Sangyun KIM (Professor, Faculty of Law)
This unit’s focus is to investigate the cause of crimes based on discriminatory and exclusionary motives, and investigate the elimination of these crimes. Taking into consideration the current situation in Japan and issues facing Japan with regards to the Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (established in 2013), the Hate Speech Act (established in 2016), and the Act on the Promotion of the Elimination of Buraku Discrimination (established in 2016), and also referring to situations in other countries, this unit will formulate and propose measures for the elimination of all types of discrimination. These measures not only follow legal regulation, but also coordinate the powers of social and cultural inclusion. Specifically, this unit: (1) investigates the anti-discrimination law of Scandinavian countries that have instituted an ombudsman system for human rights; (2) conducts fact-finding research into discrimination in Japan; and (3) investigates the necessity and effectiveness of a single, comprehensive anti-discrimination law, as well as examining these founding of human-rights organizations and introducing an ombudsman system for human rights.
Tsukasa SAITO (Professor, Faculty of Law)
The recent increase of legislation related to sexual crime has been accompanied by an increase in historical studies and studies of comparative law related to punitive regulations for sexual crime. The effect of already existing legislation relevant to sexual crime (positive law and procedural law) has not been a major area of study, and we see little discussion of sexual crime in terms of programs and treatment for the sexual criminal at the correction and rehabilitation stage. Consequently, this unit determines the pattern of sexual crime and pattern of sexual criminals presupposed by recent legislation in criminal law and criminal justice and looks for discrepancies between patterns of sexual crime and patterns of sexual criminals in current handling and treatment of sexual criminals, and if such discrepancies exist, investigates how they can be corrected.
For 2019, the objective of this unit is to consolidate and summarize the research outcomes achieved to date. In the first half of this year, the unit will conduct complementary research into the existing status and distinguishing features of positive law, the existing status and distinguishing features of systems and innovations in procedural law, and the handling of sexual criminals in East Asia (South Korea, China, Taiwan). In the second half of this year, the unit will summarize practical implementation of the Penal Code Amendment, and provide a comparative law understanding of Japan’s sexual crime regulations and the existing status and distinguishing features of the handling and punishment of sexual criminals in Japan.
Makoto NAKANE (Professor, Junior College)
Yoshitetsu HIROKAWA (Part-time Associate Professor, Ryukoku University)
This unit focuses on the stage before crime prevention and attempts a historical understanding of the function and role played by the childcare business in preventing delinquency. With child abuse and child poverty becoming more severe and the reality of missing children and children with no family register being brought to light, a current pressing issue is to reconsider the means by which society guarantees a favorable environment for the growth and nurture of at-home children.
To place this in a historical context to ideas that became self-evident since the enactment of the Child Welfare Act, this unit examines the childcare business in the Taisho period and specifically the Japan Educational Mutual Aid of Welfare Foundation that established multiple childcare centers in Osaka, and elucidates the function and role of delinquency prevention activities conducted by childcare services for at-home children (led by Makoto NAKANE).
This unit also examines education principles and performs ideological investigation by analyzing corollaries between the educational philosophy of Kousuke Tomeoka, who was deeply involved in the foundation of Hokkaido Kateigakko that is one of the origins of children’s self-reliance support facilities in Japan, and in particular the educational philosophy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (led by Yoshitetsu HIROKAWA).
Through case research studies that rely on historical materials and by piecing together studies on the educational principles and philosophies of the time, this unit elucidates the teachings and original works of forerunners in the field, as well as the principles and philosophy of childcare and education that underpinned their activities. In addition, through connecting the experience of the past with the present, the unit advocates suggestions for present times and contemporary significance.
Kayoko KUROKAWA (Professor, Junior College)
Akira HAYAKAWA (Teacher, NHK GAKUEN)
Although gambling addiction is a cause of suicide and multiple debts in Japan, both of which have become major problems in society, the actual circumstances of gambling addiction in Japan are not yet fully understood. This unit aims to elucidate the actual circumstances of gambling addition among university students and develop a preventive intervention program.
Specifically, this unit plans to: (1) understand the actual circumstances of gambling addiction through questionnaire surveys formulated based on the analysis of prior research (2019); and (2) develop a preventive intervention program based on the analysis of the survey results (2020). The modified Japanese version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) will be used in the questionnaire survey planned for 2019, and factors covered by the questionnaire (basic attributes, self-rated health, self-rated happiness, social support, and life satisfaction) will be used to develop the preventive intervention program.
Satoru YOSHIKAWA (Professor, Faculty of Letters)
Through dialogical communication, a new method of correction and rehabilitation, this unit aims to build a different type of supportive relationship starting at the stage when recovery support is introduced to those who commit crimes or turn to delinquency, and show that dialogical communication increases the potential for fostering an autonomous willingness to engage in social activities and for corrective behavioral improvement. Specifically, this unit plans to: (1) understand problematic areas in the current circumstances of the benefactor that pose obstacles to relationship building; (2) conduct training to acquire the skills of dialogical communication; and (3) conduct a comparative investigation of how the effects of this training change interaction with benefactors, and draft guidelines for skills acquisition in dialogical communication.