It may be a surprise to many why Japanese youth and foreign migrants are paired together in a book on inequality and deviance in Japan. The life situation, however, of these two subculture group’s ties in with inequality as a precursor to deviance in a strikingly similar manner. Japanese youth and foreign migrants are powerless and yet perceived to be a major threat to the status quo. Both subcultural groups have consistently been the main targets of tight and restrictive formal and informal social controls propagated by sensationalised accounts of their deviance. Inequality, setting the stage for deviant reactions pertaining...

It has only been in the modern-day era that adolescence has become a separate category from adulthood. Before modernisation, youth had the same rights as adults and, should they violate social norms, faced the same punishment (Kassebaum, 1974, pp 80-5). Age was not a legal and social barrier to work, setting up a household and participating in community life. Parents, relatives and the community were mainly responsible for their young, with little or no intervention from the state. The onset of modernisation brought greater state control over human activity and institutions became formalised and regulated by the state. In order...

The myth of homogeneity in Japan is not only fictitious considering the diversity of regions in Japan with different cultures, language dialects and racial origins but that a couple of million non-Japanese citizens are an integral part of the fabric of life in Japan. They are branded as ‘foreigners’ although Koreans, a large group of non-Japanese, have for generations been born and raised in Japan and most speak Japanese as their first language. Other foreign migrants, migrating from countries throughout the world, represent a diversity of cultures and lifestyles in Japan. However, they are faced with numerous barriers in attempting...

Throughout this book, conflict has been discussed central to understanding inequality and the link between inequality and deviance. The focus of attention, however, has not been uniform given somewhat different situations and conditions that confront youth and foreign migrants. Here, labelling conflict theory is adopted to piece together the commonality shared by these two subordinate subcultural groups to gain a wider perspective of the link between inequality and deviance for subordinate subcultural groups.

Inequality and deviance will be described as a process whereby these two subordinate subcultural groups (applicable to other subordinate subculture groups as well) enter into a position...

Inequality and deviance was looked at focusing on two quite different subordinate subcultural groups in Japan with one crucial similarity: Japanese youth and foreign migrants were relatively powerless, subordinate to the dominant subcultural group. The degree and extent of inequality between and within both subordinate subcultural groups differed somewhat, still inequality was central to understanding the limited choices, opportunities and rights available to group members to realise their present and future life chances. Class stratification (and nationality for foreign migrant groups) within each subordinate subcultural group related to variations of inequality and different patterns of deviance. Special interest groups, acting...