HOMMERICH CAROLA

Since the economic boom of the 1970s, Japan was generally discussed as a mass middle-class society. This image was based less on objective status indicators and more on the fact that over 90% of Japanese self-identify as middle class. Even with an increase in income inequality and the onset of the discourse on Japan as a gap society since the mid-2000s, the distribution of self-identification has hardly changed. However, this does not mean that the objective shifts in Japan’s social structure have gone unnoticed by the population. The way objective changes have impacted evaluations of individual social status is simply more subtle: what has changed is not the distribution of how people self-identify, but rather the way their objective social status (measured via education, occupation and income) impacts their self-evaluation. Added up, the share of the population that places itself in the middle has not remarkably changed. But, whereas there was no clear concept of what it meant to be upper or lower middle in the mid-1980s, resulting in rather arbitrary self-placement, there now seems to be more awareness of distinctions also within the middle. As a result, self-placement has bec

While previous studies have established social capital as an important determinant of subjective well-being (SWB), the broader social context people are living in has not received much attention in terms of SWB. To address this issue, we propose the concept of social affiliation, measuring the feeling of belonging to the social whole, of being a respected and valued member of society. In contrast to standard concepts of social capital, social affiliation is not related to an individual’s direct environment (‘Gemeinschaft’), but concerns one’s relation to society (‘Gesellschaft’). Such a subjective evaluation of how an individual feels within a broader societal context is neither covered by traditional concepts of social capital nor by the concept of social cohesion which focuses on the macro level. A perception of oneself as living on the margins of society, of not being a respected member of society, is very likely to diminish subjective well-being. At the same time, it can be expected to not be completely unrelated to individual resources of social capital. Drawing on unique survey data from Japan, we analyze the triangle relationship between social capital, social affiliation and subjective well-being applying a structural equation model. Our results have two main implications. First, we show that social affiliation has an effect on subjective well-being that is independent from the effect of standard measures of social capital. Second, we find that social capital influences social affiliation, and thereby also has an indirect effect on subjective well-being. In terms of theory building our results suggest that social embeddedness has two elements which should be measured separately: a community dimension usually measured as social capital in terms of trust, personal networks and norms, and a societal dimension of being and feeling part of a ‘Gesellschaft’, measured as social affiliation.

<p>Within the booming field of research on subjective well-being, happiness and unhappiness have so far been treated as two ends of a continuum with causes and mechanisms being the same for both. Still, this is not self-evident. We here use the SSP2015 survey data to investigate whether happiness and unhappiness have the same determinants. To do so, we classify the respondents into three well-being groups: the "happier than average," the "average," and the "less happy than average." We conduct a multinomial logistic regression analysis to disentangle the effects of education depending on the level of happiness. Our results imply that (1) more education promotes happiness of unhappy people. At the same time, however, we find that (2) an increase in education reduces the happiness of happy people. This means that the impact of education on happiness is by no means straightforward, but that it can have opposing effects depending on the happiness level. This supports our hypothesis that some determinants have different effects on different happiness levels. It also implies that an enhancement of subjective well-being cannot be achieved in the same way for happy and unhappy people. Therefore, happiness and unhappiness turn out not to be two sides of the same coin.</p>

This paper analyzes the role of social connectedness in motivating citizens to take an active interest in society and to engage in communal activities. Japan is used as an example of a society which has been diagnosed with a weakening of social bonds, as well as with an increase in social inequality and precarity in recent years. Structural equation modeling was applied to data of a nationwide survey from 2009, to test the assumption that feelings of disconnectedness from society exert a negative effect on civic engagement that needs to be differentiated from effects of general social trust. Results support this hypothesis and further indicate that it is not socioeconomic precarity per se that lowers chances for civic engagement, but its negative impact on the subjective evaluation of both the quality of social networks and one's belonging to and value for society. As precarity, however, enforces the negative effects of low social capital, this implies that specially the socially disadvantaged are less likely to participate.

この研究は、「なぜ主観的幸福感が生活満足度と一致しないことがあるのか」を、地位達成の役割に着目し、合理的選択理論の立場から解明することを目指す。これまで、幸福感は満足度と同一視されがちであった。そこで、測定方法を厳密に対応させたうえで、幸福感と満足度の規定要因を比較することをリサーチ・クエスチョンとした。データとして、ランダムサンプリングによる郵送調査を実施した。「幸福か不幸か」「満足か不満か」という離散的な２値でとらえ分析した結果、(1) 分布から、幸福な人は満足な人より13.4% 多かった。(2)クロス表から、全体の14.8% が「不満だが幸福」か「満足だが不幸」と不一致だった。とくに、不満な人のうち53.3% が幸福だった。このように、幸福感と満足度はかならずしも一致しなかった。(3) ロジスティック回帰分析から、幸福感は教育達成に、満足度は職業達成と収入に影響されやすかった。したがって、人びとは合理的に人的資本に投資し、（変動しない）教育達成から長期的ウェル・ビーイングとして幸福感を、（変動しうる）職業達成と収入から短期的ウェル・ビーイングとして満足度をえているといえよう。以上から、幸福感と満足度は異なる規定要因をもった別種の意識である可能性が高い。そのため、幸福感を満足度で代替させることには、慎重さが求められるだろう。

この論文では、生活満足度が主観的幸福感と一致しているのかを検討する。ともすれば、生活に満足している人は、幸福であるとみなされがちである。しかし、このことは自明ではない。満足していても不幸とかんじるかもしれないし、不満があっても幸福かもしれない。そこで、2013年社会と暮らしに関する意識調査（SSP-W2013-2nd）をデータとしてもちいて、分析をおこなった。その結果、以下がわかった。(1)満足と幸福が一致しない人は、全体で23.4%いた。そのうち「生活に不満があるのに幸福」というポジティブな不一致の人は、不満な人のうち3割いた。とくに60代で45.9%と多かった。逆に「満足しながら不幸」というネガティブな不一致は、1.5 割いた。とくに未婚者で27.9%と多かった。(2)女性ほど、年配者ほど、既婚者ほど、世帯収入が多いほど、「不満だが幸福」というポジティブな不一致がふえ、「満足だが不幸」というネガティブな不一致がへった。ただし、学歴や従業上の地位による違いはほとんどなかった。以上から、生活満足度と主観的幸福感はたしかに似た概念であるが、同一視するには慎重であるべきだろう。

This paper presents preliminary results of an analysis of trust in governmental institutions and social networks after the disaster of 11 March 2011, as well as an investigation of the implication of such trust resources for subjective well-being. Using data from a postal survey carried out in the Tōhoku and Kanto region in September 2011, differences in trust resources are explored by regional proximity to the disaster area as well as by personal affliction. Levels of social trust prove to be generally high, whilst trust in governmental institutions is low, especially when personally affected by the disaster. Trust resources are shown to contribute positively to subjective well-being and thus to constitute an important asset in the process of coping with disaster. © 2012 The Japan Sociological Society.