Momoko YOKOI

In Japan, suicide has long been an urgent social issue. The government has enacted the Basic Act on Suicide Prevention and initiated comprehensive efforts to implement it, and the local governments are undertaking a wide range of activities as part of the program, ranging from supporting community life to promoting awareness about suicide prevention. In this study, I examined the relationship between suicide prevention efforts and individual attitudes on suicide, using data from the “Takatsuki Citizen Mail Survey by Takatsuki City and Kansai University.” The results of multiple regression analysis suggest that having an attachment to the community and a desire to help in the community form the attitudes to reject suicide. Additionally, the concept of the “self-responsibility” theory has an influence on the acceptance or rejection of suicide, and individuals who perceive inequalities under the the principle of competition as “self-responsibility” are more inclined to attitude to accept suicide. Based on those results, it looks like it is important as a furue policy of suicide prevention to form community solidarity, and move away from the “self-responsibility” theory. In doing so, we will prevent suicide and build a society of mutual respect.

In traditional cross-national research on religion, religiosity is measured by religious behavior such as "religious affiliation" or "church attendance," as well as religious consciousness such as "relationship to a God," "distance from a God," or "devotion." These variables have been used in Western countries, where many follow Christianity, and applied in cross-national studies. In the modern globalized world, however, we have serious reservations as to whether these variables accurately measure the religiosity of the Japanese, many of whom believe in multitudinous gods (specifically, "8 million gods"). In addition, compared to Western countries, in Japan fewer studies have discussed the relationship between religiosity and social awareness or behavior by employing quantitative methods. This paper employs "procedural equivalence" as a criterion for judgment. This means that certain questions work in the same manner as in Western countries. We explore questions that allow for future international comparative research, and take the "importance of a religious attitude (or a religious mind)" used in Japanese National Character Surveys by the Institute of Statistical Mathematics as a measurement of Japanese religiosity, examining its relationship to social awareness or behavior. We used a sample of 1,455 Japanese men and women aged 25-59; responses were obtained through an interview survey conducted in 2010 by the Stratification and Social Psychology Project (SSP Project). Multiple regression analysis showed that a person's religious attitude has a positive effect on his/her volunteer activities, altruistic activities, voting behavior in elections, traditional consciousness based on the family system, attitudes towards economic inequality, and his/her sense of social responsibility. These results are similar to that of previous studies conducted in Western countries. However, we did not find that a religious attitude affects satisfaction as such, and only affects job satisfaction and income satisfaction. The most interesting finding is that religious attitude has a positive effect on cultural activities such as visiting art galleries or museums. We suggest that the religiosity of the Japanese as measured by the importance of their religious attitudes performs the same function as Western measures of traditional religious variables. In the future, by testing the importance of religious attitudes in other countries, including predominately Christian and Muslim nations, and by testing the validity and reliability of religious attitudes, we expect that the effectiveness of this will be clarified. By doing so, we will ultimately be able to regard Japanese religion and religiosity as a non-particular case in international comparative research.

In Jodo Shinshu Buddism (True Pure Land Buddhism), the Jushoku (head priest) is the caretaker of the temple, and his spouse, the Bomori, assists him in his activities. Some studies have investigated the Bomori's role from the perspective of Buddhist studies or history. However, little socio-psychological research has been carried out on their existence. To fill this research gap, in this study I have considered Jushoku and Bomori from the perspective of role consciousness or career. I aim to find out the work patterns of Jushoku and Bomori, and use a quantitative method to investigate the relationship between activities and role acceptance. Questionnaires were mailed to 410 Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temples, and 93 Jushoku and 79 Bomori were chosen as subjects for analyses. I performed a cluster analysis on ten temple activities: ceremonies, proselytization, work as an enlightenment organizations leader, cleaning, listening services, meetings, studying Buddhism, participation in community events, lifelong education, and voluntary work, and then categorized them into three activity types for the Jushoku (overall work: engaging in all activities; temple-related work: engaging in only temple activities; and low work: not engaging in activities) and the Bomori (overall work, background work, and low work). Multiple regression analysis showed how these activities and variables such as age and a second job affected the subjects' role acceptance. For the jushoku, age and overall work have a significant and direct effect on their role acceptance, while for the Bomori, age, gender role attitudes, overall work, and background work have a direct effect on their role acceptance. In other words, the jushoku's role acceptance increases with age, and overall work increases their role acceptance more than low work does. The Bomori's role acceptance is enhanced by age, and it is enhanced more by equal gender role attitudes, overall work, and background work, rather than by low work. This study shows that the jushoku's and the Bomori's role acceptance differs according to their activities. These findings highlight the importance of overall work for the Jushoku and the Bomori for carrying out temple operations.