Citation

Maruyama K. J. Seigakuin Univ. 2009; 21(3): 235-247.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Seigakuin University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents a comparison of attitudes toward social unrest among Japanese youths in the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1998, German and Japanese university students the main causes of social unrest were those of environmental pollution and crises in politics and economics,. The key to these crises is the problem of organized crime. This problem will be come increasingly important throughout the world in the near future. In 1999, we compared attitudes toward social unrest between Irish and Japanese university students. We were unable to find anything in common between them. Both German and Japanese youths seem quiet on the surface, but they have many serious problems on their minds in spite of their shared optimistic outlook. At the beginning of the 21st Century, there have been many momentous incidents, multiple acts of terror in the USA (possibly perpetrated by Islamic terrorists related to Osama Bin Laden, a leader of Islamic terrorism and militant conflict). Religious fanaticism and various kinds of ideology have led to terrible violence which might reveal the mindset of terrorists. In most nations of the world not only in Japan, there have been financial crises, food crises, and confusion. There are differences in economic and social status between people (kakusashakai in Japanese). There is a need to probe more deeply into attitudes toward the global crisis not only among young, but also the aged. These problems are discussed from psychological point of views.