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The article presents information about the monetary changes that influenced Japan's economic conditions from 1871 to 1897. It discusses the adoption of gold standard in 1871, influence of Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 on paper currency, and changes in the value of silver against gold, in Japan. The base of the modern monetary system traces its foundation in the government ordinance issued in 1869. The ordinance was aimed at establishing a mint in Osaka to coin yen. It is told that the restoration in 1868 led to low quality currency paper in the country.

KAGRA, the kilometer-scale underground gravitational-wave detector, is located at Kamioka, Japan. In April 2020, an astrophysics observation was performed at the KAGRA detector in combination with the GEO 600 detector; this observation operation is called O3GK. The optical configuration in O3GK is based on a power-recycled Fabry–Pérot–Michelson interferometer; all the mirrors were set at room temperature. The duty factor of the operation was approximately 53%, and the displacement sensitivity was approximately 1 × 10−18  |${\rm m}/\sqrt{\rm {Hz}}$| at 250 Hz. The binary-neutron-star (BNS) inspiral range was about 0.6 Mpc. The contributions of various noise sources to the sensitivity of O3GK were investigated to understand how the observation range could be improved; this study is called a "noise budget". According to our noise budget, the measured sensitivity could be approximated by adding up the effect of each noise. The sensitivity was dominated by noise from the sensors used for local controls of the vibration isolation systems, acoustic noise, shot noise, and laser frequency noise. Further, other noise sources that did not limit the sensitivity were investigated. This paper provides a detailed account of the KAGRA detector in O3GK, including interferometer configuration, status, and noise budget. In addition, strategies for future sensitivity improvements, such as hardware upgrades, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the use of seismicity data on a single-station basis in site response characterization. We train a supervised deep-learning model, SeismAmp, to recognize and separate seismic site response with reference to seismological bedrock (VS  = 3.45 km s−1) in a broad frequency range (0.2–20 Hz) directly from single-station earthquake recordings (features) in Japan. Ground-truth data are homogeneously created using a classical multistation approach—generalized spectral inversion at a total number of 1725 sites. We demonstrate that site response can be reliably separated from single-station seismograms in an end-to-end approach. When SeismAmp is tested at new sites in both Japan (in-domain) and Europe (cross-domain), it achieves the lowest standard deviation among all tested single-station techniques. We also find that horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) is not the optimal use of single-station recordings. The individual components of each record carry salient information on site response, especially at high frequencies. However, part of the information is lost in HVSR. SeismAmp could lead to improved site-specific earthquake hazard prediction in cases where recordings are available or can be collected at target sites. It is also a convenient tool to remove repeatable site effects from ground motions, which may benefit other applications, for example, improving the retrieval of seismic source parameters. Finally, SeismAmp is trained on data from Japan, future studies could explore transfer learning for practical applications in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peak ground acceleration (PGA) is a key parameter used in earthquake early warning systems to measure the ground motion strength and initiate emergency protocols at major projects. The traditional P -wave peak displacement-dependent PGA prediction model (Pd-PGA model) tends to underestimate the PGA for large earthquakes because it cannot make full use of the fault continuity rupture information hidden in the time-varying process of ground motion. In this paper, a continuous PGA prediction long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model is proposed. The model takes eight sequential features of stations that are proxies of the energy and other physical parameters as input and provides the recorded PGA at the station as the target output. A total of 5961 records from 119 earthquakes recorded by the Japanese Strong-Motion Earthquake Network (K-NET) in Japan are used to train the neural network and 3433 records from 73 earthquakes are used as the test set to verify the model's generalization ability. The results show that within the same data set, the residuals of the predicted PGA for the proposed model are smaller than those of the Pd-PGA model and that the problem of PGA underestimation is resolved. The prediction accuracy also improves with increasing sequence length, which indicates that the LSTM neural network learns the rules hidden in the time series. To further verify the model's generalization ability, the model performance is analyzed for an M 7.3 earthquake that was not included in the training or test data sets. The results show that the residuals of the predicted PGA for the event are consistent with those for the test data set, indicating that the model has good generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes different forms of ownership across countries and how these forms influence the way companies are governed. In most stock markets in the world, listed companies frequently have a controlling shareholder, usually a family. However, Japan, the UK, and to a lesser extent the US, are exceptions. In these three countries, ownership is frequently highly fragmented, where share stakes are held by different institutional owners, including asset managers, both active and passive, and by shareholder activists. The paper focuses in particular on the governance structure of different institutional shareholders, how they engage with target firms, and their effectiveness. The paper concludes with recommendations for regulators to enhance different forms of ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recovery of ground displacements from strong motion accelerographs alone is still performed in an empirical way. This paper starts with a theoretical description of strong motion instruments. Then, based on observations from the non-tilt 2-D shake table tests, this paper proposes a baseline correction procedure with a cumulative correction pattern. The procedure is validated by recorded displacements of the shake tables. The paper also extends the baseline correction procedure to deal with 3-D strong motions by introducing a tilt correction pattern. The results from the proposed baseline correction procedure are compared with those from an existing empirical baseline correction procedure as well as nearby GPS measurements. The accuracy of the proposed procedure is studied considering 41 accelerographs and the corresponding GPS stations that recorded the 2011 M w 9.0 Tohoku earthquake in Japan. We find that the corrected displacements from recorded accelerations alone are not always consistent with the GPS measurements. In this specific Tohoku event of which the primary direction of motion was eastward, the ground displacements derived from strong motion stations using the proposed baseline correction procedure achieve the best agreement in the east–west direction. Meanwhile, the proposed procedure is computationally efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses events in financial markets since the 2008 financial crisis in both the developed and the developing worlds, giving especial attention to the processes of 'financialisation'. Its main conclusion is that we are paying the price (a huge one) for two related phenomena. The first relates to the failure of economic theory since the 1970s, especially (although not only) of the mainstream type, to really take on board those developments in the world of international finance that 'did not fit in their models' (such as the 1970s stagflation; Volker's subsequent radical monetarist recession; the 'savings and loan' debacle following Reagan's financial liberalisation and deregulation―policies reinforced in the 1990s; the inability of both monetarists, and traditional Keynesian policies to revert Japan's 'lost decade'; and the 'endogenous' nature of the 2008 financial crisis). Basically, economic theory has failed to reinvent itself when needed as it did after the 1930s crash. The second, in turn, relates to the fact that rocketing the net worth of a few individuals was a rather odd way to reactivate fragile economies after the 2008 crisis and the 2020 pandemic. But when rentier agents were allowed to become 'too-large-to-be-challenged', it was likely that these newly (and artificially) created 'whales' would capture policy-making and take it in this direction―leaving the politicians and central bankers to tell stories explaining why the very rich should become the biggest welfare recipients of all time. As one group of Native Americans used to say, 'Those who are better at storytelling will dominate the world'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the intranational business cycle—that is the set of regional (prefectural) business cycles—in Japan. One reason for choosing to examine the Japanese case is that long time series of relatively detailed data are available. A Hodrick-Prescott filter is applied to identify cycles in annual data from 1955 to 1995 and bilateral cross-correlations of prefectural GDPs are calculated for all pairs of prefectures, in our results we find fairly high cross-correlations. The paper then turns to an econometric explanation of the cross-correlation coefficients in the augmented gravity model framework. Two prefectures with similar GDPs and a shorter distance between them lead to business cycle synchronization whilst those with larger regional gaps in factor endowments (capital, labour, and human capital) result in more idiosyncratic business cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical origin and diffusion of management practices. Despite their centrality in modern world, the concepts of 'management' developed fairly recently. Only with the Industrial Revolution, due to the increased firm size, owners needed a management structure to coordinate activities across different plants. Management soon became the subject of numerous studies in economics, sociology, and psychology to maximize firm productivity. The first large-scale programme of management practices diffusion was developed in the US during the Second World War: offering such training to US firms involved in war production boosted their performance for at least 10 years. After the Second World War, the US exported its management principles to Europe, where they have large and persistent effects on small firm productivity, and to Japan, where they interacted with the local economic conditions and originated the 'kaizen Japanese management', which aims at 'continuous improvement' in firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an efficient approach to high-resolution time-reversal source imaging simulation. Dense seismograph network records are backpropagated from stations to the hypocentre through a 3-D subsurface structure model to estimate the initial source wavefield at the earthquake initiation time. By assimilating high-density observational data into the time-reversal wave propagation, a clearer source image can be determined, even for deep and distant earthquakes, than is achievable with conventional source imaging. The effectiveness of data-assimilation-based source imaging by a time-reversal wave propagation simulation with a 3-D heterogeneous structural model was demonstrated using recordings from a nationwide strong-motion seismograph network during the 2007 Off Niigata, Japan, M w 6.6 earthquake, and the 2007 Off Ibaraki, Japan, M w 6.8 earthquake. Such data-assimilated-based simulations are also effective for early forecasting of strong ground motions caused by large earthquakes through fast time-advancing simulations based on the current assimilated wavefield. We will discuss the feasibility of a disaster prevention system for the early forecasting of strong motion disasters due to large earthquakes, based on repeatedly estimating source parameters and forecasting strong motions in future time based on the current assimilated wavefields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article takes a look at the American attitudes toward Japan and China in 1937-38. The Chinese Cultural Society of New York published in October 1937 a reprint of 39 editorials from American papers on the Far Eastern crisis. The editor, M. Hsitien Lin wrote in the foreword "Of some 5,000 editorials which have been examined, there is none that justifies Japanese aggression or condemns Chinese resistance. In the American press Japan is almost universally treated as the aggressor and China as the victim in the undeclared war. As to American policy, the press generally favors neither extreme isolationism nor political entanglements or alliances, but a golden mean, whereby world peace, it is hoped, may be maintained." The present study is designed to test the validity of this impression as well as to test the utility of a method of attitude measurement by press sampling. It is impossible here to enter into a discussion of the relationship between beliefs as to facts and emotional attitudes such as are measured by the indices used, except to suggest that attitudes, which are at first accompanied by emotions, may in time become beliefs regarding "facts" which are taken for granted.

Carbohydrates are the major source of dietary energy, but their role in health and disease remains controversial. Recent epidemiological evidence suggests that the increased consumption of carbohydrates is associated with obesity and increased risk of mortality and dietary trials show that carbohydrate restriction leads to weight loss and improved glycaemic status in obese and diabetic subjects. In contrast, the diets of populations with long and healthy lifespans (e.g. traditional Okinawans from Japan) are high in carbohydrate and low in protein, and several clinical and preclinical studies have linked low-carbohydrate–high-protein diets with increased mortality risk. In this paper we attempt to reconcile these contradictory findings by moving beyond traditional single-nutrient analyses to consider the interactions between nutrients on health outcomes. We do so using the Geometric Framework (GF), a nutritional modelling platform that explicitly considers the main and interactive effects of multiple nutrients on phenotypic characteristics. Analysis of human data by GF shows that weight loss and improved cardio-metabolic outcomes under carbohydrate restriction derive at least in part from reduced caloric intake due to the concomitantly increased proportion of protein in the diet. This is because, as in many animals, a specific appetite for protein is a major driver of food intake in humans. Conversely, dilution of protein in the diet leverages excess food intake through compensatory feeding for protein ('protein leverage'). When protein is diluted in the diet by readily digestible carbohydrates and fats, as is the case in modern ultra-processed foods, protein leverage results in excess calorie intake, leading to rising levels of obesity and metabolic disease. However, when protein is diluted in the diet by increased quantities of less readily digestible forms of carbohydrate and fibre, energy balance is maintained and health benefits accrue, especially during middle age and early late-life. We argue that other controversies in carbohydrate research can be resolved using the GF methodology in dietary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the causal effect of the voluntary contributions of labour to local services, in the form of voluntary provision of daily care to the elderly, on elderly mortality. To identify the causal effect, I exploit the earthquake that occurred in mid-western Japan in 1995 as a natural experiment inducing exogenous variation in the level of contributions. Based on a comparison of mortality between the municipalities that recorded little or no loss of life due to the earthquake but experienced a sharp increase in the level of contributions, and the nearby municipalities that were not hit by the earthquake, I find that the voluntary provision of daily care to the elderly significantly reduced elderly mortality. A series of robustness checks and falsification exercises are conducted to confirm that the results are not driven by the direct effects of the earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slip on major faults primarily occurs during ‘characteristic’ earthquakes. The recurrence statistics of characteristic earthquakes play an important role in seismic hazard assessment. A major problem in determining applicable statistics is the short sequences of characteristic earthquakes that are available worldwide. In this paper, we introduce a rescaling technique in which sequences can be superimposed to establish larger numbers of data points. We consider the Weibull and log-normal distributions, in both cases we rescale the data using means and standard deviations. We test our approach utilizing sequences of microrepeaters, micro-earthquakes which recur in the same location on a fault. It seems plausible to regard these earthquakes as a miniature version of the classic characteristic earthquakes. Microrepeaters are much more frequent than major earthquakes, leading to longer sequences for analysis. In this paper, we present results for the analysis of recurrence times for several microrepeater sequences from Parkfield, CA as well as NE Japan. We find that, once the respective sequence can be considered to be of sufficient stationarity, the statistics can be well fitted by either a Weibull or a log-normal distribution. We clearly demonstrate this fact by our technique of rescaled combination. We conclude that the recurrence statistics of the microrepeater sequences we consider are similar to the recurrence statistics of characteristic earthquakes on major faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of determining the dislocation Love numbers using GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) data and calculating the corresponding Green's functions is presented in this paper. As a case study, we derive the dislocation Love number h of vertical displacement by combining 1232 onshore GPS data and 7 GPS-Acoustic data with the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake (M w 9.0). Three fault-slip distributions are used to compare and verify the theory and results. As the GPS stations are only located in Japan Island and along the Japan trench, we use the theoretical vertical displacements of a spherically layered Earth structure to constrain the low-order signal. The L-curve and an a priori preliminary reference skill are applied in the inversion method. Then, the GPS-observed vertical displacement changes are used to invert for the vertical displacement dislocation Love numbers h based on three different fault-slip models. Our results indicate that the estimated dislocation Love numbers |$h$| fluctuate significantly from the earth model (i.e. the preliminary reference earth model), especially for the |$h_{n1}^{32}$| component, and these changes in |$h_{n2}^{12}$| and |$h_{n0}^{33} - h_{n0}^{22}$| are relatively small. The vertical displacements derived from the inversion results agree well with the GPS vertical observations. The inverted dislocation Love numbers are considered to profile the regional structure which differs from the mean 1-D heterogeneous structure of the Earth, and the corresponding Green's functions of four independent dislocation sources describe a more reasonable seismic deformation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earthquake swarms in the area east of the Izu Peninsula, Central Japan have been active and have been repeated intermittently since 1978 after 40 years of quiescence. The activities were always accompanied by crustal deformations, which were well modelled by dyke intrusions. To study the process ora dyke intrusion, precise hypocentres of the latest activity occurring in 1998 are obtained in this paper using waveform similarity, by which new images of volcanic processes have been successfully acquired at several volcanoes. The relocated hypocentres are mainly aligned on a thin vertical plane with a circular shape at a depth of 3-7 km, and there is an aseismic area at the centre. The normal direction to the plane coincides well with the direction of tectonic extensional stress around the hypocentral area and matches theoretical models well. At the beginning of the activity, a small fraction of the events occurred at greater depth, where hypocentres align on a vertical line and migrate upward at a rate of 1 km h[sup -1]. The migration rate in this stage agrees well with a theoretical model of buoyancy-driven dyke propagation. After 1 day from the beginning, earthquakes began to occur around the aseismic area, and hypocentres spread on the thin circular plane described above. During this activity, the hypocentres seemed to migrate downwards and upwards from the centre. The earthquakes are caused by shear fracture at the tip of the dyke and the migration of hypocentres reflects that the dyke expands downward and upward from the neutrally buoyant layer that is located at the centre of the swarm. In this paper, we also propose a process of magma intrusion based on the precise migration of hypocentres, and show that the 1998 activity is composed ora few simple volcanic processes: magma rising by buoyancy, it staying at a neutral buoyancy point and spreading outward from the neutral point with elastic fracture by an inside excess magma pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has long been a conventional understanding that mass communication studies in Japan started with the introduction of theories of mass communication from the USA in the 1950s. However, as this paper demonstrates, a new academic paradigm, ‘newspaper studies’ (shinbungaku) had begun to take shape as early as the 1920s. At first the infant discipline occupied a very marginal position in mainstream academia, but as Japan prepared for war during the 1930s, giving information increasing strategic importance, these early media studies became associated with the state's mobilization for total war. This paper identifies three competing perspectives in pre‐war newspaper studies: an empiricist‐historical perspective, a constructionist perspective, and a Marxist perspective. It then demonstrates how the second perspective transformed itself into a logic of propaganda, and joined hands with ultra‐nationalism. The paper concludes by arguing that the parameters of the discursive space concerning mass media in the 1920s and 1930s survived to the post‐war era. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present an automated radar data analysis algorithm developed to calculate probability distributions of meteor- and meteoroid parameters for head echoes detected with the Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU) radar in Shigaraki, Japan. The algorithm utilizes direct Monte Carlo simulations of uncertainties, with Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo estimation of meteor model parameters and N -body propagation of distributions to perform orbit determination. The implementation has been validated using raw data simulations and a comparison with previous analysis methods. The concepts are applicable on a wide range of possible head echo measurements with other radar systems. The generated probability distributions provide quantitative reliability, which enables improved statistical studies and investigating the origins of detected meteoroids. The methodology section is highly detailed in order for the methods to be reproducible and provide a solid reference foundation for future studies. One such study is presented in a companion paper called 'High-altitude meteors detected by the interferometric MU radar'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: To rapidly and accurately provide alerts at target sites near the epicentre, we develop an on-site alert-level earthquake early warning (EEW) strategy involving P -wave signals and machine-learning-based prediction equations. These prediction equations are established for magnitude estimation and peak ground velocity (PGV) prediction accounting for multiple feature inputs and the support vector machine (SVM). These prediction equations are called SVM-M model for estimating magnitude and SVM-PGV model for predicting PGV, respectively. According to comparison between the predicted magnitude and PGV values with the predicted threshold values (M = 5.7 and PGV = 9.12 cm s–1, respectively), different alert level (0, 1, 2, 3) is issued at the different recording site when the predicted magnitude or PGV values exceed the given threshold values. Alert level 3 means that both the predicted magnitude and the predicted PGV exceed a given threshold, and there may be serious damage in this recording site. We apply the method to three destructive earthquake events (M ≥ 6.5) occurred in Japan, and our results indicate that with regard to the performance of SVM-PGV model for predicting PGV, at 3 s after P -wave arrival, the percentage of successful alarms (SAs) for these three events is higher than 95, 73 and 94 per cent, respectively, and the percentage of false alarms approaches 0. Additionally, with regard to the performance of SVM-M model for estimating magnitude, at 3 s after P -wave arrival, the percentage of SAs for these three events exceeds 95 per cent, and the percentage of missed alarms approaches 0. Moreover, almost all stations in the areas PGV ≥ 16 cm s–1 (IMM ≥ VII) near the epicentre issue alert level 3. The proposed method provides potential applications in EEW system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An original version of the paper was presented at the Twentieth Annual Rokko Conference (July 1982) in Kobe, Japan. The author is thankful to Bela Balassa, Carl Christ, Louis Maccini, Jürg Niehans, Daniel Nolle, Hugh Rose, Peter Sinclair, Kazuo Ueda, Steven Vaughan, and an anonymous referee for helpful conversations and comments on earlier drafts He is, of course, solely responsible for any errors and deficiencies that may remain in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to explore whether lagged variables that help predict stock returns are merely proxying for mis-measured risk. Therefore, three different ways of measuring risk are employed (i.e. semi-parametric, GARCH and lagged squared returns). In an application to Japanese data, four key predictor variables are shown to have non-trivial additional forecasting power irrespective of how we measure risk. Interestingly, unlike the U.S., the level of the lagged dividend yield is not positively correlated with returns in either Japan or South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from dense seismic arrays allow nowadays to map directly the radiation of the seismic source in space. However, the main features observed on these maps are usually linked to the propagation, its attenuation and some site effects. Only few parameters like the magnitude or fault extension may be inferred through the shape and the size of the epicentral area. In this work, we propose a new strategy able to produce fast qualitative maps, 'Sourcemaps', that highlight directly some basic characteristics of the seismic source. They are based on a parameter which is robust and fast to compute with a minimal processing: the displacement response spectrum (DRS) computed at low frequency. In order to highlight the source effects, we correct the DRS by the geometrical spreading. We have applied this strategy to some earthquakes occurred in Japan in the last 25 yr using K-NET/KiK-net data. In these examples, we show that the source parameters such as the focal mechanism (nodal planes) and the directivity may be clearly seen on the Sourcemaps. Some site effects at large scale are still visible. The strategy proposed in this work is completely automatic without the need of a visual inspection of the input data. Thus it provides a robust assessment of key parameters of the source. We suggest a systematic computation of these 'Sourcemaps' after each event inside a dense network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an open letter published in 2002 in the "New York Times", 21 distinguished scientists criticized Japan's program of scientific research whaling, noting its poor design and unjustified reliance upon lethal sampling. In a Forum article in "BioScience," Aron, Burke, and Freeman castigate the letter's signers and accuse them of meddling in political issues without sufficient knowledge of the science involved in those issues. As members of the Scientific Committee (SC) of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), we can attest that the signers of the open letter correctly summarized criticisms made by researchers very familiar with Japanese scientific whaling. One such critique was presented and discussed last year at a meeting of the SC. It was authored by SC members representing a broad range of countries, yet mention of this paper and others like it was absent from Aron and his colleagues' commentary, betraying a selectiveness that pervades their article. The authors quote lines from SC reports to support their contention that the IWC regards scientific whaling as valuable, but they fail to acknowledge many other sections that are highly critical of the Japanese program. Japan's scientific whaling program in the North Pacific (JARPN) was originally described as a feasibility study, but it included no performance measures by which to judge its success or failure. Fundamental problems of the JARPN II study include a lack of testable hypotheses or performance measures; inappropriate use of ecosystem models and failure to include sensitivity analyses and key data on other ecosystem components; selective or inappropriate use of data or methods in estimating whale abundance; unnecessary reliance on lethal sampling; inappropriate geographic sampling for population structure analysis; and unrealistic assessments of the effect of the proposed catches on the populations concerned.

In this study, numerical investigation is performed on a realistic source-to-site earthquake scenario, with the aim to assess the role of complex 3-D geological structures on the predicted wavefield.With this respect, the paper pointedly targets the seismic response of nuclear power plants in near-field conditions and the verification of some simplified assumptions commonly adopted for earthquake ground motion prediction and site effects analysis. To this purpose, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant (Japan) is assumed as reference case-study. In 2007, the nuclear site and its surroundings were struck by the Niigata-Ken Chūetsu-Oki seismic sequence, which caused some of the peak ground motion design limits to be largely overpassed. The dense observation network deployed at the site recorded a highly incoherent and impulsive earthquake ground motion. Many studies argued that the intricate synclineanticline geology lying underneath the nuclear facility was highly responsible of the observed seismic response. Therefore, a physics-based numerical model of the epicentral area is builtup (≈60 km wide) and tested for small aftershocks, so to discount the effect of extended source on the synthetic site-response. The numerical model (based on the Spectral Element Method) reproduces the source-to-sitewave propagation by embracing the effects of the surface topography along with the presence of the Japan Sea (i.e. the bathymetry, the coastline and the fluid--solid interaction). Broad-band (0-5 Hz) synthetic waveforms are obtained for two different aftershocks, located at the two opposite sides of the nuclear facility, aiming to assess the influence of the incidence angle the radiated wave field impinges the foldings beneath it. The effect of the folding presence is assessed by comparing it to a subhorizontally layered geology, in terms of numerical outcome, and by highlighting the differences with respect to the observations. The presence of an intricate geology effectively unveils the reason behind the observed ground motion spatial variability within a relatively small area, stressing its crucial role to properly reproduce the modification the wavefield undergoes during its propagation path towards the surface. The accuracy of the numerical exercise is discussed along with its results, to show the high-fidelity of these deterministic earthquake ground motion predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is now a well-recognized indication for liver transplantation. This paper reviews existing literature on living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for ALD and presents data from a single, high volume United States liver transplant center. Methods: For the literature review, a PubMed search was undertaken using the search terms 'living donor' and 'alcoholic liver disease'. Studies were included that presented outcome data for patients who underwent LDLT for ALD. For the single-center data collection, all patients who underwent LDLT from 2003 to 2016 at our center were reviewed and the data for recipients with ALD was subsequently analyzed and compared with those patients who underwent LDLT for other indications. Results: Of 110 studies that resulted from the PubMed query, only 5 contained data that was relevant to this manuscript. These studies represented data collected from two Asian countries: one single center in Korea and a collection of centers in Japan. The relapse rate following LDLT for ALD ranged from 7.9% to 22%, and pre-transplant abstinence did not impact post-transplant relapse in any of these studies. For the single-center data, of 136 LDLT performed at our institution during the time period, 22 were performed for ALD. There was no difference in 1- or 5-year survival between patients transplanted for ALD and those transplanted for other etiologies (94.7% vs. 93.4%, P = 0.79 and 78.9% vs. 87.5%, P = 0.6). Conclusion: There is a very limited amount of data available on LDLT for ALD. Existing data suggests that LDLT for ALD results in excellent outcomes. Short Summary: Published data on living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) for alcoholic liver disease (ALD) are limited. One- and five-year survival rates range from 82% to 100% and 78% to 87%, respectively. Rates of alcohol relapse following transplant appear low, ranging from 7% to 23%; 6-month abstinence periods prior to LDLT for ALD do not appear to have a significant impact on relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out theory and measurement of how intangible investment might capture innovation and what data on intangibles look like for the EU, Japan, and the US. We also look at complementarities between information and communications technology (ICT) and intangibles, spillovers from intangibles to growth, and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary The Great Recession triggered a resurgence of short-time work (STW) throughout the OECD. Several countries introduced STW from scratch or significantly expanded the scope of the programmes already in place. In some countries like Italy, Japan and Germany between 2.5% and 5% of the workforce participated in STW schemes at the trough of the recession. In this paper we analyse the rationale for STW benefits and their effects on labour adjustment from both a cross-country and a time-series perspective. We find that STW actually contributed to reduce job losses during the Great Recession. However, the number of jobs saved, according to our macroeconomic and microeconomic estimates, is smaller than the number of participants in these schemes and the full-time equivalent jobs involved, pointing in some countries to sizeable deadweight costs. Other institutions, like plant-level bargaining over hours, wages and employment levels, may be more effective than STW in encouraging adjustment along the intensive margins in the presence of temporary shocks. Our results also suggest that STW cannot be readily extended to countries having much different institutional configurations as the demand for STW is very much affected by other institutions such as employment protection legislation and the degree of centralization of collective bargaining. Furthermore, STW must be temporary as during upturns may actually negatively affect employment. We also find that specific design features of STW - such as experience-rating and disincentives to 100% reductions in working hours - are important in improving the cyclical properties of STW. - Tito Boeri and Herbert Bruecker [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, where the population is aging at a speed unequaled by any other country in the world, there has been a rapid increase in the use of long-term care services, following the adoption of the Long-Term Care Insurance System. The increase is seen mostly in home-visit care services, and the need for such services is expected to increase even further in the years ahead. This paper reviews previous studies on long-term care insurance service market in Japan, focusing especially on home helpers. The first section of this paper introduces the framework of the Long-Term Care Insurance System and the current state of the long-term care insurance service market. The second section examines the systems and working conditions regarding home helpers. Finally, the third section analyzes the job performance skills of home helpers and development thereof. Through these observations, this paper aims to introduce the measures proposed to be effective for maintaining and improving the quality of long-term care services, and for consistent provision of such services, by focusing mainly on employment management that enables helper skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper empirically examines the determinants of non-employed young Japanese people, whose number increased from the 1990s to the beginning of the 2000s. Non-working unmarried persons aged 15–34, who do not attend school, are classified into three types: ‘job seekers’ (type 1), who search for jobs; ‘non-job seekers’ (type 2), who express a desire to work but do not search for jobs, and ‘non-job seekers’ (type 3), who express no desire to work. Those in type 2 and type 3, non-job seekers, are defined to be ‘NEET’ or ‘not in employment, education or training’. Multinomial logistic regression results show that young persons whose expected returns from working are low—such as females, older people, the less educated and the long-term jobless—tend to refrain from working and become non-job seekers. Moreover, there is evidence of an income effect that makes youths from wealthy families more likely to be type 3 non-job seekers. However, the number of jobless youths from lower-income households has been increasing and hence, the income effect on type 3 jobless has become less relevant recently. As a result, young, less-educated males from poor families in Japan have become more likely to lose interest in work rather than those in middle-income families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An analysis of the New Year's Day editorials in Asahi and Yomiuri Shinbun from 1953 to 2005 reveals postwar Japan's nationalism as consisting of a process of contestations and interactions between different nationalist groups (sub-nationalisms). In general, Asahi is held by the reading public to be liberal and left leaning, while Yomiuri is seen as conservative and right leaning. However, few content analyses have been done to clarify their ideological differences. The analysis here demonstrates that although Asahi has promoted anti-conservative pacifist views throughout the last four decades, it has also drawn from Japanese traditional culture and the national experience of the World War II to become ethnic nationalist. Yomiuri, on the other hand, endorsed ‘good nationalism’ based on the welfare state in the 1960s and 1970s, but since the 1980s has promoted neoconservative internationalist nationalism as a counterattack to anti-conservative pacifism and to remedy conservatives' high-growth economic policies. This paper argues that this seemingly odd inclusion of pacifism and internationalism into its sense of nationalism is a consequence of Japan's struggle to improve its international status, and that postwar Japan's nationalism is not composed of a single thread of ideas, but is a rich and complex tapestry that borrows from across the political spectrum to forge unique sub-nationalisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that differences between German and Japanese environmental politics during the 1990s are due to differences in the composition and working of the environmental policy-making networks in both countries. The main assumption is that the relatively proactive role of German environmental politics can be explained by a highly integrated pluralistic network, which includes all major actors in the environmental field. The paper explores this argument by focusing on the role NGOs play in the national environmental policymaking in Germany and Japan. It presents empirical data concerning the position of NGOs in the policymaking networks in both countries with regard to NGOs' resources and opportunities to shape environmental policies. The analysis of the data demonstrates that NGOs are still weak in the network in Japan while, in Germany, the big national NGOs are well integrated and are considered to play a significant role in the policy-making process. This comparison suggests that what accounts for their greatest difference is the availability of means of compensating for weak resources, which is considered to be much more favorable in Germany than in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 1997, the Japanese government revised the Bank of Japan Law, joining a cross-national trend towards increased central bank independence and transparency. This paper argues that the new law was significantly informed by political incentives created by an impending electoral crisis and policy constraints imposed by international financial market developments. After reviewing several alternative explanations for central bank reform, the paper proposes that the governing parties' strategic efforts to use central bank reform as a means to re-establish their domestic and international credibility best explains both the timing and the content of the new law. Given the domestic political and economic circumstances since revision, however, it is not surprising that, while the new law immediately increased the Bank of Japan's formal independence and transparency, it did not simultaneously increase the central bank's policy effectiveness or credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the persistent use of yagō, or house names, in one small agricultural township in northeastern Japan. In Tōwa-chō, yagō help differentiate local households by facilitating for families a distinctive identity and a historical continuity that helps them address change. One might have expected modernization to have rendered yagō obsolete. But to the contrary, ethnographic observation in Tōwa-chō reveals that yagō serve a myriad functions that are making their use more popular than ever. By analysing the history, development and contemporary use of yagō in this suburban Iwate prefecture farm community, this paper explains how house names help local residents to contest the anomie and social fragmentation that has become a part of their post-modern lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Employing a two‐level‐game framework, this paper examines Japanese participation in the negotiation process leading up to the 1988 Basle Capital Accord. The argument made here is that the Japanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) simultaneously pursued different international and domestic goals; moreover, the ministry assessed the outcomes of these negotiations as successful at the time. On the one hand, the ministry's international goal was to preserve the international competitiveness of Japanese banks. To this end, the MoF won a concession from its foreign counterparts. On the other hand, its domestic goal was to introduce statutory capital adequacy rules, which the ministry had been unable to put in place owing to opposition from banks. This study marks a departure from existing accounts that (1) treat Japan as a unified front merely seeking to gain an international competitive advantage for Japanese banks; and/or (2) emphasize market pressure as a driving force behind participation in an international regulatory regime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Stereotypical views of education in Japan have traditionally included an ‘examination hell’ among the key features of the system. However, two major modifications need to be made to that view. First, although competition for leading universities remains intense, overall entrance exams in Japan are not as competitive now as they used to be. This is because the declining birth rate is already feeding through to reduced numbers of candidates, while there has also been a marked increase in the number of higher education institutions and places for students. Secondly, the ‘examination hell’ is not only a feature of Japan, but may also be found in other East Asian countries, such as South Korea, China, Taiwan and Singapore. This paper focuses on Japan and South Korea and examines how the two systems go about ‘warming‐up’ students' educational aspirations, and then ‘cooling‐down’ those aspirations for those students who are unlikely to fulfil them. Some great differences emerge between these two ‘diploma disease’ societies of East Asia, and between the present‐day Japanese educational system and its traditional image. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explores how Maruyama Masao pursued his studies in Japanese intellectual history and cultivated his own perception of modernity and his image of Japanese intellectual history. He was an influential political scientist and intellectual in Japan who traced the development of modern counsciousness in Tokugawa Japan by studying the works of Confucian scholars and scholars of National Learning. He assimilated the principles of modern nationalism and pluralistic liberalism through the study of political thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Populations throughout the developed world are dramatically ageing owing to rapid declines in fertility and mortality. Providing long‐term care to the growing numbers of frail elderly people will be a vital public policy challenge in the decades ahead. Japan and Germany are among the few countries that have met this challenge by introducing comprehensive legislation directed at long‐term care. This paper reviews the differences between these Long‐term Care Insurance Laws, with a focus on the availability of a cash allowance for people receiving family‐based care. It reflects on the social, political and economic context of the laws, characterizes each system and points out the inherent difficulties on each side. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores developments in the business activities of the yakuza/bōryokudan (Japan's organized crime syndicates) following the end of the Shōwa period in 1989. Since then, the yakuza have had to contend with two events which have had profound effects on their economic environment: the collapse of Japan's bubble economy right at the beginning of the new era, and the introduction of the bōryokudan countermeasures law (Bōtaihō) in 1992. Whilst post‐bubble economic stagnation has deprived the yakuza of many lucrative opportunities, it has compensated them with others. The Bōtaihō, by imposing new restrictions on formerly legal yakuza activities, made these sources of income more costly and thereby similarly forced gang‐members to develop new sources of income. In particular, amphetamine dealing and organized theft rings have grown in response to the ‘double punch’ of the bubble and the Bōtaihō. The paper concludes by suggesting that the continuing economic hardship faced by the yakuza is weakening the intra‐ and inter‐organizational mechanisms by which they have tried to stabilize their world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Four years after the introduction of the euro, this paper provides an overview of the current structure and integration of the euro‐area financial systems and related policy initiatives. We first compare the euro‐area financial structure with those of the United States and Japan. Using new and comprehensive financial account data, we also describe how the euro‐area financial structure has evolved since 1995. We document the progress towards integration of the major euro‐area financial segments, namely money markets, bond markets, equity markets, and banking. Finally, we discuss recent policy initiatives aimed at further improving European financial integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of this article is to present a broad outline of studies on Japanese zaibatsu from the 1960s to the present day, viewed in the context of shifts in the post‐war Japanese economy. Research on zaibatsu constitutes one of the most substantial bodies of work in Japanese business history studies. In tracing its development the paper identifies three distinct peaks in research activity: in the second half of the 1960s, in the late 1970s to early 1980s, and in the first half of the 1990s. The first of these periods was marked by monopoly capital research that focused on the biggest zaibatsu, especially Mitsui; the second adopted the methods of business history and expanded the research focus to take in smaller zaibatsu and the so‐called ‘new‐wave zaibatsu’; the third sought to explicate connections between pre‐war zaibatsu and post‐war enterprise groups. From the mid‐1990s, however, Japan's prolonged recession and the accompanying pressures for economic structural reform brought a rapid cooling of interest in these representative institutions of the ‘old’ Japanese economy. The paper surveys these trends and introduces the latest research, with special reference to Mitsubishi, and suggests some possible paths along which zaibatsu research may develop in future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The past decade has seen a highly polarized debate concerning the Japanese fiscal system, particularly the role of income tax. Several authors argue that Japanese income tax is grossly unfair to low‐ and middle‐income taxpayers, while others depict it as the most progressive in the industrialized world. Indeed, many critics claim that it is too progressive, and some even denounce it as ‘socialist’. What is sorely lacking is an account that places contemporary Japanese taxation, and the larger fiscal system, in a comparative and historical context. That is what this paper offers. We argue that Japan's tax system is neither highly redistributive from the rich to the poor nor vice versa—at least in the traditional way that redistribution is understood in most Western tax systems. Rather, Japan stands out for the scale of its inter‐regional redistribution and the debilitating politico‐economic incentives that stem from it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the role of the zaibatsu holding company in corporate governance. Early in the 20th century, Japan's zaibatsu conglomerates introduced organizational innovation to deal with the problems attendant on growth and diversification. By the early 1920s, each zaibatsu had established a holding company, while it separated its various businesses into joint‐stock companies. The holding company of the zaibatsu monitored and audited affiliated companies, and controlled key business decisions, besides frequently dispatching directors to the affiliated companies. The efficacy of holding‐company governance is tested quantitatively, comparing ROE between zaibatsu affiliated firms and non‐zaibatsu firms, using panel data for 135 firms from 1922 to 1936. Controlling for the effects of company scale, industry‐specific shocks and macro‐shocks, it is found that zaibatsu‐affiliated firms clearly outperformed the other companies. This result supports the hypothesis that the zaibatsu holding company successfully played the role of monitoring the affiliated companies. Zaibatsu also disciplined non‐affiliated companies in the capital market, frequently executing takeovers, which contributed to restructuring the targeted companies and improving their performance. At a time when holding companies have just been legalized once more in Japan, the history of these pre‐war models represents an instructive precedent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents contradicting views on labor in contemporary Japan. One author commented on the treatment between regular and part-time employees and the concepts of equality and balance in employment. Another author agreed on the claim of an article about the issues of gender, age and status discrimination against female temporary service workers. A comment on insights about non-regular employment, women employees and employment practices changes is also presented.

This paper provides an alternative insight into Japan's current economic problems. We concentrate upon the role played by the economy's central actors, namely Japan's transnational corporations. Since the early 1980's, Japan's transnationals have become dominant players in the global economy, and now have a higher rate of physical investment in new, overseas greenfield sites than their competitions. This has had detrimental consequences for Japan's domestic economy, particularly for small firms who operate in keiretsu networks. This has led to concerns about the 'hollowing out' of Japan's domestic industry raising the possibility of long-term industrial decline and 'strategic failure.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two frequently encountered but underrecognized challenges for causal inference in studying the long-term health effects of disasters among survivors include 1) time-varying effects of disasters on a time-to-event outcome and 2) selection bias due to selective attrition. In this paper, we review approaches for overcoming these challenges and demonstrate application of the approaches to a real-world longitudinal data set of older adults who were directly affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (n  = 4,857). To illustrate the problem of time-varying effects of disasters, we examined the association between degree of damage due to the tsunami and all-cause mortality. We compared results from Cox regression analysis assuming proportional hazards with those derived using adjusted parametric survival curves allowing for time-varying hazard ratios. To illustrate the problem of selection bias, we examined the association between proximity to the coast (a proxy for housing damage from the tsunami) and depressive symptoms. We corrected for selection bias due to attrition in the 2 postdisaster follow-up surveys (conducted in 2013 and 2016) using multivariable adjustment, inverse probability of censoring weighting, and survivor average causal effect estimation. Our results demonstrate that analytical approaches which ignore time-varying effects on mortality and selection bias due to selective attrition may underestimate the long-term health effects of disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines and draws three conclusions from Japan's recovery in the 1946-50 period, and its 1951-55 transition to accelerated growth. The first conclusion is that intersectoral adjustment of production requires new capital investment in addition to reallocation of labour. The key is the reestablishment of production linkages through active investment rather than privatization of state enterprises and the reduction of inflation. The second conclusion is that the Japanese government was important in coordinating investment in both periods, but in different ways. In the recovery phase, policies such as directed credit and price controls were effective; and in the transitional phase, the industrial policy of coordinating strategic shifts in production technology was an effective method of intervention. The third conclusion is that stable corporate ownership and governance, and macroeconomic stability are crucial in the transitional and growth phases. This is because growth through imported technology depends upon learning, which requires long corporate time-horizons and effective mechanisms for risk-sharing. It must be noted, however, that Japan's transition from a wartime controlled economy was much easier than Eastern Europe's transition from central planning Privatization was not an important issue because Japan retained the capitalist system during wartime. So there was no need to build new capitalist institutions (like financial markets) in order to shift to a market-based system. Furthermore, it was not necessary for Japanese to learn how to use the market mechanism because the controlled economy lasted only nine years, from 1937 to 1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese labour market has worked quite well over recent decades, whereas the European economies have produced more and more unemployment. A popular hypothesis is that this difference can be attributed to unions. Which, in Europe, unions are strong and centralized and do not care about the individual firm, the Japanese unions are enterprise unions which deal directly with and understand the local management. Employers in Japan in tum consult unions and employees on all relevant management decisions. This corporatism finally ensures that workers are more motivated and have a higher productivity. It is the central conjecture of this paper that the presence of unions increases the 'voice' of the employees significantly. By using innovative new firm data, it is shown that this is actually the case. Hence, Japanese enterprise unions are not harmful, but foster information sharing, and contribute to the performance of the enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several hundred disease-causing mutations are currently known in domestic dogs. Breeding management is therefore required to minimize their spread. Recently, genetic methods such as direct-to-consumer testing have gained popularity; however, their effects on dog populations are unclear. Here, we aimed to evaluate the influence of genetic testing on the frequency of mutations responsible for canine degenerative myelopathy and assess the changes in the genetic structure of a Pembroke Welsh corgi population from Japan. Genetic testing of 5,512 dogs for the causative mutation in superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) (c.118G>A (p.E40K)) uncovered a recent decrease in frequency, plummeting from 14.5% (95/657) in 2019 to 2.9% (24/820) in 2022. Weir and Cockerham population differentiation (F ST) based on genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of 117 selected dogs detected the SNP with the highest F ST located in the intron of SOD1 adjacent to the c.118G>A mutation, supporting a selection signature on SOD1. Further genome-wide SNP analyses revealed no obvious changes in inbreeding levels and genetic diversity between the 2019 and 2022 populations. Our study highlights that genetic testing can help inform improved mating choices in breeding programs to reduce the frequency of risk variants and avoid inbreeding. This combined strategy could decrease the genetic risk of canine degenerative myelopathy, a fatal disease, within only a few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shinmoe-dake volcano started with three sub-Plinian eruptions from 26 to 27 January 2011, followed by a magma effusive stage from 28 to 31 January 2011, and Vulcanian eruptions occurred frequently during 1 to 10 February 2011. During the magma effusive and Vulcanian stages, multiple episodes of harmonic tremors were observed at stations near the summit crater. Although harmonic tremors have been observed at various volcanoes worldwide, the source mechanism remains poorly understood. This paper proposes a source model for harmonic tremors, which is composed of a non-linear viscous fluid flow in a flexible channel. A simple lumped parameter model is used to consider the process. The dynamics are described by a third-order system of ordinary differential equations using model variables for a cross-sectional area of the constricted segment and the fluid velocities in the upstream and downstream tubes. This model produces various kinds of trajectories for self-sustained oscillations that change the reservoir pressure connected on the upstream channel of the model. Linearization analysis around the stationary point and global analysis using nullcline planes reveal the mechanism of self-sustained oscillations of the system qualitatively. To consider both the frequency peaks of the harmonic tremor and the characteristics of observed phase spectra, the qualitative characteristics of an observed phase portrait are compared to those of a simulated one. This tremor model simulates the frequency peaks and the phase portraits of typical harmonic tremors observed during the 2011 Shinmoe-dake eruption. Because this model involves several geometrical configuration parameters, it has the potential to reveal the source mechanism of various kinds of harmonic tremors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]