https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0030-3979
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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the emotional costs of providing social support to political prisoners in Japan, using Hochschild’s emotion work theory. It examines two different sets of social interactions within a broader symbolic interactionist analysis of sequential interactions between the social movement and state forces of social control, using data from a long-term field study. First, the relation of potential supporters with their broader social milieu may reinforce the commitment to provide social support as a political act, alter the commitment of those with other motivations, or deter a parent from maintaining any relationship at all with an imprisoned child. Second, the emotional dynamic of the relationship of supporters with prisoners changes over time. Because of the severe isolation of the prisoners, the loyal supporter may eventually become the target of the prisoner’s frustration and anger. Supporters may suffer from caregiver burnout and withdraw from the relationship. Conversely, continuing unconditional support from someone who listens without judging may enable the prisoner to entertain doubts and disengage from the movement.
Notes
1 When prosecutions of activists who had been overseas for many years began in Japan in the late 1980s, their friends and former associates formed an umbrella trial support group that handled trial support for a series of returnees through the 1990s, but then faded. More recent returnees have had separate trial support groups.
2 Family relationships of marriage or adoption can be created legally in Japan through the simple entry of a person into the family register. This requires the approval and cooperation of a family member with access to the registry but does not require any ceremony or signature of the person in prison. They were not expected to fulfill other social responsibilities of an adult adopted family member, such as taking care of elderly family members and maintaining family succession.
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Patricia G. Steinhoff
Patricia G. Steinhoff holds a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and an honors BA in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. She taught at the University of Hawaii from 1968-2019 and served as director of the Center for Japanese Studies and more recently as chair of the Sociology Department. She has taught courses on Japanese society and social movements and has published 21 books and monographs, including two books in Japanese, and over 100 articles and book chapters. Her most recent book is the English translation of Kōji Takazawa’s prize-winning work of investigative journalism Destiny: the Secret Operations of the Yodogō Exiles (University of Hawaii Press 2017), which she edited and co-translated.