The Challenge of Contemporary Communities in Japan

本文以社会资本理论为基础，进行了三项实地研究：(1)东京、目黑市城市居住区社区建设（1997）；(2)1995年神户地震后重建灾区的社区活动（1998）；(3)1995- 1999年神户志愿者的心理习惯（1999）。这三项研究的报告发表在东京大学文理研究生院的三本不同的日文书籍中。通过我们的三项具体研究，我们得出的结论是，我们与邻居的关系在某种程度上正在重建我们的生活基础。总而言之，当代日本社会的社会资本面临挑战，正在经历结构性变革，这意味着新的政治和文化风格冲突是不可避免的。

Based on the theory of social capital, three field research were undertaken on :(1) Community building in the urban residential area in Tokyo, Meguro (1997)(2) Community activities in restoring Kobe's disastered area after the 1995 earthquake (1998)(3) Habits of hearts of Kobe volunteers in 1995-9 (1999).Reports of the three researches are published in three different books in Japanese from Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Univ. of TokyoThrough our three concrete researches, we have reached the conclusion that the bases of life we owe somehow to our relation with the neighbors are being reconstructed. In sum, social capitals in the contemporary Japanese societies are challenged and undergoing structural changes, which means that new conflicts of political and cultural styles are inevitable.