Japanese

Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Letters Tohoku University

Profiles

Professor KIMURA Kunihiro

Affiliations :

By forming and testing hypotheses, I explore people's beliefs about society, as well as their decision-making.

To what extent do Japanese female students believe that they can continue to work after marriage or child-birth? How does this belief influence their educational and occupational aspirations, and in turn, their decisions on career? How likely are their aspirations and decisions to be realized in the contemporary Japanese society? In searching for answers to such questions as I illustrated here, I sometimes encounter a "puzzle," that is, a set of phenomena that existing theories seem unable to explain sufficiently. In my attempt to solve the puzzle, I form theoretical hypotheses, carry out statistical analysis of social survey data, and examine on the evidence whether the hypotheses are supported or rejected. I will keep engaging in this style of research as some famous detectives in mystery novels do.

  • Research, History
  • Books, papers, etc.
  • Courses
    Main courses Behavioral Science (General Lecture): Introduction to Social Surveys and Social Survey Methodology; Behavioral Science (Seminar): Science of Asking Questions and Exercises in Science of Asking Questions; Quantitative Behavioral Science (Advanced Seminar): Class Identification and Cognitive Approaches to Survey Methodology.
    Personal History
    Completed the doctoral program (without a doctoral degree) in sociology at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University

    Career:
    1988 Research Associate, Department of Behavioral Science, Faculty of Humanities, Niigata University
    1991 Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shizuoka University
    1995 Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Science, Graduate School/Faculty of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University
    2008 Appointed to current position
    Degree
    Ph.D. (Literature)
    Field
    Behavioral Science, Social Psychology
    Research Subject
    Quantitative research on social attitude and belief formation;
    Numerical study on unintended consequences of social decision-making;
    Experimental research on questionnaire-filling behaviours
    Keywords
    Rational choice; cognitive consistency; fairness; education; categorical data analysis
    Affiliation
    The Behaviormetric Society of Japan; The Japanese Society of Social Psychology; International Sociological Association; etc.
    Database of Researchers Information
    http://db.tohoku.ac.jp/whois/detail/64126f032918ba5bce2ffe8c8353bc48.html
  • Books
    Minorities and Diversity, Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2011 （editor）
    『日常生活のクリティカル・シンキング』、河出書房新社、2006
    『大集団のジレンマ』、ミネルヴァ書房、2002
    『数理の発想でみる社会』、ナカニシヤ出版、1997 （with Kobayashi Junichi）
    『考える社会学』、ミネルヴァ書房、1991（co-editor）
    Academic Papers
    「知的柔軟性の国際比較」、『文化理解のキーワード』、東北大学大学院文学研究科講演・出版企画委員会編、東北大学出版会、2015
    "Gender-Based Discrimination, Inequality and Marriage," in Minorities and Diversity, Ed. Kimura Kunihiro, Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2011
    "Sex-Based Discrimination Trends in Japan, 1965-2005: The Gender Wage Gap and the Marriage Bar," in Discrimination in an Unequal World, Eds. Miguel Angel Centeno and Katherine S. Newman, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010
    「『問い』を主題とした学説研究の重要性－科学としての社会学と歴史学としての社会学史の発展のために－」、『社会学年報』38、東北社会学会、2009
    "Education, Employment and Gender Ideology," in Gender and Career in Japan, Ed. Suzuki Atsuko, Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2007
    Awards
    Advisor in Tohoku University Brass Band Club

Research

Japanese