The North Korean abduction issue: emotions,securitisation and the reconstruction of Japanese identity from ‘aggressor’ to ‘victim’ and from ‘pacifist’ to ‘normal’

Abstract

After Kim Jong-il's confession in 2002 that North Korean agents had abducted thirteen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, North Korea has become the most detested country in Japan, and the normalisation of bilateral relations has been put on the back burner. The abduction issue has taken precedence in Japan even over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. It has also grossly overshadowed the atrocities for which Imperial Japan was responsible in the 20th century. Why has there been such strong emphasis on an issue that could be disregarded as comparatively ‘less important’? This article understands the ascendency of the abduction issue as the epitome of an identity shift under way in Japan – from the identity of a curiously ‘peaceful’ and inherently ‘abnormal’ state, to that of a more ‘normal’ one. The differentiation of North Korea as ‘abnormal’ emphasises Japan's own (claim to) ‘normality’. Indeed, by incarnating the perils of Japan's own ‘pacifist’ ‘abnormality’, which has been so central to the collective sense of Japanese ‘Self’ in the post-war period, the abduction issue has become a very emotional argument for Japan's ‘normalisation’ in security and defence terms. The transformation from ‘abnormal’ to ‘normal’ is further enabled by Japan trading places with North Korea in the discourse, so that Japan is defined as ‘victim’ (rather than former aggressor) and North Korea as ‘aggressor’ (rather than former victim). What is at stake here is the question whether Japan is ‘normalising’ or ‘remilitarising’, and the role of the abduction issue discourse in enabling such foreign and security policy change.     

国外新区域主义理论的三重理解

新区域主义是地方治理研究在传统联合政府模式和公共选择模式基础上产生发展起来的。在英文文献当中,新区域主义理论可以从区域空间、区域身份与区域整合等三个角度进行解读。从区域空间角度来看,新区域主义主要强调各种不同主体在“区域空间”范围内的关系构建;从区域身份角度来看,新区域主义理论将区域治理与社会建构理论相结合,强调了区域在形成过程中的主观性和文化价值取向;从区域整合角度来看,新区域主义理论强调区域整合方式的弹性化,政府负责提供交流合作的平台,引导地方政府和公民主体在区域内流动并促进各主体在自愿基础上开展自发的合作。     

Internet mediated crimes and theoretical approaches

Purpose: in the literature, the term ‘Internet crime’ has been coined to indicate the scenario in which a victim of homicide or other crimes is met through a chat room, and lured to death at the hands of the murderer. Various criticisms have been made of this new concept, on the grounds that the outcome is no different from that of other crimes committed without the use of Web resources, and so the method used has no particular influence. Indeed, it has been claimed that informatic crime just reflects a technological change in the nature of crime rather than a new form of criminal behavior attributable to the use of the Internet for criminal purposes. Method: our reflections were prompted by our experience as expert forensic psychiatry witnesses in three cases in which the aggressors had confessed to having had an exclusively virtual relationship with the victims, in which they spent a lot of time daily in a chat room. Conclusion: this scenario offers points for reflection on the nature of Web-mediated victim–aggressor interactions, to assess the effects on the planning and commission of the crime. Discussion. it’s our opinion that there really is such a thing as Internet-correlated crime, because in this case the quality and quantity of the Internet interactions progressively altered the men’s perception of the real relationship between themself and their victims.     

Discourse of decency: white nationalists,white antiracists,and the criminality of color

Contemporary research on white racial attitudes on race and crime reflect a grouping of opinions on a traditional liberal-conservative scale. These two groupings reflect what sociologists and political scientists call ‘issue constraint’ or a ‘clustering’ of ideas into a specific ideological worldview. Many now argue this gulf is growing; a white ‘culture war’ that many interpret as evidence of the increasing fracturing and political bifurcation of white racial identities over ‘hot button’ topics like race and crime. While a substantial literature on race and crime finds white racial attitudes to vary by educational level and political orientation, we know less about shared understandings of crime and race in relation to the processes of white racial identity formation. Rather than view attitudinal statements on race and crime as accurate reflections of essential different and static white racial political positions or ideological orientations, additional scholarship can examine discourse on crime and race as constitutive of the white identities that wield them. Drawing from an ethnographic study with conservative white nationalists and liberal white antiracists, this paper addresses the following question: what is the relationship between discourse on crime and race and the ongoing process of white racial identity formation?     

Battles over boundaries: the politics of territory,identity and authority in three Ugandan regions

In Uganda, contested relations between the central government and sub-national regions have, since independence, shaped state formation and national identity in fundamental ways. Today, the country is characterised by regionally uneven state presence, and distinct sub-national identities and ongoing contestation over territorial demarcations, loci of authority and political identities. This article explores the politics of territory, identity and authority in three Ugandan regions in this context, in order to analyse the implications for exclusion and conflict at the sub-national level. This involves struggles over the territorial and administrative demarcations of and within regions; the loci and scope of authority with regards to these units; struggles over access to land; and the (non-)recognition of various cultural–political identities in these regions.     

Beyond the Thomas–Kilmann Model: Into Extreme Conflict

This article discusses an extension to the Thomas–Kilmann conflict mode instrument (Thomas and Kilmann 1977) designed specifically for conflict situations in which strong negative emotional relationships are at play. The Thomas–Kilmann (TK) model is widely used to help participants (disputants and mediators) identify how two basic conflict characteristics interact to influence how stakeholders shape their actions with regard to their interests. Essentially the TK Model is built on the premise that the two salient conflict variables are the relative importance of the relationships at hand and the substantive issues being discussed. These variables are illustrated with a simple matrix that shows how each party will interact with the other based on the relative importance it places on these variables. Graphically illustrating where the behaviors fall on the matrix can explicate parties' behaviors to add a new perspective that may change the dynamic of the conflict. But the TK Model does not address scenarios in which individuals have very negative or destructive relationships, and sabotage, blocking, and exclusion are behavioral norms. Hence, we developed the Baumoel–Trippe (BT) Extension to the TK Model to address the highly negative and often identity‐based conflicts that are often found in the world of family business. Accordingly, the BT Extension to the TK Model explores conflicts in which the relationships are not merely unimportant or uncooperative, but where they become negative to downright vengeful. There is so much at stake for family business stakeholders that the family relationships may become so adversarial that the very business and family harmony all parties value are at risk. With our extension of the TK Model, we seek to provide insight into how decisions might be made when stakeholders are in highly negative, conflictual relationships.     

高校职称评审中的亚腐败现象及其治理

高校职称评审中的亚腐败现象主要表现为:参评者设法在他人科研成果上挂名或恶意拥有大量低端成果,从而抬高职称计分;围绕发表核心期刊论文做文章,以量取胜,不惜学术不端;利用学术出版方式的转型,投机取巧;论文、论著条件不具备,打擦边球,冒充凑数;教学工作数量、质量的评价机制不合理。这些亚腐败现象的产生一般有如下原因:职称评审机构设置存在缺陷;参评者违规受罚流于形式;对职称评审主体的监督乏力;教师工作数量与工作质量的关系评价长期错位。为此,至少可提出如下治理对策:积极探求高校职称评审的顶层设计;严格职称评审中学术成果的检验和评价;优化职称评审监督过程;从国家层面规范高校行政人员参与教学科研的行为。     

我国多党合作制度中的执政与参政关系--我国政党制度中几个基本关系探讨之二

中国共产党执政与民主党派参政的实质,是共产党与民主党派在国家政权建设和政府工作中,充分发挥自身的不同作用,共同推进和实现人民当家作主,维护和发展最广大人民群众的根本利益.与民主集中制紧密结合,在履行各自职能基础上合作共事,是我国执政与参政关系不同于西方的显著特点.要准确把握二者同一性、差异性和联系性原则.     

学报文科编辑掌握和运用逻辑思维规律刍议

逻辑思维规律一般指的是三大基本逻辑规律 :同一律、矛盾律和排中律。学报文科编辑作为人文科学学术论文的管理者 ,要掌握同一律 ,学会运用具体同一思维 ;掌握矛盾律和排中律 ,学会运用互补转化思维。     

对做大做强我省保安服务业的思考——关于“全面建小康，公安怎么办”大讨论中保安服务业怎么办的几点思考

怎样才能做大做强保安服务业 ?笔者认为 :1 牢固树立加快保安服务业发展的观念 ;2 逐步放宽保安市场的准入条件 ;3 大力扶持保安服务业的发展 ;4 积极推进保安服务业职业化、规范化建设 ,建立现代保安企业制度 ;5 加强保安从业人员的教育培训 ;6 切实加强对保安服务业的监督管理 ;7 建立健全保安协会。