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Background and purpose: Social engagement is an important active aging strategy to promote older adults' mental health. The purposes of this study were to compare social engagement in older populations around the world and explore associations with mental health outcomes. Materials and methods: An international cross‐sectional survey was conducted from 2017 to 2019. Data were retrieved from The International Social Survey Programme for a secondary data analysis across 30 countries. This study applied the Taxonomy of Social Activities and its six levels as operational definitions for a consistent concept of social engagement for international comparisons. Results: In total, 9403 older adults with a mean age of 72.85 ± 6.40 years responded. The highest levels of older adults' social engagement were found in Switzerland, Thailand, and New Zealand. Older adults of a higher age, with a lower educational level, who were permanently sick or disabled, who had no partner, who were widowed or whose civil partner had died, who lived alone, and who had lower self‐placement in society had significantly lower social engagement than did their counterparts. In the regression model, older adults' social engagement positively predicted general health, self‐accomplishment, and life satisfaction, but negatively predicted loneliness and depression. Conclusions: In aging societies worldwide, encouraging older adults' social engagement would be beneficial to promote mental health. Implications for nursing practice and health policies: Community professional nurses can develop strategies of social engagement based on the needs and sociodemographic factors of older adults to improve their mental health. Developing efficient strategies and local policies by learning from successful experiences in other countries is important to promote social engagement in aging societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the association between the use of advanced manufacturing practices and the choice of information and reward systems, and explores the impact of these choices on organizational performance. Although advanced manufacturing practices such as total quality management (TQM) have been widely adopted over the past decade, surveys indicate that most of these initiatives have not yielded significant economic benefits (e.g., Mathews and Katel [1992] and The Economist [1992]). Many accounting researchers charge that the poor performance of many new manufacturing initiatives is due in part to continued reliance on traditional management accounting systems that do not provide appropriate problem-solving data, performance measures, and reward systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porter has argued that the U.S. capital investment system is deficient relative to those in Germany and Japan and this has caused a decline in the competitiveness of U.S. corporations. He suggests the increasing importance of financial institutions has led to transient ownership which encourages firms to focus on the short term. This paper argues that the openness and diversity of opinion encouraged by the U.S. financial system has significant advantages and transient ownership is consistent with firms taking a long view. It is suggested that the competitiveness of German and Japanese corporations may he due to the managerial incentives made possible by high growth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Most of the existing studies on the international capital market are based on a segmented market approach. This approach treats the different national capital markets as separated entities, hardly related to each other. For this reason (under the assumption of market segmentation), comparable capital assets may differ in their return on different national markets. Although market segmentation enjoys a surprisingly large following, it is not the only possible interpretation of the international capital market. The alternative hypothesis, i.e., that prices of capital assets in the international capital market behave as if there is one multinational perfect capital market, should be considered. The one market hypothesis has the advantage of being consistent with much of the accepted economic theory. Also the one market hypothesis is unambiguous where market segmentation can stand for any number of specific imperfect market formations. Market segmentation is widely accepted as the only possible structure of the international capital market. Different currency areas, separated political organizations and trade barriers have been given as a priori evidence for the segmentation of the international capital market. This, however, is not necessarily the case. An examination of the behavior of capital asset prices reveals that the price behavior is consistent with the one market hypothesis. It should be noted, however, that a certain body of data can be consistent with both the one market hypothesis and any one of several specific forms of market segmentation. But as the main theme of this study is to show the validity of the one market approach to the multinational equity market, it is sufficient to show that one cannot reject the one market hypothesis with regard to this market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether variations in demographic structure have influenced stock prices. The study employs a nonparametric approach based on the Fourier Flexible Form representation, which relates variations in the entire age distribution to the normalized stock price under a flexible functional form. The main findings of this paper are that there is a significant impact from prime working-age consumers on the stock price, and that this impact is robust for all G5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA). These findings survive many robust tests, and are consistent with the predictions from the life-cycle models. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international current account imbalances, where the United States has a vast deficit, and several countries, notably Japan, China, Germany and the oil exporters have corresponding surpluses, are usually seen as problems. The argument here is that current account imbalances simply indicate intertemporal trade – the exchange of goods and services for claims. There are likely to be gains from trade of that kind as from ordinary trade. What, then, are the problems? This paper considers five scenarios, notably one where net savings of the surplus countries decline so that the world real interest rate rises, and another where the US fiscal deficit is reduced, so that the world real interest rate falls and there could be a worldwide aggregate demand problem, essentially caused by the high net savings of the surplus countries. The paper reviews the reasons for the large surpluses in terms of savings and investment ratios (especially China) and also discusses the long-term problem for the United States. While four of the scenarios involve a decline in the dollar, they do not necessarily imply a sudden – and even ‘disruptive’– dollar crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the processes by which children acquire pro-environmental behaviours in different cultures. Our focus was on parental influence. Several studies have been conducted on adults' environmental behaviours; however, we know little about how children's environmental attitudes and behaviours are formed. We conducted a questionnaire survey with elementary school children and one of their parents in Germany and Japan. Two hundred and twenty-one pairs participated in Germany and 365 in Japan. The results of structural equation modelling showed that parents' behaviours affected children's environmental behaviours directly and also via the subjective norm (the children's experienced expectations of their parents). A comparison of the two countries revealed that hypothesized cultural differences between the impact of personal norms and subjective norms were clearer for adults. The results also showed that the effects of subjective norms were stronger for children, indicating that children are more likely to be influenced by expectations of others. The results of the study suggest that for promoting children's environmental behaviours, showing the behaviours in daily life would be most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A growing research stream has expanded the level of analysis beyond single buyer–supplier relations to the network, including supplier–supplier relations. These supplier–supplier relations may constitute a missing link between the traditional analysis of the dyadic and the network level of analysis that are often treated separately. This paper explores the interplay of the supplier–supplier and network of analysis by focusing on the inherent tension between cooperation and competition, using a multiple case study design in the Japanese and German automobile industries. It is argued that the buyer is able to exert influence not only on the coopetition level, so within “horizontal supply chain relations,” but that the coopetitive tension in the overall network can in fact be managed through the active establishment and maintenance of such relations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper uses a bivariate GARCH framework to examine the lead-lag relations and the conditional correlations between 10-year US government bond returns and their counterparts from the UK, Germany, and Japan. We find that while mean and volatility spillovers exist between the major international bond markets, they are much weaker than those between equity markets. The results also indicate that the correlations between the US and other major bond market returns are time varying and are driven by changing macroeconomic and market conditions. However, in contrast to the finding that the benefits of international diversification in equity markets evaporate during high-stress periods, we find that the benefits of diversification across major government bond markets do not decrease during periods of extremely high bond market volatility or following extremely negative US and foreign bond returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are growing concerns about the increasing rate of caesarean section (CS) worldwide. Various strategies have been implemented to reduce the proportion of CS to a reasonable level. Most research on medical indications for CS focuses on nationwide evaluations. Comparative research between different countries is sparse. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in the rate and indications for CS between Japan and Germany in 2012 and 2013. Methods: Comparison of the overall rate and medical indications for CS in two cohort studies from Germany and Japan. We used data from the German Perinatal Survey and the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS). Results: We analyzed data of 1 335 150 participants from the German perinatal survey and of 62 533 participants from JECS and found significant differences between the two countries in CS rate (30.6% vs 20.6%) and main medical indications: cephalopelvic disproportion (3.2% vs 1.3%; OR: 2.4 [95% CI: 2.2–2.6]), fetal distress (7.3% vs 2.3%; OR: 3.4 [95%‐CI: 3.2–3.6]), and past uterine surgery/repeat CS (8.4% vs 8.8%; OR: 0.9 [95%‐CI: 0.9–1]). Conclusion: There are differences in the rate and medical indications for CS between Germany and Japan at the population level. Fetal distress was identified as a medical indication for CS more often Germany than in Japan. Considering the substantial diagnostic uncertainty of electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) as the major indicator for fetal distress, it would seem to be reasonable to rethink CS decision algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the judicial regimes for resolving individual employment rights disputes in Germany, Great Britain and Japan. First, we consider the form of institutional change; second, we examine the lay judge's role; and third, we assess the effectiveness of the three judicial regimes. We find that Japan made the least institutional change, layering a new procedure on top of an existing one. Paradoxically, however, its lay judges have a more extensive role than their counterparts in Germany and Britain, which established new institutions. As to effectiveness, there are several criteria. British labour courts are currently the least informal and speedy, but the cheapest. In both Britain and Germany, legal norms are publicised as adjudicatory hearings are open to the public and judgments are available for public scrutiny, unlike in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research collaboration is promoted by governments and research funders, but if the relative prevalence and merits of collaboration vary internationally then different national and disciplinary strategies may be needed to promote it. This study compares the team size and field normalized citation impact of research across all 27 Scopus broad fields in the 10 countries with the most journal articles indexed in Scopus 2008–2012. The results show that team size varies substantially by discipline and country, with Japan (4.2) having two‐thirds more authors per article than the United Kingdom (2.5). Solo authorship is rare in China (4%) but common in the United Kingdom (27%). While increasing team size associates with higher citation impact in almost all countries and fields, this association is much weaker in China than elsewhere. There are also field differences in the association between citation impact and collaboration. For example, larger team sizes in the Business, Management & Accounting category do not seem to associate with greater research impact, and for China and India, solo authorship associates with higher citation impact in this field. Overall, there are substantial international and field differences in the extent to which researchers collaborate and the extent to which collaboration associates with higher citation impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present expatriate management policies and practices of 136 large multinational companies (MNCs) based in four different countries: Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The findings we focus on include staffing, selection, training, and success. By analyzing our own results as well as comparing them to previous findings, we examine the changes in expatriate practices over time. In the managerial and research implications sections, we share additional findings and our thoughts about future issues and trends in expatriation. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the response of exchange rates and interest rates--US and foreign--to economic news. The news is associated with the surprise component of the monthly release of six US macroeconomic variables. The results suggest that dollar exchange rates systematically react to news about real economic activity--a surprise of 100000 on non-farm payroll employment leads to a 0.2% appreciation of the exchange rate. In general, exchange rates do not react systematically to news on inflation. In contrast, US interest rates respond to both types of news, although the response continues to be extremely small, of the order of 1 to 2 basis points. Finally, Japanese interest rates systematically react, but to a very minor extent, to news about US real economic activity, while German rates, in general, do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the price linkages of three major United States-traded country funds--Germany, Japan and Great Britain--with their own national and the United States stock markets. A country fund was created as an indirect alternative, to direct portfolio investments in the country's stock markets. As such, given the scope of investments limited to a single country, it is expected a priori that fund prices have some degree of sensitivity to local market conditions (the country of investments). The degree to which fund prices are related to local market prices has important implications, for both short-term and long-term investors, in terms of their investment strategies regarding that market. Moreover, since a (US-listed) country fund is also an asset traded in the US, its pricing is also likely to be related to US market developments. The relation between the fund and the US market indicates the extent to which the country fund can be treated as a US security. The purpose of this paper is to study the pattern of cointegration and causality, between the country fund and national stock prices.

This study explains one way the home country institutional environment causes strategy differences across firms from different countries. It contrasts the investment conduct of American, German, and Japanese firms in the 10 largest manufacturing industries. We find profound national differences among these firms that are stable across industries. These differing conducts are tied to the institutional environments of the home market. The shareholder firms of the United States make investments primarily in response to expected investment returns, measured by Tobin's Q ratio. The coalitional firms of Germany and Japan make investments primarily in response to the availability of internal finance, measured by operating cash flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Most anthropogenic material stocks and flows are associated with the building sector. Several recent studies have developed material composition indicators (MCIs) suitable for calculating material stocks and flows of the building sector using bottom‐up approaches, which hold great potential to provide information to support resource efficiency policies. A major limitation is the lack of country‐specific MCIs. This study aims to introduce a concept for a better transferability of MCI across different contexts by proposing requirements for defining MCIs and to discuss options and limits of the transferability. We take existing MCIs for residential buildings in Germany and Japan as case studies and make them comparable by applying harmonization methods. Based on that, similarities and differences are systematically identified and discussed, considering their socioeconomic, cultural, technical, and environmental factors. Our results indicate significant limitations to the transferability of MCIs for detached houses, while bigger apartment complexes show greater homogeneity despite the very different environments in which they are constructed. This indicates that while it is possible to assume foreign MCIs as plausible for large constructions, local coefficients need to be estimated for smaller single‐family homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disidentification, the psychological distancing from unpleasant group memberships, has mainly been studied in individualistic societies. We tested whether disidentification is a coping strategy to deal with conflicts in small and large groups, in Japan and Germany. Study 1 (N = 79) illustrates that Japanese recalled more unpleasant situations related to small than large groups. Study 2 (N = 198) confirms that Japanese, but not German students' disidentification varied with group size and was stronger after small‐group conflict. Study 3 (N = 132) shows that anger was related to disidentification in Japan but to confrontation in Germany. Study 4 (N = 335) shows that, after group conflict, Japanese felt relieved when imagining to disidentify, whereas Germans felt relieved when imagining to confront the source of conflict. Combining correlational and experimental designs with culture‐sensitive situation sampling, we show that disidentification exists as a psychological construct across cultures, albeit serving different psychological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares exchange rate pass-through to aggregate prices in the US, Germany and Japan across a number of dimensions. Building on the empirical approaches in the recent literature, our contribution is to perform a thorough sensitivity analysis of pass-through estimates. We find that the econometric method, data frequency and variable proxy employed matter for the precision of details, yet they often agree on some general trends. Thus, pass-through to import prices has declined in the 1990s relative to the 1980s, pass-through to export prices remains country-specific and pass-through to consumer prices is nowadays negligible in all three economies we considered. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The d2‐R test is a cancellation test developed in Germany to measure concentration and attention. This study examined the validity of the d2‐R test for Japanese adolescents in comparison with German standardized data. Methods: Japanese junior high school students (n = 121; 61 girls, 60 boys) participated in this study. The students' performance scores in the d2‐R test were compared with their daily attentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsiveness assessments conducted by the teachers. The assessments were evaluated using the attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder rating scale, fourth edition (ADHD‐RS)‐IV. The comparison with German counterparts was also made. Results: Students who were rated as less attentive and more hyperactive/impulsive performed more slowly and committed more errors in the d2‐R test. Although there were no sex differences in any of the d2‐R parameters, male students were rated higher than female students in all of the ADHD‐RS‐IV scores. Japanese adolescents outscored German counterparts on speed, concentration, and carefulness. Conclusion: The concurrent validity of the d2‐R test is confirmed. It is an appropriate index to measure the sustained and focused attention of Japanese adolescents. The present research merits attention as the first investigation of the d2‐R test conducted for Japanese adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to examine the importance of permanent and transitory shocks using a more efficient trend-cycle decomposition of the real exchange rate series. Our main contribution is that in measuring the impact of shocks, we not only impose common trend restrictions but also common cycle restrictions. We later confirm, through a post sample forecasting exercise, the efficiency gains from imposing common cycle restrictions. Our results indicate that permanent shocks are responsible for the bulk of the real exchange rate variations for Japan, Italy, Germany, France, and the UK vis-à-vis the US dollar over short horizons. For Canada, however, transitory shocks are dominant over the short horizon. In sum, while for Japan, France, and Italy, around 15% of the variation in real exchange rate is due to transitory shocks, for Canada, Germany and the UK, over 25% of the variations over the short horizon are due to transitory shocks. Thus, we claim that the role of transitory shocks should not be ignored. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper focuses on childlessness in Germany and Japan and its sociological meanings in family formation in postmodern societies. First, it shows the trends of fertility decline and increasing childlessness, and clarifies the similarities and differences in both countries, by comparing parity composition, educational attainment, and other socioeconomic correlates of childlessness. Second, using the data of attitudinal surveys, such as the 2003 Population Policy Acceptance Study (PPAS) in Germany and the 13th National Fertility Survey (JNFS; 2005) in Japan, the reasons for having no children are observed. Third, referring to the discussions of German scholars, it tries to explain the sociological meanings of childlessness and to describe the development toward a childless society (even if it's demographically not sustainable) as one of the possible consequences of the Second Demographic Transition. Important findings are as follows: (1) In Germany the fertility decline began early in the mid-1960s but in Japan later from mid-1970s so that the increase of childlessness has been a little delayed. The proportion of childless women in Western Germany increased to 28% for the 1967 cohort. In Japan, it has increased to 12.7% for the 1960 cohort, but is expected to reach 30% for the 1970 cohort. (2) The educational gap in childlessness is clearly observed in Germany; however, this is not so simple in Japan. Corresponding with the increase of childlessness, the desired number of children in average is declining. The emergence of a child-free culture is observed in Germany by PPAS, but not yet in Japan by JNFS. (3) Polarization may proceed further in both countries, between childless people and people with many children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manuscript Type: Conceptual Research Question/Issue: In this paper we address two research questions. First, to what extent has Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) developed unevenly across countries with different corporate governance systems and how might we explain this? Second, what consequences does its uneven development have for human resource management (HRM)? Research Findings/Insights: We map the nature and extent of SRI equities across five industrialized countries – Germany, Japan, the UK, the US and Australia. We find that differences between the institutional, corporate governance and cultural characteristics of national business systems explain variations in the size and significance of SRI across countries. We also find that SRI has an impact on HRM in institutional contexts such as where its influence is complemented by strong employee voice institutions. Theoretical/Academic Implications: The notion of “institutional complementarities,” within and across spheres of a corporate governance system is a useful theoretical lens for understanding the varied impact of SRI across different corporate governance systems. Further, future studies of HRM will need to consider the heterodox pressures produced by SRI that may influence its conduct. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Implications for SRI fund managers are considered, especially how they might use the notion of institutional complementarities to help in their investment decisions and in the impact they can exert. Specifically SRI funds are likely to be more effective where they can form alliances with other existing bodies or where they spur the development of such bodies. The implications for other actors in HRM and corporate governance are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small but significant stream of research has emerged on how changes in corporate governance impact labour management, particularly in countries with stakeholder-oriented corporate governance. This paper briefly reviews existing empirical and theoretical literature on the links between corporate governance and labour management. Then it compares recent trends in Germany and Japan in terms of how changes in corporate governance affect the distribution of value-added, employment adjustment, pay systems and employee participation. Germany and Japan have proven able to adapt and modify their stakeholder model of employment and employee participation to changing circumstances. However, the size of the core model is getting smaller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places the story of the overworked American in context by examining mismatches between preferred and actual work hours among Japanese, Swedish, West German, and U.S. workers. Although many full-timers in all four countries want to work fewer hours, mismatches come in many forms, and their distributions and determinants vary cross-nationally. The United States, for instance, has an unusually large number of full-time workers who want to work more hours, and a workforce that is especially motivated by opportunities for advancement and a desire for high incomes. Ultimately, the prevalence and determinants of hour mismatches are found to reflect cross-national differences in social, political, and economic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we extend the traditional price change hedge ratio estimation method by applying the theory of cointegration to hedging with stock index futures contracts for France (CAC 40), the United Kingdom (FTSE 100), Germany (DAX), and Japan (NIKKEI). Previous studies ignore the last period's equilibrium error and short-run deviations. The findings of this study indicate that the hedge ratios obtained from the error correction method are superior to those obtained from the traditional method as evidenced by the likelihood ratio test and out-of-sample forecasts. Using the procedures developed in this paper, hedgers can control the risk of their portfolios more effectively at a lower cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the emergence of management education and training in the UK, France, Germany, USA, Japan, USSR, and China. It argues that given kinds of environmental changes may lead to a wide variety of training responses, depending on the industrial and cultural contexts in which they take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of the British economy under Mrs Margaret Thatcher has become the subject of vehement controversy even where purely factual matters are at issue. In his 1988 Budget speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Nigel Lawson maintained that the "country is now experiencing an economic miracle comparable in significance to that previously enjoyed by West Germany and still enjoyed by Japan". This paper has so far been confined to a presentation of facts relating to key indicators of economic performance since Mrs. Thatcher came to power. The improvement in productivity in the Great Britain confined to manufacturing, productivity in the having grown relatively slowly.

We propose formal and quantitative measures of the risk that future inflation will be excessively high or low relative to the range preferred by a private sector agent. Unlike alternative measures of risk, our measures are designed to make explicit the dependence of risk measures on the private sector agent's preferences with respect to inflation. We illustrate our methodology by estimating the risks of deflation for the United States, Germany, and Japan for horizons of up to 2 years. The question of how large these risks are has been subject to considerable public debate. We find that, as of September 2002 when this question first arose, there was no evidence of substantial deflation risks for the United States and for Germany, contrary to some conjectures at the time. In contrast, there was evidence of substantial deflation risks in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between family-friendly policies and women's employment after birth of the first child in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Japan in the 1980s and the 1990s. Our econometric analyses use household panel data from each of the five countries: BHPS, GSOEP, OSA, HUS, and JPSC, respectively. Public policies that facilitate the combination of motherhood and paid employment offer an effective means in increasing the participation rate of first-time mothers. The results also indicate that the availability and stimulation of good-quality part-time employment can provide additional, strong incentives for new mothers to enter active employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the interdependence of stock returns and exchange rate changes within the same economy. Six countries were tested for volatility spillovers, namely the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Canada and France. Evidence of spillovers from stock returns to exchange rate changes is found for all countries except Germany. These results suggest that the asset approach to exchange rate determination is valid when formulated in terms of the second moments of the exchange rate distribution for these countries. The spillovers from stock returns to exchange rate changes are symmetric in nature. Volatility spillovers from exchange rate changes to stock returns are insignificant for all countries.

This paper re-examines recent postal surveys of the stock of machinery in the metal-working industries of Britain, Germany, France, Japan and the United States. Japan has the youngest stock; Britain's stock has a lower average age than those in France, Germany and the United States. Numerically-controlled machines are rising rapidly in importance in all countries, but were less frequent in Britain and France. Questions are raised as to the unduly short-life of machinery assumed by national accounts statisticians; and suggestions are made for the improvement of future machine tool surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides additional insight into the nature and degree of interdependence of stock markets of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany, and it reports the extent to which volatility in these markets influences expected returns. The analysis uses the multivariate GARCH-M model. Although they are considered weak, statistically significant mean spillovers radiate from stock markets of the U.S. to the U.K., Canada, and Germany, and then from the stock markets of Japan to Germany. No relation is found between conditional market volatility and expected returns. Strong time-varying conditional volatility exists in the return series of all markets. The own-volatility spillovers in the U.K. and Canadian markets are insignificant, supporting the view that conditional volatility of returns in these markets is "imported" from abroad, specifically from the U.S. Significant volatility spillovers radiate from the U.S. stock market to all four stock markets, from the U.K. stock market to the Canadian stock market, and from the German stock market to the Japanese stock market. The results are robust and no changes occur in the correlation structure of returns over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the key elements of lean management in Japan as compared to their counterparts in Germany and asks for the reasons of the sudden and widespread acceptance of lean concepts in Germany. The aim is to contribute to a differentiated and critical discussion on lean management dealing with the manifold and complex aspects in a more open, and especially in a demystified, framework to determine those elements that could be effectively implemented in Germany in an adapted form. The ideas mentioned in this paper on lean management that disregard important influencing factors in Japanese company structures can more than reduce the expected success of lean organizations in Germany. The restructuring of companies must be embedded in the corporate strategy of German companies based on a critical analysis of the parameters. The collectivistic basic orientation greatly influences the understanding and importance of Japanese team structures. A strong desire for harmony and finding one's identity in a conformist society lead to a subordination of individual aims to group or organizational interests.

From a series of qualitative interviews with Japanese managers and German managers and workers in thirty-one Japanese-owned companies in the Düsseldorf region of western Germany, this article discusses differences in cultural patterns and organizational styles between the German and Japanese employees and the problems these pose for communication, cooperation, and morale. Japanese direct investment Western economies is concentrated in North America and Great Britain. In consequence, a rich journalistic and scholarly literature examines the Japanese experience in the Anglo-American countries, the management styles and organization structures of the subsidiaries, and the relations between the Japanese management and the local workforce. The topic of this paper is Japanese firms in Germany: primarily, the contrasts in culture and management style that German and Japanese employees of such firms encounter daily in their experiences on the job. The observations come from a set of interviews conducted in 1992-93 with Japanese and German managers in the Düsseldorf area, the region of Germany with the highest concentration of Japanese business, and, after London, the leading center of Japanese corporate activity in Europe.

Japanese and German manufacturers are more successful than their counterparts in Britain and France in achieving organizational flexibility, which depends on labor-management trust and cooperation. This trust developed in Germany and Japan over the post-World War II decades through the institutionalization of a system of labor-management consultation. This paper examines the role of power and social norms to explain why trust-building systems of joint consultation take hold in one place and not in another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim There is a growing interest in comparing periodontal conditions between countries. This study compared periodontal disease conditions in three elderly populations- one from Japan and two from Germany. Materials and Methods We compared periodontal data of 70-year-old subjects from the Niigata Study with 65-74-year-old subjects from the Study of Health in Pomerania ( SHIP) and from West Germany ( DMS III). A total of 489, 399 and 549 dentate subjects were analysed, respectively. Recording protocols were standardized. Linear or logistic models were used to compare Niigata Study with SHIP. Results Elderly German subjects in SHIP and DMS III had significantly more severe periodontal conditions and fewer remaining teeth compared to those in Niigata Study, though differences were less pronounced for DMS III. German subjects showed a significantly different pattern of various periodontal risk factors compared to Japanese subjects. Even after adjustment for putative periodontal risk factors, SHIP subjects still presented significantly higher adjusted values for most periodontal parameters compared to Niigata Study subjects ( p < 0.05). Conclusions Periodontitis was more prevalent in SHIP compared with Niigata Study, even after comprehensive risk factor adjustment. Only to a very small extent, differences between studies could be explained by the risk factors explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent of concentration in the journal publishing industry. A number of aspects are considered: publishers, journal impacts, countries, and languages. For journals indexed in JCR from 1997 to 2009, just 0.2% of publishers produce 50% of journals and articles, and 0.3% of publishers account for the top 50% of citations, impact factors and immediacy indices. More than a half of publishers in JCR are from four countries: USA, UK, Germany and Japan. In addition, more than a half of journals come from the USA and UK. Examining the publishers' interactions in terms of buying and selling journals shows the extent of change by acquisition, and the acquisition links between publishers. The findings confirm that the international market of journal publishing is essentially dominated by a few publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade openness, popularly measured as ( X + M)/ GDP in the hundreds of studies published to date, consistently considers the world's biggest trading countries such as the USA, the UK, Japan and Germany to be closed economies, irrespective of the data set used. This study suggests a composite trade share measure that more completely reflects reality by combining two important dimensions of trade openness: trade share and the relative importance of a country's trade level to total world trade. Robustness tests support the new proposed measure in lieu of the conventional measure of openness and suggest that the latter may not only be incomplete but may also overstate the impact of trade on such things as income and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents global economic forecasts for 2011 and 2012. It describes the global financial condition as of August 2011, including the 20 percent decrease in global stocks and the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating. The economic conditions in various countries are described, including the U.S., Japan, Eurozone, Germany and France, among others.

Overweight and obese people appear to be at greater risk of suboptimal vitamin and mineral status compared with people of a healthy weight. Nutrients most affected include vitamin D, vitamin B, carotenoids, folate, vitamin C and iron. The reasons are unknown but may be caused by poor diets, increased requirements or obesity-related changes to nutrient absorption, excretion or metabolism, or a combination of these. Sequestration of fat-soluble vitamins by adipose tissues is also a major factor. Although dietary assessment in obese populations is hampered by under-reporting, there is evidence that dietary patterns characterised by energy-dense, processed foods are more common in groups with a higher body mass index. Dieting practices, bariatric surgery and the use of anti-obesity drugs may compound the risk of nutrient inadequacy, although sustained weight loss helps to improve vitamin D status. A poor nutrient status could accentuate the risk of chronic diseases already experienced by overweight people on account of their excessive fat mass. There is evidence that the use of dietary supplements can improve nutrient status and have a favourable impact on disease risk markers such as lipid profiles and insulin resistance. Whether currently dieting or not, overweight people may benefit from safeguarding vitamin and mineral adequacy by taking a multi-nutrient supplement alongside an increased intake of nutrient-rich foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-industrial initiatives, which close industrial loops by turning wastes at one point in a value chain into inputs at another point, are attracting growing interest as a solution to the problem of sustainability of industrial systems. Although Germany and Japan have made important advances in building recycling incentives into their industrial systems and sought competitive advantage from doing so, China is arguably taking the issue even further (in principle) through its pursuit of a circular economy, now enshrined in law as an official national development goal. In this article, we review a number of the eco-industrial initiatives taken in China and compare them using a common graphical representation with comparable initiatives taken in the West and elsewhere in East Asia. Our aim is to demonstrate some common themes across the case studies, such as the transformation from the former linear economy to a circular economy and the evolutionary processes in which dynamic linkages are gradually established over time. We discuss the drivers of these eco-industrial initiatives as well as the inhibitors, setting the initiatives in an evolutionary framework and introducing a notion of Pareto eco-efficiency to evaluate them. We make the argument that China might be capturing latecomer advantages through its systematic promotion of eco-industrial initiatives within a circular economy framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a well-established tendency for people to see themselves as better than average (self-enhancement), although the universality of this phenomenon is contested. Much less well-known is the tendency for people to see themselves as more human than average (self-humanizing). We examined these biases in six diverse nations: Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the USA. Both biases were found in all nations. The self-humanizing effect was obtained independent of self-enhancement, and was stronger than self-enhancement in two nations (Germany and Japan). Self-humanizing was not specific to Western or English-speaking cultures and its magnitude was less cross-culturally variable than self-enhancement. Implications of these findings for research on the self and its biases are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer research has extensively analysed psychological determinants of customer satisfaction. As macro-level customer satisfaction data were not available until recently, researchers have only taken first steps towards analysing economic determinants of customer satisfaction. Based on a more complex conceptual framework and on data from Germany and Japan, this article examines how economic processes influence the perceived value of goods and services, quality expectations and customer satisfaction. Using principal component analysis, regression analysis and structural equation modelling, this study finds that perceived value is positively influenced by both economic growth and lagged economic expectations. Customer satisfaction is positively influenced by economic growth and negatively by current economic expectations, with half of the impact mediated by perceived value. Economic expectations positively influence expectations regarding the quality of goods and services. These results imply that consumer researchers should no longer ignore economic influences on consumer attitudes. Marketing managers are advised to be cautious not to misinterpret economic-induced variations in customer satisfaction as caused by corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In winter and early spring 2004 unequivocal mosaic symptoms were detected for the first time in Germany on six plants of the barley cv. ‘Tokyo’ carrying the resistance gene rym5. By serological and electron microscopic investigations Barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV) was identified in all plants and could be re-transmitted to cv. ‘Tokyo’ as well as to additional cultivars carrying rym5. In contrast to this, genotypes carrying the resistance genes rym1 + rym5, Rym2, rym4, rym7, rym9, rym11, rym12, rym13, Rym14 Hb, rym15 or Rym16 Hb turned out to be resistant. Furthermore, the BaMMV isolates were not transmissible to different dicotyledonous species. Sequence analyses in the VPg coding region of RNA1 revealed differences to the known sequence of the original BaMMV isolate (BaMMV-ASL1, AJ 242725) and also of a French pathotype (BaMMV-Sil, AJ 544267, AJ 544268) which is also able to overcome the resistance mediated by rym5. At least in one location a spread of the area infested by this new strain was observed in 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes variation in International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionality. Conditions attached to IMF loans vary qualitatively and quantitatively across time and space, contrary to the allegations of inflexibility and insensitivity. This study theorizes that despite the IMF's official rules to determine conditionality by economic criteria, variation arises because the strategic interests of the five biggest contributors to the IMF (the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and France) interfere with IMF policy, which potentially compromises the effectiveness of its programs. This theory is tested empirically against 398 conditionality agreements contracted between 1983 and 1997 using an event-count method based on the Poisson distribution to obtain statistical results supportive of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are good reasons for national differences in corporate governance, differences in the distributional outcomes desired and differences in motivational resources; material sticks and carrots are not the only ways of keeping top managers efficient, honest and dynamic. Yet, too often discussions of corporate governance assume the Anglo-Saxon model to be normal and others“deviant”– a notion to be challenged, but nevertheless the dominant assumption among the“reformers” of corporate governance in Japan and Germany. Most of the reforms in those two countries over the past decade have purported to be about making top managers more honest and efficient. In fact their purport has more often been to change distributional outcomes, favouring shareholders at the expense of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines reporting practices of a sample of foreign listed and domestic-only listed companies from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Australia to determine the extent to which companies voluntarily use “international” standards. Two types of use of non-national standards in the consolidated accounts presented to the public are considered: adoption of “international” standards instead of national standards, and supplementary use where “international” standards are used in conjunction with national standards. “International” standards are defined as US GAAP or IAS (now IFRS). The study tests for a preference for either set of standards and considers the relationship of choice of regime with firm attributes. The results show significant voluntary use of “international” standards in all five countries and among foreign listed and domestic-only listed companies. Companies using “international” standards are likely to be larger, have more foreign revenue and to be listed on one or more foreign stock exchanges. US GAAP is the predominant choice, but IAS are used by many firms in Germany and some in Japan. Firms listed in the United States' regulated markets (NYSE and NASDAQ) are more likely to choose US GAAP, but companies traded in the OTC market often select IAS. The study demonstrates for managers and regulators that there is considerable support for “international” standards, and that choice of IAS or US GAAP relates to specific firm characteristics which differ according to a firm's country of origin. Most use of “international” standards reflects individual countries' institutional frameworks, confirming the key role of national regulators and standard setters in assisting companies to achieve more comparable international reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the economic status of several countries. Information on population and income stagnation of Japan and Korea; Cost and benefits of Korean unification; Issue on unemployment in Germany; Economic growth of China.