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HK+ Project Research - the 2nd Stage

Change and Solidarity of the Life-World (Sep. 2022~ Aug. 2026)

The second statge is divided into two steps, and two research clusters are formed. Among them, during the first study period of the second stage(Sep. 2022-Aug. 2024), a research cluster that simultaneously analyzes various recent changes in Japan's life-world in terms of life politics are a super-mature society. It is centered on two research clusters, which universally approach the basis of the post-war growth myth and the contradictions behind it, which are the background of such recent changes. The central theme of second study period of the second stage(Sep. 2024-Aug. 2026) is Japanese life-world and the possibility of solidarity.  If the first and second planning studies focus on changes in Japanes society, we would like to explore the possibility of solidarity that occurs and is being raised inside and outside of Japanese society in the view that various problems experienced in the 2020s cannnot be solved by Japans own efforts.

Growth-led Society Japan's Politics of Life: A Perspective Approach

Cluster Growth-led Society Japan's Politics of Life: A Perspective Approach
Research Outline The purpose of this study is to look at the macro structural changes of Japanese society, which have adopted the current multilateral change and the orientation toward the super maturity society.

Although the approach of structural change in Japanese (and Korean) society from a growing society to a mature society is popular in academic and journalistic discourse, there is a risk of mistaking long-term changes in Japanese society for compartmentalization and single-line steps. If the framework of understanding, a mature society, or a super maturity society, is no longer just a euphemism for the expression of old blockages, oppressed conflicts, and discontent, it should be read as a social project that deviates from the current framework of developmentalism.

  The theory of mature society often defines Japanese society in the previous period as a growth society, but if the growth society model is taken for granted, it will lead to the reproduction of an old framework of perception that takes 'growth' for granted as a reality experienced by modern and contemporary Japan. Rather, when the economic growth, political stability, and social and cultural integration that supported the growth society discourse are relativized by epistemological mechanisms that produced and reproduced growth myths, the foundations and problems that gave rise to mature society and super mature host society can be captured in various ways.

From this awareness of the problem, this study will examine the aspects of various projects that have built and reproduced growth myths throughout the modern period, while discovering contradictions, conflicts, and divisions that have been marginalized by growth myths to explain the dynamics and structural changes of Japanese society.
Research Director Jung, Ji Hee (SNU IJS) The theory of 'Japanese-style mature society' and the living politics of post-industrial society: The retrofit of liberal reconstruction attempts and traces of growth model
Researchers Nam, Sang Wook (Department of Japanese Language & Literature, Incheon National University) "Mature" and "violence" in post-war Japanese literature
Lee, Eun-gyong (SNU IJS) Countries Encouraging 'Physical' Growth: Focusing on Modern Japan's 'Healthy and Good Child Labeling Project'
Park, Seung Hyun (Department of Japanese Language and Literature, Keimyung University ) Japan's family, labor and welfare policy and postwar women's poverty
Seo, Dong Ju (SNU IJS) Japanese representations of subculture in high growth: Focusing on the special filming of "Godzilla" series (1954-1984)
Han, Jeong Seon (Division of International Studies, Korea University) Growth-led spatial politics: Appearance and demolition of 'illegal occupation district'(不法占拠バラック街)
Kim, Hyojin(SNU IJS) Comic market as an amateur cartoon movement: Focusing on the relationship with the consumer society in the 1980s
Research Assistant

Hong, You Jin (Ph.D. Candidate in SNU Program in History and Philosophy of Science)

Growth-led Society Japan’s Politics of Life: A Contemporary Approach

Research Outline Those who are concerned about Japan's "now" and "future" see that the character of "post-war Japan" we are familiar with appeared around the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and is slowly fading in the wake of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics in 2021.

According to such observations, Japan established the prototype of a growth-oriented society in the 1960s, peaked in the 1980s, and then transformed into a "maturity society" against the backdrop of the "lost 30 years" of the Heisei period, which began with the post-Cold War. However, this does not mean that the development of the growth-maturity-super maturity society takes place as a change from node to node like bamboo. Rather, it can be said that it is a development close to a change in jokes, with some parts becoming thicker and others becoming thinner by forming a gradient like a rainbow.

Therefore, the entry of the super-mature circuit does not mean a break with a growth society or a mature society. Rather, the expansion of the front, where the desire for growth, which is sometimes still expressed roughly, and the willingness to quietly settle down, compete, is a factor driving the entry into "post-maturity".

We, who have yet to find a word to capture and express "post-maturity," will name it "super-maturity society," find a new front for transformation, reveal the degree of "drag and interference" between before and after transformation, and gauge Japan's new appearance as a result of transformation.

At this time, the front lines of transformation to be noted include climate, LGBT (sexual self-expression), family, war, and festivals. These are the sites of politics where the redistribution of social power and capital surrounding 'life' occurs as 'survival + activity'.

This joint study aims to reveal the motive by capturing the various interactions as "living politics" between those who provide the acceleration of change on these fronts and those who resist it.
Research Director Nam, Ki Jeong (SNU IJS)  Political Process of Discharging Contaminated Water from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Researchers Jo, Gwan-ja(SNU IJS) The Era of AI - Low Birth Rate, Aging Population : Reconstruction of Family and Society 
Oh, Seung Hee(SNU-IJS) Social Memory and Forgetting Around the "Nuclear" : the Struggle for Recognition of Victim of Atomic Bomb and Cooperation between Korea and Japan 
Roh, Junia  (Department of Japanese Studies, Myongji University) 2020 Tokyo Olympics Design Review: 1964 Tokyo Olympics Design Legacy In Terms of Utilization
Sun, Jaewon (Global Regional Study, Pyeongtaek University) Formation and Prospect of Japanese-style Social Agreement : Economic Revival Movement and Formation of Labor-Management Government System 
Lee, Jeonghwan (Department of Political Science, SNU) Dilemma of Kishida's Fiscal Policy
Park, Jeehwan (SNU GSIS) To "the Good Countryside" : the Motivation of Youth Migration to the Countryside and Lifestyle 
Research Assistant Komatsuda, Yoshihiro (Ph.D. Candidate in SNU Dept. of Comparative Literature)

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