Formation and Transformation of Support for the Young People with Crisis in Transition: From the Perspective of Social Capital

In Japan, the increase in the proportion of young people with crisis in transition is constantly pointed by many researches since early 2000s. Those young people tends to experience reduction or localization of social networks, and it leads to the limited social capital. Significance of public youth support institutions launched in 2000s is repeatedly stressed. However, those services haven’t yet to be examined in the light of the strategies for overcoming the difficulties about social network. This paper examines such strategies through the analysis of the Regional Youth Support Stations.According to Lin(2001=2008), social interactions are the basis of accessing social capital and can be divided into homophilous or heterophilous interactions. This paper coined the two types of difficulties for each types of interactions: constrained access to heterophilous interactions(hereafter abbreviated CAHI) and instrumental limitation of homophilous interactions(hereafter abbreviated ILHI).  Connexions service, which is pointed to be the influential model of Regional Youth Support Stations, has regard CAHI as core difficulty and innovated the framework for it. But Japanese Government questioned the feasibility of the framework and introduced less effective one. And the ILHI has become focal point neither UK nor Japanese Government because one-to-one relationship with personnel has attracted more attention. But examining the changes at one local agencies opens up a quite different view. Local strategies for overcoming CAHI is fostering trust gradually with relative institutions through constant outreach and consultation. Local strategies for overcoming ILHI is creating opportunities to meet other young people with similar problems and to work for weeks or months while sustaining those relationships. The turning point was when personnel there have gradually found the importance of the homophilous interactions for young people’s confidence and self-assertion leading to next career, and then invented programs focusing homophilous interactions.This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15J0673.