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Purpose Elders' ICT usage is one of the central subjects of ISG. The cabinet office of Japan has conducted "The International Comparative Survey on the Daily Life and Attitudes of the Elderly" every five years, covering individual men and women aged 60 and over (excluding institutionalized residents) in Japan and three foreign countries. The survey provides information on matters related to home life, health and welfare, economic life, employment, housing and living environment, and social relations and purpose in life of the elderly in the countries. The latest 2021 survey has been done in Japan, Germany, Sweden, and the US (https://www.e-stat.go.jp/statsearch/files?page=1&layout=dataset&toukei=00100106&metadata=1&data=1). In Japan and Sweden, 2,500 participants each country were invited by mail. In Germany and the US, 1,000 participants per country were asked by phone. All participants were chosen by random sampling. The survey period was from Dec. 2020 to Jan. 2021. The result of the survey was open for further analysis and research. Survey data was counted and provided as simple tables or cross tables. In this paper, we chose Q.34, Usage of ICT devices, and Q.35, Reason for not-to-use of such devices. The latter question was asked to participants who responded that they are not using any ICT devices. We have analyzed survey data with Correspondence Analysis to reveal four countries of elders' ICT usage features. Method Two question branches are analyzed in this research. Q34 has nine activity categories. All appropriate activities should be answered (multiple answers): 1. Fax to family members and friends, 2. PC e-mail to family and friends, 3. Mobile phone calls (including mail) to family and friends, 4. Net search for information and/or net shopping, 5. Using SNS, 6. Home Page making or Blogging, 7. Netbanking / Net trading, 8. E-government (tax etc.), 9. No ICT usage. Q35: 1. No needs regarded, 2. ICT devices are hard to understand, 3. Have interest, but no clues for purchase/shop, 4. Have no one to instruct device usage, 5. The problem of price/money, 6. The display is unreadable, 7. other reasons. Correspondence analysis was computed with the FactoMineR package (http://factominer.free.fr/), developed by statisticians at d'Agrocampus Rennes. Analysis was done on statistical computing environment R 4.1.2. Results and Discussion Figures 1 and 2 show the ICT device usage. Japanese favor Mobile phone talk and mail. In Japan, Fax and No ICT usage has larger than in other countries. SNS, HP/blogging, E-government, and Netbanking are relatively minor. US participants favor SNS, PC mail, and HP/blogging. Swedish more favors SNS, Netbanking, and E-government. Germans favor Net searching and shopping and are close to the countries average. Figures 3 and 4 show the reasons for not-to-use ICT devices. Germans with negative ICT device attitude tend to think they do not need to use them. A negative attitude in the US is slightly close to having no instructor. Japanese negative attitude is close to readability problem and understanding device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospital ethics committees (HECs) are expected to play extremely broad and pivotal roles such as case consultation, education of staffs on healthcare ethics, and institutional policy formation. Despite the growing importance of HECs, there are no standards for setup and operation of HECs, and composition and activities of HECs at each institution are rarely disclosed in Japan. In addition, there is also a lack of information sharing and collaboration among HECs. Therefore, the authors established the Consortium of Hospital Ethics Committees (CHEC) in October 2020, which has been regularly hosting a couple of core activities. One is the Healthcare Ethics Forum, held monthly online for CHEC members to freely discuss HECs and healthcare ethics consultation. The other is the Collaboration Conference of Hospital Ethics Committees, intended to provide a place for HEC members and administrative officers from across Japan to exchange information of their HECs, learn from each other, and cooperate to operate HECs appropriately. In this paper, the authors introduced CHEC as well as reported the results of a questionnaire survey conducted at the first conference among participating facilities, suggesting the diverse structures and activities of HECs in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 4th Asia Partnership Conference of Regenerative Medicine (APACRM) was held online on April 15, 2021, to promote regulatory harmonization of regenerative medicine products throughout Asia. Recognizing domestic regulatory guidelines within each country and region, and their underpinning rationales, is an important initial step toward a convergence of regulations. The 4th APACRM consisted of an open dialog with regulatory agencies regarding nonclinical and quality settings for cell therapy products (CTPs) through industry presentations and panel discussions with regulatory agencies. The latest updates on regenerative medicine fields in each country and region, and specific regulatory schematics in Japan, were also introduced. The objective of this paper is to summarize the proceedings of the 4th APACRM for public dissemination and to foster further discussion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Society of Household Economics (JSHE) Japan, including the online (Zoom) 37th Annual Conference, 2021, on the topic 'Challenges in Financial and Economic Education at Universities through Industry-Academia Collaboration', and the online 36th Annual Conference, 2020, on the topic 'Japanese Life: Food and Agriculture'.

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Academy for Consumption Economy, Japan, including the 2017 JACE conference on the topic 'Modern Consumption Economy and Co-operation in Distribution' at Osaka University of Commerce, the 2018 JACE conference on the topic 'Consumption Economy and Consumer Issues in Modern' at Nihon University, and 2021 JACE conference on the topic 'Thinking about Consumption Economics under the Corona-Shock' at Chubu University.

Simple Summary: Novel insights into the basic and translational findings on Epstein–Barr virus-related diseases were presented at the "19th International Symposium on Epstein–Barr Virus and Associated Diseases" in Asahikawa, Japan. Novel insights into Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) pathogenicity were presented at the "19th International Symposium on Epstein-Barr Virus and Associated Diseases" in Asahikawa, Japan. In addition, basic and translational findings on EBV-associated tumors, including natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma, gastric cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer, were presented by an international group of scientists and clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Association for Regional Economic Studies, Japan, including the 33rd Annual Meeting, from November 13-14, 2021, at Fukushima University, on the topic 'The Corona Crisis and Regional Economies: An International Comparative Perspective', and the 32nd Annual Meeting, held on December 6, 2020, at Yokohama National University, on the topics ' Inbound Tourism, Integrated Resorts, and Regional Economies'.

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Risk Management Society, Japan, including the 47th National Conferences, on September 2022, at Zoom & Sendai Tokyo Electron Hall, on the topic 'With After COVID-19 and Risk Management', and the 46th National Conference, on September 2021, at Zoom & Sendai Tokyo Electron Hall, on the topic 'Ten Years After the Great East Japan Earthquake - Issues on Resilience and Risk Management'.

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Society of Public Utility Economics, Japan, including the online 72nd Annual Conference, in June 2022, at Chuo University, Tokyo, on the topic 'Re-composition of Public Utilities by the Penetration of Online and Digital', chaired by Akihiro Nakamura and the 71st Annual Conference, in June 2021, at Sagami Women's University, Kanagawa, on the topic 'The Relations Between Platform Business and Public Utilities'.

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Academy of Multinational Enterprises, Japan, including the National Conference 2022, on the topic 'The New Cold War between the U.S. and China and MNEs' on June 24; National Conference 2021 on the topic 'Food Globalization and MNEs', on July 14 and National Conference 2018 on the topic 'Geopolitical risks and multinational enterprises-Pursuing optimal global strategic coordination capabilities' on July 6.

The article provides information on multiple conferences conducted by the Japan Association for Evolutionary Economics (JAFEE), including the 2022 Autumn Conference, on September 17, 2022, and the Annual Conference 2023, from March 18-19, 2023, at the Rikkyo University, Ikebukuro Campus, Japan. It mentions that both conferences will focus on 'Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Economy and Society'.

The article states that as the only national federation of associations of scholars in economics, and business administration, the Union of National Economic Associations in Japan recently marked its 70th anniversary. Its main activities include the publication of academic material, participation in overseas conferences, facilitating international conferences in Japan, and offering financial support to visiting foreign scholars.

Purpose With the rapid aging of the population, the increase in the number and severity of the elderly with dementia has become a major issue for elderly care in Japan. In particular, the progression of dementia among the elderly has strained on the staff, making communication with them difficult. How can we strengthen the relationship between the elderly with dementia and care staff in day care? As one possibility, previous studies have shown that communication robots have a positive effect on enriching emotions and expressions in the elderly with dementia (Matsuyama & Obayashi 2020, Ninomiya 2020). Our research purpose is to clarify human-robot interaction between communication robot and the elderly with dementia. What kinds of character can we find in the interaction? What kind of benefits does the interaction bring to the elderly with dementia? And what kinds of benefits does it bring to care staff? Or does human-robot interaction give any disadvantage? Method [ROBOT] PALRO is a 40 cm long communication robot developed in 2010 by the ICT company FUJISOFT, Inc. and has been improved over the years (figure1). It possesses advanced conversational, voice recognition, facial recognition and memory abilities, and is capable of smooth communication with elderly people with dementia. [Subjects] The subjects were two elderly people with dementia who use a daycare service in Kobe, Japan (2 females, 83 and 69 years old). Their Nursing Care Level is 1 on a 5-point scale, and both have early Alzheimer's disease. [Procedure] We analyzed the communication of the two participants in detail by participant observation on a day when PALRO was placed and on a day not (figure2). The PALRO was then placed in the daycare service on a daily basis for three months, and the interaction with the users was observed. [Assessment] (1) Mini-Mental State Examination score for dementia. (2) participant observation of the participants. (3) focus groups for the staff. This research was approved by the Research Ethics Board of Department of Sociology of Human Sciences at Osaka University. Results and Discussion The study revealed that (1) the two subjects recognized PALRO sometimes as a robot and sometimes as an object of assistance, and conveniently communicate with each other, (2) communication spread to other users and staff through PALRO, and (3) PALRO's presence had a positive impact on staff by providing topics of conversation and temporarily dealing with the elderly, indicating the potential of communication robots in dementia care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]