Unsettled Futures: Carceral Circuits and Old Age in Japan

Synopsis

There are two prevailing myths about Japanese society: first, that it has a successful elderly welfare system and second, that it has a successful criminal justice system. Both of these myths reinforce a social imaginary where cultural values of family and community harmony make extensive state intervention unnecessary. Yet not only are both of these myths and their arguments deeply flawed, but they also obscure the more troubling reality that institutions of welfare and punishment in Japan are co-extensive, both keeping Japan&’s growing population of &“excess&” older people contained and controlled rather than providing ways for them to integrate and flourish. Elderly ex-offenders are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in Japan today, with high levels of poverty and homelessness, disability, mental health problems, and social isolation. Those with a history of incarceration and, by extension, their family, face stigma and discrimination that further erodes their ability to reintegrate and puts them at greater risk of reoffending. Unlike in any other country in the world, older people in Japan have a higher rate of reoffending than other age groups. In Unsettled Futures, author Jason Danely argues that we cannot dismiss these individuals merely as deviants; rather, their circumstances reveal deep contradictions in the overlapping terrain of welfare and punishment, and the precarity that forecloses on possibilities for older people to build a good life.

Copyright:

2024

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780826507020

Related ISBNs:

9780826507006

Publisher:

Vanderbilt University Press

Date of Addition:

11/22/24

Copyrighted By:

Vanderbilt University Press

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Social Studies, Mathematics and Statistics

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.