Suchergebnisse

"Recent decades have seen a rise in religious nationalism and fundamentalism around the world. This book focuses attention on a Japanese expression of fundamentalism and neonationalism based on Shinto and symbolically centered on Yasukuni Shrine. The Shinto tradition is often seen as a very tolerant expression of religion that allows for diverse forms of belief and practice, but when closely tied to the interests of the state or political power it can be used to legitimize coercion in public life and institutions. This became particularly apparent in wartime Japan and has reappeared in the postwar period in what has been identified as expression of "Yasukuni fundamentalism," a movement that seeks to revive and restore the social order and values expressed in the Emperor-centered form of Shinto that existed before the end of the Second World War. Yasukuni fundamentalists not only want to recover and revitalize the tradition disestablished by the Allied Occupation of Japan, but also seek to impose it on the larger public through the re-nationalization of Yasukuni Shrine, revision of the postwar Constitution, and reform of the public school system. This book examines the growth of this neonationalist movement in post-disaster Japan, the social conflict generated by their political agenda, and the various forms of opposition by religious leaders and groups, as well as public intellectuals, to the reappearance of coercion the public sphere"--

In its final report the Expert Committee on reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 chaired by Professor Genevra Richardson proposed a new Mental Disorder Tribunal. This tribunal would have fundamentally different functions, composition, procedure and powers to the present Mental Health Review Tribunals (MHRTs). The Committee's objective was not merely to repair the failings of the present MHRT system but to replace it with a new structure promoting the principles of patient autonomy and non-discrimination. Reading the Committee report and the Government's Green Paper proposals in response together it soon becomes clear that the Government has rejected the recommendation that the new mental health law should be based on principles of autonomy and nondiscrimination. In their place the Green Paper puts "safety" and "risk". While it will incorporate safeguards to ensure compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998, the "dual aims" of the new Mental Health Act are to be to ensure the health and safety of patients and safety of the public. Whereas the Committee saw the new tribunal as an active guarantor and promoter of individual rights the Green Paper recasts it as a body preoccupied with risk and safety, stating as a fundamental "principle" that: "Issues relating to the safety of the individual patient and of the public are of key importance in determining the question of whether compulsory powers should be imposed"

Japan was shaken by the 'double disaster' of earthquake and sarin gas attack in 1995, and in 2011 it was hit once again by the 'triple disaster' of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. This international, multi-disciplinary group of scholars examines the state and societal responses to the disasters and social crisis.