Ongoing

Contemporary Japanese Society: What Has Been Happening Behind Demographic Change?

The main aim of this course is to give an overview of how contemporary Japanese society has been stratified, from the perspective of changing demographic, familial, and socio-economic structure. Basic statistics will be presented to provide a concrete idea of the changes that have taken place in Japan. By the end of the course, students should have an awareness of similarities and differences across nations regarding social issues including ageing population, gender gaps in work and family, and socio-economic inequalities.

Supported Language(s): English

Social Sciences

Instructor(s)

SHIRAHASE Sawako

Position
Professor
Division
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

The title and affliation listed are profile when the course was created.

Instructors' Voices

In this course, you will learn about:

  • Obtain basic knowledge of how various structural aspects of Japanese society have changed or remained unchanged.
  • Understand the basic mechanism of social stratification in Japanese society.
  • Develop awareness of similarities and differences between the social problems affecting many advanced capitalist societies.
  • Think actively about how these social problems can be alleviated.

Learners' Statistics

Learners' Voices

  • Student A

    I think the way this course is thought is good enough. It makes me want to learn more about different social topics of the Japanese society.

  • Student B

    Dr. Shirahase's explanation of each module was excellent and quite understandable, using the very detailed graphs or charts.

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