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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]

The concept of 'lifelong learning' or shōgai gakushu has rapidly become one of the topmost priorities in Japan's education policy agenda. This was considerably evident in December 2006 when the term 'lifelong learning' was added to Japan's educational charter, the Fundamental Law of Education. This paper explores, as a means to develop Japan's new lifelong learning policy, the lessons that can be learnt through an examination of the European countries' efforts to build a knowledge economy, where lifelong learning is regarded as the key solution in overcoming several important social and economic concerns. In this paper, I first examine the current situation of lifelong learning in Japan, employing the ethnographic data that I have collected since 2001. Second, I provide a brief review of the European lifelong learning policy, which is one of the priority guidelines in the European Union. Under the Lisbon Strategy, for example, the argument on European lifelong learning theoretically centres on developing human capital in order to survive in the global knowledge economy. Lastly, referring to the European experience over the past decade, I propose to directly connect Japan's latest policy development regarding lifelong learning with the trend of building human capital through lifelong learning in order to enhance its competitiveness in the era of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century there has been increasing interest in educational assessment and the ways in which it can encourage or discourage effective learning processes. Much of this interest has centered around formative assessment and those practices which can promote student learning through the act of being assessed. Societies that have a Confucian heritage culture are widely believed to prioritize summative assessment at the expense of formative assessment. This will inevitably impact the ways in which students from these countries approach and engage with assessment tasks. The present study seeks to understand the dispositions of students from one Confucian heritage culture though the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The conceptions and experiences of university students in Japan were studied in order to provide direction for the development of formative assessment practice. Two data collection instruments were used: a self-report survey and a narrative frame task. The results indicate that students from Japan approach assessment tasks in a way that is at odds with some popular Confucian categories, such as intense competition, a desire to please the family, and the priority of book knowledge above practical skill. The paper concludes with pedagogical implications for teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social dimension of lifelong learning from the perspective of demographics, with particular focus on the issue of the birth of fewer children, which has become one of the most important current social issues in Japanese society. When considering hie relationship between lifelong learning and demographics, the issues arising from an ageing population are usually the focus of policy-makers. This perspective often overlooks crucial children's issues, such as child development and the influence of the child's daily environment. This paper suggests that it is necessary to analyse the issues arising from a society with fewer children independent of the concept of an aged society with fewer children in an attempt to emphasize these essential issues. The presented relationship between lifelong learning and the issues surrounding the birth of fewer children is based on two perspectives. The first perspective seeks to remove barriers such as the economic burden of educating children and the traditional stereotypical gender-roles that have contributed to the birth of fewer children. The second perspective includes a response to the negative influences that the birth of fewer children has had on family's experiences of child rearing and on children's growth. Specifically, this paper develops the second perspective by focusing on three aspects: the development of children's social skills; children's growth as influenced by a high adult-child ratio; a decline in the quality of child rearing. Three issues are identified as necessary in order to build a Japanese society that fosters children: (1) embracing the concept of the "family-friendly company'; (2) creating opportunities for mixed age groups to participate in learning programmes based on communities and schools; (3) reconsidering an intergenerational exchange programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yamamura E. Effects of interactions among social capital, income and learning from experiences of natural disasters: a case study from Japan, Regional Studies. This paper explores how and the extent to which social capital has an effect on the damage resulting from natural disasters. It also examines whether the experience of a natural disaster affects individual and collective protection against future disasters. There are three major findings. (1) Social capital reduces the damage caused by natural disasters. (2) The risk of a natural disaster makes people more apt to cooperate and, therefore, social capital is more effective to prevent disasters. (3) Income is an important factor for reducing damage, but hardly influences it when the scale of a disaster is small. [image omitted] Yamamura E. L'effet de l'interaction entre le capital social, le revenu, et l'apprentissage des experiences des desastres naturels: etude de cas du Japon, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a examiner comment et jusqu'a quel point le capital social a un effet sur les degats qui resultent des desastres naturels. On examine aussi si, oui ou non, l'experience d'un desastre naturel touche la protection individuelle et collective contre les desastres futurs. On en a tire trois conclusions importantes. (1) Le capital social reduit les degats dus aux desastres naturels. (2) La menace d'un desastre naturel rend les gens plus susceptibles de cooperer et, par la suite, le capital social s'avere plus efficace pour empecher les desastres. (3) Le revenu est important pour la reduction des degats, mais n'est guere important au moment ou l'echelle du desastre est faible. Capital social Apprentissage Desastre naturel Yamamura E. Die Effekte von Wechselwirkungen zwischen Sozialkapital, Einkommen und Lernen aus den Erfahrungen von Naturkatastrophen: Eine Fallstudie aus Japan, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird analysiert, wie und in welchem Ausmass sich Sozialkapital auf den Schaden durch Naturkatastrophen auswirkt. Ebenso wird untersucht, ob sich die Erfahrung einer Naturkatastrophe auf den individuellen und kollektiven Schutz vor kunftigen Katastrophen auswirkt. Im Wesentlichen gibt es hierbei drei Ergebnisse. (1) Das Sozialkapital verringert den Schaden durch Naturkatastrophen. (2) Das Risiko einer Naturkatastrophe erhoht die Bereitschaft zur Zusammenarbeit, weshalb das Sozialkapital starker zur Pravention von Katastrophen beitragen kann. (3) Das Einkommen stellt einen wichtigen Faktor zur Verringerung von Schaden dar, hat aber kaum einen Einfluss darauf, wenn der Umfang der Katastrophe gering ausfallt. Sozialkapital Lernen Naturkatastrophen Yamamura E. Efectos de las interacciones entre el capital social, los ingresos y las lecciones aprendidas de desastres naturales: estudio del caso de Japon, Regional Studies. En este articulo analizamos como y en que medida tiene el capital social un efecto en los danos causados por desastres naturales. Tambien examinados si la experiencia de un desastre natural afecta a la proteccion individual y colectiva contra futuros desastres. En general, existen tres resultados principales. (1) El capital social reduce el dano causado por desastres naturales. (2) El riesgo de un desastre natural aumenta la predisposicion de las personas a cooperar y, por tanto, el capital social es mas eficaz para prevenir desastres. (3) Los ingresos representan un factor importante a la hora de reducir los danos pero apenas influyen cuando la escala de un desastre es pequena. Capital social Lecciones Desastre natural [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine the learning processes that subjects undertake when they start using gaze as computer input. A 7-day experiment with eight Japanese students was carried out to record novice users' eye movement data during typing of 110 sentences. The experiment revealed that inefficient eye movements was dramatically reduced after only 15-25 sentences of typing, equal to approximately 3-4 h of practice. The performance data fits a general learning model based on the power law of practice. The learning model can be used to estimate further improvements in gaze typing performance. Our experimental results encourage the use of gaze-based interfaces for severely disabled people. This paper provides a taxonomy for gaze actions on dwell time-activated keys and it presents a method by which the learnability of gaze interfaces may be documented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesson study in Japan, the practice in which teachers work collaboratively and reflectively with colleagues on improving their classroom teaching, has recently attracted attention internationally as an effective means of teachers’ professional development. Although lesson study is very useful for helping new teachers join the profession and for teachers to develop pedagogical knowledge, its effectiveness is less clear when teachers have to understand new epistemologies for new forms of learning and teaching. This paper describes a variation of lesson study, called design study, which takes the concept further to involve teachers and researchers working together as a design team. Specifically it describes the development of an experienced classroom teacher through his participation in a design-based research practice, tracing how he shifted his focus towards epistemological issues and successfully developed new pedagogical content knowledge. The paper describes how such a design-based collaborative study might enrich teacher knowledge, and articulates possible factors that might contribute to it as a successful practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interplay between Western conceptions of education and students from other educational traditions, most specifically Japan, through the lens of the author's practice in international education. He examines models of the private and public spheres and public discourse advanced by Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas in relation to the purpose of education, and discusses the transferability of these concepts to cross-cultural contexts, through an analysis of the nature of the public and the private in Japanese society. Finally, the paper urges international educators to take responsibility for the message they send exchange students by providing the mediation necessary to put their exchange experience into the proper context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various conceptualizations of lifelong learning have been developed and various practices of lifelong learning have been identified. This paper introduces several recent conceptualizations of lifelong learning before considering the case for Japan, both in general and through examination of the state of lifelong learning in a rural prefecture and a case study of one lifelong learning programme in a rural city. While the case for the prefecture as a whole mirrors the literature on lifelong learning in Japan, the case study presents four specific characteristics that may direct future development of lifelong learning programmes as well as research: a clearly stated societal objective, a knowledge and skills curriculum, participant accountability, and social visibility and presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent research, it has been argued that effective professional learning would continue over the long term and is best suited for a school community that promotes learning. This requires an examination of the teachers on a daily basis. In order to develop such a community, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to mutually observe and jointly reflect on practices at the classroom level. Educators in the United States have begun paying close attention to the Japanese tradition of lesson study. This paper aims to discuss the chief findings and issues that have hitherto been raised with respect to research on lesson study and to clarify current progress and limitations in the research in the United States and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines interactions among the United States, Japan and the European Union over steel trade disputes with particular interest in Japan's reactions to the disputes. For this objective, this paper establishes an analytical framework that takes into account bilateral, international, and domestic factors in formulating a state's external policy and relations. It was found that the special relationship with the United States still impinged on Japan's reactions to steel trade disputes, but its influence has gradually declined. Moreover, growing familiarity with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and practices and collaboration with other countries enabled Tokyo to expand its policy options to handle steel trade conflicts with Washington. Significantly, Japan formally adopted seemingly bold measures to cope with the US steel safeguard action, but the measures' substantial influence on the US government was limited compared with those adopted by the European Union. Weak policy coordination among ministries prevented Japan from formulating strategic and effective measures in managing steel trade disputes with the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chief objective of this paper is to develop suggestions as to how to learn from best practices in HRM across national borders. The analysis is based on survey data gathered from 232 HRM managers from American, Japanese and German top 500 companies. The managers provide information on how the HRM model of their respective country is characterized and from which of the other two country models they seek inspiration. The concrete attributes of the models considered worth adopting are described in detail and future developments with regards to convergence of the HRM models explored. The empirical data suggest that HR managers from all three countries expect a partial convergence towards a hybrid model. Curiously, the model that comes closest to this hybrid - the German one - is also the one that rates lowest as a source of inspiration. An argument is made that in order to better understand learning from best practice and resulting convergence tendencies, research should seek more insights regarding the knowledge of managers about foreign management models, their perceptions of these models, and how these perceptions are generated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sales of manga or Japanese comics dominate the publishing market in Japan. Manga cater for a wide variety of readers, ranging from children's comics to adult pornography. In this paper, we focus on adolescent readers and describe patterns of learning to read manga. The findings demonstrate the importance of belonging to a community of readers since this community enables readers to share ideas and provides a resource for developing reading skills. These skills are self-taught, developed outside the classroom, since the reading of manga is generally frowned upon in most schools. Being aware of how actively adolescents read manga as well as of the kinds of skills needed to understand these texts would provide teachers with a deeper understanding of their students' reading skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a theoretical model of interaction between individual and collective levels of entrepreneurial learning. We conducted a qualitative study on SoftBank Academia (SBA), an institute for human resource development to develop potential successors to Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Group in Japan. In SBA, there's simultaneously a high level of competition and cooperation. Results suggest that the entrepreneurial learning process, which spans individual and collective levels, features elements of SoftBank Group's business process such as 'comradely association' and 'Cluster of No. 1 Strategy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the Tokyo Olympic Games postponement, has created unprecedented challenges for Olympic level athletes. Given the adversity athletes have faced since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the construct of psychological resilience is a useful framework for understanding athlete experiences during this time, and is conceptualized by Fletcher and Sarkar as an individual's ability to protect against the negative effect of stressors. The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of Canadian athletes preparing for the Tokyo summer Olympic Games during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Interviews were conducted with 20 Canadian athletes across individual and team sports. The participants spoke of the multiple ways they were taking care of themselves and developing resilience throughout the pandemic, highlighting the complexity involved with managing an adversity. Four narratives illuminate the athletes' experiences: the critical role of context, the essential nature of social support, the importance of being more than an athlete, and the relevance of learning to reflect on one's life. For these athletes, factors such as Olympic qualification, stage of their career, physical and mental health, and access to resources influenced their experience of the pandemic, demonstrating the importance of both individual and environmental factors when exploring resilience. Importantly, the athletes did not manage this adversity on their own, but received strong support. Therefore, sport psychology consultants can assist an athlete's development of resilience by providing expertise and taking into account an athlete's personal context. Lay summary: Twenty athletes preparing for the Tokyo Olympic Games during the COVID-19 pandemic were interviewed and four narratives are presented. All athletes were experiencing the pandemic differently based on their personal circumstances and were managing the adversity with social support, reflection, and pursuits beyond sport. Develop resources for coaches, athletes, and sport psychology practitioners to become competent in understanding and developing a high-performance sport environment that is both challenging and supportive Recognize the importance of social support in learning how to effectively reflect and develop pursuits outside of high-performance sport Understand and develop resilience, in a way that promotes, rather than diminishes, mental health [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs emerged in North America and have not traditionally focused on embodied learning processes that are situated in the learners' contexts and lived experiences. Thus, we present evidence and advance the case that transferable social-emotional competencies are inherently culturally responsive or situated in learners' authentic experiences and are inherently embodied. We also introduce a conceptual model grounded in bioecological and embodied theoretical frameworks to help guide future research and practice for culturally relevant SEL. Research findings: We used parts of the scoping review methodology to search and screen the published empirical literature on SEL and embodied learning. Findings highlight the increase in SEL research over the past 2 decades but with extremely limited work done outside of North America, particularly in Japan and South Africa. Consequently, we explored what culturally responsive, situated, and embodied SEL would look like across three different cultural contexts (i.e., in North America, Japan, and South Africa). Practice or Policy: While the principles, goals, and key skills of SEL might apply to most or even all cultures, an emic approach where culture-specific values, beliefs, or customs drive the development and implementation of SEL curriculum, and incorporates the meaningful inclusion of key community members is needed to be effective for specific groups of students. To implement and facilitate effective SEL programs within diverse and multicultural settings, policies and practices related to SEL curriculum need to consider the backgrounds and needs of the children, families, and communities that are being served. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report describes the current state of affairs and reform in Japan in 2007 of the theory, policy, and practice of lifelong education. As in most countries, Japan has been talking of decentralisation in government, of giving more local autonomy to communities and of promoting individuality in education. In line with these aims, the government has said it promotes lifelong learning for the economic security, wellbeing, and the quality of life of the people in the new millennium. The fall in birth rate and rise in the proportion of old-aged pensioners have supported the general reform towards lifelong learning. However, recently it seems that the government has switched to focus on more tightly controlling school education which had been liberalised during the past 10 years—leading some to feel that the government was using recent adolescent crime and delinquency as a guise to recover centralised influence in schools. Some observers have interpreted this re-focus on school education reform as abandoning the drive towards individual autonomy and lifelong learning. The new revisions to education laws and the prevailing socioeconomics surrounding education are summarised. Based on a full literature survey, theory and analysis on how to initiate the social intrinsic motivation to lifelong learning, this study shows that the government is likely on the right track by pushing through the reform laws to set minimum standards in education—as the only foundation upon which lifelong learning can flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model of language and speciality-area content teaching and learning in Japan is built on a concern to develop dialogically engaged language communal communication (DELCC) in class to be extended outside in the wider society. This model is applicable to other university contexts insofar as the FAO language is conceptualised and practised for life content enrichment rather than operational or academic success. DELCC development is linked to an FAO (foreign-additional-other) English language study for life-long participation in effecting constructive social change. Adopting a one-world ontology of knowing about and being and acting in the world, this paper maintains that DELCC development in FAO language university study can serve as an impetus for the enhancement of young adults' greater participation and agency for constructive social change across the higher education curriculum, a development which can transfer to local and global citizenship after the completion of university. Teachers and programmes of university FAO language study, however, need to be more aware of the extent to which classroom language and communicative interaction can determine the kinds of involvement or non-involvement open to students. University FAO language study can influence the way(s) in which young adults exercise democratic civic responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has challenged every aspect of our "normal" lives. COVID-19 requires us to make behavioral and attitudinal changes to coexist with the coronavirus. Universities have been affected substantially, and online teaching and learning have become the "new normal." The strategies to achieve this "new normal" and how they are received depend on the sociocultural context. This preliminary qualitative inquiry explores how, during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, university teaching and learning were maintained and social distancing became a learning opportunity. The voices of first-year graduate students in this inquiry enable us to understand the dynamics of their responses and show their resilience, particularly their ability to turn challenges into creative opportunities. The implications are that shared values and beliefs will help us to get through this crisis together, and collective action will help us to continue to move forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interprofessional collaboration is an essential approach to comprehensive patient care. As previous studies have argued, interprofessional education (IPE) must be integrated in a stepwise, systematic manner in undergraduate health profession education programmes. Given this perspective, first-year IPE is a critical opportunity for building the foundation of interprofessional collaborative practice. This study aims to explore the first-year students’ learning processes and the longitudinal changes in their perceptions of learning in a year-long IPE programme. Data were collected at a Japanese medical university, in which different pedagogical approaches are adopted in the IPE programme. Some of these approaches include interprofessional problem-based learning, early exposure, and interactive lecture-based teaching. The students are required to submit written reflections as a formative assessment. This study conducted an inductive thematic analysis of 104 written reflections from a series of e-portfolios of 26 first-year students. The themes related to learning outcomes from student perspectives included communication (e.g., active listening and intelligible explanation), teams and teamwork (e.g., mutual engagement and leadership), roles/responsibilities as a group member (e.g., self-directed learning and information literacy), and roles/responsibilities as a health professional (e.g., understanding of the student’s own professional and mutual respect in an interprofessional team). The study also indicated three perspectives of students’ learning process at different stages of the IPE, i.e., processes by which students became active and responsible learners, emphasised the enhancement of teamwork, and developed their own interprofessional identities. This study revealed the first-year students’ learning processes in the year-long IPE programme and clarified the role of the first-year IPE programme within the overall curriculum. The findings suggest that the students’ active participation in the IPE programme facilitated their fundamental understanding of communication/teamwork and identity formation as a health professional in interprofessional collaborative practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As young children enter formal schooling, they are at various points along their individual developmental paths toward literacy. Generally, their egocentric speech is becoming more social and they are building their capacity for logical thought and concrete problem-solving. This is a gradual development and teachers can support children's literacy growth by crafting instructional approaches that tap into children's creativity and support their autonomy. Direct experiences and plenty of opportunities to observe will help young children build cognitive and social capacities, providing the foundation for higher level thinking. This article describes the work of a 1st-grade teacher in Japan who “incubates” his students' literacy growth through direct experience, peer learning, and interaction with picture books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes unexamined technical trading rules, which are dynamically switching strategies among filter, moving average and trading-range breakout rules. The dynamically switching strategy is formulated based on a discrete choice theory consistent with the concept of myopic utility maximization. We utilize the transaction data of the individual stocks listed on the Nikkei 225 from September 1, 2005 to August 31, 2007. We demonstrate that switching strategies produce positive returns and their performance is better than those from the buy-and-hold and non-switching strategies over our sample periods. We also demonstrate equivalent performance for switching with different learning horizons, implying that behavioural heterogeneity of stock investors arises from the coexistence of different strategies with varying degrees of learning horizons. Our result supports several research assumptions and results on agent-based theoretical models that successfully replicate empirical features in financial markets, such as fat tails of return distributions and volatility clustering. However, upon considering the effects of data-snooping bias superior performance disappears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical instrumental case study examines a transformative world language learning approach to a unit on culture in an introductory Japanese class in a public high school. Couched in recent post-9/11 language 'policy' debates, which strikingly lack mention of religion, spirituality, or environmental issues of climate change and sustainability, this study examines how a transformative world language learning approach develops and identifies students' environmentally based spirituality and how students articulate such 'ecospirituality' in their emerging, standards-based Japanese writing. Critical analysis of written, interview, and classroom data reveals that a transformative world language learning approach may be effective in bridging traditional written literacies with 'ecospiritual literacies' in the world language classroom. It also provides a lens for students' socio-dialogic learning of environment-related vocabulary and their subsequent use of it in their Japanese writing. Finally, this study suggests that while students rejected identities of religiosity, they embraced and articulated identities of ecospirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case study at Okutama-Kohan Park in Japan was designed to explore adult participants' preferences for interpretive programs. The study included adults who participated in an interpreter-led program in the park. A questionnaire survey with 492 participants examined their preferences for interpretive program types, topics, timing, and types of social interaction during a program. The associations between participants' preferences and their age, gender, or group composition were also explored. Designing programs that are consistent with these preferences should help to enhance free-choice adult learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent restructuring of higher education in Japan has been carried out in the context of neo-liberalism with an emphasis on the unbridled workings of market forces. However, civic discourse on issues such as active citizenship and social inclusion/exclusion, which is significant to higher education as a democratic public sphere, has been left behind. Focusing on this omission, this article aims at a critical analysis of the government expansion policy initiative in Japan. It includes discussion of a wide-ranging group of participants, in particular adults who are disadvantaged with regard to access to higher education in a knowledge-based society, from the point of view of lifelong learning. It is a very important subject in Japan to encourage the active participation of adults in higher education. Regarding this aspect, the article discusses significant points for building new concepts and systems in higher education, instead of the established traditional concepts and systems, which have contributed to the exclusion of adults from higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how visual representations may mediate the teaching and learning of mathematics over time in Japanese elementary classrooms. Using the Zone of Proximal Development Mathematical Learning Model (Murata & Fuson, 2006; Fuson & Murata, 2007), the process of mediation is explicated. The tape diagram, a central visual representation used in Japanese mathematics curriculum, is explored for its roles and the student learning that is intended to be mediated over time, illuminating aspects of the process. The study argues that the consistent and coherent use of one representation can bridge student understanding over time, focusing on mathematical relationships and problem-solving processes. The study also suggests different instructional approaches between U.S. and Japanese curricula that are reflected in the uses of representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major objective of this study is to investigate whether Chinese-background learners (CBLs) use effective strategies to learn Japanese kanji words. How do these learners use their L1 knowledge in memorising and guessing Japanese kanji words? Five native Chinese speakers enrolled in a beginner Japanese course at an Australian university were asked to take a kanji writing test, and were interviewed individually immediately after it. The findings are as follows: (1) it is an effective strategy to use the Chinese meaning and sound that comes with the orthography in memorising Japanese kanji words; (2) in memorising Japanese kanji words, the degree of orthographical similarity between Japanese and Chinese is not always directly proportional to the difficulty of memorisation; and (3) the semantic aspect of lexical information is more important and more frequently used than the phonetic when CBLs guess Japanese kanji words. These findings indicate that CBLs associate Japanese kanji words with the Chinese to effectively memorise and guess kanji words. CBLs tend to assist memorisation by making various kinds of associations even for those words which do not share orthography with Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent writing in English shows a range of new approaches to and interpretations of Japanese colonialism between 1931 and 1945. Earlier bodies of work tended to focus on the aims, strategies and structures of Japanese rule throughout the empire, especially the formal empire. Newer studies have not abandoned these concerns, especially in relation to geographical areas, notably Manchuria, that have only just begun to emerge or re-emerge in English-language writing on Japanese colonial practice. At the same time, however, there is now much greater recognition among historians of Japan that the colonial relationship is shaped by the colonised as well as the colonisers; that life in the metropolis itself is affected deeply by its colonies; and that mainstream studies of modern Japanese history should include Japan's formal and informal colonies as a matter of course. In this essay I identify three major trends in works that have appeared in the last five years or so: a spurt of interest in Manchuria and other areas of northern China, a reconsideration of the major stages of empire, and an expanded understanding of what constituted colonialism and who participated in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifelong learning in Japan involves various cultural and/or sporting activities for personal enjoyment rather than for individual or national economic benefit. Currently the study of karaoke at a variety of public and private organizations is very popular among older Japanese and housewives. This article explores the emergence of karaoke as a newer form of adult learning, discussing students’ learning objectives and the consequences thereof. It also explores how karaoke differs from traditional forms of singing and why students are more interested in the newer form of learning. Fifteen months of fieldwork included participant observation, interviews and a quantitative survey. Karaoke learning offers freedom and simplicity and is less expensive than traditional singing. The structure of karaoke is flexible, generative and egalitarian. These characteristics perfectly match current Japanese adult interests and make the learning of it popular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported in this article examined the relationship between learning needs and activity limitations of the elderly with physical disabilities in Japan. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 364 elderly over age 60 with physical disabilities. According to the survey results, 87.3% of the respondents have learning needs. Areas of medical concern were highly mentioned, but areas of communication with other elderly, gardening, and pottery also were mentioned. Analysis of the structure of learning needs by Hayashi's quantification method III disclosed that the most dominant axis was that of "Instrumental and Social Learning" versus "Expressive and Communicative Learning." Analysis of the relationship between learning needs and activity limitations revealed that the elderly who have serious activity limitations have an orientation toward "Instrumental and Social--External" learning, and the elderly who have moderate activity limitations have an orientation toward "Expressive and Communicative--Internal." According to Londoner (1985), "the elderly tend to have instrumental needs for survival," (p. 94). This seems to be particularly true among the elderly with serious activity limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to uncover meanings embedded in the feelings and reflections of visiting Japanese students' accounts of their daily activities in the United States, especially their experience with the U.S. hosts. It aims also to conceptually delineate the communicative process of cultural learning. Seven themes emerged as important factors for cultural learning in intercultural interaction and are labeled as (a) preparedness, (b) expectations, (c) anxiety, (d) enjoyment=discomfort, (e) communication (success, problems, strategies), personality, and (f) "Japaneseness." These factors provide insight into their interactive relationships in cultural learning as part of intercultural adaptation and demonstrate the communicative nature of the process. On the basis of the 7 factors, the article proposes a grounded theory model of cultural learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the entire formal Japanese educational system's engagement in the realities of learning, training and competition in various industries. The general culture of language, contracts, expectations and occupational prospects gives meaning to school systems. School and college systems not only have the supporting power of law, finance and administration, they also positively teach their own importance and reinforce it via examinations, selection or rejection. Cultural tendencies, on the other hand, oftentimes affect curriculum development in Japan.

The article discusses the cultural basis of student achievement in Japan. Culture provides a general design, a covert rationale that underlies the premises guiding human behavior. Members of a culture are usually not conscious of its force, but it gives a direction for their actions and guides every behavioral pattern. Cultural basis of student achievement in Japan is not a unique set of premises influencing student performance in school exclusively, but a reflection of the Japanese cultural orientation. Japanese teachers and parents stress the importance of the social learning environment and emphasizes on the creation of the learning environment.

The study compares affective variable revealed in personal diaries of two groups of learners of Japanese in order to identify the effects of different environments on learners. Group I studied Japanese in a classroom setting in the US, while Group 2 was based in Japan, the target setting. Both groups experienced affective factors such as anxiety and embarrassment and developed personal approaches to the learning process. However a difference emerged in the two groups' reactions to the language environment: the US-based group addressed primarily issues within the classroom while the country group responded to the whole target culture as the learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse management devices used by nine native Japanese speakers in English interviewees are described in the categories of pauses, conjunctions, lexical discourse markers (parenthetical remarks), syllabic hesitators (pause fillers), breathy hesitators, drawls, repetitions, and clicks. Other than pause, the discourse management devices with the highest frequency are drawl and syllabic hesitators, while those with the lowest frequency are lexical discourse markers and conjunctions. Differences in the distribution of devices for males and females may relate to differences in their English proficiency. Differences in the results of the present study in comparison to other research may be due to the fact that most of the previous research was carried out on speakers of European languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]