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This paper is a complete student-led, student-edited collective writing project (CWP) conducted virtually in Spring 2022 throughout the course Knowledge Socialism taught by professor Michael Peters for the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal university. The CWP involves 4 international, 5 domestic Ph.D. students, and 2 senior Western scholars as reviewers, revealing their thoughts, arguments, understanding, and criticisms towards the creative economy status in East Asian countries (Japan and China mostly) higher education as reflected in the knowledge socialism narratives. Xiyuan as the lead author, co-editing with Woraport and Stefan, assigned each section to other authors and successfully devoted themself to organizing, proofreading, and revising the paper. Through a month of collective work, the final version of the paper elaborates on the contribution of East Asian creative universities and the economy as a whole to the knowledge socialism through co(labor)ation, with implications to the creative labors cultivation and shifted roles of students.

This paper focuses on the dynamics of education in the interplay of power and seduction as creatively displayed in Takarazuka Revue's performances re-enacting the major players of the Cold War: USA and Russia (rather than former Soviet Union). "Oceans 11" (cosmos troupe, 2019) and "Once Upon a Time in America" (snow troupe, 2020), on the one hand, and "Land of Gods" (cosmos troupe, 2017) and "Anastasia" (cosmos troupe, 2020), on the other hand, lavishly display subtle interactions of longing and belonging, ecstasy and rage, love and betrayal, envy, hatred and passion, while painstakingly building up irresistible tensions between the instances involved in the performative process: actresses, administrators, audiences. The theoretical support is delivered by Robert Greene's pragmatic elaborations in his seminal works "The 48 Laws of Power" (1998) and "The Art of Seduction" (2001): education is never a linear process between a 'master' and a 'disciple', but an interactive game, governed by the pursuit of joy in overcoming challenges and finding ingenious solutions.

This paper discusses how teachers explore teaching controversial issues in the Japanese language classroom to Japanese language learner (JLL) or culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students who have different cultural and political backgrounds. Assuring educational opportunities with consideration of JLLs' background is important especially in this globalized world. Students who spent several years in their home countries had missed the earlier part of the culture in the host countries, and they do not internalize host culture fully. Lack of cultural knowledge or literacy would lead to inequality of attainment. The research was conducted in a Japanese language classroom for Chinese from People's Republic of China (ROC) newcomer students in a commercial night public high school in Japan. This study examines how a Japanese teacher were aware of the cultural aspects of students, searched for appropriate methods to teach controversial issues. The research methods are participatory observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers. Through interaction with Chinese newcomer students, the Japanese teacher's cultural and political awareness and political correctness was induced as he observed what the students needed to know and experience. The teacher tried to infuse students with global awareness in his hybrid history embedded Japanese language class. The concept which were not relevant to the political status of the country of origin, neutrality between the country of origin and Japan, were explored during the lessons.

Paul Natorp is better known as a key figure of Neo-Kantian epistemology than as a great educationist. This paper discusses the affinity for Natorp's theory of education in Japan in the first decades of the twentieth century. It presents an overview of Natorp's educational way of thinking and analyses the interest of Japanese educationists in the educational thought encapsulated in the conception of Natorp's educational theory, which he called "Sozialpädagogik." Addressing the debate around Natorp's "Sozialpädagogik" within the Japanese national community of scholars, key points of the inception of the theory in Japan are examined, central scholars involved are identified, and the impact of Natorp's conception on the Japanese philosophy of education and educational practice is considered.

Influenced by cultural background, economic development, social system, education system, and other factors, there is still a big gap between Chinese institutions and developed countries in flute teaching, even with our neighbors, South Korea and Japan. Under the influence of cultural background, economic development, social system, and educational system, there is still a very big gap between Chinese colleges and universities and developed countries in flute teaching, even with our neighbors, South Korea and Japan. Because of its local perception and weight-sharing structure, the convolutional neural network is closer to the biological neural network in the real world. The weight-sharing structure reduces the complexity of the neural network, which can avoid the complexity of feature extraction and classification process in data reconstruction. This paper studies the analysis and optimization of flute playing and teaching system based on a convolutional neural network. By applying local perception field and parameter sharing in a convolutional neural network at the same time and adding multiple filters, it can not only effectively reduce the number of parameters but also extract features layer by layer. In the process of convolution, the parameters of the characteristic map obtained by each layer decrease layer by layer, but the number increases gradually. Based on the analysis of the problems faced by the flute performance teaching, this paper puts forward the corresponding solutions in order to promote the flute performance teaching in China to achieve better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This JWP Focus paper argues that material culture transformation can be understood as the transformation of the way human beings and material culture mutually open up their potentialities. Such opening up/becoming takes place in the domains of their encounter, which often take the form of human communications. In communication, human beings and material culture mutually mediate/intervene/transform their modes of existence as the former cope with various uncertainties and risks that the world generates and that communication differentiates. Drawing upon the theory of communication developed by the social systems theorist, Niklas Luhmann, the paper will elucidate and elaborate this perspective through an examination of the long-term transformation of the mode of such mutual opening up/becoming by human beings and the material culture of their potentialities that took place in the Jomon and the Yayoi periods of Japan between 13000 Cal BC and AD 250/300. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, with the growing demand for qualitative values such as wellbeing, development and implementation of systems considering societal needs. This paper presents an approach of concept verification and validation for the proposed "Eating‐Together" system that aims to enhance connectivity among neighbors of busy urbanites in Japan. The study utilized three psychological scales, including the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), General Self‐Efficacy Scale (GSES), and Social Worth as Measures of Performance (MOP). In developing the concept of the System of Interest (SOI), four main aspects were identified as mission requirements. The prototype was built based on the final concept model, and nine tests were conducted with 15 hosts and 31 guests. The questionnaires were administrated three times: before, immediately after, and two weeks after the event. The results indicated that the prototype successfully met all of the mission requirements, providing an improved method to estimate the otherwise unmeasurable elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ridesharing has been attracting attention in Western countries in accordance with the rise of social and economic systems in which goods and services are shared between individuals. In accordance with the spread of ridesharing services, users' data, which concern how, when, where, and why they use these services, are being gradually collected around the world. However, there are only a few studies that deal with the empirical situation in Japan. In addition, ridesharing services in the country are not yet as popular as those in Western countries. Therefore, in this study, we aim to show the present situation of the ridesharing behavior in Japan. We conduct an empirical analysis by using actual long-distance peer-to-peer ridesharing data in the country. Firstly, we classify ridesharing drives into three classes by OD pairs: Inter-metropolitan, Low-density area, and Others. Next, we formulate a binomial probit model that explains the matching success for each drive class. The estimated model shows that the departure time and day, days to departure from registration date, page views, and driver's past experiences are important factors for successful matching. Moreover, the similarities and differences across the drive classes are discussed through the estimated model. The sensitivity of each drive attribute is explained, and ways of promoting this ridesharing service are suggested by using the estimated parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural inequality perpetuated by neoliberalism. essential workers, including helping professionals, have experienced a high-stress level. This pilot study examined the challenges faced by social welfare workers in Japan during the pandemic. Japanese social welfare departments in municipal governments, which are primary providers of public assistance and social services, are staffed by government officers (GOs, permanent government employees) and non-regular frontline workers (NRs, hired on annual contracts, predominantly female, covering direct casework). Informed by narrative inquiries, five individual interviews of GOs and NRs were conducted. The thematic analysis highlighted the increased employment instability, individualisation, and powerlessness among NRs. NRs expressed intensified stress from the safety risk, long working hours, and insufficient organisational support. Stratified by different types of contracts, resultant tasks, and genders, NRs experienced intensified isolation, leading to burnout. The implications of working precariously in the pandemic under the neoliberal social welfare systems are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, the population aged 65 years and above accounts for 29% of the total population. Furthermore, the number of cancer patients among the elderly is increasing. Geriatric oncology is a discipline that deals with appropriate care for elderly cancer patients based on their characteristics. The International Society of Geriatric Oncology considers education, treatment, research, and partnership building areas of significance and priority for policy goals. In Japan, the Third Term of the Basic Plan to Promote Cancer Control is an initiative to improve the infrastructure and health services involved in cancer care. Content related to "cancer in the elderly" was added to establish guidelines for treating cancer in the elderly. Thus far, "Clinical Practice Guidelines of Cancer Drug Therapies for the Elderly" have been published. With the increasing age of the population, social security expenditures will increase substantially after the fiscal year 2022. Reforms to social security systems, such as pensions, medical care, and nursing care, are underway. It is important to enhance cooperation between oncology and geriatrics and to support cooperative systems among families and medical professionals to promote geriatric oncology. Since the working-age population and the total population have begun to decline, Japan is facing many challenges. As a leader of a super-aging society, Japan has the potential to share its experience on a global scale and address potential long-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long working hours and a lack of sleep have been suggested to negatively affect the safety of workers. Here, we examined the association between long working hours/sleep-related problems and near-misses/injuries in industrial settings using a nationally representative sample of workers in Japan. Based on the composition ratio of workers by industry, sex, and age in Japan, data from a web-based cross-sectional survey for 18,682 participant full-time workers (7,098 female and 11,584 male; mean age, 43.7 [standard deviation 11.1] years) were analyzed. Nearly 30% and 5% of participants reported any types of near-misses during the past six months and injuries during the past year, respectively. For all types of near-misses and some types of injuries, a significant difference in frequency distribution was observed by industry. After adjustment for demographic, job-, and life-related variables, participants who worked long hours (i.e., more than 51 hours per week) were more likely to report job-related near-misses/injuries than those who worked 35–40 hours per week. The presence of sleep-related problems was also significantly related to near-misses and injuries. However, while sleep-related problems were significantly associated with near-misses/injuries in all industries, the association between long working hours and near-misses/injuries differed by industry. Odds ratios for near-misses/injuries were strongly significant in the “transport/postal services” industry for those who worked more than 51 hours per week compared to those who worked 35–40 hours per week. Comprehensive protective measures for workers, including (1) reducing total hours of service/job-related fatigue, (2) maintaining sufficient sleep hours/good sleep, and (3) increasing awareness about the impact of overwork/long working hours and sleep-related problems on workers’ safety among employers, workers, clients/customers, and the general public might be effective for preventing near-misses and injuries in industrial settings among workers, especially those who work long hours in the “transport/postal services” industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an interview with Dietmar Kielnhofer, General Manager of the company Westin Tokyo. He talks about Japanese culture and social system and compares it to that of Southeast Asia. He reflects on the problem of labor shortage and its affect on tourism. He also discusses the issue of companies not increasing salaries of employees in Japan.