Part1: http://japan-through-my-eyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-words-describing-japan-of-2010.html
Part:2:http://japan-through-my-eyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-words-describing-japan-of-2010_05.html
Part3: http://japan-through-my-eyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/top-10-words-describing-japan-of-2010_06.html
「無縁社会/munen-syakai」started being used by NHK, the public broadcasting network, in its documentary program about serious social issues. Before I explain the phrase, I'll talk about social background.
In the past (maybe up to three decades ago), there were three strong ties in the Japanese society. These ties prevented people from being isolated, even if they were bad at socializing. The first one was family ties (家族の絆/Kazoku no kizuna or 血縁/ketsuen in this context). Needless to say, nowadays, there are still family ties. However, the ties have been less helpful to make strong relationships among family members since nuclear families consisting of a married couple and their children became very common about thirty years ago. On top of that, the number of single households, regardless of age, has been sharply increasing in the past decade. After you marry, neither your parents/in-laws nor you want to live together, even when they become very old, which is a current trend.
The second one is ties among neighbors (地縁/chien in this context). In the past, people always cared about their neighbors. Some often stuck their noses in others' business in a positive way, meanwhile some fed on misery. Sometimes, you probably felt that your neighbors were annoyingly meddlesome or that they tried to pry into your business. Also, you were annoyed with rumors that gossipy neighbors blurted out. Still, the ties played a certain role in making people not feel lonely.
Recently, the ties have been disappearing from society, especially in large cities. People prefer surface relationships with their neighbors. On top of that, the concept of privacy started to be taken into more account. People started minding their own business. The Personal Information Protect Law/個人情報保護法, which went for effect in 2005, has increased the tendency of respecting privacy. I feel like these factors discourage people from asking someone if he/she needs help and asking for help.
The last one is ties among colleagues at work (社縁/syaen in this context). Until twenty years ago, people usually worked many years for a single company. This was a Japanese tradition. Companies were like big families. Co-workers knew each other very well. Employers cared about their employees and employees' families. It has been said that companies played an important role in social welfare which was supposed to be provided by the government.
Both the current prolonged recession and the popularity of western management systems have changed people's attitude toward work for the past decade. Although the tradition still remains in companies, I don't think that employees try to develop deep relationships with their co-workers like they used to.
So, the phrase 無縁社会 (無 means nothing, 縁 means bonds, ties etc, 社会 means society) indicates the society which is losing these ties or where people hardly care about others, suggesting a tendency for people to avoid deep relationships. As a result, more people feel lonely although they can contact anyone they want anytime via various devices.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/special/onair/100131.html
Nowadays, more and more people, regardless of age, die alone. To make matters worse, when they die alone at home, it often takes someone a while to start wondering about them and find them. How sad!
「無縁社会/munen-syakai」started being used by NHK, the public broadcasting network, in its documentary program about serious social issues. Before I explain the phrase, I'll talk about social background.
In the past (maybe up to three decades ago), there were three strong ties in the Japanese society. These ties prevented people from being isolated, even if they were bad at socializing. The first one was family ties (家族の絆/Kazoku no kizuna or 血縁/ketsuen in this context). Needless to say, nowadays, there are still family ties. However, the ties have been less helpful to make strong relationships among family members since nuclear families consisting of a married couple and their children became very common about thirty years ago. On top of that, the number of single households, regardless of age, has been sharply increasing in the past decade. After you marry, neither your parents/in-laws nor you want to live together, even when they become very old, which is a current trend.
The second one is ties among neighbors (地縁/chien in this context). In the past, people always cared about their neighbors. Some often stuck their noses in others' business in a positive way, meanwhile some fed on misery. Sometimes, you probably felt that your neighbors were annoyingly meddlesome or that they tried to pry into your business. Also, you were annoyed with rumors that gossipy neighbors blurted out. Still, the ties played a certain role in making people not feel lonely.
Recently, the ties have been disappearing from society, especially in large cities. People prefer surface relationships with their neighbors. On top of that, the concept of privacy started to be taken into more account. People started minding their own business. The Personal Information Protect Law/個人情報保護法, which went for effect in 2005, has increased the tendency of respecting privacy. I feel like these factors discourage people from asking someone if he/she needs help and asking for help.
The last one is ties among colleagues at work (社縁/syaen in this context). Until twenty years ago, people usually worked many years for a single company. This was a Japanese tradition. Companies were like big families. Co-workers knew each other very well. Employers cared about their employees and employees' families. It has been said that companies played an important role in social welfare which was supposed to be provided by the government.
Both the current prolonged recession and the popularity of western management systems have changed people's attitude toward work for the past decade. Although the tradition still remains in companies, I don't think that employees try to develop deep relationships with their co-workers like they used to.
So, the phrase 無縁社会 (無 means nothing, 縁 means bonds, ties etc, 社会 means society) indicates the society which is losing these ties or where people hardly care about others, suggesting a tendency for people to avoid deep relationships. As a result, more people feel lonely although they can contact anyone they want anytime via various devices.
http://www.nhk.or.jp/special/onair/100131.html
Nowadays, more and more people, regardless of age, die alone. To make matters worse, when they die alone at home, it often takes someone a while to start wondering about them and find them. How sad!
