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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung is the property of Open Library of Humanities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How did the Japanese government defend its postwar capital controls against foreign criticism within the wider discourse surrounding the liberalization of cross-border capital f lows? This paper argues that it was relying on the so-called "balance of payments rationale," a rhetoric linking the annual in- and outf lows of foreign money to current and future states of the national economy, to justify its continued application of foreign capital import controls between 1950 and 1967. It traces how legal, diplomatic, and economic conditions enabled the balance of payments rationale to assume this role. As the control of capital imports was an important element of Japan's postwar industrial policy, maintaining it was deemed essential for the country's economic development. Thus, the initial conditions of the capital liberalization discourse coupled with the effective use of the balance of payments rationale enabled the Japanese government to retain this important industrial policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Psychoanalys Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG) is the property of Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Info DaF: Informationen Deutsch als Fremdsprache is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the Asia Pacifi c War (1937-1945), the Japanese Imperial Army forced women in Japanese East Asian colonies to work as so-called “comfort women” (sex workers). The justice movement for these women is an international intersectional alliance of feminists from Japanese ex-colonies in East Asia, the former colonial power Japan, and other societies, such as Australia, Germany, and the USA. This long-term feminist justice movement has campaigned for an apology and compensation from the Japanese government, as well as for recognition of “comfort women‘s” suff ering and of sexual violence in war in cultural memory. Through researching this justice movement from a processual intersectionality perspective, this paper shows that it gained power and legitimacy from refl ecting and working on its internal intersectional inequalities. This included refl ecting on the class hierarchies between many former “comfort women”, who had power of defi nition, and intellectual feminist activists, as well as on the postcolonial divide between former Japanese colonies and the former colonial power Japan, leading it to develop horizontal cooperation and practices. Following an overview, the paper outlines the movements in South Korea, Japan, and Germany, and highlights the different postcolonial constellation between East Asia and Germany, the main actors, and their aims. While the Japanese government rejected the justice movement‘s demands and the right wing mobilised against it, has been able to infl uence cultural memory to widely recognize sexual violence in war and the dignity of the “comfort women”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change in Japan is having very different effects at the municipal level. This is due on the one hand to the steadily increasing concentration of the population in the Tōkyō metropolitan area, and on the other hand to the nationwide advance of urbanization. Both trends are accelerating population decline and aging in Japan’s rural regions. The following paper illustrates the dynamics using a quantitative analysis for the period from 2000 to 2020. The period thus also captures the changes brought about by the wave of municipal mergers between 2000 and 2009. The basis is the Population Census and local income tax and financial statistics. The data show that most of Japan’s 1741 municipalities today are small and sparsely populated. There are significant differences at the municipal level in population growth, aging, fertility, income levels, and financial strength. Small and sparsely populated municipalities are affected by a significantly greater decline and faster aging of the population, incomes are lower here and the financial strength of municipal budgets is weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ORDO: Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Japan’s public debt has been rising significantly since the 1990s; in recent years it has risen to about 240% in relation to GDP. Contrary to repeated promises, political and bureaucratic attempts at changing the direction of this trend have been ineffective for more than three decades. Therefore, the sustainability of Japan’s public finance is frequently challenged, even more so in the light of the Bank of Japan’s ongoing quantitative easing monetary policy. Although it is true that socio-structural and macroeconomic conditions make the accrual of a public deficit more likely, the political and democratic dimensions of fiscal discipline are gaining more attention at present. Public policy research stresses the existence of systemic loopholes in Japan’s fiscal governance and demonstrates that the legal framework and parliamentary control have proved inadequate in limiting the quest by politicians and bureaucrats for budget maximization. While major OECD countries have made considerable efforts to enhance their fiscal governance by increasing fiscal transparency, establishing independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) and enforcing binding constitutional rules – such as balanced budget amendments, commonly known as »Schuldenbremse« in Germany – steps towards a fiscal reform in Japan’s case are not yet in sight. To explain why Japan’s public finance has deteriorated to this degree (whereas other countries facing comparable social and economic challenges have managed to reduce their reliance on debt), this paper first examines critical aspects of the country’s fiscal governance. Then it moves on to a media analysis of how the debt issue is covered by the mainstream press, namely national television (NHK) and the major newspapers. It will be demonstrated that the topic of public debt tends to be marginalized in media discourse, questioning the public’s issue of awareness and the media’s ability to form a widely supported consensus that could pressure politicians to act and finally take effective measures towards fiscal consolidation. This paper will further illustrate that the shortcomings in fiscal governance are closely linked to the quality of public discourse, thereby underlining that the public deficit ultimately reveals not only Japan’s structural socio-economic challenges but also the fragile state of its democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to summarize the development of the social science discourse on school absenteeism (futōkō) in Japan and to analyze it in the context of the debate on social inequality in society (kakusa shakai). This systematic literature review will answer the question: how has the issue of school absenteeism in Japan developed since the post-war period up to the present? School absenteeism has been a subject of much discussion in Japan since the 1960s, and this paper discusses whether recent research on school absenteeism is merely examining this phenomenon from old perspectives or identifying new trends that are also interesting from an international viewpoint. As a background, this paper clarifies central Japanese terms in research on absenteeism since the post-war period and describes how refusal to attend school has been considered as school and youth problems since the 1980s. The article builds on a methodology that is often referred to as desk research, which has undergone a renaissance under the concept of systematic literature studies where search strategies and the presentation of the results are formalized in order to ensure the transparency and reliability of the information. The research focuses on Japanese and international publications of the last decade. The evaluation of a total of 22 selected articles (including journal articles and book chapters) reveals important topics, such as new potential risk groups and solution strategies. The articles show absenteeism and high school drop-out are more frequent for disadvantaged groups in connection to poverty, migration, sexual identity and psychosocial factors. Interestingly, in the literature, connections between futōkō and social withdrawal (hikikomori) have been described as an overlapping but still different phenomena. Another trend that has been highlighted in the literature is the role of various new actors in and around the school system. Although school absenteeism may appear to be an old problem in Japanese research, the role of new players in the education system and the diversification of the Japanese school landscape are becoming more apparent in response to persistently high levels of absenteeism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Japan is considered a homogeneous country, protest in Japan is not as rare as it appears. Following the Fukushima triple disaster in 2011, Japanese citizens demonstrated against nuclear energy. However, these protests related to issues or events that affected the entire population. Therefore, what about other groups who are demonstrating for their own rights? This paper is concerned with the attempt to classify a minority in the terms of protest and its impact. First, the important concepts for this article, such as discrimination, protest and its forms, and the terms LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and homosexuality are outlined. The topic of homosexuality represents one of the minority groups that are subject to discrimination in Japan. The key questions in this paper are therefore: how do homosexuals (dōseiaisha) as a minority group face discrimination, what are their reactions, and how does protest change the situation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, urbanites' outmigration to Japan's rural areas received considerable media attention. However, outmigration from urban areas is small and not evenly distributed across prefectures in Japan, with prefectures in peripheral locations receiving fewer migrants than those closer to urban centers. This paper analyzes the representation of rural spaces in recruitment strategies, promotional activities, and information events conceptualized and organized by two such peripheral prefectures, Saga and Ōita in Kyushu, to understand the role of these representations in the inter-prefectural competition for new residents. Based on the analysis of promotional videos published online by both prefectures, it was found that despite recent changes in rural Japan the promotional videos published by Saga and Ōita prefectures portray the two prefectures as a »rural idyll,« rather than as innovative, open, and diverse. In this way, the promotional materials echo older discourses about rural areas from the fields of tourism, consumerism, and the media, which portray rural Japan as an idealized but homogeneous space. Since the representations of the two prefectures differed only slightly and could hardly be distinguished from each other, it is questionable whether these materials can help potential new residents make an informed decision before moving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preface to the special theme section “Historical narration in pre-modern Japan” addresses the terminological ambiguity of the expression “historical narrative” and its varying implications in the framework of literary studies. The individual papers approach the topic in a philological manner from different angles, i.e., from literary, historical, linguistic, and buddhological points of view. This preface introduces all the essays in this theme section and outlines their commonalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the anthropological assumption that languages express worldviews, the paper approaches the meaning of cosmopolitanism in Japanese from two directions. First, Western traditions of cosmopolitanism are examined. Anthropological cosmopolitanism is elaborated as a way of thinking that emphasizes cultural diversity. Second, the Japanese word kyôsei (共生) is considered as an equivalent to cosmopolitanism, revealing both similarities and differences in meaning. As ›conviviality‹ or ›symbiosis of dissimilarities‹, kyôsei points to ways of overcoming the implicit anthropocentrism of Western thought. From an educational perspective, Western and Japanese cosmopolitan thought overlap in notions of intercultural education. In the current political discourse in Japan, however, kyôsei has turned into an anticosmopolitan pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Japan's post-war social system was based on the male-breadwinner model, current Japanese social policy is working on structures that should facilitate development into a society with a high proportion of dual-income households. In 2016, the Japanese government passed a law to »Promote the Active Utilization of Women«, which has triggered a set of work style reforms. It seems that policy makers in Japan have finally admitted the negative associations between Japan's corporate culture and women's career empowerment. In fact, statistical data reflects an increase in the proportion of fulltime employed Japanese women living in a family with children. But recent studies on family and work in Japan have pointed out that there is still a critical gap between the political and legal initiatives intended to promote full-time working couples and the actual social reality of the gender-segregated domestic household. The paper addresses current data and survey results that help to understand how social policy in Japan mediates the relationship between economic resources such as employment and gender norms regarding family and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of its high life expectancy and simultaneously declining birth rate, Japan has been experiencing a fast demographic transition since the mid-twentieth century. The number of people in the so-called Third and Fourth Age is gradually increasing and already constituted 28% of the Japanese population in 2019. This situation led to the introduction of long-term care insurance in 2000, which indirectly promoted an increase of small local care services. Given their size, these care services are more flexible and quicker to implement new concepts. A noticeable trend in this regard is the spread of intergenerational care approaches. This paper describes selected local care institutions and analyzes whether some intergenerational day care centers provide an extension of the nuclear family and its support services. The analysis is based on a six-month field research project in cooperation with different institutions (N=14) in Japan. The data was mainly collected through participant observation. The findings, when compared with Jurczyk's »Doing Family« concept and Erikson's view of generativity, indicate that certain institutions indeed function as an extension of the modern nuclear family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marking the end of the Heisei era in 2019, economists took the opportunity to look back at Japan's previous three decades. Although they differ in their analysis of causes and interpretation of events, they generally agree on the conclusion that the Japanese economy is not yet back on track. Starting with an introduction to Yukio Noguchi's widely received concept of the»1940 System«, this paper then presents his recent analysis of the Heisei economy. As one of Japan's most distinguished economists, and an outspoken critic of Abenomics, Noguchi has provided a much-recognized analysis of the country's economic development since the beginning of the post-Cold War era. He argues that after the real estate bubble burst in the early 1990s, Japanese companies were not aware of the fundamental changes that were occurring globally, i.e. primarily China's rapid industrialization, the shift towards digital technologies, and, related to these, a groundbreaking change in business models from vertical integration to horizontal specialization. As a consequence, they were not able to react to these challenges in a timely and adequate manner. At the same time, economic policy, in particular monetary and fiscal policy, had a narcotic effect: instead of reviving the economy substantially, it rather led to the conservation of industrial structures, and failed to trigger any courageous reform. Even worse, the policy of the weak yen in the 2000s misled manufacturing companies to return production to Japan, a fatal strategic decision which in the end accelerated their decline. Noguchi concludes that both factors - the insufficient adjustment of the Japanese economy to global changes, and government policy as a hindrance rather than stimulus for reform - continue up to this day. His findings suggest that what is required is not more state involvement, but comprehensive reforms leading to an internationally competitive business environment that empowers the capacity of a diverse workforce, unleashes innovation and enhances productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, through the emergence of a new group of workers stuck in precarious non-regular employment, constituting almost 40 percent of the workforce, social inequality in Japan has risen. Labor unions in Japan have failed to organize this growing number of non-regular workers, leaving them largely without representation and causing union membership to fall to an all-time low in 2017 with only 17.1 percent of workers belonging to a labor union. When looking for possible ways to revitalize trade unions, examples of Social Movement Unionism (SMU) have been analyzed and put forward as a positive model for the future development of the labor movement. The core aspects of SMU are - borrowing a definition by Suzuki (2012): (1) extend activities beyond the framework of existing institutions and adopt broadly-defined goals beyond the workplace, (2) form alliances with social movement and community-based organizations, (3) transform internal organizations so as to increase involvement of rank-and-file members in union activities, and (4) promote grassroots cross-national union solidarity. Aequitas is a group founded in 2015 with the goal of raising the national minimum wage in Japan to 1,500 Yen. By mobilizing different actors such as labor unions, social movements, and NPOs to rally for the common cause of raising the minimum wage and fighting against social inequality and poverty in Japan, Aequitas engages in SMU. This paper will examine how SMU unfolds in the minimum wage movement around Aequitas and to what extend the group can serve as an alternative to labor unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2020, just ahead of the Olympic/Paralympic Games in Tokyo, the Japanese government will open the »Symbolic Space for Ethnic Harmony« in Shiraoi (Hokkaido). The official reading says that in Shiraoi the Ainu indigenous rights legislation will be implemented step by step, and the process will be supported by the new Ainu law, which was adopted in April 2019. The symbolic space will consist of a national Ainu museum, a national ethnic harmony park where Ainu culture can be practiced, and a central depot for Ainu remains that are currently stored in Japanese and overseas institutions. From the perspective of many members of the Ainu community it is equally appalling that the remains of their ancestors will be stored in a concrete mausoleum, and that these remains will continue to be subjected to scientific research. They demand repatriation to local communities, and lawsuits filed against Hokkaido University have been quite successful so far. The first part of this article deals with the question: why did Japanese anatomists collect the remains of the Ainu? Racial theories of the eighteenth century were connected to social Darwinian ideas in the late nineteenth century and consequently, indigenous groups were perceived as doomed races. It was within this ideological framework that scholars worldwide collected the human remains of indigenous people. This also applies to Japan where since the Meiji period young academics were educated in Europe (for example, Yoshikiyo Koganei in Berlin). Another aspect of this paper is the treatment of the Ainu in Japanese legal history. It may come as a surprise that policies of forced assimilation began a century prior to the modern Meiji state with its well-known law of 1899, which addressed the Ainu as former Aborigines. For the first time in Japanese legislation the new Ainu law of April 2019 addresses the Ainu as indigenous. As recently as 2007, Japan supported the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This article discusses in some detail whether Japan is fulfilling its commitments to UNDRIP or, in other words: is the recognition of the Ainu in accordance with an international understanding of the term indigenous? In this regard the treatment of Ainu remains is one relevant matter among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese families are known for their massive private investment in supplementary education services. Until recently, however, such investments rarely targeted the increase of students‹ transnational human capital during school, such as foreign language skills and intercultural competencies. Studying abroad is considered the best way to accumulate such capital. Contrary to assumptions based on international data from organizations such as the OECD, recent and more extensive surveys by the Japanese organizations JASSO and JAOS show that the total number of students going abroad for study purposes has increased significantly in recent years. Existing research on this topic is, however, more than tenuous. In this paper two particularly striking research gaps are addressed and enriched with new findings: on the one hand, existing Japanese (and international) research has primarily dealt with university students. Study-related stays abroad during school are hardly considered. On the other hand, existing studies focus more on the motivations and goals or the acquisition of students‹ linguistic and intercultural competences, as well as push- and pull-factors at the institutional/national level. The influence of individual socio-demographic factors on the probability to go abroad is not considered, and especially problematic is the prevalent practice of analyzing highly selective, small samples. Against the background of the discussion about increasing educational and social inequalities in Japan as well as various political programs for the intensification of international student mobility, the issue of social selectivity in student mobility becomes highly important. Based on theories of social and cultural reproduction, rational choice, and signal and screening, as well as using data from the Benesse Gakkōgai Kyōiku Katsudō ni kan suru Chōsa 2013 (N = 15.450), the influence (of parental human capital, aspirations, and other investments in children’s human capital) on the likelihood of students undertaking a study-based stay abroad (long- and short-term) during different episodes of schooling – from pre-school to high school – is predicted. Results show that children from wealthier families with high post-school educational aspirations are most likely to be sent abroad to study. The same families prefer long-term overseas study episodes over short-term experiences. These findings imply a contribution to social and horizontal inequalities, provided that these investments offer a competitive advantage in accessing higher education institutions and better labor market opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiple-choice vocabulary test involving 100 basic German verbs was administered to 523 students in 19 classes at Hiroshima University. This was the first attempt in Japan to show the actual state of vocabulary acquisition in German beginner's classes on a university-wide scale. In this paper, the characteristics of the test and the performances of the 523 learners are presented. The results are analysed from two perspectives: 1) their relation to the teaching conviction of each instructor, and 2) the semantic and syntactic properties of the tested 100 basic verbs themselves. A statistical analysis ventured to shed light on factors influencing the scores. Also, an attempt was made to classify the 100 verbs into four groups according to correct answer rate, in order to find out if there are any semantically or syntactically common features which the verbs of the same groups possibly share. The 100 basic verbs were also categorized into four groups by a combination of "used / not used in the textbook"and "high / low correct answer rates" to find out which groups of verbs have a strong correlation to test scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hôrin is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Vereinigung für Sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nachrichten aus der Chemie is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nachrichten aus der Chemie is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The entry restrictions imposed by the Japanese government to curb the spread of COVID-19 have ground the steadily increasing influx of international students Japan has experienced in the last decade to a halt. While students seeking to enter Japan have been making their voices heard on social media, a new form of »study abroad« has emerged, with students participating from everywhere around the world. Meanwhile, students inside Japan have experienced serious disruptions in their daily lives, brought about by the rapid shift caused by social distancing. This article analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday life of international students studying at Japanese universities, inside and outside of Japan, and the implications this might have on integrating into Japanese society and their life trajectories. It focuses on a series of interviews with students at Hokkaidō University conducted by the author between April 2021 and January 2022, featuring experiences effectively spanning the first two years of the pandemic. It argues that the effects of the pandemic have significantly hampered the possibilities of students creating meaningful relationships by severing them from social life as they knew it. At the same time, the possibility of effectively learning the Japanese language and local customs is reduced, and the success of their studies is jeopardized. The pandemic has slowed down their chances to accumulate Bourdieusian social and cultural capital severely, which might impede the chances of this cohort successfully integrating into the Japanese labor market and society due to assimilationist expectations towards immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change can be observed all over Japan. However, the harsh reality of aging and population decline afflicts the rural areas in particular. Sixty years of regional promotion by special legislation, administrative decentralization, or municipal consolidation have failed to overcome the structural disadvantages of the rural periphery in Japan. In 2014, the Japanese government announced a new policy called chihō sōsei, regional revitalization, with the goal to revitalize rural economies and address rural population decline. As many efforts to revitalize rural areas have failed before, the responsibility of drafting and implementing revival plans has now been placed solely on local governments. To create local economies that can guarantee sustainability, local governments and communities reach for regional branding as an important tool to generate a continuous stream of capital flowing into the area. The so-called Zen Initiative was inaugurated in 2013 by the local government of Aso City in Kumamoto Prefecture. The initiative was supposed to strengthen the local community as well as create economic opportunities, especially through boosting local tourism. The data collected during fieldwork in Aso in 2017 showed, however, that after only five years the initiative had already exhausted its limits. The initiative, planned by the local government and an advertising agency from Tokyo, was poorly constructed and lacked the necessary parts that are needed for a successful branding process. Another problem was the rigid top-down approach by the local government, which reflected neither the needs nor opinions of the local population. This study takes a closer look at the context in which Zen was created and how the power struggle of the stakeholders negatively affected the potential of the revitalization initiative that was hailed as a new way of rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Japan's new connectivity initiative, Free and Open Indo-Pacific, and some previous doctrines, Tokyo has started to shift its regional security policy focus towards democratic Pacific states. Qualitative case studies on bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific assess these changes as reflecting a more proactive security policy initiated under the Abe administration (2012-2020). While Tokyo's security policy in Southeast Asia has certainly changed both qualitatively and quantitatively since 2012/2013, explaining this change by referring to Prime Minister Abe's foreign policy agenda falls short. Rather, Japan's new strategy is the result of a change in perceptions among executive officials in the foreign and defense ministries that had already been initiated in the 2000s. This study looks at this development and examines the role of the Prime Minister's Office of Japan (PMOJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the Ministry of Defense (MOD) in initiating the change and assesses Japan's Pacific strategy through an interviewbased qualitative case study. Using the concept of foreign policy analysis and based on official publications and interviews with representatives of the MOD, the MOFA, and PMOJ advisors, this study shows that the origins of this new regionalism are found primarily in the changing perceptions of executive officials. This study considers government publications as well as the author's interviews with Japanese diplomats, thus expanding the qualitative aspect of existing research. It also points to the importance of administrative executives at the interface among PMOJ, the MOFA, and the MOD, which should warrant a significant level of analysis to aid in explaining Japan's regional strategy shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Vereinigung für Sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Berliner Debatte Initial is the property of Berliner Debatte Initial e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Man 'yōshū is known as an anthology of poems but is also consulted as a source of political and particularly cultural history. The present examination, which is intended as an introduction to historical studies on the Man 'yōshū, does not address the content of the poems but focuses on the so-called hyōmoku, "spatial-historical section headings," and the sachū and kachū, i.e., annotations that were later added to the end of the poems, headings, titles, etc. Therefore, this article is less about history than about formal aspects of historiography. The character of the Man 'yōshū anthology of literature as historiography is most evident in the first two books, to which this investigation is limited. On the one hand, the selective nature of this unique kind of historiography is to be shown, and on the other hand, its deviations from the Nihon shoki, which represents the official historiography. It is possible that different sources of material were available at the time the anthology was compiled. A case study will be used to show that the deviations from the official historiography may have been intentional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the question of how to understand what has appeared as Japan's ›success‹ in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic through analyzing the contribution of specific social mechanisms in shaping societal responses to governmental policies. A comparison of multiple countries in East Asia and West Europe indicates that Japan has been relatively ›successful‹ in containing the spread of COVID-19, at least when contrasted with Western states rather than other Asian states. This outcome is notable in particular in that it was achieved without reliance either on strict legal restrictions (as in some Western countries) or extensive surveillance of the population using digital tools. In fact, despite many of the government's COVID-19-related measures lacking solid legal underpinnings, they appeared to be endorsed and obediently followed by a significant majority of the Japanese population. Meanwhile, a more differentiated analysis shows that there are certain variations even within this general pattern of »Japanese obedience«, both across time and social segments. While this can on the one hand be associated with differing levels of fear of contracting the virus, this only provides a partial explanation of the specific observable patterns of »non-obedience«. Empirical evidence together with theoretical sociological accounts of social control point toward a more nuanced picture in which social pressure plays a substantial role in encouraging compliance of governmental rules--albeit in a highly uneven way--exerting strong influence over certain parts of the population while leaving others relatively untouched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Using statistical data it can be identified that in comparison to other OECD countries, cabinet members in Japan have the highest average age, the turnout of young voters in Japan is remarkably low, other kinds of political participation (e. g., membership of a political party, participation in demonstrations, and petition signing) are barely noticed, and trust in the political system and satisfaction with national policy is low. It seems to be a problematic – and above all – distanced relationship between political culture and youth in Japan. But there are signs of a change in relationships. The Ministry of Education is currently implementing a reform of political education in senior high schools. As part of the ongoing curriculum revision (planning and implementation period: 2014–2022) the introduction of a new subject in the field of political education was announced. In addition to the existing elective subjects of ethics and politics/economics, a new compulsory subject named kōkyō, (which means public) will be introduced from 2022. The importance and consequences of the 2015 electoral reform, which lowered the active voting age in Japan from 20 to 18 years, are often cited as reasons for the reform plans. Within the political debate it is argued that students who are now eligible to vote need to be educated in order to ensure political awareness of their evolved creative role in society. A central term in this debate is the shukensha kyōiku, (which translates to education to the sovereign) which can be interpreted as a new concept of political education in Japan. This article analyzes the background and political concepts of shukensha kyōiku and presents the first results of a reconstruction of the educational debate of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications – as well as first reactions to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The modern Japanese health care system was established during the Meiji period (1868-1912) using the example of Germany. In this paper, the funding and remuneration of health services and products in Japan are described. The focus lies on the mechanisms used to implement health policy goals and to control costs., Method: Selective literature search., Results: All permanent residents in Japan are enrolled in one of more than 3,000 compulsory health funds. Employees and public servants are covered through company or government-related health insurance schemes. Independent workers, the unemployed and the pensioners are usually assigned to health insurance plans managed by local city governments. The elderly over 75 years are insured through special health funds managed at the prefectural level. To correct the fiscal disparities among the health insurance programs, a risk adjustment is realized by compensatory financial transfers between the funds and substantial subsidies from the central and local governments. The statutory benefits package that is identical for all insurance plans is regulated in a single comprehensive schedule. All the covered health services and products are listed with the fees and compensations, and the conditions for the service providers to be remunerated are also stated. This fee and compensation schedule is regularly revised every 2 years under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The revisions are intended to contain health expenditures and to set incentives for the achievement of health policy goals., Conclusion: The funding of the Japanese health care system and the risk adjustment mechanisms among health funds are well established and show a rather static character. The short- and mid-term development of the system is mainly controlled on the side of the expenditures through the unique and comprehensive fee and compensation schedule. The regular revisions of this schedule permit to react at relatively short notice to evolving situations, and through a policy of small improvements, target an optimization of the system as a whole., Competing Interests: Die Autoren erklären, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. Die Analyse ist Teil der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit von A. Rump zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades „Master of Health Business Administration (MHBA)“ durch die Fakultät für Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)