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AbstractMathematical sociology in Japan was born in the mid‐1970s and has actively developed since then. Mathematical sociologists in Japan have studied various topics of mathematical sociology as well as of quantitative sociology. The Japanese Association for Mathematical Sociology (JAMS) was established in 1986. It holds semi‐annual conferences and publishes Sociological Theory and Methods, its official journal. Thus, the JAMS is a platform for mathematical sociologists in Japan to present and publish papers, contributing to the institutionalization of mathematical sociology in Japan. It has also co‐sponsored five joint conferences with the Section on Mathematical Sociology of the American Sociological Association. Based on these activities, mathematical sociology in Japan could be judged to be vibrant domestically and internationally; it has a bright future. I argue, however, that mathematical sociologists in Japan have tended to confine themselves to areas where mathematical modeling is relatively easy. These areas are not necessarily attractive to sociologists in other fields. I propose that mathematical sociologists in Japan should tackle social phenomena that other sociologists think are critical to sociology so that they further contribute to advances in the discipline.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report an International Symposium on Occupation, Education, and Inequality in Japan and Korea. Discusses earn of the papers of the seven speakers.Design/methodology/approachThe SRC and the CSSI cosponsored the symposium.FindingsThe papers presented various aspects of Korean society in terms of occupation, education and inequality.Originality/valueSome of the papers revealed subtle interactions between economic factors and traditional and cultural factors in Korea.

Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Sociological Foundations of Computational Social Science -- Chapter 3. Methodological contributions of computational social science to sociology -- Chapter 4. Computational Social Science: A Complex Contagion -- Chapter 5. Model of meaning -- Chapter 6. Sociological Meaning of Contagion -- Chapter 7. Polarization of Opinion -- Chapter 8. Coda.

Abstract:  We argue that the social mobility of the Japanese middle classes is becoming closer to that of their Korean counterparts thanks to their increasing exposure to globalization. Globalization upsets the balance between transaction costs and opportunity costs of Japanese economic institutions such as Japanese management practices and the long‐term relationship between the principal contractor and its subcontractors (the shitauke relationship). As a result, it makes social mobility of the new and old middle classes, which have been protected by such institutions, more fluid. Thus we make this argument based on the assumption that the Korean middle classes have already been exposed to globalization and thus are more mobile than their Japanese counterparts. Then we test its empirical validity by analyzing absolute and relative mobility of the middle classes in the two societies with national representative data sets assembled in Japan in 1975, 1985 and 1995 and in Korea in 1990. The results of the analysis show: (1) that the Korean middle classes are more fluid than their Japanese counterparts; and (2) that globalization has affected the social mobility of the old middle class much more than that of the new middle class in Japan. The second finding implies that Japanese management customs that have protected a certain portion of the new middle class are less affected by globalization than the institutions that have protected the old middle class. In other words, the practices have a stronger inertia of institution.

AbstractThis article investigates the roles of human and social capital played in the Japanese labor market. Our research question is whether they interact to accelerate or decelerate each other to provide first jobs of a long duration. Based on the literature, we focus on the bonding functions of friends and relatives. Using the 2005 Social Stratification and Social Mobility Survey Data, we measure human capital by educational attainment (college education) and social capital by job search methods (using friends or relatives). The dependent variable is the hazard rate of turnover from the first job. We find that social capital especially benefits those with low human capital (high school graduates). When friends or relatives introduce workers to jobs, high school graduates tended to stay longer in their first jobs and had a lower turnover than college graduates did. This means that social capital decelerated effects of human capital. Therefore, in the Japanese labor market, social capital plays a complementary role in mitigating educational disadvantage.