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This paper presents the simplified method for evaluating the seismic performance of existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings following The Japan Building Disaster Prevention Association standard. In this method, the seismic performance of RC buildings was described in lateral strength and ductility indexes of vertical members such as columns, short columns, and masonry walls. The simplified method was applied to assess the seismic performance of an existing building that survived the September 2009 West Sumatra earthquake. The evaluated building was a three-story RC building that used brick masonry walls as the infill. The shear stress of the brick infill was obtained based on the test results on the RC frame with brick infill under static lateral load. The analysis reveals the seismic performance of the building as the reason that the building could survive the earthquake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the previous paper, we performed secondary analyses using micro-data and established the Japanese relationships between sound pressure level from night-time (Lnight) and the percentage of highly sleep disturbed people (%HSD) for the following noise source: road traffic, conventional railway and Shinkansen railway noise. Adding the datasets associated with civil and military aircraft noises, we successively established the representative relationships between day-evening-night sound pressure level (Lden) and the prevalence of highly annoyed people (%HA) due to transportation noise in Japan. This paper continues to focus on listening disturbance caused by transportation noise. Thirtyfive datasets, which were provided by Socio-Acoustic Survey Data Archive and derived from the other recent surveys conducted in Japan, were accumulated for the analysis. All the datasets include the following micro-data: demographic factors, exposure, and reaction to disturbance in listening to telephone, television, or radio. Although the question wording and the number of scale points on the evaluation differed among the surveys, we defined the percentage of highly listening disturbed (%HLD) with a 72% cut-off point. We established the relationship between Lden and %HLD by transportation noise. In addition, we discussed the link between listening disturbance and annoyance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster management is considered global jeopardies toward humankind toward their sustainable development goals. Technology driven for this disaster management plays vital role in responding and recovering disaster management within mitigated risk. The technology refers to Artificial Intelligence Technology for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Indonesia and Japan Disaster Management is chosen as comparative analysis due to its similarities and differences between two countries that are prone to disaster. In this paper, the Artificial Intelligence's technology and method refer but not limited to method of Expert Systems (ES), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Fuzzy Logic (FL), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Interface System (ANFIS). The objective of this paper is to generate comparative analysis between Indonesia and Japan Disaster Management. Eventually, this paper is intended to intertwine Artificial Intelligence with Disaster Management. The approaches to intertwine both aspects are conducted within Trilogy of Civil Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Business Engineering. As research methodology, this paper elaborates both theoretical and empirical perspectives, that commence with global perspective and eventually it shortlists into the comparative analysis between Indonesia and Japan Disaster Management. Within the Engineering Trilogy, to begin with, Civil Engineering toward disaster management considers wide spectrum of theoretical and empirical perspectives to augment disaster resilience. Furthermore, Industrial Engineering and to some extent the Industrial and System Engineering, synergize the disaster management within its supply chain and digital transformation's information system as competitive advantage. Eventually, the Business Engineering wraps up both Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering into integrated Business Strategies, through the Technology Driven including Artificial Intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a growing demand in Japan for efficient knowledge and technology transfer from veteran workers to younger workers and for improved productivity against the backdrop of labor shortages and aging populations in the nursing care and manufacturing industries. Conventional digital twin systems have focused on sensor data, and have been working to improve operational efficiency in digital space based on the collected sensor data. Therefore, we propose the concept of a Human Centric Digital Twin that captures human awareness and context in cyberspace, and utilizes human awareness and thought by machine sensors and human sensors. This knowledge generated by humans themselves contains a lot of contexts, which is difficult to incorporate in conventional DX methods. In many cases, the knowledge that workers in the field have is context-dependent and dynamic, unlike the formal knowledge described in manuals. Therefore, the cost of converting "Gen-Ba Knowledge" into formal knowledge as it is high, and has prevented its utilization. We have developed "kNowledge eXplication AugmenteR (kNeXaR)" and "Smart Voice Messaging System (SVMS)" as methods and tools to support structuring human awareness and thoughts. kNeXaR is a knowledge structuring method and tool for procedurally describing dynamic knowledge such as tasks in a goal-oriented manner while maintaining human readability and machine readability. SVMS is able to collect onsite knowledge in the form of spoken words, which is difficult to collect in the past. Using a smartphone, workers in the field can voice record what they notice and think about while working. In many cases, the messages obtained during the work are recorded with the purpose of the work, the content of the work, what they thought about what they observed in light of their own experience, and unusual situations. In this paper, while introducing the respective functions of kNeXaR and SVMS, we introduce the concept of implementing the Human Centric Digital Twin, which is a structured knowledge component based on messages from SVMS that collects work and observations in the field. We propose a method to dynamically create "Structured Knowledge Snippets", which are parts of structured knowledge, based on messages from SVMS, and to construct structured knowledge in a workshop using kNeXaR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an overview and critical evaluation of a 7-week elective course at a computer science university in Japan. The course teaches undergraduate learners of English to use online English corpora to access information about patterns of language use that can help them answer their own questions and apply new insights to their English speaking and writing in ways that are more appropriate to their contexts of use. Examples of relevant data include the normalized frequencies of near-synonyms, pairs of strongly collocated words and frequent grammatical patterns in which key words appear. The course overview is supplemented with discussion of particular activity examples and resources which teachers can use to develop their own in-class exercises using authentic language data. These activities are evaluated critically via in-class observations made by the teacher as well as student feedback on the course. These evaluations suggest that students see this type of course as relevant and beneficial for improving their language learning, although improvements in the form of clearer instructions, applications of corpus-derived knowledge to writing assignments, and more objective assessment criteria are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical events are often infrequent, thus becomes hard to predict. In this paper, we focus on predictor that forecasts whether a medical event would occur in the next year, and analyzes the impact of event's frequency and data size via predictor's performance. In the experiment, we made 1572 predictors for medical events using Medical Insurance Claims (MICs) data from 800,000 participants and 205.8 million claims over 8 years. The result revealed that (a) forecasting error will be increased when predicting low-frequency events, and (b) increasing the number of training dataset reduces errors. This result suggests that increasing data size is a key to solve low frequency problems. However, we still need additional methods to cope with sparse and imbalanced data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in sensor technology have made the bridge security supervising system automated in real-time. Many long-span bridges in Korea and Japan have implemented this system of real-time security surveillance. In this, a new concept is implemented in the bridge security supervising system. TCP/IP wireless network is tested for a short distance (among bridge sensors) and CDMA is tested for long-distance (between bridge and management center) data communication. (3) A dynamic database which stores bridge condition data; (4) a cloud-based system that monitors and evaluates transmitted information from the control systems. This system consists of: (1) Bridge environmental control system installed; (2) Bridges management system connecting cloud-based communication systems as well as cloud-based servers. This technology monitors as well as monitors in real time the circumstances of a bridge as well as its environment, including local water flows, pipelines, air conditioning, as well as other safety conditions. For the real-time supervision of the bridge situations the data and images observed are transmitted to the server via cellular telecommunication systems as well as the database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of digital transformation often fails. This paper aims to identify what kinds of organizational issues exist in a leading technology company regarding the implementation of information technologies. The theories are Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM) and Socio-Technical Approach. The research method is a case study of OMRON Corporation. The research findings include dysfunctions and the impact of IT and digital technologies: The teammate's work in the department needs to be more cohesive, and there needs to be more communication and coordination between teammates. This may cause a delay in new product development and quality problems later; in in troducing new materials, problems often occur among the R&D department, materials procurement department, and quality department. The social factors of these dysfunctions are the organization is too vertically divided and sectionalism is strong. The managers should lead the transformation with entrepreneurship. The technical aspects are the tremendous success of the company's past technological development. It could have been more objective toward product development that emphasizes too much technology and function on the product. The contribution to theory is applying SEAM and STA theory to clarify the organizational problem in this research. The contribution to practice is analyzing the factor of dysfunction and the impact of implementing IT and data technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is scientists who carry out scientific research. Particularly, scientists with outstanding research achievements are called "star scientists." Star scientists have not only an academic impact but also can have a substantial impact on society and the economy as previous works have suggested. However, there are no clear consensuses on how to detect star scientists. This paper proposes a method to detect star scientist from multiple viewpoints, including not only academic articles but also patents. We empirically show what classification of star scientist and the distribution in Japan based on our method. We also explain the transition of the distribution of star scientists in Japan for 30 years before and behind “Science and technology basic law” in 1995. Additionally, we focus on one of the categorized group of star scientists, all-rounder star group, who has both outstanding academic and practical achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

4SEASONS is a direct geometry time-of-flight spectrometer installed in the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility, the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex. It is used to study atomic and spin dynamics in the energy range of 100 meV to 102 meV. Since more than a decade has crossed after the first inelastic scattering experiment, it is essential to consider upgrading the instrument to improve its flexibility and performance. In this paper, we discuss the possible medium-term upgrades of key components of the instrument like the chopper system, which are achievable with the current technology and at reasonable cost. Herein, we demonstrated that 4SEASONS can improve the energy resolution by a factor of two, remove frame overlap of adjacent incident energies, significantly improve the asymmetry in the pulse shape, and increase the flux by a factor of ∼1.5, without major technical difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently in Japan, the ratio of infrastructure, including roads, that is more than 50 years old has increased at an accelerating rate. This resulted from the fact that the infrastructure, including many of the roads, was developed during and after the high economic growth period, and in order for infrastructure to continue to function properly in the future, innovative technologies for maintenance and repair are required. Therefore, this study proposes a new innovation model by focusing attention on bridges, which are representative of the road structure, to serve as guides in establishing innovations in maintenance and repair technologies. Specifically, we established a partial and additional innovation model with a focus on the components of bridges and integration among the components based on examples of product development of bridges for metropolitan expressways and interviews with engineers. It is expected that applying this model clarifies the corporate technological strategy and contributes to solutions to social issues through innovations in construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the free vibration analysis of the Functionally Grade Material (FGM) in a circular plate using the DST-BK element. FGM is a new type of composite material and was introduced in 1984 in Japan. This material consists of two or more materials and is very resistant to a high-temperature environment. The DST-BK element is a triangular element that can be used to analyze thick to thin plate problems. This element is free of shear locking, passes a patch test, and gives good results in the isotropic plate problem. The FGM circular plate's free vibration is evaluated using this element with two different Radius thickness (R/h) ratios and three mesh configurations. The results show that the DST-BK element yields good results compared to the reference solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing the 21st century, it is important to not only develop global competences but also local competences of students. Global competences are too general to address a problem bound by the local context and thus such problem requires more specific local competences. In this paper, the local competences are identified as being related to the practical problem solving, the collaboration, utilization of local resources, and an initiative within the community. This paper discusses how the local competences are realized through the case of Shobara city in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Especially, in the mathematics education perspective, problem-solving and model eliciting activities could be core where the local contexts and data can be utilized to describe the local problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correction for ground effect around airports is modeled based on the results of numerical analysis to estimate the propagation of noise caused by ground operations in airports. The excess attenuation due to ground effects on noise of engine run-ups and APU is calculated using a PE method for typical jet aircraft and propeller aircraft. On the assumption that the ground in and around an airport consists of a mixed surface of hard and soft surfaces, the excess attenuation for the mixed impedance ground is calculated with the Fresnel-zone method using the results of the PE calculation. The mixed ratio of ground surface is assumed based on the ratio of asphalt-paved surface and grass-covered surface along the propagation path from the engine run-ups spot to the airport site boundary of six major airports in Japan. In this paper, we introduce the excess attenuation calculated with the PE method. Based on the calculation results, the correction model for ground effects on noise of engine run-ups and APU is discussed to implement it in the airport noise prediction model used in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the dependencies on depleted fossil fuel sources, ASEAN countries adopted renewable energy policies to ensure future energy security. Due to the regions' ideal geographic positions and climatic condition, the solar power generation has been increasing prominence among the sources of renewable energy. Therefore, the study aims to highlight the difference in the potential of solar renewable energy and its development in the respective countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan. This paper reviews the solar energy availability, targets, and initiatives for their growth in the respective countries based on the review of published papers, country reports as well as from analysis using an open source tool. Analysis on the potential specific photovoltaic power output using the Global Solar Atlas v2.6 by Solargis found that all four countries have about the same amount of median specific photovoltaic power output with the highest is Malaysia (3.71 kWh/kWp) while Japan is the lowest (3.39 kWh/kWp). In the last decade, the ASEAN countries have started to harness their solar power through solar photovoltaics with steady growth in Malaysia, a late but impressive sudden development in Vietnam and relatively slower implementation in Indonesia. In Japan, solar energy development has grown considerably throughout the decade. From the findings, solar energy has great potentials in these ASEAN countries, and with proper implementation, ASEAN countries will have significant growth in the solar generation for the next decade, as witnessed in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese government permitted to install PV, named Agrivoltaic, on a running farm by 2013. The purposes of this commission are securing land for renewable energy installation and increasing new, young farmer. This paper clarifies both optimized Agrivoltaic structure and Agrivoltaic introduction potential. The structure optimization is considered as 3 dimensional using 3D-CAD and agricultural crop growth program is simulated to evaluate the effect of sunlight shading on PV. Agrivoltaic introduction potential assessment involved installation environment geographical data (like radiation strength, ground strength, distance to neighbors, and amount of snowing) This paper utilized geographical information system for topological assessment. These processes evaluate current and future Agrivoltaic installation potential following multi criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to elucidate how informal constraints affect formal rules to change institutions through text mining of newspaper editorials that express public opinion on innovation and of official documents of government innovation policies in Japan. By examining Science and Technology Basic Plans that included new innovation policies, this study found that the interaction of informal constraints and formal rules influenced gradual changes in public opinion from negative to positive. Moreover, it is inferable that such a change in public opinion has led to the government's initiative in the hopes of Cabinet approval rating. Consequently, changes in informal constraints also influenced the transition of contents of the Basic Plans. In short, in-house research and development (R&D) reacted swiftly to a shift of formal institutions designed by government, whereas employment practice (called permanent employment) inherent in Japan's labour market did not immediately respond to changes in formal institutional rules. This may suggest the difference in informal constraints based on the underlying cultural and historical factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the tremendous growth of the halal industry, many non-dominant Muslim countries particularly Japan, have shown interest to tap into the halal market. To ensure the availability of halal products, therefore, it is crucial to have a comprehensive and well-managed halal supply chain. Integrating both "halal" (permissible) and "tayyib" (wholesome) throughout all the phases in the supply chain indicates that halal-certified companies need to comply with certain sustainability practices which are aligned with the halal certification systems. Nevertheless, there is always curiosity among the customers on the halal integrity across the supply chain and they will feel more confident if the products are halal certified. Apparently, halal certification bodies played a significant role to enhance the sustainable performance measures in the halal supply chain. Currently, there are more than 30 halal certification bodies (HCBs) in Japan. Their backgrounds are diverse from Muslim local residents and community members in Japanese cities and individual Muslim academics specializing in agriculture and food systems, to Japanese businesspersons who are familiar with Islamic countries and religious organizations. Despite the vast opportunities, inevitably there are numerous challenges faced by the HCBs that may influence the sustainability of the halal supply chain in Japan. Hence, this motivates this paper to explore the management of the halal certification process and how it may affect halal supply chain sustainability. Based on the in-depth interviews with 5 established HCBs, this paper aims to explore the sustainable practices and the challenges in the halal supply chain that may contribute to the betterment of the halal industry in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the tremendous growth of the halal industry, many non-dominant Muslim countries particularly Japan, have shown interest to tap into the halal market. To ensure the availability of halal products, therefore, it is crucial to have a comprehensive and well-managed halal supply chain. Integrating both "halal" (permissible) and "tayyib" (wholesome) throughout all the phases in the supply chain indicates that halal-certified companies need to comply with certain sustainability practices which are aligned with the halal certification systems. Nevertheless, there is always curiosity among the customers on the halal integrity across the supply chain and they will feel more confident if the products are halal certified. Apparently, halal certification bodies played a significant role to enhance the sustainable performance measures in the halal supply chain. Currently, there are more than 30 halal certification bodies (HCBs) in Japan. Their backgrounds are diverse from Muslim local residents and community members in Japanese cities and individual Muslim academics specializing in agriculture and food systems, to Japanese businesspersons who are familiar with Islamic countries and religious organizations. Despite the vast opportunities, inevitably there are numerous challenges faced by the HCBs that may influence the sustainability of the halal supply chain in Japan. Hence, this motivates this paper to explore the management of the halal certification process and how it may affect halal supply chain sustainability. Based on the in-depth interviews with 5 established HCBs, this paper aims to explore the sustainable practices and the challenges in the halal supply chain that may contribute to the betterment of the halal industry in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the tremendous growth of the halal industry, many non-dominant Muslim countries particularly Japan, have shown interest to tap into the halal market. To ensure the availability of halal products, therefore, it is crucial to have a comprehensive and well-managed halal supply chain. Integrating both "halal" (permissible) and "tayyib" (wholesome) throughout all the phases in the supply chain indicates that halal-certified companies need to comply with certain sustainability practices which are aligned with the halal certification systems. Nevertheless, there is always curiosity among the customers on the halal integrity across the supply chain and they will feel more confident if the products are halal certified. Apparently, halal certification bodies played a significant role to enhance the sustainable performance measures in the halal supply chain. Currently, there are more than 30 halal certification bodies (HCBs) in Japan. Their backgrounds are diverse from Muslim local residents and community members in Japanese cities and individual Muslim academics specializing in agriculture and food systems, to Japanese businesspersons who are familiar with Islamic countries and religious organizations. Despite the vast opportunities, inevitably there are numerous challenges faced by the HCBs that may influence the sustainability of the halal supply chain in Japan. Hence, this motivates this paper to explore the management of the halal certification process and how it may affect halal supply chain sustainability. Based on the in-depth interviews with 5 established HCBs, this paper aims to explore the sustainable practices and the challenges in the halal supply chain that may contribute to the betterment of the halal industry in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents abstracts of studies on international management. The paper "Regional Strategies for Service Sector Multinationals," examined the intra-regional sales of all 49 multinational enterprises (MNE) in the retail sector. Data is not available for most other service sector MNEs, especially in insurance and banking. Only one of these 49 retail MNEs is global, defined as operating with at least 20 percent of its sales in each part of the triad. The paper "Market Equilibrium, Cartel or Lack of Strategy? Entry Level Compensation in Japanese Firms," examined the determinants of base pay for entry level college graduates in Japanese firms. In a sense, Japanese firms' compensation strategy for college hiring is to behave as a cartel and to minimize wage competition. The paper "A Comparative Analysis of Indian and Chinese Negotiating Behavior," highlighted the similarities and differences between Indian and the Chinese negotiating behavior. While a lot has been written about the Chinese approach to negotiations the literature on Indian negotiating behavior is relatively sparse. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the literature by providing a comparative contrast of the negotiating styles in these countries. The starting premise of the paper is that institutional environments affect the ease with which value is created, sustained or amplified over time.

This research is a development of a coastal town model in Tohoku region of Japan from social and physical sustainability perspectives. The social and physical challenges due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (hereinafter refer to as Tohoku 3.11) on 11th March 2011 were studied in various coastal cities including Kamaishi, Rikuzentakata, and Minamisanriku. Super-aging society Japan has about 23% of its population above 65 years, and an attempt was made to empower the people and communities. The aim is to design a resilient master plan, architecture, and landscape where everyone wants to live and has vitality and freedom to contribute to the environment, society, and economy. In vulnerable lowland areas with deeply indented coastline bordered by sea and mountains, Tohoku 3.11 destroyed homes and livelihoods. Based on surveys of the social and physical vulnerabilities and future city initiatives of clean and renewable energy, a resilient urban design, architecture and landscape were proposed. The urban design encompasses memorial landscape at the seafront to mitigate tsunami, detached houses on high ground, and physically resilient collective housing between the highland and lowland areas. The lowland area was designated as a commercial area to maintain the liveliness of the city while ensuring an emergency evacuation system and the city hall was plannedas a revitalization center. Spaces for everyone was propose in the designs to strengthen social ties and bond. The present contemporary reconstruction works in 2021 has a paradigm shift in coastal protection policies to 'preparedness and mitigation level 2', to protect lives and reduce losses with comprehensive disaster management measures includingcoastal protection, urban planning, evacuation, and public education for the largest-possible tsunami level of more than 150 years recurrence interval, such as the Tohoku 3.11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood-inundation hazard maps are generally made based on the anticipated flood patterns under the configurations such as current topography and land use/land cover situations. These maps have not taken into account the possible significance of land subsidence and surface environmental changes. The Kujukuri Plain, Japan, the site of this research, has experienced severe land subsidence due to 2011 Tohoku earthquake. This paper aims to quantify the effects of local land subsidence on flood hazards under heavy rainfalls in the Kujukuri Plain. The high-resolution LiDAR data at two different periods (before and after the Tohoku earthquake) were obtained and used as the input data for the physically-based hydrological model. Through the comparison of simulated inundation areas of the scenarios with the same precipitation pattern but different topographies, the effect of land subsidence was discussed. The maps estimating the inundation areas by only considering rainfalls, i.e., without taking into account the effect of land subsidence, underestimated the inundation areas by around 10 % compared with the ones that accounted for the local land subsidence. The results of this study highlight the importance of taking into account the temporal changes of elevations and other parameters in flood hazard assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines opinions of college students from Hiroshima regarding restarting nuclear power plants in Japan, based on their term-end essays (N=395, Response rate: 70.9%). This paper reveals a total of five findings as follows: three statistical verifications, background factors and one suggestion. First, 61.3% of the students were in favor of restarting nuclear power plants in Japan while 27.1% opposed restarting them and 11.6% had "no idea" on the matter. Second, those opposed were predominantly female. Third, the rates of "Oppose" decrease and "No idea" increase among upper-grade (i.e., junior and senior) students. Fourth, students that favor restarting the plants emphasized the importance of economic and employment impacts while students who oppose restarting were mainly concerned about radioactive contamination. Moreover, students who selected "no idea" tended to confess their difficulty in deciding. Fifth, the freedom of expression should be assured in classrooms; professors should let the students decide the important challenges in the energy and environment sectors in order to develop students' personality and electoral democracy toward establishing a sustainable society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on various statistics, this paper empirically investigated energy intensity of iron and steel, nonferrous metals, and cement sectors in Japan. We estimated the production volume, energy intensity, and energy consumption for the three sectors. The results reveal that energy consumption tended to decline, and the decrease in production amount in both three sectors was observed. While the energy intensity of the steel sector was improving, the energy intensity of non-ferrous metals and cement sectors was deteriorating. In the cement sector, expanding the use of wet waste and by-products affected the trend in energy intensity. Capacity factor also had a large impact on energy intensity. Energy intensity is one of the key indicators for climate mitigation and we have to recognize that not only internal efforts but also external factors affect the consequence of energy intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly establishes a basis about relationships between the extent how companies have positive attitudes towards external resources and the extent how companies do pecuniary open innovation (OI) activities. In the previous studies, negative attitudes towards acquiring external resources and external exploitation of in-house resources were called as not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome and not-sold-here (NSH) syndrome. These negative attitudes were regarded as barriers to adopt OI practices and they might keep organizations from utilizing in-house financial resources to collaborate with external parties. Thus, it was implied that pecuniary OI practices were not promoted. These backgrounds imply that if organizations have positive attitudes as opposed to NIH and NSH syndrome, they should utilize their financial resources aggressively and tend to do pecuniary OI activities. With the Structural Equation Modelling, this survey verifies several relations and after that, each relation is validated by using a questionnaire survey towards Japanese companies in 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unpaid Work is one of gender equality's problems that inevitably occur in domestic life. Most women experience inequality problems because of pre-existing views of a woman's role. This study aims to determine the circumstances and changes in unpaid Work in Indonesia and Japan during the COVID-19 and before the pandemic. The method used in this research is literature study and interviews. These interviews were conducted with 8 Indonesian families and 8 Japanese families where both partners are working. Based on the data processing result, there is an increase in the time to do unpaid Work for women and men during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other than the time increase, men's role in taking care of the households also increased, but the dominant worker at home is still women. To this study, gender equality of unpaid Work at home is more balanced in Indonesia than in Japan. This statement can be seen because of the role of Indonesian women in society, such as the number of working women, women's role in government, and others. The authors provide ideas for handling unpaid work problems in domestic life with this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algae are some of the oldest forms of life on earth, being consumed for centuries. There are numerous studies that highlight the health benefits of consuming seaweed, due to the high content of proteins, dietary fibers, vitamins, antioxidants, and the low-fat content. Nori seaweeds, which is used in the preparation of sushi rolls, stands out for its low caloric intake and high content of minerals, vitamins (vitamin B12 and vitamin C), as well as iodine. Only certain types of species of seaweed are used to make Nori: Porphyra tenera, Porphyra yezoensis, Porphyra umbilicalis and Pyropia tenera (a newer name for Porphyra tenera, due to a taxonomic reclassification). In this work, we analyzed the mineral profile of some varieties of Nori algae available on the Romanian market, obtained in China and Japan. To determine the mineral content, we used X-Ray Fluorescence Analyzer (XRF). The results are expressed in mg/kg dry weight. The Nori dried seaweed recorded the highest values of potassium and calcium and the Nori roasted seaweed the highest iron and zinc contents. Our experimental results recommend the consumption of Nori algae, in order to cover the daily requirement of minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While more and more universities in Japan are establishing Institutional Research (IR) offices, there is a need to improve the skills of faculty and staff involved in IR and to provide training opportunities for them. Therefore, this study examined two questions: [Q1] What human resource development programs are currently being implemented in Japan, and [Q2] What knowledge and skills do IR personnel at universities nationwide consider necessary? In relation to [Q1], we summarized the actual status of shortterm training programs for IR human resource development held in Japan from FY 2010 to FY 2021, and found an increasing trend in the number of short-term training programs since FY 2014 and fewer training programs involving group work and exercises. Next, we conducted a questionnaire survey of IR professionals across Japan regarding [Q2], and found that many of them said that knowledge and skills corresponding to "contextual intelligence" and "issues intelligence" were necessary, and among those corresponding to "technical/analytical intelligence," there were differences in their perception of the necessity of these skills. In addition, when asked to self -evaluate their knowledge and skills, some respondents gave lower self-evaluations than they did in terms of perceived need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the behavior of patient with a focus on patient-sharing based on the methodology of network analysis. We used an administrative healthcare claims database from September of the years 2008-2020 to identify shared patients with hypertension. The patients' behavior of visiting multiple medical facilities was extracted as graphical data, and we calculated density and centrality as indicators to evaluate the structure of the patient sharing network. Our findings indicate that density, reciprocity, and transitivity increased over time, and that centrality and PageRank were correlated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document the procedure and performance of a rule-based NLP system that, using transfer learning, automatically extracts essential named entities related to drug errors from Japanese free-text incident reports. Subsequently, we used the rule-based annotated data to fine-tune a pre-trained BERT model and examined the performance of medication-related incident report prediction. The rule-based pipeline achieved a macro-F1-score of 0.81 in an internal dataset and the BERT model fine-tuned with rule-annotated data achieved a macro-F1-score of 0.97 and 0.75 for named entity recognition and relation extraction tasks, respectively. The model can be deployed to other, similar problems in medication-related clinical texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Important pieces of information related to patient symptoms and diagnosis are often written in free-text form in clinical texts. To utilize these texts, information extraction using natural language processing is required. This study evaluated the performance of named entity recognition (NER) and relation extraction (RE) using machine-learning methods. The Japanese case report corpus was used for this study, which had 113 types of entities and 36 types of relations that were manually annotated. There were 183 cases comprising 2,194 sentences after preprocessing. In addition, a machine learning model based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers was used. The results revealed that the maximum micro-averaged F1 scores of NER and RE were 0.912 and 0.759, respectively. The results of this study are comparable to those of previous studies. Hence, these results could be of substantial baseline accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effectiveness of a systematic approach to the clinical management of COVID-19, focusing on nursing turnover. METHODS: Between 2017 and 2019, a clinical process support system based on structured clinical knowledge (Team Compass with the Patient Condition Adaptive Path System; TC-PCAPS) was developed, and implemented in hospitals. In 2020, the COVID-19 clinical management system (COVID-19-CMS) was developed. In this study, the effectiveness of implementing both systems was analyzed. The analysis covered hospitals N, T, and B, where TC-PCAPS implementation started in 2019, 2020, and 2022, respectively. Data for the period from 2018 to 2022 were collected and compared. RESULTS: Hospitals N and T implemented TC-PCAPS in the first year and the COVID-19-CMS in the following year. The nurse turnover rates of these hospitals were lower than those of the prefectures in which they were located. There was a trend towards a gradual reduction in nurse turnover. In contrast, hospital B, which had only just started to introduce these systems, saw a gradual increase in nurse turnover. CONCLUSION: The data collected from these three hospitals suggested that this systematic approach has the potential to reduce nurse turnover, in addition to the previously reported ability of TC-PCAPS to reduce nurse overtime. In Japan, there is a need to respond to future pandemics and reform the work styles of physicians and nurses. The abovementioned systematic approach has great potential for contributing to both of these aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the adoption and resistance to digital content subscription services in Japan. Topics include the shift in the definition of subscription, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer lifestyles, factors influencing subscription continuation, and the need for digital content providers to pay attention to Japanese consumer needs.

The environmental targeting policy by the government engendered a debate over sustainable management. In this paper, a theoretical model of sustainable management is proposed to determine the effectiveness of the targeting policy. We set a game with two players as a benchmark model, where player one is a group of companies that have two types of corporate strategies. The first strategy is to pursue the growth strategy via high-energy consumption. Another strategy is to use an eco-strategy that considers the environment. Player two is a group of consumers who may live life either with the concept of "life energy waste" or "eco-life." First, the Nash equilibrium is derived. Then, we introduce the government as the third player. The research question for this paper is as follows: can governmental policy targeting sustainable environmental management, such as CO2 reduction, be feasible in a society? The model in this paper shows that the governmental targeting policy has a positive effect on the feasibility of sustainable management. This is because a correlated strategy assures that the equilibrium exists between the two cases in the Nash Equilibrium. This also assures that the correlated strategy equilibrium is always higher than the two-person game Mixed Strategy Equilibrium. The announcement of the government may act as huge social investment as long as it is considered credible. This paper shows two case studies on leading companies in Japan and proposes economic concepts to explain the conditions in which an eco-friendly target policy is viable. In the resulting Nash equilibrium, under the condition of correlated equilibrium, one can see harmonization of the targeting policy and lifestyle. This result of correlated equilibrium is fundamentally different from the extant solution given by Pigou Tax or Coase Theorem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a lot of discussions about product innovation management. Most of them, the management objects are narrowed down. Innovation management requires overall optimization. Narrowed down management methodology becomes just partial optimization. Therefore, project management is suit for the product innovation issue to realize overall optimization. However, few researches regard product innovation as a project and discuss from view point of project management methodology. In this paper, the authors discuss product innovation using P2M (Project & Program Management; Japanese project management standard) and construct a framework for product innovation management. Moreover, we explain our framework with Japanese automobile company of Honda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

XMASS is a multi-purpose experiment using a single-phase liquid xenon scintillator located underground at the Kamioka Observatory in Japan. Thanks to the high light yield of liquid xenon and stable data taking for more than 5 years, we have published many physics results not limited to but including two-neutrino double electron capture on 124Xe, axions and various kinds of dark matter searches. In this paper, we discuss the latest results from the XMASS experiment focused on the direct direction of dark matter search via annual modulation with 2.7 years of XMASS-I data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a method to predict mechanical failure-mechanicsm. This method is capable of predicting failure mechanism of diverse geo-hazards, such as landslides, rock slope failures, etc. The method uses the displacement or strain divergence phenomenon in the fatal phase of failure to predict failure mechanism irrespective of failure mechanism, lithology and other parameters. Using the proposed method (RocSlope), prediction of failure mechanism of case histories was done (Rock mass failure and landslides) and laboratory studies (creep tests). In most cases, safe predictions were obtained. RocSlope, is a simple, quick and reliable practical method that revealed independency to volume of failure, lithology and failure mechanism. In addition, two empirical relations to estimate the terminal phase of failure and the critical deformation rate were developed, these practical relations complement the RocSlope method. This research will analysed rock orginally from a cool temperate region in West Hokkaido,Japan was presented. A rock slope deformations of jointed- chert rock were monitored using six surface fracturedisplacement sensors. Some movements that could be related to joint growth were observed. With the RocSlope, rock mass and rock deformations were numerically analysed and joints deformations were dominantly caused by thermal fatigue. Affects of the minor freezing on deformation of rock slope can be seen were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct a system of differential equations that faithfully describe actual data of foot-andmouth disease in Miyazaki, Japan in 2010. For the purpose, we improved the traditional SIR model which is well-known as a mathematical model for the influenza epidemic. We propose a modified SIR model which approximates accurately the behavior of the actual data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both significant research into, and practical application of, strategy and strategic management and how these relate particularly in the field of business, delineates three fundamental levels of decision-making and action that define an organizations evolution: corporate strategy, operational control, and tactical work. This paper extends this conceptual approach of SOT: Strategy, Operations, Tactics framework, which has been used in such diverse areas as military operations, systems engineering, operations management, as well as overall business development; and pursues a practical application within a multi-operational strategic business unit structure in the manufacturing industry. We establish and clearly define a methodology for strategic alignment starting from the SOT Model foundation and then construct a set of integrated practical management tools and processes that can be effectively utilized by a multitude of organizations in their strategic alignment efforts. The framework and subsequent management model that we establish is then shown to be successfully prototyped and implemented within the regional US headquarters of a significantly larger international organization with global headquarters in Japan. Our paper presents the conceptual framework, construction, implementation, and operation of this strategic alignment management system and presents both quantitative and qualitative preliminary results of its effectiveness within the target organization we tested the prototype system from 2014-2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the international cooperation between Japan and India is expected to increase in business such as social infrastructure projects, automobile and electric industry. This is because India has established its strong economic growth rate and its enormous market volume. This paper aims at clarifying both the commonalities (similarities) and differences in the way of manufacturing thinking between the engineers of both countries by conducting the questionnaire survey about manufacturing from the perspective of various innovation. Based on the above results, the possibility of international collaborations in the future between the two countries is mentioned. Also, the similarities between the Japanese Kaizen and the Indian Jugaad thinking, which means in Hindi "an innovative problem-solving method" or "an immediate solution out of ingenuity and quick-thinking", have been tackled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to identify the skills that are needed TTP (Technology Transfer Professional) in Japan to realize the commercialization of university technology. We take advantage of Sarasvathy’s (2001) insightful theory of effectuation, basic principles in uncertain situation conducted by successful entrepreneurs. By adapting validated measures developed by Chandler (2011) based on theory of effectuation, four essential principles of entrepreneurs: experiment, affordable loss, flexibility, and networking, to Japanese TTP activities, we identified which skill in principles is most effective on performance in the activities of the TTP in Japan. In conclusion, based on our analysis, TTPs should clearly recognize required skills or behaviors that fit with their activity content. Our analysis contributes to the research streams that pursue a better method of technology commercialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repair/renovation of constructors has considerably increased in Japan, comprising a larger fraction than the new construction work. In particular, the major tasks include cutting and drilling of concrete using a concrete cutter or drill, which presents association problems of noise, vibration, and dust apart from creating safety concerns. Thus, several alternative concrete cutting and drilling techniques have been developed, especially the high-power carbon dioxide laser cutting that can reduce the above-mentioned limitations. Thus, this study characterized the relationship between laser irradiation conditions and drilling using a 500-W fiber laser that can be conveniently transported to a construction site. The present experiment targeted a concrete drilling diameter and depth of 11 and 30 mm, respectively, for two types of concrete strengths. The results indicated that the frequency posed a minimal impact, whereas the irradiation period exerted a large impact on the concrete strength. Moreover, the drilling depth could be increased with the irradiation period, and presumably, an irradiation period of 120 s is required to achieve the target drilling conditions. However, increasing the irradiation period during drilling in high-density and high-strength concrete increased only the amount of vitrification on the surface, and the increased drilling depth value was small. Therefore, the laser irradiation conditions and drilling range, including the thermal effects for the concrete, reported in this study will aid in the application of laser cutting equipment to resolve the stated limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On November 2016, the Japanese Diet passed the Space Activities Act ("SAA") and the Satellite Remote Sensing Act in an effort to modernize its domestic space legislation and encourage its small but growing private sector to become global leaders in burgeoning new types of space business. This paper will examine whether it is feasible for these new laws to propel Japan enough to catch up with current market leaders such as SpaceX in the United States. The paper will have three parts. First, the paper will outline the legal regime that applies to the Japanese space industry. Second, the paper will analyze the impact of Japan's new space legislation and provide a comparative analysis of how they measure up to other space-faring nations' space laws. The paper will find that various aspects of Japan's new space laws have great potential to attract significant foreign space business to be conducted in Japan. The third part of the paper examines whether the country's economy can take advantage of these new legal developments and spur growth among startups. This article discusses how the Silicon Valley model may not be compatible with the financial culture in Japan. After examining how currently thriving startups are financed by corporate investments, the paper concludes that corporations need to finance space startups in more traditional forms of financing in Japan in order to infuse capital into the space industry. Drawing from legal and financial experts, this paper concludes that both legal and financial aspects are coming together for Japanese private space business. Depending on the industry's momentum, the SAA may launch Japan to become globally competitive in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) field, condenser water is used to remove heat from the refrigerant cycle and is cooled at cooling towers. Due to the high operating temperatures of 29°C to 38°C, the condenser water cycle is vulnerable to operating issues such as scaling, corrosion and microbiological proliferation; which can be mitigated through either chemical or non-chemical treatment methods. In this paper, the chemical and non-chemical treatment methods for condenser water treatment in the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are compared in terms of efficiency (scaling, corrosion and microbiological proliferation control) and environmental impact. The efficiency of one chemical treatment system (descalant) and three non-chemical treatment systems (Merus Ring, Power Pulsed and Ultra Low Frequency) are investigated by taking condenser water samples from the cooling tower basins biweekly for three months to characterize for pH, water alkalinity, iron content, chloride content, total dissolved solids (TDS) content, electrical conductivity and water hardness, which are compared to the Japan Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry Association Standards (JRA-GL-02-1994) and applied to the Langelier Saturation Index (LSI), Ryznar Stability Index (RSI) and Practical (Puckorious) Scaling Index (PSI) to predict the scale formation in condenser water samples. The temperature differences between chilled waters for all systems investigated are recorded to relate the characterized parameters to chiller efficiency. The environmental impacts for all systems investigated are assessed by focusing on the operational stage of all system where the main source of environmental damage is due to the electrical consumption by the HVAC systems. The results yield that all systems investigated comply to the industrial standards. LSI and RSI proved that all condenser waters are saturated with calcium ions but PSI proved that scale formations in the systems investigated are unlikely as the scales are likely to remain dissolved in the condenser water. Consistent temperature differences of chilled water are observed throughout the research period which show that the performance of chillers in each system are optimal, which proves that non-chemical treatment systems are as efficient (in terms of corrosion, scaling and microbial activity control) as chemical treatment system. Environmental impact analysis concluded that chemical treatment system has the highest annual equivalent CO2 emission per cooling capacity of 868.30 kg CO2 e/year RT and that two of the chemicals used causes damage to the aquatic environment. Thus, non-chemical treatment systems have lesser environmental impact than chemical treatment system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security is becoming a very important technology for ICT, society and human beings. The importance of digital forensics, one of the security technologies has been recognized in Japan; however, in 2014, lectures on digital forensics were not offered at Japanese universities, and the shortage of experts in the field became a problem. Therefore, the authors planned to introduce digital forensics lectures at Tokyo Denki University for working people and graduate students. Lectures on digital forensics began in 2015 as part of a course called Cyber Security Studies Special Course for Working People and Graduate Students (CySec) with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. This paper describes the needs, objectives, syllabus and other aspects of the lectures. We also discuss the results and student satisfaction with the lectures 4 years after their introduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the course and latest achievement of the Japanese architect Toyo Ito's efforts in developing a new type of architectural space that challenges the Western mode of design rooted in Euclidean as well as Cartesian orthogonal geometry. Such new mode of design, derived from Ito's theory of 'emerging grid,' has been realized most successfully in his recently completed National Taichung Theater in Taiwan. Here he has been able to create a fully three-dimensional and continuously curving structural system as a tubular, horizontally and vertically interconnected, fluid spatial matrix (catenoids), enabled by the application of the most advanced nonlinear digital computational methods. The paper introduces the design and construction processes of the project and analyzes the resulting free-form building as the prospect for a new architectural paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the educational systems of Japan and Bangladesh. The educational systems of both countries intend to provide quality education to their students. The Japanese educational system is inclined toward global trends, striving to produce citizens who are aware of current changes around the world. The Bangladeshi system, under the Madrasah education scheme, aims to provide their students with sufficient information to face the world. The similarities of the two educational systems lie in the input of the governments in facilitating the systems that provide education to children who have come of age. The foundations of the systems are rooted in the cultural practices of the respective countries, along with the provision of the staff and government policies that guide the work in the schools. The differences between the two systems are defined by their policy directives. The policy directive in Bangladesh is based on the UN Child Rights Convention which ensures that the rights of children form the major area of consideration. The policy is geared towards the cultivation of human values. It works as a basis for a system that is available, universal, science oriented and one that seeks to counter all problems. The Japanese education system is based on its national laws as well as the Constitution. It provides for free compulsory education for all the children in relation to their abilities. The law sets policies geared towards creating moral and able members of the society. This paper argues that the government of any country should lay emphasis on education, as it forms the basis of a country's economy and helps to shape students into responsible, competent global citizens of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper on the accident at nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi in Japan and how such accidents could be prevented with the help of safety enhancement is presented. It discusses the status of nuclear regulation in Japan, the outline of the accident and the safety requirements. It examines the pacific ocean earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011 and tsunami that occurred aftermath causing loss of power at the nuclear plant.

In this paper, we examined the correlation between the number of blood donors and the number of crimes in 10 cities near Osaka, Japan. By defining the characteristics of each city, I defined indices that remarkably show its characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]