Agenda

Special Seminar
Contemporary Japanese society and “drug-induced sufferings”
2nd, October, 15:45-17:15

Programme

Introduction: “What is Drug-induced Suffering?”

Masatake Hongo, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Momoyama Gakuin University, Japan and Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, USA

Becoming Sufferers: The Establishment of Drug-Induced Suffering (D.I.S.)
There are three major D.I.S.s; thalidomide, SMON, and HIV/AIDS. The thalidomide incident led to stricter drug regulations in Japan as well as worldwide. In the SMON (subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy) incidence lawsuits, the concept of D.I.S. was presented for the first time. The HIV infections caused by contaminated blood products in 1980s. The sufferers HIV incident became acutely aware of the identity of sufferers; the process of “becoming sufferers,” which led to their later organization. The concept of D.I.S. was established through the history of sufferers' movements unique to Japan.

Tomiaki Yamada, Professor Emeritus of Matsuyama University, Japan and Director of Institute of Social Theory and Dynamics, Japan

The Lived Experience of the Sufferers of Drug-induced Sufferings
I will explore the concept of social difficulties which the sufferers of D.I.S. in Japan have faced by taking some historical examples especially in term of sufferers' own lived experiences. I will examines the case of D.I.S. SMON in the late 1960s, the thalidomide drug disaster in the 1960s, and HIV contaminated blood products incidents in the 1980s. With these cases I will discuss what and how the sufferers of these drug-induced sufferings experienced of them.

Akihiko Sato, Professor of Sociology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan and Visiting Scholar, Università Ca'Foscari Venezia, Italia

Discourse Analysis of Drug-induced Sufferings (D.I.S.)
I collect and analyse discourses of drug-induced sufferings (YAKUGAI) in parliamentary proceedings, newspaper and news magazine articles, academic papers and victims' memoirs in post-Pacific War Japan in order to identify their historical development and linguistic performative features. The analysis reveals that D.I.S. has been discussed with four repertoires. They are causality, responsibility, social structure and solidarity. In particular, it will be shown that the victim discourse of D.I.S. is characterised not only to pursue issues of responsibility of such sufferings, but also to seek solidarity with the society that has excluded them.