Search

Given the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Japan is at a major point to reevaluate its policies on the public communication of science. However, the government's self-reflection on their measures and policies of science communication has been inadequate. This study reviewed and analyzed descriptions of science-related public communication in the successive Japanese white papers on science and technology (S&T) from 1958 to 2015 with quantitative-qualitative hybrid approaches. Traditional enlightenment activities have always been given higher priority, even after the S&T Basic Plan aimed at two-way science communication, and have used such justifications as "the shying-away of young people from S&T," "accountability for research investment," and "problem-solving on issues related to S&T and society," without considering the reality of science communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'China threat' has been identified as an important driver of Japan's security agenda and discourse. The threat posed by China has been discussed either as a given factor determining the trajectory of Tokyo's security approach, as a product of identity construction, or as an expression of securitizing processes that facilitate institutional and policy change. This paper contributes to this debate by offering an alternative explanation of the process through which the Abe government constructed China as a threat. Building on securitization theory, the paper examines the modes and strategies employed by the Abe Administration to successfully securitize China. The paper argues that, while Beijing was labeled a 'concern' rather than an 'existential threat,' it was still securitized through a process of securitization that involves an association with those domains in which China engages assertively, namely the maritime commons. The paper suggests calling this type of securitizing pattern 'transversal securitization' and explores how this indirect strategy allowed the Abe government to pragmatically pursue its objectives both domestically and at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on Chinese football fans' reactions to the Japanese national team and their fans' behaviour during the World Cup 2022. Despite the historical and contemporary problems that make friendly relations with Japan difficult to achieve, football fans in China largely welcomed the good performance of the Japanese national team. This attitude may be described as 'thin cosmopolitanism' because Chinese fans' major frame of reference was still nationalistic. For them, the impressive performance of the Japanese national team means that Asians and the 'yellow race people' can also play good football. However, the Japanese fans, whose cleaning up of stadia received wide coverage during the World Cup, were criticized by the Chinese fans who interpreted the Japanese fans' action as reinforcing the existing global racial order. The findings of this paper help reveal the limits regarding football's role in contributing to a more cosmopolitan worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, the so-called neoliberal-inspired transition generally refers to an ideological agenda. However, one should distinguish between neoliberal reforms carried out in accordance with a political agenda and the genuine local evolution of ideas based on the influence of foreign thinkers. By leveraging key notions such as 'individual responsibility' (jiko sekinin), 'self-help' (jijo), 'mutual aid' (kyōjo) and 'public aid' (kōjo), this paper accounts for older roots of Japanese-style neoliberalism. It highlights how, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, predating current liberal norms, certain notions preceded contemporary liberal ideas and served as a discursive framework, while others became intertwined with 'foreign' ideas as they permeated the political discourse. It illuminates how shorter-term politics characterized by conflicts of interest and political strategies fit within longer-term political notions and their ideological evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michael Rush sheds light on the Japanese 'Nordic Turn' in the family policy, including a father-friendly parental leave scheme after the 2000s in his work published in 2015. Despite this and the Japanese Government's apparent desire to encourage fathers to take parental leave, the policy does not seem effective as in Nordic countries. This paper examines what makes Japan's statutory parental leave scheme difficult to work like the ones in Nordic countries by analyzing the process of the amendments of the leave scheme after the 2014 amendment. The study pays particular attention to the views expressed by the various actors involved in the law-making process on the issue of the inconsistency between bonus months, which is a father quota, and the special extension of parental leave in case of no childcare place, and how this was reflected in the final bill. The paper reveals that the process was not confined to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare but was heavily influenced by the work of the Cabinet Office, project teams of the ruling party, and private groups promoting work-life balance measures. Partly because of this, the Japanese parental leave system has diverged significantly from the Nordic and German systems to which it was originally referred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the act of listening offered by active listening volunteers is a "gift" that requires reciprocity from elderly people. Active listening volunteers (keicho borantia) in Japan offer conversation and listening services for elderly people in local areas. Previous researchers investigate unsatisfying visits such as having boring conversations, and suggest the need for honing listening skills, or better pairing, and so on. This study, however, reveals that these solutions might not improve the situation, and, using participant observation and interviews, finds fundamental issues around reciprocity instead. First, and most importantly, volunteers do not realize that their listening functions as a "gift," which brings power dynamics, forcing elders either to stay as helpees, or to reciprocate. This paper, therefore, argues that even an act of listening in the field of volunteering can be perceived as a "non-free gift" by elderly people. Second, overemphasizing the importance of active listening obstructs reciprocity, letting volunteers cling to the role of listeners and helpers. In conclusion, this study suggests that volunteers need to understand three aspects: the importance of reciprocity; the fundamental power imbalance in caring activities; and the variety of reasons for elderly people to meet volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's war reparations began to be paid to Burma and the Philippines in 1956 and ended in 1976. Approximately 65 years have passed since the reparation payment began. The nature of Japan's Official Development Assistance, which has been based on economic infrastructure and prioritises Asia, began with war reparations. Although post-war reparations are relevant to Japan's economic statecraft, previous studies have analysed only the negotiation process for individual countries. No comprehensive historical analysis of war reparations has been conducted so far. This paper fills this gap by analysing the declassified materials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the state-of-the-art Japanese literature based on those materials. It also clarifies the characteristics of war reparations as part of Japan's Official Development Assistance by looking at the projects and goods paid by the reparations in each country. Furthermore, this paper challenges the conventional understanding of previous research on Japan's economic re-entry into Southeast Asia through reparations. The study concludes that reparations were unimportant in increasing Japan's exports to Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parallel with many other countries, the government of Japan has started to tackle coastal adaptations to climate change. In 2020, the national Basic Policy for Coastal Protection was revised to add the statement that coastal management should account for future changes in coastal hydrodynamic conditions due to climate change. Following this policy, the management body of each coast is requested to revise the Basic Plan for Coastal Protection by 2025. This paper first reviews the current legal frameworks and measures of coastal protection and conservation, such as disaster prevention and mitigation against stormy waves, storm surges and tsunamis, beach conservation, and maintenance of coastal protection facilities. Second, the paper outlines the recent actions taken for coastal adaptation to climate change. With example cases in Osaka and Tokyo bays, it is described how design conditions such as design waves and water levels should account for the influence of climate change. It is also described how adaptive beach management should be implemented accounting for projections of future beach changes. Finally, the paper discusses future challenges in coastal adaptation strategies to climate change in Japan, such as introduction of integrated coastal zone management and other potential options that have not been implemented in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most Japanese legal dramas feature a male protagonist as the hero, a significant amount of screen time is allocated to the courtroom heroine as well. This is in spite of statistics that show that women are still underrepresented in the Japanese legal profession. Surveying post-2000 Japanese legal television dramas reveals that televisual female legal professionals conform to two stock character types and corresponding narrative arcs: the rookie lawyer, and the elite but "fallen" lawyer. While most shows only feature one such heroine, Onna wa sore wo yurusanai (2014) features two, representing both types. This paper closely examines how the two stock characters are portrayed in this drama and the relevance of each to the larger narrative which reveals the difficulties female legal professionals face while navigating Japan's male-dominated legal domain. The paper concludes that the increasing presence of the heroine in legal dramas and her overall positive portrayal, reflects the Japanese government's goal of raising the number of legal professionals and women's participation in all public sectors by 2020, and also indicates changing attitudes on the part of Japanese society toward the need to give greater recognition and social acceptance to female legal professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to reinterpret asylum theory (1954) propounded by Ortwin Henssler (1923–2017) as a free-space theory of education, as a way of grasping the problematic nature of 'pedagogical protection.' The theoretical potential of Henssler's thought has been more appreciated, accepted, and developed in Japan than in his native Germany. First, I outline Henssler's theory of asylum and show how his theory has been received and developed in Japan, especially in the fields of historical researches. Secondly, I discuss the possibility of reading Henssler's thought of asylum as a theory of 'pedagogical protection.' Thirdly, I consider whether it is possible to interpret 'free space' in education based on the model of asylum. Finally, I delineate some prospects for and challenges involved in connecting the theory of asylum to the theory of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-band radar observations with a transmitting frequency of 9.4 GHz were conducted for over 10 h at the mouth of Tenryu River, Japan, to estimate surface velocity distributions during floods in 2010 and 2020 and analyse changes in the flow field caused by dredging in 2014. X-band radar is an imaging radar that can collect backscatter of floating objects flowing downstream with the flood flow every 2 s. The observation area extends approximately 1000 m × 1000 m. Particle image velocimetry is applied to the image sequences to guess the surface flow pattern. Flow direction in the main river channel changed smoothly, while surface flow speeds ranged from 1 to 3 m s–1 depending on the discharge. Water levels were computed using the estimated surface flow velocities, river cross-section from survey data, and observed discharge for indirect validation: it agreed within an error of 0.3 m with the observed water level. This paper highlights radar's potential for estimating surface velocity distribution during floods and harsh weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on migrants' experiences of moving house in the country of settlement, the study explores the housing pathways of Russian-speaking migrants in Japan over their life courses. This paper emphasizes the need for the anthropology of migration to consider not only the housing events but also the housing pathways experienced by cross-border migrants in receiving countries. It is argued that the act of moving from one accommodation to another plays a crucial role in how migrants develop their biographies and perceptions of self. In addition to investigating house relocation, the study borrows from the Russian formalist school of narratology to examine how migrants narrativize their experiences in stories that intertwine housing pathways and movers' identities. The study reveals how the instances of moving—and not necessarily the physical qualities of housing—emerge as dynamic forces that initiate migrants into their desired statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, young people are becoming increasingly apathetic about politics, while at the same time they are experiencing a rightward leaning and a growing sympathy for totalitarianism and authoritarianism. To understand this contradiction, we need to look at the digital communication environment in which they engage in political discourse. One of the most representative opinion leaders in this regard is Hiroyuki Nishimura. In recent years, Hiroyuki has become widely known as the 'King of Refutation' and is immensely popular among the young generation. He is very active in political and social issues, arguing in a logical and neutral manner. However, despite his enlightened mode of argumentation, his arguments have been perceived as accommodative to totalitarian and authoritarian perceptions. This paper argues that at the heart of this mode of refutation is a process of 'decontextualisation' and 'recontextualisation' which has resulted in reducing the complexity of the issue, making it comprehensible to the majority while oppressing minorities. And this mode of refutation and the processes of 'decontextualisation' and 'recontextualisation' are at the centre of the various digital communication platforms that he operates and that have become hubs of political communication around the world: 2channel, 4chan, Nico Nico Douga and YouTube clips. In this sense, the totalitarianism and rightward leaning of the young generation is not due to a specific ideology but is strongly conditioned by the communication environment. 'Communication totalitarianism' can be used to describe the totalitarianism and right-wing tendencies taking place in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by providing a history of Japanese law pertaining to special education and its change towards a more inclusive education with the ratification of United Nations Conventions of the Rights of People with Disabilities. With the changes in laws, more children with constant medical care needs in Japan have the opportunity to attend mainstream schools. The recent court case, Kosuge v. Kanagawa prefecture and Kawasaki city, ruled against a child with medical care needs to attend mainstream school and made the judgment that a special needs school (tokubetsushien gakkō) is the appropriate placement for the child based on the child's disability type and degree of disability rather than needs and regardless of the wishes of the child's parents. This paper explores the case judgement and discusses where Japanese special education laws fall short similar to that of the US system based on Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. We suggest the need to keep inclusion as the basic human rights aligned with the Article 24 of the UNCRPD rather than focusing on the continuum of education principle in IDEA, and operationalise the law into practice to make integration of children with disabilities, including children with constant medical care needs, into mainstream education schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights the papers presented at the 18th Symposium of the International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics held in Kanagawa, Japan on August 24-30, 2003. Vehicle body movement analysis with kinematical properties of suspension; Influence of roll on vehicle dynamics; Energy flow method for the analysis of effects of structural flexibility on motorcycle stability; Development of higher capacity freight bogies with low track forces.

The European Union-Japan political and international development dialogue is resurging through the Strategic Partnership Agreement recently agreed between the two actors. The current paper argues that in order for this agreement to deliver on its promises, the EU and Japan need to build on their similarities, but more importantly on their differences and lessons learnt through their distinct international experiences. While common values and norms have helped them to agree on such document, building on their differences will help both actors to make this bilateral dialogue more productive and strategic. Through the theoretical lenses of policy entrepreneurship used to consolidate knowledge for development on horizontal cooperation, the paper questions how sharing their experiences as international donors can be of strategic relevance for both the EU and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts agricultural protection of Japan and Korea with the West and identifies major differences between them. It characterizes agricultural protection of Japan and Korea (net heavy food importers) as "tariff-based and scarcity-sensitive" aimed at promoting survival and the West (net food exporters) as "subsidy-based and surplus-inducing" aimed at enhancing farm income. We then identify factors underlying the coevolution and divergence in the extent of agricultural trade liberalization between Japan and Korea since the launch of the Uruguay Round in 1986. Korea accepted deep cuts in agricultural tariffs in bilateral FTAs with the US and EU during the 2000s while Japan continued to protect farm interests by concluding low levels of FTAs with politically sensitive products excluded from tariff concessions. The two countries' stances reversed since 2013 with Japan becoming proactive in pursuing high levels of FTAs with major agricultural exporting countries and Korea decelerating its opening of agricultural markets. To explain such divergences, this paper develops a political economy framework in which the incumbent political leadership would consider both national interests and sectoral (farm as import competing industries and business/manufacturing as exporting industries) special interests. Our analysis shows that President Roh (2002–2007)'s embracing of neoliberal paradigm in formulating foreign trade policies that would promote national interests underlies the unprecedented level of agricultural trade liberalization in Korea during the 2000s, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's determination not to be outcompeted by the rising China and Korea's ambitious FTA strategies underlies Japan's proactive bilateral and mega-FTA drives since 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a project on singles' intimate practices conducted during COVID times as a case study of quantitative social research with a particular focus on qualitative reflections. We thematize the topic of self-reflexivity, which is considered an essential category in qualitative research but largely neglected in quantitative research. We discuss three methodological issues through the lens of self-reflection: 'translation issues'; the problems of asking 'sensitive' and the 'right' questions; and the problematics of 'the present' in particularly fluid times. We show that this approach promotes contextualization of the measurement tool, the data and the findings and can be a way for doing quantitative research on intimacy outside the 'standard' nuclear family in pandemic times. Overall, this paper underscores the ways that scholars as individuals and teams are inextricable from our research site, as we navigate disruption even while seeking to understand its implications on our informants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2011, the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommended reducing the occupational equivalent dose limit for the lens. Such a new occupational lens dose limit has thus far been implemented in many countries, and there are extensive discussions toward its regulatory implementation in other countries. In Japan, discussions in the Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) began in April 2013 and in Radiation Council in July 2017, and the new occupational lens dose limit was implemented into regulation in April 2021. To share our experience, we have published a series of papers summarizing situations in Japan: the first paper based on information available by early 2017, and the second paper by early 2019. This paper (our third paper of this series) aims to review updated information available by mid-2022, such as regarding regulatory implementation of the new occupational lens dose limit, recent discussions by relevant ministries based on the opinion from the council, establishment process of safety and health management systems, the JHPS guidelines on lens dose monitoring and radiation safety, voluntary countermeasures of the licensees, development of lens dose calibration method, and recent studies on exposure of the lens in nuclear workers and biological effect on the lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015 it has become clear that various manuscripts that once belonged to the Turgot family archive are missing. This paper reports on the recent recovery in Japan of photographs of some of these manuscripts and presents a case study of the images of the famous draft known as Valeurs et monnaies. It allows one to appreciate the practices of previous editors of Turgot's writings as well as the writing process of the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the admissions practices of an 'Elite Traditional International School' (ETIS) in a large city in Japan. The school is seeing falling enrolment from its traditional clients e.g.'transnational capitalist class' families working for Embassies and its alumnus, whilst attracting an emergent aspiring locally-based body of parents representative of a 'global middle class' likely seeking advantages, and a new, distinct identity. The resultant tension, between dealing with market-led change (reflecting the reality) and trying to maintain and protect legitimacy as an ideologically driven institution serving the privileged 'international community' (reflecting the vision), creates a platform (the nomos) for admission practices that are potentially biased and largely hidden. Utilising a methodology grounded in the work of Pierre Bourdieu we identify how the school adopts a number of 'unwritten rules', to 'guard the gate'. Moreover, the imagined 'international community' emerges as a major field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the way people communicate and convey information, particularly in public spaces. This paper investigates the use of language and signs in COVID-19-related directives in Japan from a pragmatic perspective. Using data collected through a linguistic landscape survey, the study qualitatively examines the use of politeness in linguistic formulation and the semiotic use of space through the combination of signs and objects. The analyses reveal the differences in politeness strategies used in top-down signs compared to bottom-up signs. Top-down signs, such as those produced by the government or large organizations, tend to use an invitation form and incomplete sentences, whereas bottom-up signs, created by individuals or small shops, often use more formal language and formulaic request expressions. The study highlights the role of addressers of bottom-up signs as "handlers" who play an active role in pragmatically utilizing space through the arrangement of semiotic signs. The study argues that a detailed linguistic and semiotic analysis is crucial in comprehending how meaning is co-constructed in the linguistic and semiotic landscape. This is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where clear and effective communication is of utmost importance in order to maintain public health and safety. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the use of language and signs in public spaces, and have implications for the development of effective communicative strategies in the context of the pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes previous studies of Palaeoloxodon naumanni, including stratigraphic distribution, chronology, morphological characteristics, taxonomy, habitat, and accompanying fauna. P. naumanni has been reported from over 300 sites on the Japanese Islands, ranging from 44° to 33° N latitude. Many of them have been dated by tephra stratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, or 14C dating. Based on the age-dated specimens, P. naumanni is thought to have lived in Japan from 340,000 to 26,000 years ago. Skeletal morphology of P. naumanni is well known. In particular, the skull has been identified as male and female. And the examination of the skulls indicate that Palaeoloxodon is an independent genus within Elephantinae, and also P. naumanni as an independent species within Palaeoloxodon. Based on the vegetation data obtained from P. naumanni localities and the co-existed animal species with P. naumanni indicate that it has inhabited mixed forests with deciduous broad-leaved trees and conifers in the temperate zone. During the latter half of the Late Pleistocene, when the mammoth fauna migrated southwards to Japan, the deciduous broad-leaved forests that were widespread in Honshu were inhabited by the fauna accompanied by P. naumanni. These two faunas repeatedly shifted north and south in response to global climatic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a new species of mite of the genus Myrmozercon Berlese in Japan. Females of a new species, Myrmozercon kishidai sp. nov., were collected clinging to Crematogaster teranishii Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). The new species is described and illustrated based on morphological characters of the adult female and compared with known congeners. This new species is the first record of Myrmozercon from Japan. In addition, an identification key to all known species of the genus is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital foodscapes not only transform our everyday relationships with food but offer creative and entrepreneurial opportunities. This paper works to expand the Anglo-American focus of digital foodscapes scholarship in analysis of Japanese Instagram food influencers and their relationship to gendered social reproduction. Japan's most prominent influencers are mothers documenting the bentos (boxed lunches) they prepare for their children, a meal suffused with socio-cultural meaning about good food and good mothering. I develop the concept of precarious digital mothering to examine the hidden, gendered labor created and magnified through Instagram bento accounts. I argue that the creative and entrepreneurial opportunities offered to women though Instagram are inseparable from the cultural meaning of bento as a judgment on good mothering and create a bind where digital success cannot occur without taking on additional domestic food work. Precarity is created both for the mothers who take on unpaid and unrecognized labor in the pursuit of Instagram success, and those who consume their content and the problematic narratives of food and motherhood it normalizes in its idealized and mediated performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of international finance for coal power plants have intensified since the 2015 Paris climate agreement was negotiated. Over the past few years, Japan and South Korea have signaled their intent not to fund new coal projects overseas, leaving China and its Belt and Road Initiative as the 'financier of last resort.' In September 2021, China too announced its intent to stop providing finance for overseas coal projects. What accounts for their decision to cease financing overseas coal projects despite prominent differences in political systems, degree of internationalization of their financial systems, and economic size? Drawing on datasets of coal projects and financing supplemented by case material and interviews, this paper explores the dynamics of coal export finance and how the combination of international reputational pressures and declining demand for coal finance diminished the domestic support for incumbent coal exporters in all three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A molecular phylogeny of Tinocladia and Eudesme based on specimens covering a large proportion of the known species was done using mitochondrial cox1 and cox3, chloroplast atpB, psaA, psbA and rbcL genes and 5.8S rDNA and its ITS2 region sequences. The phylogeny revealed a close phylogenetic relationship between the two genera and the occurrence of a cryptic species within the generitype T. crassa. Eudesme species (E. borealis, E. shandongensis and the generitype E. virescens) showed a sister relationship with the northern hemisphere Tinocladia (T. crassa, including a cryptic sister species T. pseudocrassa sp. nov., and T. sanrikuensis), whereas southern hemisphere Tinocladia (T. australis, T. falklandica, T. novae-zelandiae, and a cryptic species from New Zealand) nested in the Eudesme clade. Morphologically, Tinocladia species have been distinguished from Eudesme by their denser medullary filaments and more extensive subcortical layer, but our molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that these features do not correlate with genetic differences. The cox3 sequence divergence between northern hemisphere Tinocladia and the lineage that includes Eudesme and southern hemisphere Tinocladia was comparable to or smaller than those within selected ectocarpalean genera. We therefore propose to merge Tinocladia with Eudesme and resurrect Eudesme crassa (Suringar) Okamura for T. crassa. Although the two independent lineages of T. crassa do not show marked morphological differences, they are genetically isolated even in sympatric populations. We therefore propose to treat them as independent species. In this paper we neotypify Tinocladia crassa (=Eudesme crassa), describe E. pseudocrassa sp. nov., and determine that the Californian population of E. crassa is an introduction from Northeast Asia. HIGHLIGHTS •A taxonomic revision of Eudesme and Tinocladia, based on genetic and morpho-anatomy, provides evidence to merge Tinocladia with Eudesme. •The finding of cryptic species in New Zealand highlights the need for further taxonomic studies in this region. •The genetic data have revealed the occurrence of a cryptic species within T. crassa in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1930 and 1943 over 400 public radio receiver installations were erected by Japan's national broadcaster in public parks around Japan. They were intended to bring radio broadcasting, during this period the voice of the state, to a wider audience and to play a part in Japan's home-front mobilisation efforts. The majority of installations seem to have been destroyed during or shortly after World War Two but roughly 40 are known to be extant, these have yet to receive systematic attention from either Japanese or foreign academics, they thus offer a fresh focus for research into the relationships between the interwar Japanese state and the listening publics. This paper aims primarily to draw attention to the existence of these little—known objects, it also offers a sketch of the media landscape into which they emerged, and covers two significant contemporary social developments—the growth of coordinated mass sport and exercise, and the 'year 2600' celebrations of 1940—which contributed to the spread of radio towers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise charging time prediction can effectively mitigate the inconvenience to drivers induced by inevitable charging behavior throughout trips. Although the effectiveness of the machine learning (ML) algorithm in predicting future outcomes has been established in a variety of applications (transportation sector), the investigation into electric vehicle (EV) charging time prediction is almost new. This calls for the investigation of the ML algorithm to predict EV charging time. The study developed an EV charging time prediction model based on two years of charging event data collected from 500 EVs in Japan. To predict EV charging time, this paper employed three ML algorithms: extreme learning machine (ELM), feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and support vector regression (SVR). Furthermore, ML algorithms parameters are optimized by a metaheuristic techniques: the gray wolf optimizer (GWO), particle swarm optimizer (PSO), and genetic algorithm (GA) to achieve higher accuracy and robustness. The prediction results reveal that GWO-based ML models yielded better results compared to other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates using museum collections for archaeological research by offering a new approach to generate questions on the sociocultural lives of ancient people. I define "diaspora" collections as historical and archaeological artifacts excavated in a homeland site but currently stored in museums that are outside the homeland country. Of particular importance in this approach is the identification of artifacts' diagnostic traits, including material composition, morphology, and symbolic decoration, that are to be linked to the "original" data in their homeland. Diaspora collections-based research necessitates provenience studies, as well as direct observation of both the diaspora collection and its original data. It also takes advantage of the recent development of various digital and remote technologies. A case study to show this methodology comes from dedicatory lanterns currently stored outside Japan that were part of the shogun (Tokugawa) family's graveyards in modern Tokyo during the 18th and 19th centuries a.d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scoping review explores the professional literature in allied healthcare to determine which self-assessments of mentor skills are the most valid and reliable for use in occupational therapy doctoral capstone programs. The aims of this scoping review include mapping evidence related to mentor assessments in healthcare, exploring implications for occupational therapy doctoral mentor training programs, and identifying common characteristics of mentor self-assessments for occupational therapy programs to consider when developing capstone mentoring resources. Researchers applied and reported via PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). A librarian and authors formulated keywords and database selections to search PubMed/MEDLINE/PMC, and Embase were searched from across healthcare professions for training outcomes, mentor self-assessment, mentor attributes, and use of researcher-developed assessments. The search was limited to English publications from the last 20 years. Data were extracted for quantitative information regarding study characteristics and qualitative information about mentoring skills. A total of 852 results were delivered across all databases. Nineteen papers met the final eligibility criteria and were included in the data extraction. Populations were included from several healthcare professions, including 11 nursing, four healthcare researchers, one pharmacy, one midwifery, one medicine, and one medical dietetics. Countries included the United States (n = 7), Finland (n = 5), United Kingdom (n = 4), Japan (n = 1), South Africa (n = 1) and Canada (n = 1). The authors identified four valid self-assessment tools, demonstrating III and IV levels of evidence, that may be implemented by occupational therapy programs as they develop resources for mentor programs. Occupational therapy programs can use the mentor attributes found in this scoping review to create their own mentor assessment measures or may choose to use a validated tool. The authors recommend additional research in mentor education and mentor skill acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the port reforms in Japan, the Japanese government has intensively invested in physical infrastructure to maintain the trunk routes at selected and legally repositioned first rank strategic international ports under the Strategic International Container Port Policy. However, although central international ports, which are legally ranked second, have important roles to play in trade with Asia, it is difficult to expand the functions of these ports further without the development of strategic measures, given the government policies and accompanying budget constraints. This paper describes an examination of the feasibility of logistics strategies for a second-rank port to become a hub for Asia in Japan consistent with the current policy by using the global logistics intermodal network simulation, considering Hakata Port as a case study. The results show that Hakata Port has the potential to collect cargo from ports on the Japan Sea side and to launch shuttle services to Southeast Asia. The simulation results also suggest that cooperation with Kitakyushu Port, which is geographically close, is desirable. Approaches based on the characteristics of port governance in Japan are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the case of a migrant-owned apartment in Japan that has been rented to migrants for over a decade. The apartment, located in the "house with the red roof," and people's relations that develop within and around it are approached through the anthropological concept of "societies with houses." The apartment is regarded not only as a dwelling but as an institution that governs relations in a loosely tied migrant society with houses. The study contributes both to migrant housing studies, offering an experimental perspective that goes beyond inquiries into migrant spatial distributions and notions of home, and to the "societies with houses" concept through expanding its toolkit and application. The apartment in question not only provides a place to live for migrants but also enacts the functions of protection, capital accumulation, social memory reproduction, disguise and exposure, and metaphorical kinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, public health policy in Japan transformed from a stricter focus on anti-disease measures to a more discursive and long-term strategy, one that attempted to train local and prefectural administrators to implement top-down directives regarding hygiene (eisei 衛生). This paper uses the early speeches and articles published by The Sanitary Society of Japan (Dai Nippon Shiritsu Eiseikai 大日本私立衛生会, lit. "Great Japan Private Hygiene Association"), the nation's largest forum for the discussion and dissemination of knowledge related to hygiene, to analyze how and why this change took place. Founded in 1883 by leading figures in medicine and the medical social sciences, the Society attempted to reformulate popular understandings of hygiene and health after widespread manipulation of the government's early public health programs. I argue that the Society repurposed and reformulated supposedly native Japanese healing practices in order to ground unfamiliar medical concepts, including the term "hygiene" (eisei) itself, within the familiar vocabulary of supposedly shared medical traditions. In recuperating and mobilizing these ideas, the organization broadened the discourse of hygiene while also immuring the concept within a circle of medical elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time after the end of large-scale student unrest in the 1970s Japan stood out by a comparatively low level of protest. Yet spectacular waves of mass-protest returned with the anti-nuke mobilizations following the 2011 Fukushima meltdown and other 'post-2011' movements. In this paper I develop an analytical framework inspired by the multi-level perspective in transition studies to illuminate two questions: how can the relatively low level of protest in Japan before 2011 – in particular the so called 'ice age' of protest from the 1970s to the early 2000s – be explained, and what enabled the recovery of protest afterwards, starting in the early 2000s and leading up to the post-2011 protest cycle? I point to the crucial role played on the one hand by niches in the form of social movement spaces in fostering oppositional discourses and on the other hand by landscape changes that destabilized the established politico-cultural regime. A crucial role was played by the creative work of freeter activists in social movement spaces during the 1990s who reinvented activism in response to stigmatization of open protest after the collective trauma of the perceived defeat of the New Left in the 1970s. This creative work was a precondition for the rise of protest movements in the early 2000s which in turn prepared the way for the post-2011 protest wave. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electropalatography (EPG) has been used in the past 50 years for studying the patterns of contact between the tongue and the palate during speech production in typical speakers and those with speech disorders due to different causes. At the 7th EPG Symposium in Japan that was held online on 24 January 2021 (see: ), a panel of invited experts discussed their views regarding further developments and application of the technique. This paper provides a summary of this discussion. EPG offers information on articulation which cannot be replaced by other instrumental measures of speech. Identified areas for further hardware development are thinner EPG plates, better dental and palatal coverage, wireless connectivity, and sensors that provide additional articulatory information (e.g. tongue pressure, tongue-palate distance). EPG can serve as a resource for teaching speech disorders and phonetics. Furthermore, EPG therapy can be combined with telepractice in the speech therapy of clients with speech disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transport providers often attempt to prevent passenger behaviour they consider dangerous, deviant, or otherwise undesirable through media technologies such as posters, signage, and overhead announcements. This paper explores the rationale of such mediated regulatory endeavours by taking up the example of 'manner improvement' poster campaigns by urban rail providers in Tokyo. Based on expert interviews with individuals involved in the production of poster campaigns and analysis of industry documents, it examines the motives and considerations guiding company interventions into passengers' everyday mobility practices. While previous scholarship has largely viewed such initiatives as a form of social control, this paper interprets manner improvement efforts as a customer service strategy. The paper examines posters' content, design, and limitations to argue that manner improvement efforts by urban transport providers are not primarily concerned with disciplining passengers but satisfying customer sensibilities. Enquiring into transit etiquette posters from the perspective of transport and design companies involved in creating them, this paper presents a novel contribution to the study of urban mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to survey the findings of phenomenological studies built up in the field of diabetes care in Sweden. This is a meta-synthesis of phenomenological studies on experiences related to diabetes in Sweden focusing on learning to live with diabetes. We proceeded by reference to the seven phases of Noblit & Hare. We examined papers from seven phenomenological studies on learning to live with diabetes in Sweden. From the papers, which describe the experience of living with diabetes, three overarching themes were selected—perception and awareness of the body; integration and responsibility; and presence of others who provide support. From those describing the expert's experience, an overarching theme emerged—encouraging reflection in persons with diabetes. We interpreted each of these themes in phenomenological terms and compared them with theories in Japan. Persons with diabetes take responsibility for coping with a range of things brought on by the illness and learn to live with diabetes. Experts support these persons so they can see their world objectively and critically scrutinize it. By building a model of diabetes care in Japan that references Scandinavian human science, it will be possible to find new approaches that support learning at the existential level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Japanese crown prince and emperor Hirohito during the 1920s to think more critically about how fashion historians can analyze "western" dress in non-western contexts. In particular, this essay looks at Hirohito's embrace of new forms of middle-class menswear—particularly sportswear and the lounge suit—to signal fundamental shifts in the relationship between monarch and subject. These innovations rested upon far more than simply imitating western centers of men's fashion. Instead, this paper argues that to understand the meaning of "western" clothing styles in non-western contexts, fashion studies needs a more sophisticated paradigm than the term "western clothes." While some garments carried strong resonances of their European antecedents, Japanese men like Hirohito adopted them primarily for what they could do in Japan, while also understanding their potential for integrating Japan into the broader world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, the complexity of the teaching profession has been downplayed in the course of repeated systemic reforms, wherein the profession is increasingly viewed as a technical operation. In response to this trend, the concept of "reflective practitioner" (Schön, D. A.) has been proposed as a counterpoint. While it has influenced the discussion of teacher education reform thereafter, it has also been coopted into what Gert Biesta calls "learnification" of teacher education. This paper outlines the trends and debates of teacher education reform in Japan and discusses ways to avoid the "learnification" of teacher education. This paper speaks directly to Item No. 1 of the 8 challenges put forward by the APJTE editors, which concerns the redefinition of teaching "as a technical operation aimed at the effective production of measurable learning outcomes" and its implications for teacher agency, identity and professionalism. It uses Japan as a case to depict the situation in which the trivialisation of teaching into a technical operation and the de-professionalisation of the teaching profession are proceeding not only through the action of educational policy but also through the interaction with discourses that are intended to criticise it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are increasingly surrounded by talk of digitalization. Yet, we remain unsure about what impact this digitalization will have upon socio-economic institutions, how the introduction of this digitalization will be contested, the likely role of the state in managing the adoption of digital technology, and the likely consequences for the broader political economy if and when it is introduced. This article examines the process of digitalization as it has unfolded in the service sector in Japan. Based on qualitative interviews with managers in the hospitality industry and union officials, the paper depicts a process that contrasts starkly with the more optimistic view adopted by some commentators, according to which digitalization has the potential to improve working conditions and contribute to a more stable form of growth. Instead, the paper draws on Regulation Theory to argue that the introduction of digitalization is part of a wider process of neoliberalization. As such, digitalization has contributed to deskilling, the fragmentation of work tasks, a digital divide, the intensification of work, and higher levels of workplace surveillance. This represents a further dismantling of the social compromise that underpinned Japan's earlier period of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to expectations that the greater visibility of aid increases the donor's prestige, this paper examines why certain donor countries may seek to render their aid programs invisible. As the case of Japan's early Triangular Development Cooperation (TDC) in Southeast Asia demonstrates, donors at times seek to conceal their presence to better secure their national interests. By approaching this (in-)visibility puzzle through the focus on its politics, this study highlights the complexity of donors' motivations in selectively activating (in-)visibility in TDC. Via a historicised account of Japan's post-war aid/economic cooperation relationship with Southeast Asia, the paper finds how the triangular mechanism allowed Japan and Thailand as an intermediary to selectively render their presence in-/visible to shun hostile sentiments against them in order to pursue their respective diplomatic goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bio-medical model of 'mental health' and 'mental illness' that relates to the relationship between wellbeing and distress informs psychopathology and dominates conceptualisation in many Western Educated Industrialised Rich Democratic (WEIRD) populations. This paper aims to critique the model, questioning the appropriateness of psychopathology as a conceptual framework when working as a Western trained clinician with populations such as in China, Japan, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa. The paper also considers the cultural appropriateness of western notions of psychopathology when working inter-culturally in relation to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings, and the Review of the Implementation of the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the trends and challenges of Taiwanese studies in Japan, focusing on political history. The first section reviews Taiwanese studies in Japan in recent years, with a focus on political research. The second section discusses the issues to be worked on for this discipline's future, especially pertaining to the discussion on "external" and "internal" legitimacy for the postwar Republic of China (ROC) government in Taiwan. The third section examines ways to comprehend the changes in the ROC's status in Taiwanese politics and society after the political transformation began in the 1970s. Taiwanese studies in Japan have long emphasized revealing the characteristics of Taiwanese society and history. Although such an attitude is still quite important, this paper highlights that knowing how to value the "Chineseness" of the ROC government in Taiwan is also an important subject. Further examination of the link between international and internal politics in Taiwan will be one of the most important subjects for future Taiwanese studies in Japan on politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the energy consumption of elderly and non-elderly households, recognizing the ever-increasing importance of the aging population for energy policy. Decisions of the domestic (in-home) and transport (out-of-home) sectors at the household level are jointly incorporated by building a multivariate Hierarchical Archimedean Copula model with intra-sector and inter-sector dependencies. Data from a life-oriented behavioral survey in Japan are used, which includes 532 elderly households and 340 non-elderly households. A variety of life-related factors, together with built environment factors, are introduced into the above model. Modeling analysis results show that inter- and intra-sector dependencies are heterogeneous across households in terms of these factors. It is found that almost equal numbers of influential factors are sensitive and insensitive to age-based sample segmentation. Various similarities and dissimilarities across energy types between elderly and non-elderly households are revealed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin and purpose of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution seem shrouded in secrecy. This paper places Article 9 in the context of the UN Charter and peace constitutions which were emerging globally that aimed to limit state sovereignty in favor of international organization and the renunciation of war in the aftermath of WWII (Schlichtmann 2009b). It is a provision the Japanese people have upheld for more than seventy years. With the gradual return of block confrontation during the 1990s and the revival of the 'balance of power' concept, however, Japan came under pressure to change its Constitution and participate in military defense alliances. This has led to a noticeable shift in policy. Although Shidehara Kijūrō (1872–1951) had been well-known and respected for his peace diplomacy as foreign minister during the interwar period, it soon became expedient to deny him any direct involvement in the drafting of Article 9 when he was Prime Minister after the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the online fandom of a Thai Boys Love (BL) drama in Japan, called tai-numa, this exploratory study examines its background, fan practices and experiences, and negotiations between fandoms and the mass media and within the fandom. Through interviews with 19 fans active in the fandom, which was shaped by external and internal factors, such as mediascape, characteristics of consuming BL, and the global pandemic, this research argues that the fandom is a transnational, transcultural, and trans-subcultural contact zone, enabling fans to create, learn, reflect, negotiate, and update each other's values. Fandom activity was facilitated because it was equal and non-hierarchical, allowing for the engagement of a heterogeneous mix of fans from different subcultural backgrounds, and it offered a sense of simultaneity. Through fan voice and discussion, this paper suggests the potential impact of fandom activities on real life and what is needed for such fandoms to be established and sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermediaries are indispensable for processing the mobility of international migrants. In the absence of an official migration policy in Japan, this requirement of intermediaries is not an exception. This paper examines the different approaches of Japanese intermediaries towards Japanese client firms and Vietnamese early-career professionals employed in the information technology sector in the cross-border labour market between Japan and Vietnam. Two major results are derived based on data from semi-structured interviews. First, recruitment companies instruct labour users, and recruitment organizations seek to 'frame' a job post for migrant workers for a successful visa application. Second, temporary staffing firms 'package' multiple Vietnamese workers to provide the necessary labour to clients. This study argues that different types of intermediaries are present in the employment process of early-career foreign skilled labourers and that a temporary staffing firm intervenes the most actively in the employment process of skilled migrants among other intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread seriously throughout the world. Predicting the spread, or the number of cases, in the future can facilitate preparation for, and prevention of, a worst-case scenario. To achieve these purposes, statistical modeling using past data is one feasible approach. This paper describes spatio-temporal modeling of COVID-19 case counts in 47 prefectures of Japan using a nonlinear random effects model, where random effects are introduced to capture the heterogeneity of a number of model parameters associated with the prefectures. The negative binomial distribution is frequently used with the Paul-Held random effects model to account for overdispersion in count data; however, the negative binomial distribution is known to be incapable of accommodating extreme observations such as those found in the COVID-19 case count data. We therefore propose use of the beta-negative binomial distribution with the Paul-Held model. This distribution is a generalization of the negative binomial distribution that has attracted much attention in recent years because it can model extreme observations with analytical tractability. The proposed beta-negative binomial model was applied to multivariate count time series data of COVID-19 cases in the 47 prefectures of Japan. Evaluation by one-step-ahead prediction showed that the proposed model can accommodate extreme observations without sacrificing predictive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional foods are not a brand novel idea. In the far east which is influenced by the Chinese culture, food and drugs were seen to have been composed of the same material. Traditional foods in Korea, Japan, China and Ghana are now known as health foods based on the definition of a functional food. Many of them contain a variety of functional components which includes resistant starch, oligosaccharides, sugar alcohols, peptides and proteins. Diet, exercise and genetic factors are the most significant factors that contribute to health, according to a consumer study. The industry has studied diet and food technology to satisfy the needs of customers. Government was worried about the ageing of the country's population and the consequent health care costs in Japan, the longest life span in the world hence the endorsement and publicity of functional foods. This paper examines first the definitions of functional foods used at different locations. It also explores how electron microscopy has been used to determine the mechanism of action on of certain food products. We have said that 'functional foods can be interpreted in many ways and it is confusing because all foods are not functional after all The word "functional food" was introduced first in the studies of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in 1984. In 1988, in order to recommend methods of regulating these foods, the Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare organized a meeting for Functional Foods. In 1995, the ILSI organized Istanbul's First International Conference on Functional Food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]