Search results

While the relationship between religion and politics has gained more and more attention among social scientists since the early 1980s, the case of Japan has been widely ignored. Given the circumstances (no religious conflicts, constitutional separation of state and religion) this is not surprising, but those religious organizations that participate in various forms in Japanese politics still deserve closer examination as they help us to understand why and how religious groups enter the political world. This article analyzes the "Happiness Realization Party" (Kōfuku jitsugentō), established by the religious "Institute for Research in Human Happiness" (Kōfuku no kagaku) in 2009. From exploring the motivations of the group's political activities, its first steps in the political world as well as the outcome, this paper deducts empirically based hypotheses regarding necessary conditions for the expansion of religious groups into politics. First, the political and social status quo of country or community need to allow for diagnosis of imminence and grievance. Second, the religious teaching requires strong orientation towards this world. And third, the religious leadership needs to support the political initiative. The case of the "Happiness Realization Party" also suggests that political programs deducted from religious teachings tend to contain radical elements and are presented with uncompromising firmness which stems from the religious logic of absolutes. This attitude clashes with the logic of politics and especially in the case of Japan makes it difficult for religious parties to succeed.

Tramadol is a synthetic opioid that is widely used as an analgesic for alleviating pain of moderate to medium intensity. With potency estimated to be about one-tenth that of morphine, tramadol is considered as relatively safe with regard to poisonings or dependency. Yet there are increasing reports of widespread non-medical consumption of tramadol in North and West Africa. The Egyptian government has requested the UN Commission of Narcotic Drugs to put tramadol under international control. This will have profound implications for the treatment of acute and chronic pain across developing countries where tramadol is often the only available analgesic, because controlled substances are impossible to obtain for health care practitioners. The tramadol sold outside of medical establishments is often adulterated and substandard, part of the massive trade in falsified medicines that is possibly far more devastating than the hedonic use of psychoactive substances. Yet the international machinery in place to control medical products is feeble and the penalties for medicrime are modest next to drug trafficking offences. The article suggests that international controls need to re-assess their priorities to focus on human and patient well-being. A further shift is needed away from repressive measures against consumers, to tighter regulation in the production and distribution of medications and pharmaceutical substances. This must involve a wide range of stakeholders, including health care practitioners, the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists, patients associations, and the public at large.

Tramadol is a synthetic opioid that is widely used as an analgesic for alleviating pain of moderate to medium intensity. With potency estimated to be about one-tenth that of morphine, tramadol is considered as relatively safe with regard to poisonings or dependency. Yet there are increasing reports of widespread non-medical consumption of tramadol in North and West Africa. The Egyptian government has requested the UN Commission of Narcotic Drugs to put tramadol under international control. This will have profound implications for the treatment of acute and chronic pain across developing countries where tramadol is often the only available analgesic, because controlled substances are impossible to obtain for health care practitioners. The tramadol sold outside of medical establishments is often adulterated and substandard, part of the massive trade in falsified medicines that is possibly far more devastating than the hedonic use of psychoactive substances. Yet the international machinery in place to control medical products is feeble and the penalties for medicrime are modest next to drug trafficking offences. The article suggests that international controls need to re-assess their priorities to focus on human and patient well-being. A further shift is needed away from repressive measures against consumers, to tighter regulation in the production and distribution of medications and pharmaceutical substances. This must involve a wide range of stakeholders, including health care practitioners, the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists, patients associations, and the public at large.

Polydrug use is presented as a particular drug-use phenomenon when the combination of substances is and always has been the practice. The origin of the term is found in the early years of the war on drugs under the Nixon administration in the US, when it was used to justify the intensification of repressive measures against drug users and to counter the growing accommodation and normalisation of cannabis. Only by presenting cannabis as the first step towards the use of harder drugs could the repression of this largely innocuous and widely used substance be justified. Drug users were presented as "polydrug users", which offered an explanation of problematic use as rooted in the drug user, the addict, who would switch substances in accordance with availability and price. Having become established for political reasons, the term has become entrenched because it resonates and vividly describes social practice. Yet it does not add to understanding of social reality but occludes and confuses because it presents "polydrug" as a particular and peculiar pattern of consumption and not as the norm.

Abstract  Somali piracy is increasingly explained in terms of organised criminal business. This article argues that piracy does not constitute a business and the analogy with organised crime is misleading and can obstruct the search for a long term settlement. Dismissing the underlying grievance, the destruction of Somali fisheries by foreign trawlers, with literalist explanations such as 'pirates are rarely fishermen' and 'most targets are cargo ships', ignores its function as a 'legitimating notion'. The concept of 'moral economy' is used to explain how along the coast but also within the diaspora the identity of Somalis as victims is used to legitimize pirate activities. International responses should therefore focus actively and symbolically on reconstructing livelihoods along the coast, instead of seeking security sector and criminal justice solution. This is possible and cost effective because Somali piracy is a subsistence activity driven by lack of employment and investment opportunities, and provides a limited economic stimulus for coastal micro economies.

AbstractIn Japan, electoral campaigning in plurality districts often appears strangely ineffective to observers. In their explanations, political scientists have so far fallen back on the proximate cause, namely the strict Public Office Election Law (Kōshoku senkyo-hō), claiming that it is this law that prohibits different and more effective campaigning. This study, however, is based on the assumption that such an explanation could be insufficient since even those campaign tactics legally allowed are often executed and/or selected in an apparently ineffective way in terms of their appeal to voters. Especially when looked at from the perspective of structural learning theory, which assumes that actors adapt their behavior within stable structures by learning what works well and what does not, these observations invite further investigation.As a first step, participant observation was used to identify types of apparently ineffective campaigning. In the second step, these types were discussed in qualitative interviews with candidates and other practitioners. The results show that next to appealing to voters there are other campaign goals that can determine the choice of electoral instruments: motivating campaign staffers, maintaining good working relationships with external helpers, presenting political convictions and personal determination. This explains part of the assumed ineffectiveness, but not all of it. When seen through the lens of structural learning theory research findings suggest that the lack of clear feedback regarding the impact of campaign activities on voters inhibits the learning processes of candidates. In combination with constraints regarding time, place and/or resources, these factors shape election campaigning to a considerable degree. Consequently, this study suggests that explanations need to take more factors into account than just the Public Office Election Law in order to solve the puzzle of ineffective campaigning in Japan.

"Die Reaktion der japanischen Öffentlichkeit auf die dreifache Katastrophe war im Hinblick auf die Naturgewalten von bewundernswerter Gelassenheit; was das politische Engagement seiner Bürger betrifft, ist auf eine Stärkung des Interesses und der praktizierten Kritik zu hoffen." (Autorenreferat)