| Date: | 11 February 2022 (Friday) |
| Time: | 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm (Hong Kong time, GMT+8) |
| Online Registration: | https://lingnan.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d09PFYheSg2hmnk |
* A webinar link will be provided before each seminar.
Topic: Diversity, Fluidity, and Work-life Balance — Contemplating social sustainability from the labor participation perspective
This paper contemplates work-life balance in Japan from an alternative perspective to Japan’s structural rigidity that is often expressed in terms of the conventional gender-role discourse. Japan’s compromised work-life balance is highly debated. Yet, work ethics and habits made few changes despite some structural adjustments over the years, such as the implementation of Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1985 and the Basic Act for the Gender Equal Society in 1999. While it is important to address existing structural problems that are attributed to embodied gender inequality and “traditional” gender-roles, I argue that the key to work-life balance may be approached from the labor participation perspective. Inspired by various solutions to the obstacles experienced by the restrictions during the Covid pandemic, this paper considers possibilities of integrating diversity and fluidity of labouring practices for Japan’s social sustainability.
Speaker:
|
Dr. Yoko Demelius Researcher, Centre for East Asian Studies, the University of Turku, Finland |
Dr. Yoko Demelius is a social anthropologist and a researcher at the Centre of East Asian Studies at the University of Turku, Finland. Her research interest lies in various forms of social platforms, gender role negotiation, cultural consumption and production in the context of minorities’ ethnicity claims within the frame of ‘homogeneous’ Japanese national ideology.
|
Topic: Skills, Life Satisfaction, and the Japan Paradox: A Puzzle for Multidisciplinary Research
Scholars have long investigated the structure and determinants of subjective well-being (SWB). Meanwhile, recent research has argued skills are the key to socio-economic success of individuals and societies, ranging from preferable labour market outcomes to better health status and SWB. Drawing on these arguments, the present paper re-examines the linkage between the aggregate skills level of societies and people’s life satisfaction (LS). A cross-national multilevel regression analysis, using the large-scale survey data for 36,158 in 25 countries, first confirms the positive association between the societal skills level and individuals’ LS, such that highly skilled societies are more likely than less skilled counterparts to show higher LS among the population. However, there is one obvious outlier where LS is significantly low despite its notably high-level skills: Japan. Elucidating the mechanism behind this overall cross-national trend and Japan’s peculiar position – what one may call “Japan Paradox” – is a promising multidisciplinary research agenda as it contributes to better understanding not only Japanese society as such but also the broader social structure and socio-demographic conditions that may hinder the potentially positive assets regardless of national boundaries. I argue this line of study eventually leads to sounder social policies for human flourishing.
Speaker:
|
Prof. Satoshi Araki Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong |
Professor Araki holds his PhD from the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford, and an MA/BA from the Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining Lingnan University in 2020, he had worked as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Information and Communication, a consultant of the World Bank/Global Partnership for Education, and a researcher of the Mitsubishi Research Institute. His research ranges from social stratification and inequality to the sociology of education and work, well-being, and research methods. His work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, European Sociological Review, and Journal of Happiness Studies, among others.
|
Back to China and Regional Studies Joint Webinar Series
