Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The large-scale networks of suppliers and prime buyers in industrial districts have rarely if ever been studied as social networks, due to analytical complexity and rarity of such datasets. With a large relational dataset on buyer/supplier relationships among over 8,300 firms in a Tokyo industrial district, we analyzed the complex regional production system quantitatively so as to find its integration mechanisms. Tests of the small-world model―of local clustering, low average distance, lack of central hubs, and sparsity of connectivity―failed due to tendencies toward a power-law degree distribution, shorter-than-random average distances, and lack of local clustering. The scale-free network model was rejected because hubs in the network do not attract ties by supplier firms but actively organize their suppliers. We then explored an alternative explanation: Does the supplier-buyer network have layers as represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG) or depth hierarchy where each link in a chain of suppliers and buyers is always directed up the hierarchy, never forming a directed transaction cycle? Controlling some data constraints, we found that acyclic depth partition can explain the structural properties of the network. Finally, we offer statistical evidence that the DAG should be a general property for the complex webs of supplier-prime buyer relationships in industrial production networks, as modeled by Harrison White, in lieu of small-world or scale-free network models.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Legitimacy in modernity depends on legality. In times of 'globalization', the tight relationship between legitimacy and legality become doubtful. How can we establish a social order in such time? The 'International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Tribunal)' provides an interesting perspective from which to consider this problem. It was a serious attempt to establish international order without firm foundation of international law. I analyze the early stage of the Tokyo Tribunal and explicit 4 aspects of conceptual order it created using the transcripts of the trial.
First, in Law and War, I briefly trace the legal process that generated Tokyo Tribunal. Secondly in War and Words, I move from legal aspects to linguistic one. The Allied description of Japanese warfare as a 'war of aggression' is the main topic. Third, in Words and Worlds, I analyze the relationship between such descriptions and world making, insisting that a 'civilized world' emerged in tandem with concept of 'war of aggression'. Finally in World and Action, I trace the importance of the action of 'intervention' in making the 'civilized world'.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper analyzes the determinants of homelessness among day laborers in San’ya, Tokyo’s largest yoseba, or day labor ghetto. Yoseba have long served as kakikomidera, or “temples of refuge,” for Japan’s unemployed. However, under the Heisei Recession since 1990 demand for day laborers has dramatically declined and homelessness has exploded. While the link between the recession and rising homelessness among day laborers has been affirmed by social science researchers in Japan, this paper is the first research effort to empirically explore the factors that determine whether or not an individual day laborer becomes homeless. A binomial logistic regression analysis is performed on survey data from day laborers in San’ya, showing that, contrary to expectation, characteristics such as youth and possession of job-related skills were not found to significantly prevent homelessness. However, day laborers were able to draw on their formal education, past experiences as a day laborer, and interpersonal connections with labor brokers to avoid homelessness. These relationships with employers proved to have the largest impact, suggesting that this form of social capital is the most important asset in avoiding homelessness in Japan’s yoseba.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Public discussions of Tokyo's potential nuclear breakout—a topic long considered far too toxic for serious debate—have recently flourished in Japan. This more widespread discourse has coincided with the emergence of a more assertive Japan. Given Japan's l

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: My presentation addresses the applicability to the situation of migrant Filipina hostesses in Japan of the top to bottom solution of “rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration” that the U.S. universally imposes in its anti-trafficking campaign. My discussion is based on 62 in-depth interviews that I conducted with migrant hostesses in Japan as well as participant observation gathered from working for three months as a hostess in a Philippine pub in Tokyo. In my discussion, I establish that Filipina migrant contract workers in Japan are trafficked (but not for the same reason cited by the U.S. Department of State.) Then, I illustrate that the universal solution that the U.S. bullies other governments (by ranking in the Trafficking in Persons Report) and funds local organizations to implement ironically increases the likelihood of migrant Filipina hostesses of being trafficked. In my presentation, I call attention to the hegemony of the U.S. anti-trafficking campaign over trafficking as a political issue so as to reclaim the use of the term “trafficked” and rid it of its political stigma and association with the hegemonic campaign of “rescue” posed by the government of the United States. In so doing, I call attention to our need to reject the universal top to bottom solution imposed by the United States to combat all forms of trafficking and our need to develop multiple strategies and action plans to fight trafficking in the twenty-first century.