The 106th WIAPS Seminar (Jul. 13th)

Date & Time

Jul. 13, 2026 (Monday) 12:25-13:00

Venue

ZOOM Webinar

Intended Audience

WIAPS Full-time Faculty/Research Associates, WIAPS Exchange Researchers/Visiting Scholars/Visiting Researchers, GSAPS MA/Ph.D. Students

Presentation

Presenter

AIKAWA, Maho (Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), WIAPS)

Presentation Theme

Dependency Image in a Paternalistic International Relation: Exploring Their Roles through Two Different Intergroup Contexts 

(Conducted in English)

Abstract

Intergroup relations research in social psychology has often treated intergroup phenomena in unequal relationships between two groups as intergroup conflicts (Rouhana, 2018), and the field has focused less on paternalistic and non-conflictual phenomena in such a relationship (Jackman, 1994). According to Jackman (1994), paternalism is characterized by a cooperative yet unequal relationship where a subordinate group is dependent on the dominant group. The current talk aims to go over the speaker’s past and ongoing research on the dependency image and its roles in paternalistic intergroup relations. Specifically, the talk will first provide the summaries of our past study exploring the dependency image of Japan in the US-Japan relationship in the context of the US military bases in Japan. Then, the talk will cover our ongoing study exploring the dependency image in a different intergroup context: immigrant workers and their relationships with employers and Japanese workers in Japan. When it comes to immigrant workers in Japan, they are often in a position where they have to rely on their employers for their legal status in the country and other resources (e.g., Iwashita, 2021). The current study aims to understand how this dependency is perceived and understood by the immigrant workers themselves and Japanese workers. The current talk will provide the preliminary findings from this ongoing study. Then, I will discuss the implications of our past and ongoing study and shed light on some similarities and differences in the role of the dependency image between the two different intergroup contexts.