Fureai is a Japanese term to refer to the formation of emotional connection between people of different age group and/or profession within the community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

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Linguistic definition

The word "Fureai" is composed of "Fure" (of "Fureru" , to touch/contact) and "ai" . "Fureai" means approximates the English expressions for "mutual touch" or "mutual contact".

Generally, the word "Fureai"" is used in the following contexts:

• Only applied for socially-beneficial realms (such as welfare, education and environmental protection)
• Evaluates emotional relationship while excluding exchange of technical knowledge and/or arrangement of political/economic interests
• makes it necessary that humans (or between human(s) and animals) keep in face to face contact, excluding connections by Internet, mobile phone
  Mobile phone
  A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
  
  s and other IT devices.

The following are examples of correct usage in Japan:

• Fureai between children and carers at a kindergarten
  Kindergarten
  A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
  
  
• Fureai between children and animal
  Animal
  Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
  
  s at a zoo
  Zoo
  A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
  
  
• Fureai with Nature
  Nature
  Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
  
  
• Fureai between an enka
  Enka
  is a popular Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern enka, however, is a relatively recent musical form which arose in the context of such postwar expressions of modern Japanese nonmaterial nationalism as nihonjinron, while adopting a more...
  
   singer and the elderly
• Fureai between nurses and patients

The following examples would not be correct Japanese usage:

• Fureai by way of Internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
  
• Fureai between Yakuza
  Yakuza
  , also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
  
  s and Politicians
• Fureai between executives of local businesses
• Fureai among IT experts

History of usage

"Fureai" is a relatively recent addition to Japanese, first usage recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.

The acceptance of Fureai reflects Japan's socioeconomic transformation, particularly the collapse of traditional communities. Most Japanese had been living, since its economic growth in 1950s and 1960s, in their rural community with agriculture, fishing and/or forestry as its main industry, with their own extended family

Extended family

The term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...

 where the elderly lived together with their offspring, but the popularization of nuclear family

Nuclear family

Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...

 and individualism

Individualism

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...

 made some people, especially the elderly, suffer from social exclusion. The traditional childrearing method also disappeared as a result of such a social change, giving rise to delinquency in the adolescence and the concept "Fureai" became popular in Japan as a means to solve such social issues by trying to create their emotional relationship.

Difference from "Solidarity"

Some may argue that "Fureai" is similar to "Solidarity" , however the latter refers to the union of people in order to achieve a common social goal. "Fureai," on the other hand, does not imply any goal but merely to offer some emotional connection

Emotional expression

In psychology, emotional expression is observable verbal and nonverbal behaviour that communicates emotion. Emotional expression can occur with or without self-awareness...

.