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Research identifies unique challenges for younger women diagnosed with breast cancer at or before 45 years of age. This paper explores the experiences of younger women from diverse cultural backgrounds with breast cancer to see if there are differing healthcare provision needs across cultures. Sandelowski and Barroso's framework for undertaking a meta-synthesis is used in this paper. Initial searches in academic databases returned 42 papers of interest. Re-reading the papers in the context of the research question identified 12 studies which met the inclusion criteria. Five key themes were identified in these 12 studies. The overarching finding is that, irrespective of cultural background, the confrontation with breast cancer transforms the younger woman's life. It seems that healthcare provision needs do not differ substantially across cultures. Health professionals should address the unique psychosocial effects of cancer in the context of the lifestage of the woman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the InCites tool of Thomson Reuters, this study compares normalized citation impact values calculated for China, Japan, France, Germany, United States, and the UK throughout the time period from 1981 to 2010. InCites offers a unique opportunity to study the normalized citation impacts of countries using (i) a long publication window (1981 to 2010), (ii) a differentiation in (broad or more narrow) subject areas, and (iii) allowing for the use of statistical procedures in order to obtain an insightful investigation of national citation trends across the years. Using four broad categories, our results show significantly increasing trends in citation impact values for France, the UK, and especially Germany across the last thirty years in all areas. The citation impact of papers from China is still at a relatively low level (mostly below the world average), but the country follows an increasing trend line. The USA exhibits a stable pattern of high citation impact values across the years. With small impact differences between the publication years, the US trend is increasing in engineering and technology but decreasing in medical and health sciences as well as in agricultural sciences. Similar to the USA, Japan follows increasing as well as decreasing trends in different subject areas, but the variability across the years is small. In most of the years, papers from Japan perform below or approximately at the world average in each subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To anticipate science and technology (S&T) changes and shifts in the competitive environment for the preparation of strategic development in an organization, this paper aims to address a structured analysis method for future technology trajectories and interactions by mapping and associating the future technology themes in foresight reports with a state-of-the art technology classification system. The objective of this paper is to develop an integrative method for systematically clustering, analyzing and visualizing the path for technology development and transformation.Design/methodology/approach – Delphi topics related to sustainable energy were collected from strategic foresight reports of Japan, South Korea and China, and used as sources for future technology themes analysis. A standard mapping taxonomy based on international patent classification system was used to map out the technology concept described in these future technology themes. Technology interactions can be identified through a causal effect analysis during the mapping, and the results among selected countries are cross-compared and visualized in an aggregated view.Findings – By this standard mapping taxonomy and structured analysis, future technology themes in strategic foresight reports from countries in focus are systematically mapped and integrated for viewing future technology options and interactions. Similarities and discrepancies for prospecting the future technology trajectory among these countries are also identified.Research limitations/implications – It would be a significant contribution if this structured analysis could be applied more broadly across different geographic regions or across research areas in foresight reports. This research may help to solve the practical difficulties faced during the secondary analysis of foresight studies in foresight preparatory studies by providing a consistent classification framework to make comparison and aggregation of future technology options from different countries/regions. Also, this classification framework can provide a bridge for linking with current technology performance such as patent productivity or quality and help in identifying the gaps between the probable future changes in S&T and the current capability.Originality/value – The integrative method in this research provides a way to combine both the advantage of strategic technology foresight and competitive technology intelligence by utilizing the results deriving from the former as targets for analysis and the analytic practice deriving from the latter to identify the possible competitive or cooperative landscapes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thus far, research pertaining to human trafficking and forced labor has concentrated on three aspects: child labor, women in sex trade, and international legislation as a response to human trafficking. This paper offers a new perspective as it examines natural disasters as a magnet for forced labor. Utilizing the Catalysts and Magnets Theory of immigration, which contends that country of origin catalysts and host country magnets must both be present in order for migration to take place; this paper asserts that a natural disaster can function as a magnet which draws and at times encourages forced labor. Using a framework of analysis that included socioeconomic, political and legal variables, two countries were examined for purposes of this research, the United States and Japan. Specifically, in the case of the United States, the 2005 natural disaster Hurricane Katrina was studied, and in the instance of Japan, the earthquake that created the Tsunami in 2011. Based on these two case studies and the Catalysts and Magnets Theory, a set of specific factors that promote forced labor during times of natural disaster are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Japanese-Chinese medicine, and Korean Sasang constitutional medicine have common origins. However, the constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea differ because of the influence of geographical culture, social environment, national practices, and other factors. This paper aimed to compare the constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea in terms of theoretical origin, constitutional classification, constitution and pathogenesis, clinical applications and basic studies that were conducted. The constitutional theories of the three countries are all derived from the Canon of Internal Medicine or Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases of Ancient China. However, the three countries have different constitutional classifications and criteria. Medical sciences in the three countries focus on the clinical applications of constitutional theory. They all agree that different pathogenic laws that guide the treatment of diseases govern different constitutions; thus, patients with different constitutions are treated differently. The three countries also differ in terms of drug formulations and medication. Japanese medicine is prescribed only based on constitution. Korean medicine is based on treatment, in which drugs cannot be mixed. TCM synthesize the treatment model of constitution differentiation, disease differentiation and syndrome differentiation with the treatment thought of treating disease according to three categories of etiologic factors, which reflect the constitution as the characteristic of individual precision treatment. In conclusion, constitutional medicines of China, Japan, and Korea have the same theoretical origin, but differ in constitutional classification, clinical application of constitutional theory on the treatment of diseases, drug formulations and medication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of tropical cyclone (TC) genesis over the South China Sea and the Northwest Pacific Ocean in 2009 is significantly less than the average (27.4). However, the number of landfall TC over mainland China and its associated rainfall is more than the average. This paper focuses on the performance of numerical weather prediction (NWP) of landfall TC precipitation over China in 2009. The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) models are compared. Although the schemes of physical processes, the data assimilation system and the dynamic frame are entirely different for the two models, the results of forecast verification are similar to each other for TC rainfall and track except for TC Goni. In this paper, a day with daily rainfall amount greater than 50 mm was selected as a storm rain day when there was a TC affecting the mainland. There are 32 storm rain days related to the landing of typhoons and tropical depressions. The rainfall forecast verification methods of National Meteorological Centre (NMC) of CMA are selected to verify the models' rainfall forecast. Observational precipitation analyses related to TCs in 2009 indicate a U-shape spatial distribution in China. It is found that the rain belt forecasted by the two models within 60 hours shows good agreement with observations, both in the location and the maximum rainfall center. Beyond 3 days, the forecasted rainfall belt shifts northward on average, and the rainfall amount of the model forecasts becomes under-predicted. The rainfall intensity of CMA model forecast is more reasonable than that of JMA model. For heavy rain, the JMA model made more missing forecasts. The TC rainfall is verified in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan where rainfall amount related to TCs is relatively larger than in other regions. The results indicate that the model forecast for Guangdong and Guangxi is more skillful than that for Hainan. The rainfall forecast for Hainan remains difficult for the models because of insufficient observation data and special tropical ocean climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's economy, one of the most important national indicators of economic growth performance is the country's ability to produce new technology--and use it responsibly and efficiently--for environmental protection or energy conservation, production and consumption in agreement with international standards. The purpose of this study is to identify the Research and Development (R&D) capability in the area of environmentally friendly technologies in China, Japan and Korea over the last twenty years. As the field is very wide, Water-Gas Shift (WGS) reaction technologies were taken as a case study for the purpose of this article. During 1990-2011 a total of 788 papers in the field of WGS technologies were published by scientists in China, Japan and Korea. China was the top producing country with 394 papers (50%) followed by Japan with 250 papers (32%), and Korea with 144 papers (18%). The growth of the literature in the field was found to be exponential in nature for China. The R&D capabilities were found to correlate directly with the Gross Domestic Expenditures on R&D (GERD), Researchers in Full-time equivalents (FTE), and other economic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the cultural attraction, ‘soft power’, and importance of cultural proximity to the popularity of the Japanese language in Hong Kong over the last three decades. Exploration of both primary and secondary sources constitutes the main research methodology employed. Email surveys and face-to-face interviews were undertaken to ascertain the nature and degree of the cultural attraction that stimulates local people's interest in learning Japanese language and culture. The paper concludes that Japan's ‘soft power’, i.e., popular culture and cultural products, are the most influential driving forces behind the popularity of Japanese language in Hong Kong. Also, the Japanese cultural proximity to the Chinese is another factor that excites local people's interest in learning Japanese as a foreign language. In the Hong Kong context, geopolitical and national identity factors do not seem to detract from the popularity of the Japanese language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

2004 was the year when the Japanese public's affinity with China dropped dramatically, to 37.6 %, due to anti-Japan riots in China. Now more than 70 % of the Japanese public does not feel an affinity with China. How could such a strong anti-Chinese sentiment influence Japan's policy toward China? This paper considers this question by examining Japan's decision-making process on terminating the much-criticized yen loans to China. Yen loans are a type of Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by the Japanese government to countries lacking sufficient funds for economic development. China is one of the top yen loan borrowers, and the loans have contributed to China's economic growth and increasing openness. However, in March 2005, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing that Japan intended to phase out the yen loans before the 2008 Beijing Olympics and reached an agreement on the matter. Two-and-a-half years later, Japan terminated its yen loans to China, as the foreign ministers had agreed. Through mainly firsthand documents and interviews with government officials, this paper will clarify the following two points: (1) While it is true that the Japanese government significantly reduced its yen loan package to China from 2001 onward due to domestic criticism of China, as pointed out by previous studies, it was not planning to terminate the yen loans as of summer 2004. Instead, the Japanese government was contemplating how to keep providing yen loans to China; (2) Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, who was appointed in September 2004, had pushed for the termination of yen loans to China only after anti-Chinese sentiment rose dramatically in summer 2004, because he felt that continuing the much-criticized yen loans would not benefit stable Japan-China relations. This paper sheds light on the background of the termination of yen loans to China, a major milestone in postwar Japan-China relations that had been unclear until now. Having said this, the more important point of this paper may be that it also shows the influence of strong anti-Chinese sentiment on Japan's policies toward China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of recent transformations in East Asian welfare regimes, applying a 'real-typical' perspective, based on the 'productivist welfare capitalism' thesis of Ian Holliday (2000). Unlike Western welfare-state regimes in which the politics of austerity has dominated, the politics of welfare expansion has been noticeable in East Asian welfare regimes. This paper will analyse whether these changes have fundamentally dismantled the productivist feature where social policy is subordinate to economic objectives. While the trajectories are different depending on different political institutional contexts, this study shows that there are two strong signs that these states are moving out of their productivist nature and also that they are in the process of establishing their own welfare states. Japan seems to still be a productivist welfare-state regime struggling to accommodate rapid socio-economic changes, whereas Korea is a welfare state regime with strong liberal characteristics via modern welfare politics. Since the needs for social policy expansion in China correspond to economic and political needs, the productivist feature has been significantly weakened. However, this study argues that these transitory welfare regimes are in critical stages of formulating their new welfare regimes and that welfare politics based on contingent events could affect the future trajectories of these regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events (InterLACE) project is a global research collaboration that aims to advance understanding of women's reproductive health in relation to chronic disease risk by pooling individual participant data from several cohort and cross-sectional studies. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of contributing studies and to present the distribution of demographic and reproductive factors and chronic disease outcomes in InterLACE.Study Design: InterLACE is an individual-level pooled study of 20 observational studies (12 of which are longitudinal) from ten countries. Variables were harmonized across studies to create a new and systematic synthesis of life-course data.Main Outcome Measures: Harmonized data were derived in three domains: 1) socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, 2) female reproductive characteristics, and 3) chronic disease outcomes (cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes).Results: InterLACE pooled data from 229,054 mid-aged women. Overall, 76% of the women were Caucasian and 22% Japanese; other ethnicities (of 300 or more participants) included Hispanic/Latin American (0.2%), Chinese (0.2%), Middle Eastern (0.3%), African/black (0.5%), and Other (1.0%). The median age at baseline was 47 years (Inter-quartile range (IQR): 41-53), and that at the last follow-up was 56 years (IQR: 48-64). Regarding reproductive characteristics, half of the women (49.8%) had their first menstruation (menarche) at 12-13 years of age. The distribution of menopausal status and the prevalence of chronic disease varied considerably among studies. At baseline, most women (57%) were pre- or peri-menopausal, 20% reported a natural menopause (range 0.8-55.6%) and the remainder had surgery or were taking hormones. By the end of follow-up, the prevalence rates of CVD and diabetes were 7.2% (range 0.9-24.6%) and 5.1% (range 1.3-13.2%), respectively.Conclusions: The scale and heterogeneity of InterLACE data provide an opportunity to strengthen evidence concerning the relationships between reproductive health through life and subsequent risks of chronic disease, including cross-cultural comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the papers `Army as Bureaucracy: Japanese Militarism Revisited,' by Shin'ichi Kitaoka and `War and the Rise of Nationalism in Twentieth-Century China,' by Arthur Waldron. Distinction in the balance China and Japan sought to maintain between civil and military power; Absence of a central government; Links between militarization and nationalism.

This paper examines the role that veterans played in the construction of historical memory narratives in mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan. I argue that veterans, who had long established a ‘language community’ with a particular way to speak about the war, found it difficult to communicate with post-war audiences that did not share that experience. The paper analyses six categories of ‘memory writing’ that veterans used to engage with memory debates: post-war diaries, ‘testimonial literature’, articles and literary works, surveys and oral histories, memoirs, and paratext. This study thus proposes that veterans do not avoid discussion of war, but can only be ‘heard’ by members of their language community, or by a post-war society that is prepared to ‘listen’ to their message with little mediation. This is a direct consequence of their experience of the war, and how they crafted their language community at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In today's China, public memory of the War of Resistance against Japan, 1937–1945, is more visible than ever. Museums, movies, television programmes, and commemorations focus heavily on the victimization of the Chinese people at the hands of the Japanese invaders. Japanese atrocities, particularly the Nanjing Massacre, are at the centre of much of this remembering. But what of the wartime period? How did journalists and writers discuss Japanese atrocities? This paper finds that most wartime writing stressed the theme of ‘heroic resistance’ by the Chinese rather than China's victimization at the hands of Japanese. Exceptions to this approach included efforts to publicize Japan's action to Western audiences in the hope of gaining support for China's cause, and a related focus on the bombing of the civilian population by the Japanese. This paper suggests major differences between the current approach to remembering the war and to writing during the war itself. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to identify a differentiated marketing strategy for Asia. This research has critically analyzed the purchasing behavior of consumers from three selected Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, and China) that purchase luxury items and the marketing strategy of Louis Vuitton to support the objectives. As a part of the marketing strategy analysis, Louis Vuitton's advertising strategy used in three different countries as illustrated in Vogue advertisements were studied. There were three critical factors found that Louis Vuitton used to achieve its success: the deployment of innovation and tradition at the same time, its use of masstige marketing, and its advertising. The paper describes the study and concludes by highlighting contributions to apparel industry and academe. The comparative analysis of luxury goods marketing will assist global marketers to produce more differentiated marketing strategy for various cultures. Also, the theoretical framework applied in the paper, can be utilized by other marketer and researchers to further advance research on luxury products marketing and consumption analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the early 1980s, multiple transnational clashes have been generated by some Japanese right-wing scholars' attempts to omit or downplay Japanese war crimes during World War II in history textbooks. The most recent dispute in 2001 brought another flood of reactions from Chinese, Korean, and some Japanese scholars as well. Instead of criticism of the right-wing textbooks per se, some historians called for a more nuanced understanding of history and the necessity of compiling an alternative textbook to fit the changing international environment. A new association for progressive East Asian intellectuals was organized in 2002 with the aim of compiling a joint history textbook for promoting peace and human rights. After three years of intensive discourse involving conferences and papers, the first joint textbook of modern East Asian history was released in May 2005, first in Japanese, then in Korean, and finally in Chinese. Despite a number of problems and issues, this project is an unprecedented step forward for peace and reconciliation in East Asia. As valuable as it is as a textbook, it has even more symbolic meaning as a tri-national effort for promoting peace and human rights in East Asia. This paper examines the historical background, purpose, process, and significance of this joint textbook and offers some suggestions for revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author aims to examine the differences in perception concerning the anxiety toward the risk among three countries — Japan, the United States of America and China. The anxiety, in this case, is triggered by uncertainty. This paper also intends to clarify the effect of information to improve people's risk management targeted on the respondents of the Chinese population focusing on earthquake disasters. The social survey using questionnaire has been carried out in order to obtain the needed quantitative data for my research project. It is interesting to conclude that both respondents in China and in the United States tend to accept the impact of uncertainty better. They have shown somewhat lower level of anxiety toward nineteen items of the risks as compared with that of the Japanese respondents. The significant effects on information designed as a part of the risk management action plan as well as the living sufficiency safeguard are clearly observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is designed to analyze why Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms in Korea that existed up to the latter part of the seventh century, became the first victim in diplomatic and military struggles among the Three Kingdom, including Goguryeo and Silla. The Samguk sagi (Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms) gives the impression that Baekje, by dint of its geographical location, had pursued the most active and shrewd diplomacy. Located in the southwest of the peninsula, Baekje enjoyed not only easy communication and transactions with China and Japan, but also could put pressure on relatively weak Silla and move to the north when Goguryeo engaged in struggles with Chinese dynasties over the Liao river. However, this paper concludes, from an international relations perspective, that Baekje became the first kingdom to lose its independence due to its clumsy management of alliances, lack of understanding of the foreign policy priority of Chinese dynasties, as well as inconsistent and self-centered diplomacy vis-à-vis China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reexamines the conventional wisdom that characterizes Sino-Japanese energy relations as predominantly competitive, but views Sino-Japanese environmental relations as essentially cooperative. Using sociological theories of risk, it is argued that Sino-Japanese cooperation is more likely in both the energy and environmental areas when common risks are perceived and relative gains are minimized. Despite their many conflicting strategic, political, and economic interests, as energy importers who are vulnerable to supply interruptions in the Middle East and competitors for global energy supplies, China and Japan share common risks to their energy security. Consequently, there actually may be increasing opportunities for China and Japan to address their common concerns through bilateral and multilateral cooperative practices, such as common positions on pricing or energy conservation initiatives. Although one would expect China and Japan to highlight their mutual interests in tackling environmental problems such as air pollution, in fact relative gains often impede cooperation. Japan increasingly views China as an economic competitor and is reducing environmental aid, while China continues to set a priority on economic growth, which sets limits on the use of costlier Japanese green technologies. By examining a selection of scholarly articles, reports and newspaper articles by Chinese and Japanese analysts, as well as material from interviews in Beijing and Tokyo in May-June 2007, the paper shows how environmental and energy issues in Sino-Japanese relations may be framed as threats, requiring counter-measures, or common risks, which can be addressed through cooperative practices. Lastly, the paper discusses the possibility of the development of an energy security 'risk community' as cooperative practices develop between China and Japan. Nonetheless, conflicting political interests, strategies, and self-images, accentuating relative gains, may provide obstacles to their cooperation in both energy security and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the economic relationship between the two most important economies in Asia. Over the last decades, the Chinese and Japanese economies have become more economically interdependent, a development which will, in the long run, impact the countries' political relationship. The paper seeks to answer the question: How can China and Japan gain from the current economic situation, further enhance their relationship and increase their synergies for regional economic development? Data on trade and Foreign Direct Investment are used in combination with primary data from interviews with Japanese and Chinese companies on how they perceive the current business situation and future potential. The result of the data analysis shows that the countries have much to gain from their economic interdependence. The firms see great potential in their respective markets but are concerned about political turbulence. Three possible scenarios for the future economic relationship are presented, including fierce competition on all markets and a leveraging of resources for mutual development between Chinese and Japanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of 'the rise of China' on the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and its implications for Japan. Japan has traditionally enjoyed a dominant position in the Bank, as it has enjoyed a dominant position in Asia. However, with the balance of power in the region tipping in China's favour, one might expect that this would be reflected in the ADB as well. This paper argues that despite the worsening Sino-Japanese relationship, the ADB has facilitated the development and maintenance of shared expectations between the two parties over the future direction of development assistance, representing an oasis of liberal institutionalism in a relationship increasingly characterised in realist terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to compare several machine learning techniques on the task of Asian language text classification, such as Chinese and Japanese where no word boundary information is available in written text. The paper advocates a simple language modeling based approach for this task. Design/methodology/approach - Naïve Bayes, maximum entropy model, support vector machines, and language modeling approaches were implemented and were applied to Chinese and Japanese text classification. To investigate the influence of word segmentation, different word segmentation approaches were investigated and applied to Chinese text. A segmentation-based approach was compared with the non-segmentation-based approach. Findings - There were two findings: the experiments show that statistical language modeling can significantly outperform standard techniques, given the same set of features; and it was found that classification with word level features normally yields improved classification performance, but that classification performance is not monotonically related to segmentation accuracy. In particular, classification performance may initially improve with increased segmentation accuracy, but eventually classification performance stops improving, and can in fact even decrease, after a certain level of segmentation accuracy. Practical implications - Apply the findings to real web text classification is ongoing work. Originality/value - The paper is very relevant to Chinese and Japanese information processing, e.g. webpage classification, web search. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Han Fuju was the most senior military figure to be executed for treason during the wars that engulfed the world between 1937 and 1945. His crime was to withdraw his troops in the face of the invading Japanese armies. His execution helped to strengthen Chinese resolve to resist Japan. This paper looks at Han's career, and at his end. It compares him to other failed commanders of the Second World War, Vlasov, Percival and Kimmel. The paper also notes the strange twist of history that has left Han celebrated for his humour as much as for his treachery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent incident of an unidentified atomic-powered submarine passing through the Japanese territorial sea raised the sensitive issue of what Japan could do, as the coastal State, in the face of a gross violation of the law. Despite being surrounded by the sea in all directions, Japan has not been prepared to react properly in such a situation since the end of the Second World War. This is primarily a matter of strategy, but this paper will focus on the legal aspects of the incident. The paper will start with an exposition of the relevant facts, followed by some discussion of the legal issues involved therein: the status of submarines in the territorial sea, innocent passage, hot pursuit, environmental implications, etc. The paper will then conclude with some summary observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Visions about the establishment of a lunar base and development of the Moon for scientific, technical and commercial ends have been on the political agenda since the beginning of the Space Age. In the past few years a number of spacefaring nations, including the USA, European states through ESA, Japan, India, China and Russia have proposed missions directed at the robotic and human exploration and development of the Moon. This paper argues that an important factor in advancing these missions lies in a partnership between the pubic, governmental sector and the private sector. The paper analyzes the dynamics of this partnership as applied to the case of the US Vision for Space Exploration. The results of the analysis suggest that public–private partnerships directed at lunar development and commerce depend on how government reduces risks for the private sector. The risks identified and discussed herein include political and legal risks, technological risks, and financial and market risks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, characteristics of mathematics classrooms in the East Asian countries1 of Hong Kong and Japan are discussed based on an analysis of the data of the TIMSS 1999 Video Study. The data shows that although students in these East Asian countries did not talk a lot in the classroom, they were exposed to more instructional content. The mathematics problems they worked on were set up mainly using mathematical language, and compared with the problems solved by students in other countries, the problems took a longer duration to solve and more proof was involved. According to the judgement of an expert panel on the Hong Kong lessons (Japan did not participate in this part of the study), more advanced contents were covered and the lessons were more coherent. The mathematics presentations were more developed, and the students were more likely to be engaged in the lessons. In sum, the overall quality of the teaching in this East Asian country was judged to be high. The findings show that high quality teaching and learning can take place even in a teacher directed classroom. It is argued that these East Asian classroom practices are deeply rooted in the underlying cultural values of the classroom and the wider society. The paper ends by drawing some implications of the study for the mathematics education community in other cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this paper is that governments of some otherwise enlightened states are increasingly fearful of acknowledging the restraints imposed on them by existing international law. They are also reluctant to enter into new commitments by way of international conventions that would expand the reach of international law. The paper asks whether these fears are based on a true understanding of international law or on some distorted view of it. It will draw comparisons and some contrasts between Australia and the United States in their reactions to a number of recent events as well as to some enduring situations of contemporary relevance. Had time (and the limits of my research) permitted, one might also have examined public attitudes toward international law in China, Japan, and Russia in this context, where similar fears appear to be entertained. France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, also enlightened states, appear by contrast to belong to a group more dedicated to international law. As Robert Kagan has recently remarked, the experience of two world wars at close quarters, and the formation of the European Union, have made the European countries more dedicated to process, where the United States is more interested in results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the qualitative differences in dissociative experiences among normal college-age subjects in China and Japan. The paper first describes the process used to prepare the Mandarin version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). Baseline statistics comparing the two populations of interest are then presented. These results show fundamental differences across these two Asian cultures in terms of the mean DES scores obtained as well as the shape of the overall distribution of these scores. The results of a factor analysis of the DES responses corroborate both gender and cultural differences across the Japanese and Chinese data. Interestingly, the structure of the factors derived shows little relationship to factors from analyses of normal college-age subjects in North America. These contrasting results suggest that the DES can be a useful addition to other instruments and methods for exploring cross-cultural psychological differences, and that prior to clinical use baseline DES norms for each culture need to be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is rising as the fastest growing largest economy and thereby leading a market-driven economic integration in East Asia. At the same time, nationalism is also rising and constraining East Asian countries from forming a state-driven regional community. This paper examines the political economy of interdependence and nationalism that is taking place in East Asia. Simply put, its central theme is that the degree of interdependence, especially between China and other countries, is deepening, and as a result, is pulling East Asia toward regional integration, but due to the rising tide of nationalism, it is far short of forming an actual community. In order to build a community, therefore, such economic trend must be propelled by political leadership and will. In elaborating on this thesis, the paper analyzes the trade and production networks centered on China, the efforts to promote regional integration in ASEAN + 3, the nationalist rivalry between Japan and China in negotiating FTAs, and the difficulties in achieving Sino-Japanese reconciliation. Finally, the paper proposes a Northeast Asian Forum among Japan, South Korea and China while the US remains as a stabilizing force in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes use of both Chinese and English primary sources to reassess China's agendas concerning Tibet during the Second World War. Previous researches have suggested that the Japanese invasion of China proper and the emergence of a group of powers allied with China in its struggle against Japan provided Nationalist China with an opportunity to advance its claims to the “lost” border regions and restore China's past territorial glory. Scholarly works have also argued that, being a member of the “Great Four” after Pearl Harbor, the Chinese government talked volubly about restoring China's authority over traditional frontier peripheries. In addition, it is suggested that, with regards to Tibet in the early 1940s, Chiang Kai-shek's wartime regime in Chongqing was even prepared to resort to military force to bring the long-lasting Tibetan issue to an end. This research intends to offer a different story. Here it is suggested that efforts made by the Chinese Nationalists during wartime to assert their rights in the southwest frontier peripheries were primarily based on considerations of regime security and military strategy. These considerations were felt to be more important than the ideological contours of Chinese nationalism shaped as early as Sun Yat-sen's era. As revealed in this paper, Chiang Kai-shek and his regime were actually taking afar more pragmatic stance towards the Tibetan issues. This paper further suggests that, as late as the early 1940s, the formulation of a definite and clear Chinese territoriality, with Tibet unconditionally included, remained a pending and unresolved issue for China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety is the precondition and guarantee of railway development. However, due to equipment failure, poor management, misoperation and so on, accidents on the railway occur from time to time. China and Japan, as leading countries in Railway Technology in the world, have done a lot of work in accident prevention and safety. Through the collection and comparison of transport data and typical casualty cases in China and Japan, this paper summarizes the main causes of accidents and the experience of accident prevention in the two countries. And further, puts forward suggestions for preventing accidents and large-scale casualty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Acetalius Sharp currently contains two species from Japan. In this paper, a third species, A. grandis Yin & Li, sp. n., is described from eastern China. The foveal pattern of Acetalius, and polymorphism and major diagnostic features of A. grandis are figured. An updated key to Acetalius species is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building sector accounts for a large percentage of the total national energy consumption in most of the countries, thus it is critical to formulate and implement appropriate energy saving policies in the building sector. This paper focuses on energy saving policies in the building sector by conducting a comparative study between Japan and China. The exiting Building Energy Saving (BES) policies, actual effectiveness of policy implementation and obstacles to the effective policy implementation are compared in sequence. Related policies are categorized into four groups: control and regulatory instruments; economic/market-based instruments; fiscal instruments and information and voluntary actions. Policy effect analysis identifies that BES policies have promoted building energy saving in both Japan and China. Obstacles comparison reveals that Japan and China shared many obstacles including high transaction costs and lack of applicable methodology. Compared with Japan, China is suffering more obstacles such as inefficient enforcement, insufficient levels of information and awareness and immature financial regulation system. Based on the previous findings, common suggestions for overcoming these obstacles of BES policies in Japan and China are presented, such as the accurate methods of baseline identification and emission accountings, innovative incentives, and more capacity building activities. Distinct suggestions for Japan and China are also added by considering their own situations so that both countries can further improve their BES policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intrinsic relationships between Japanese historiography and the three great historiographical trends of New Historiography, Debates on Ancient History, and Marxist historiography, from the macroscopic perspective of the transformation, development, and early modern growth of modern and early modern Chinese historiography, exploring how Chinese historical researchers selected, deviated from, and assimilated Japanese historiography, while also particularly focusing on how the recipients utilized Japanese historiographical methods and concepts as well as the achievements of Japanese scholars in researching Chinese history to construct their own interpretation of Chinese historiography, in a study of the academic trend of indigenization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The village as trope represents “tradition” in contrast to “modernity,” periphery in contrast to core, and the past in contrast to the present. This paper explores Pai Tau Village, a settlement in the Shatin District of Hong Kong. While it is recognized by local heritage organizations as an ancestral village, Pai Tau is neither distant nor separate from emblems of Hong Kong as a major cosmopolitan city, but rather is located at the edge of a large mega-mall – a center of commerce, consumerism, fashion, and business. This article suggests that the relationship between modernity and tradition is not necessarily oppositional, but symbiotic. Via an exploration of this duality, it also addresses globalization and transnationalism via consumer exchanges among Japan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, and addresses contemporary contradictions in anthropological fieldwork and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is obvious that the security environment in East Asia is more unstable and unpredictable. In the South China Sea, tensions over disputed islands initiate a more severe Sino–American rivalry. In the East China Sea, China disputes the control over the Senkaku Islands, and is escalating military activities around those islands. North Korea continues provocative activities including launching of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons tests. This naturally leads to the idea that Japan needs to play a larger role to restore stability in the international order. This paper explores the challenges facing East Asian security in the face of the passage of Japan's new security bills in 2015 and how they impact the future of Japanese security policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The content of Japanese history textbooks became the focus of much media and academic attention after the internationalization of the issue in 1982 when Japan was accused by the Chinese government of attempting to re-write its wartime invasion of China in school textbooks. The issue threatened to disrupt the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of Sino-lapanese normalization and, according to some observers, set back Sino-Japanese relations by ten years. In recent years Japanese textbooks have been seen in a more positive light, with progress being made on the inclusion of references to the comfort women and, more recently, Ienaga Saburō's partial victory in his long-standing legal battle with the government. Some have argued that it was the events of 1982 which sparked off the movement to 'liberalize' Japanese textbooks, and that after that date descriptions of Japanese wartime activities in Asia became more 'truthful'. This paper examines the events of the 1982 textbook issue, focusing on the response of the Japanese government to Chinese (and Korean) protests and assessing Japan's foreign policy making vis-à-vis China. Japanese governments are often considered to adopt a 'grovelling' foreign policy with respect to China, giving in to Chinese demands whenever the issue of 'history' is raised. This paper assesses the validity of this claim, using the textbook issue as a case study, and questions whether the textbooks really were radically altered as a result of this diplomatic controversy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on adaptation and resistance to Chinese literary hegemony in Korea and Japan. China was the first civilization to emerge in East Asia. Accordingly, when neighboring nations such as the Koreans, the Vietnamese and the Japanese began their own climb from prehistorical archaism toward civilization, they inevitably looked towards China as the ancient fount of culture and to a large extent borrowed its institutions and inventions. Written Chinese played a vital role in East Asia, similar to that of Latin in Europe, as the language of education between the 3rd and 9th centuries. Chinese because established as the common language of East Asia. In Korea, Japan, and elsewhere, written Chinese became the official language of state documents. The reason for this was straightforward, the Chinese court's power dominated the East Asian nations. By using a theory of the effect of literacy taken from social anthropology and sociology, this paper explores the social implications of kana literacy in ancient and early medieval Japan. This paper, however, does not posit literacy as an effective cause independent of the social and political environment, as do some leading theoretical models. Rather, it assumes that the implications of literacy for power arrangements in general in a particular cultural context are likely to be closely connected to who has power to control that literacy, what purposes it serves, and in what contexts it is utilized.

With the frequent coastal activities of human beings, tens of thousands of tons of floating marine plastics pose a serious threat to marine ecosystems and human survival. This paper studies the feasibility of regional marine plastic garbage management, taking the Northwest Pacific as the research object. According to the Cobb-Douglas utility function of the costs and benefits of plastic processing in China, Japan and South Korea, the Shapley value method was used to analyze it. The study found that the data were substituted into the Shapley value model of cooperative game for calculation, and the results showed that any country joining the triple alliance U would create greater benefits, and obtain higher benefits than the sub alliance. It is a triple win situation for China, Japan and the South Korea to jointly manage marine plastic in the Northwest Pacific. The results of the model confirm that the three countries are willing to maintain long-term cooperation on marine plastic governance, this method can be used to solve the trans-national marine governance innovatively and promote regional ocean cooperation governance. At the same time, by comparing the Northwest Pacific Plan with other action plans, China, Japan and South Korea should abandon political controversy, seeking common ground while putting aside differences, to cooperate fully to curb the growing trend of plastic waste problem in the Northwest Pacific, and contribute to the sustainable development of regional marine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic growth has been progressively moving towards reducing carbon intensity. In parallel, Japan has long been regarded as the pioneer of energy efficiency worldwide. Why have these two economic giants had such different experiences of carbon intensity in the past decades? A closer examination in both countries may hold vital clues, which are still very unclear. This paper compares the patterns of carbon intensity between China and Japan, in which we propose a bilateral-country decomposition framework by combining production-theoretical decomposition analysis and index decomposition analysis. The decomposition highlights the effects of emission factor, energy structure, sectoral structure, substitution among labor-energy and capital-energy, and technological progress. The results show that the energy structure, sectoral structure, and capital-energy substitution are the main drivers behind that China is much higher carbon intensity than Japan, accounting for 26%, 25%, and 38%, respectively. Yet, these effects also narrowed the carbon intensity gap between China and Japan over the years. Furthermore, the labor-energy substitution effect has generally decreased the carbon intensity gap. The technological effect has a minor impact on the carbon intensity gap per year, while it plays a dominant role in enlarging the carbon intensity gap over time. • An improved approach is proposed to decompose driving forces of carbon intensity. • The approach is applied to carbon intensity gap between China and Japan. • Potential energy intensity of each sector is uncovered by input substitution. • Enabling policymakers in developing countries to reduce carbon intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fully coupled flow deformation model to characterize the nonlinear seismic site response of liquefiable marine sediments, considering the ocean wave environment. Emphasis is placed on extending a simplified soil hysteresis model for the effective stress analysis of nonlinear site seismic response. The proposed model addresses the limitations of existing one-dimensional (1D) hyperbolic soil models to simultaneously capture the 3D hysteretic stress–strain behavior and the accumulated volumetric deformation of soil skeleton. The volume strain formulation of soil skeleton is included in the Biot's volumetric compatibility equation as the source term for excess pore water pressure buildup. The proposed method is implemented into an explicit time matching finite difference analysis platform, and validated against the recordings of the KSRH10 site for North–South (NS) direction of KiK-net borehole arrays in Japan. Finally, the influences of ocean wave loading upon the seismic wave propagation behavior in liquefiable marine sediments are examined with reference to the Bohai Strait site condition, China. The obtained results indicate that the ocean wave environment has significant effect on the nonlinear seismic site response of liquefiable seabed at shallow depth. • A fully coupled flow deformation model is presented for the simulation of seabed liquefaction. • A simplified soil hysteresis model is extended for the fully coupled seismic site response analysis. • Model calibrations are carried out against the recordings of the KSRH10 site from the KiK-net. • Influences of ocean wave on the seismic response of liquefiable marine sediments are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The black rot disease of Vitis species and other host genera of Vitacease is caused by Phyllosticta ampelicida and allied taxa which is considered to be a species complex. In this paper, we introduce four new species of Phyllosticta , including two from the P. ampelicida complex, based on a polyphasic characterization including disease symptoms and host association, morphology, and molecular phylogeny. The phylogenetic analysis was conducted based on the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and a combined multi-locus alignment of the ITS, actin (ACT), partial translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF-1), and glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) gene regions. Our study confirms the phylogenetic distinctions of the four new species, as well as their phenotypic differences with known species in the genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the discursive realisation of on-site problem-solving encounters in a large international construction project in Hong Kong. Specifically, the analyses focus on professional English as a lingua franca interactions between the engineers from Japan who are full-time employees of the company heading the joint venture, and contracted Hong-Kongese foremen and engineers. A combination of methods and several data sources are used to interpret the interlocutors' communications and relationships, and show how certain items, for instance problem , issue and if , as well as evaluative items such as metaphors and idioms, index discursive practices and patterns during problem solving. These data sources include fully transcribed spoken interactions, interviews with the participants and expert informants, and researcher field notes. The results shed light on the key intertextual role the contract plays in the context of construction industry problem solving, the various bodies that are involved in addressing complex problems, and the importance of the foreman and on-site engineer relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvement of recovery rates is crucial for the supply chain management of waste cooking oil-to-biofuel conversion. This paper constructs a dynamic game model between biofuel enterprises and recyclers to compare the recycling modes and recycling rate decisions of waste cooking oil-to-biofuel conversion in China and Japan. Results demonstrate that: (1) the recovery rate of Chinese mode with recyclers as price leader is not necessarily lower than that of Japanese mode theoretically, indicating that the collection-storage-transportation integrated mode in several cities led by Chinese government may not be the optimal choice. (2) The subsidies for recyclers have insignificant impact on recovery rate, while the subsidies for biofuel enterprises can significantly improve the recovery rate. (3) Decreasing difficulty coefficient and expanding the market size can greatly improve the recovery rate. Therefore, reforming the beneficiary of subsidies, improving the recycling infrastructure, implementing strict technical and administrative control and creative sales policy of biofuel finished products may benefit the recovery rate in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, the International Maritime Organization has adopted technical and operational measures, and discussed the possibility of adopting market-based measures. China, Japan and South Korea are major shipbuilding nations in the world, and have differing responses towards the IMO's regulatory initiatives. This paper conducts a comparative assessment of these three countries' positions on regulatory principles of the greenhouse gas issue, and concludes that their differentiated perspectives on this matter reflect their different regulatory interests. It is significant to take their differentiated interests into account in the developing regulatory regime to avoid disproportionate burdens being placed on certain countries, in particular developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu, or Senkaku, Islands in the East China Sea has flamed up between China and Japan. This conflict deserves further attention because of its potential of being the spark to unleash a Sino-Japanese firefight. However, this was not the first time the two Northeast Asian great power rivals have at least verbally fought over who is the rightful owner to the resource-rich archipelago and surrounding waters. The controversy can be traced from post-World War II, over the 1970s and 1990s, to today. The entire process of this largely verbal fistfight can be best understood through the Copenhagen School's securitization and de-securitization concepts. Japan, being in the role of the administrator, naturally more often desecuritized the issue in the past than did China, while China mostly strategically securitized the dispute. For the current round of escalation over the dispute, interestingly, Japan acted as initial securitizing actor. This paper aims to contextualize the instances in which the territorial dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands has been either securitized or desecuritized by either party. The analysis adds nuances to securitization theory, especially concerning the role of societal uprisings in securitizing a dispute such as the one at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine Chinese agricultural labor migrants' experiences in rural Japan. The research is based on multi-sited ethnography, mainly in Kawakami, a village located in central Japan, from July to November 2012. I go beyond the labeling of Chinese migrants as passive victims of difficult work conditions and exploitation, which pervades much of the literature on international migration, and argue that Chinese peasant workers possess an agency to negotiate, navigate, and survive in the village. The strategy they take is to contest over local institutions to build up their own 'places,' where they can find provisional security, a sense of relief, and mutual support. These 'places' further facilitate the formation of the social networks among the workers, although this is officially repressed by the dominant society. A functioning social network plays a significant role to help workers adapt, overcome difficulties, and exercise their agency in a more effective way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the statistical law of fire attendance time and analyzes the correlation between fire attendance time and burned area based on the urban fire statistical data of Japan from 1995 to 2003 and in Jiangxi Province (China) from 2000 to 2010. The frequency of fire attendance time was better modeled by a lognormal distribution, and the probability density function for both Japan and China were formulated. The expectation of the lognormal distribution reflects the average level of fire attendance time. This study is the first to report that the distribution law of the burned area in each fire attendance time observes power function. And they are valid within 12 min of fire attendance time. The larger absolute value of the exponent of the power law function subjects to the larger probability of small-scale fire and the smaller probability of large-scale fire. It decreases as the fire attendance time increases. This indicates that the fire control ability becomes poor with longer fire attendance time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]