ABSTRACT
This chapter examines recent social conditions that have heightened risk, and the political implication of these developments for Japan. It describes the insecurity of individuals in the social milieu of late modern Japan. Beck's theory that the risks of late modernity politicize society may explain the emergence of new social movements in Japan. The chapter examines the structural characteristics of the recent social risks in Japan and the response of the Japanese to those new risks. It shows that since the beginning of the 1990s, the total number of workers has increased, but the instances of non-regular employment in Japan have risen dramatically. The goal of the movement is to seek political and social ways of addressing the rapid growth of poverty in Japan and to raise public consciousness about the country's failure to meet basic human needs and create the labour conditions necessary for a decent life.
