Vol. 29) Agendas of Community Welfare Networks
2001 (Vol. 30) Methodological Reflections on Area Studies
2002 (Vol. 31) Sociology as Social Thought
2003 (Vol. 32) Theories on Publicness and Sociology
2004a (Vol. 33) Current Studies on NPOs and Voluntary Civic Action
2004b (50th anniversary special edition) Social Theories on Modernity
2005 (Vol. 34) Aqueous Environments and Rural Communities
2006 (Vol. 35) The Future of the Youth Labor Market and the Stratified Society
2007 (Vol. 36) Interchange/Settling-down in Rural Communities
2008 (Vol. 37) Theoretical Perspectives of Governance2009 (Vol. 38) Theoretical Sociology and Mathematical and Quantitative Sociology
2010 (Vol. 39) Sociology of Death and Dying
2011 (Vol. 40) Towards the Re-Construction of Local Communities
One of the important intellectual traditions of the Tohoku Sociological Society has been
continuous, comprehensive theoretical investigations concerning everything from classical theories(such as those by Karl MARX, Georg SIMMEL, Max WEBER, Emile DURKHEIM, George
Herbert MEAD, Talcott PARSONS, and others) to the development of contemporary theories(including those by Jürgen HABERMAS, Niklas LUHMANN, Anthony GIDDENS, Pierre
BOURDIEU, and others). These naturally constitute an indispensable store of knowledge that can beused as a resource by any sociologists. But the research performed by members of the Tohoku
Sociological Society has been characterized by the fact that it has attempted to reach a systematic
understanding that incorporates the underlying issues, fundamental viewpoints, and methodologies
found at the base of these theories. The 2002 and 2004b special features attempted to expand upon
the research results related to sociological theories by utilizing this accumulated body of knowledge109

as social thought that answers contemporary challenges, as well as in the form of a dialogue with thecontemporary and modern conditions in Japanese society. The special feature from 2004b inparticular commemorated the 50th anniversary since the founding of the society, and so its focus wasconsciously aligned with the society’s subjects. As such it is directly symbolic of the traditions thathave followed since the establishment of the Tohoku Sociological Society. Conversely, the 2009
special feature was designed to serve as a turning point marking 30 years since the introduction ofresearch using mathematical and quantitative sociological techniques that were relatively new to the
Tohoku Sociological Society. It could be described as a design that strove for a mutual exchange
between new and old research trends, in a manner of speaking.
Conversely, the other major pillar of the Tohoku Sociological Society consists of experiential
studies and research that have been taken up with a focus on villages and provincial cities. The
special features from 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, and 2011 are offshoots following in the wake of theseresearch trends. But one new trait from recent years that can be pointed out is the fact that themes
such as welfare, environmental conservation, and population flows between urban and rural areas aswell as demographic shifts from urban to rural regions, have been added. These special features
could be deemed an expression of the contemporary circumstances and challenges of Japanesesociety, particularly those that are clearly revealed when viewed from the angle of rural villages andprovincial cities.
The majority of these sorts of studies are not limited to determining general conditions throughinterviews with the relevant agencies (including governmental organizations) and statistical data andthe like. Rather, an approach of striving to adhere closely to the actual conditions in the daily lives
and activities of the targeted people is commonly seen throughout them. Emphasizing such an
approach is, of course, a universal fundamental principle of sociology, yet at the same time suchstudies cannot afford to ignore the research traditions of the sociology that have been handed down,such as the monographical methodology that was cultivated by research on rural communities.
Naturally, of course, the aim in such research domains is for modern development that is grounded inthese intellectual traditions.
In response to this there are two other research themes that raise questions about new trends incontemporary Japanese society and its future potential that must be mentioned: (1) the degree ofmaturity of civil society and (2) the emergence of new social problems. In other words, on the one
hand new forms of publicness and governance that are not limited to conventional government
sectors are gaining in prominence, and in practice the relative importance of civil activities and NPO
activities have been on the rise. However, this has been paralleled by mounting criticisms of thewelfare state, with criticisms having been leveraged into the deployment of neoliberal policies. This
has resulted in the emergence of a number of problems, such as a hollowing out of governmental
welfare programs and widening economic and social disparities. The 2003, 2004a, 2006, 2008, and2010 special features have dealt with these issues. When viewed in terms of its methodology, the2004 special feature included observations regarding precedent activities that the author was
personally involved in, as well as considerations based on their practical involvement. The 2006
special feature consisted primarily of a macro-level class analysis through a quantitative method,110while that from 2008 undertook a theoretical debate that was grounded in empirical reality, and the2010 one aimed for micro-level inquiries related to care through a grounded approach. From these it
can be seen that methods were adopted that conformed with their themes and challenges. The claim
can surely be made that sociological approaches have grown more diverse from the limited number
of approaches that were previously available.
2) Freely Submitted Papers
As for trends in the submitted papers that are synchronous with the Annual Reports of the
Tohoku Sociological Society, keywords indicating their approximate themes were created and thefrequency with which they appeared was counted for the freely submitted papers to the annual
reports from between 2000 and 2011 (68 such papers; these differ from the keywords appended by
the authors themselves). The results are listed below.
Theory16Communities and rural/urban areas

14

Education

6

Information

5

Medical care, nursing, and life

5

Welfare

4

Class

4

Exercise and group behavior

4

The environment

3

Gender3

Networks

3

Trust

3

Two or more of these keywords apply to quite a few of these papers. For example, some of thepapers discuss themes such as local communities and welfare, education and class, rural villages andgender, and communities, trust, and networks.
The vast majority of the theoretical studies consist of cases in which a specific individual—suchas Weber, Durkheim, Parsons, Habermas, Mead, John DEWEY, Robert PARK, Daniel BELL,
Anselm L. STRAUSS, or N. K. DENZIN—is dealt with intensively in an attempt to delve deeply
into his/her thinking. Naturally, individual papers are examined by establishing a viewpoint of some
sort (such as religion or ideology, for example). Consequently, even when research is performed on asingle theory it will come to be tinged with thematic qualities of one form or another. However, theapproach of taking up a particular classical body of work and reading deeply into it is a stronger one
than that of studies that perform a comparative examination of assorted sociological theories througha theme or viewpoint.
The majority of the papers dealing with “communities and rural/urban areas” are case studies
that use provincial cities or rural villages for their fieldwork. In such scenarios there are numerous
111themes that are representative of contemporary problems, such as gender and aging in rural villages
or welfare and networks in provincial cities, by way of example. “Education” is another theme thathas been emphasized since the time the society was created, but in recent years there has been atendency to study this in conjunction with other themes such as “Class” (which includes such
keywords as disparity, underclass, youth, and labor) and family issues.
In contrast to this, research dealing with the subjects of “Information” (disclosure of
information, media literacy, computerization, and democratic communication), “Medical care,nursing, and life” (organ transplants, home nursing care, visiting care, and medical safety), and “Theenvironment” (trash problems) represent new research areas that have come to be focused on since
the year 2000.
At the same time, this is certainly not meant to imply that subjects such as family, children,
ethnicity, disabilities, discrimination, and the media have been completely absent among the papers
published in the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society thus far. But while these havebeen debated, there have not been all that many papers that have done so. Though academic societiesthat are specialized to each discipline exist, hopefully shining a light on the society’s tradition ofplacing high regard on diversity in research themes will prompt additional research to be promotedin these areas.
In addition, there have been six examples of papers that have attempted to perform international
comparisons, or precedent studies in which the fields of study have been overseas. One point that is
worth taking note of is the fact that among these there are not only attempts to perform comparisonswith the West, but studies have appeared that are set in or that have performed comparisons with the
Asian region, including countries like Indonesia and South Korea. International comparison studies
by the society’s members have been carried out in considerably large numbers, though the number ofthese pieces published as papers in the Annual Reports of the Tohoku Sociological Society has been
limited. This is a manifestation of the fact that not only are comparisons with Western societies
crucial for determining the present state of social changes like modernization, rationalization, andinternationalization, but so too are comparisons with Asian societies and empirical research related
to mutual exchanges in the Asian sphere.

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Message to the WorldThe Tohoku Sociological Society mainly consists of sociologists residing in the Tohoku Region,

as well as researchers who started their career at the region’s universities and who are using the
Tohoku Region for their fieldworks.
In Japan, ever since the 1970s academic associations specific to various disciplines haveramped up their activities, including the Japan Association of Regional and Community Studies, theJapan Association for Urban Sociology, the Japan Society of Family Sociology, and the Japanese
Association for Mathematical Sociology. Perhaps the claim could also be made that the installationof high-speed transit networks and the development of the Internet have been accompanied byquestions regarding the existence of the regional-specific academic associations that are based inlocal regions.
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Yet no matter what the era is like, there is no denying the significance of what can be achieved
through face-to-face communication when it comes to education and research. It is precisely because
local perspectives have a local foothold that they can adequately possess universal significance.
Furthermore, Niigata Prefecture and the six prefectures of the Tohoku Region could be
described as regions with distinctive regional identities compared with other areas within Japan.
Reasons for this include the fact that they have bands of rural districts, as well as regions that areconsidered backwards. They are also regions that have been stricken by disasters, as they haveexperienced the Chuetsu Earthquake of 2004 and the Great East Japan Earthquake and the
Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident of 2011.
Traditionally, the Tohoku Sociological Society’s major strengths have been its research on ruralcommunities and theory-based research. Undertaking research geared towards regional regeneration
and reconstruction that is based on diligent studies of the actual extent of the damage from the Great
East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant is a major
challenge for the Tohoku Sociological Society.
When it comes to research on the agricultural communities in Tohoku, research on the rural
areas of China carried out by association member HOSOYA Takashi and Chairperson Kobayashi et.
al. have been expanded overseas as well based upon the accumulation of studies in Japan. As forrepresentative research by members that performed fieldwork overseas, examples of this include
research performed by YOSHIHARA Naoki and other members in Indonesia.
The Tohoku Sociological Society has fostered a large number of international students. Amongthe former international students fostered by the Tohoku Sociological Society some scholars havetaken up important positions in their graduating universities in their home countries after returning
home, such as Professor Raphaella D. DEWANTARI from the University of Indonesia. Furthermore,
the society has turned out a host of Chinese researchers who have achieved success by taking up
posts at Japanese universities. Examples include LI Yanyan, an associate professor at Komazawa
University, who is widely known for works such as Chinese Civil Society, as well as LIU Wenjing,
an associate professor at Iwate Prefectural University who has studied agricultural communities in
China.
One member, SATO Yoshimichi, has also been a member of the Executive Committee of theInternational Sociological Association since 2006. Since FY2003 he has served as a center leader inthe 21st Century COE Program and the Global COE Program, 5 year program of Center of
Excellence nominated and financially supported by Ministry of Education, and organized numerous
international symposia and other such events in an effort to disseminate research related to social
classes and the problems of inequality and disparity internationally. Another member, HASEGAWA
Koichi, acted as the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for the World Congress of Sociologythat to be held in Yokohama in 2014, thereby serving as a driving force on the host country side.
As this demonstrates, the Tohoku Sociological Society has an extensive track record when it
comes to the internationalization of Japanese sociology, getting the word out on this internationally,
and research exchanges. The Tohoku Sociological Society marked the society’s 60th meeting in 2013,
but it must continue moving forward with becoming more international.
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Challenges since 3.11
The Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power

Plant that occurred on March 11, 2011 came as a major shock to the entire world. The main afflicted
regions of Iwate Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, and Fukushima Prefecture are where many of themembers of the Tohoku Sociological Society reside, and serve as the central region from which they
carry out their research activities.
Fortunately there were no casualties or missing persons among the members of the Tohoku
Sociological Society, but there were some who suffered damage such as the partial destruction of
their homes from the earthquake. There were some who lost relatives, friends, and acquaintances,and even some whose birthplaces were wiped out by the tsunami. Members who teach at universities
that are located in Fukushima Prefecture, such as at Fukushima University, have been severely
affected. This is because they must carry on with their educational and research activities while
paying careful attention to health issues with themselves, their families, and their students as things
currently stand, in which there are no prospects for a complete conclusion to the nuclear accident,
and in which radiation doses that are claimed to be low but which in fact are relatively high arebeing observed.
In cases of exposure to low levels of radiation the effects of being irradiated can potentiallymanifest themselves several years or even two decades later. It is difficult to distinguish between
reputed courses of action and rational, defensive courses of action for avoiding the risk of exposure.
Universities in the Tohoku Region could potentially be impacted indirectly by the accident at the
Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant over the long-term through a decrease in their number ofapplicants, for example.
The outcomes produced by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima
Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant have not all been negative. Members of the Tohoku SociologicalSociety have been carrying out outstanding activities from early on regarding assistance for afflicted
regions, research on disaster victims, research on nuclear issues, and so on. This is being done incooperation with other organizations like the Japan Sociological Society, the Japan Association ofRegional and Community Studies, and the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology.
Based on these studies, the Tohoku Sociological Society hurriedly established the “Special
Session: The Great East Japan Earthquake as Social Problem—What Sort of Approaches should
Sociology Take?” at its meeting held in July 2011. In addition, at the meeting held in July 2012 onetheme report session entitled “Science, Ethics, and Society” and one special session entitled “TheGreat East Japan Earthquake as Social Problem—Issues Revealed by Social Surveys in the Afflicted
Regions” were held. Through these, efforts were made to select out clusters of sociologicalchallenges concerning the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear
Power Plant. Reports pertaining to the earthquake were also given at free reporting sessions. Whenviewed on the whole, at the meetings held over this time period the following sorts of themes weretaken up and a diverse array of research reports pertaining to the earthquake and reconstruction were
given. Namely, these have included issues related to comparisons of the impacts of the damage frompast earthquake disasters and that from the Great East Japan Earthquake, the extent of the damage in114

Fukushima, the homeless problem at the time of the earthquake, attitude surveys of residents
residing in evacuation shelters in an ongoing manner, disaster assistance from NPOs, the restorationof shopping areas in tsunami-stricken regions, preservation activities for the photographic records ofvictims from the tsunami, civic participation in reconstruction plans for the tsunami-stricken regions,the possibility of overcoming reliance on nuclear power, and science/technology and risks. Members
have also reported on initiatives and research activities in the stricken regions at the regular seminars
that are held four times a year, which have received significant responses.
The Great East Japan Earthquake had a complex nature in the sense that it not only involved
direct damage from the earthquake, but was followed by a massive tsunami, fires, and a nuclear
accident. On top of this, the afflicted zone was spread out over a wide area (complexity andwide-ranging nature of the damage). Consequently, many of the members are carrying out researchthat has employed a wide variety of approaches to shed light on multiple aspects of the disaster.
Integrating the results of these together will be indispensable when it comes to the reconstruction of
the Tohoku Region in the future.
Many members are conducting research related to the Great East Japan Earthquake and theaccident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant. The followings are some examples.
Scholars of the Faculty of Policy Studies at Iwate Prefectural University formed a disasterprevention and reconstruction working group to vigorously conduct surveys and research in the cityof Ofunato, which was hard hit by the disaster. They have also contributed to an urban development
plan for disaster prevention and reconstruction in Ofunato in cooperation with a civil workshop.
Members of the Tohoku Sociological Society also play a central role in this working group. Tohoku
Gakuin University has been publishing the Shinsaigaku (Earthquake Studies) journal since FY2012,
with members of the society from this university, who have taken the stricken regions of Miyagi
Prefecture as their fields of study, serving as its editors and contributors. One member, KATO
Masayoshi from Fukushima University, has been working to compile together sociological research
results in order to determine the current extent of the damage and rebuild from it since FY2012. He
has done this in his capacity as the research representative for a Basic Research (A) project under the
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research entitled “The Great East Japan Earthquake and the Rebuildingof Japanese Society—The Damage from the Earthquake, Tsunami, and the Nuclear Incident and thePath to Overcoming This.”
Many of the members of the Tohoku Sociological Society carrying out research and educational
activities in the Tohoku Region are not outsiders temporarily visiting the regions that are the focus of
their studies with regard to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima
Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant, as might be expected. Rather, they are pronouncedly marked with“insider”-like status as people who permanently reside in the region. As an academic community, theTohoku Sociological Society must continue to carry out studies and research over the long-term
spanning ten or 20 years into the future when it comes to the Great East Japan Earthquake and theaccident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

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Other
The society’s annual meetings (for which an entrance fee is required) and its regular seminars(no entrance fee required) are both open to the participation of non-members. Information on these isprovided via the Society Newsletters and its website.
The Tohoku Sociological Society’s website: http://tss.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/
Inquiries
Office of General Affairs, Tohoku Sociological Society
Department of Sociology, Graduate School/Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University27-1 Kawauchi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Japan, 980-8576
Phone & Fax: +81-(0)22-795-6034

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