Search

The paper presents a bibliometric analysis of research on Private Equity (PE) and identifies the key contributors, major countries and institutions, and scope for further research. It uses scientific mapping strategy to meet its goals and employs R studio to extract pertinent data. Scopus and Web of Science—two popular databases—were used to extract the data. The study examines 1698 publications from business, management, finance and econometrics journals. The data are analyzed using descriptive statistics. The status of research on PE is represented through graphical and tabular analysis. Since PE first gained popularity in developed nations like US, UK and Japan, these countries boast a majority of studies on the subject. The PE concept is still relatively new in emerging countries, and there is still opportunity for more research. Future research should focus on issues like investment, venture and market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of indications, such as the number of Nobel Prize winners, show Japan to be a scientifically advanced country. However, standard bibliometric indicators place Japan as a scientifically developing country. The present study is based on the conjecture that Japan is an extreme case of a general pattern in highly industrialized countries. In these countries, scientific publications come from two types of studies: some pursue the advancement of science and produce highly cited publications, while others pursue incremental progress and their publications have a very low probability of being highly cited. Although these two categories of papers cannot be easily identified and separated, the scientific level of Japan can be tested by studying the extreme upper tail of the citation distribution of all scientific articles. In contrast to standard bibliometric indicators, which are calculated from the total number of papers or from sets of papers in which the two categories of papers are mixed, in the extreme upper tail, only papers that are addressed to the advance of science will be present. Based on the extreme upper tail, Japan belongs to the group of scientifically advanced countries and is significantly different from countries with a low scientific level. The number of Clarivate Citation laureates also supports our hypothesis that some citation-based metrics do not reveal the high scientific level of Japan. Our findings suggest that Japan is an extreme case of inaccuracy of some citation metrics; the same drawback might affect other countries, although to a lesser degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present an investigation of the effectiveness of the G7 countries' COVID-19 responses as assessed by the stringency index and provide insights for the future. By observing trends in people's mobility, a factor affected by stringency, we can find some interesting features in the course of the pandemic. Specifically, as the period of infection control measures is prolonged, there are indications that the effectiveness of such policies may diminish unless they are consistent with economic rationality. Furthermore, even when considering only developed countries, the situation in Japan is found to be unique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a factor affecting why the interests of the older electorate often prevail in politics in developed countries with aging populations, namely the difference in issue salience related to governmental programs for the elderly. Analysis of data collected with a national electoral survey in Japan conducted at every national election between 1972 and 2016 (28 surveys) revealed that elderly voters have been far more attentive—and more consistently attentive—to the welfare issue than the younger electorate when making voting choices. Moreover, the gap has grown in recent years as the population ages and the welfare program matures, probably due to policy feedback. This gap would enhance the influence of the elderly over the issue beyond their numbers and higher turnout, as discussed in previous studies. This result explains why welfare reform for the elderly has been very difficult, at least in Japan, despite (or, indeed, because of) considerable intergenerational inequality under the current system. At the same time, this result also shows that issue salience is not static but responds to media coverage, especially among young voters who would, otherwise, show less interest in the issue. In other words, lively public debate of the issue, covered by news media, can decrease the salience gap between the youth and the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster research predominantly focuses on citizens, not on migrants. This tilted spotlight needs to be readjusted, since many advanced countries around the world have become immigration countries, and safeguarding the lives of migrants at times of disaster has become an important and immediate policy issue. Hence, this research concentrates on disaster management to protect the lives of migrants in a disaster‐prone and de facto immigration country. The particular country and event in question are Japan and the northern Osaka earthquake of June 2018. More than 100 migrants who lived near the earthquake's epicentre rushed to an evacuation shelter managed by the local municipal government of Minoh City, Osaka Prefecture. While non‐governmental organisations attract more attention, this paper centres on a local government and demonstrates the key role that it can play in both bridging and building networks across different communities, and thus in safeguarding the lives of migrants at times of disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialized countries have increasingly used skill-based selective migration policies to reduce labor and skill shortages. But are these policies effective? This paper uses Japan and the United Kingdom to illustrate how immigration policy and employment, training and labor practices influence labor and skill supply. Until recently, these two countries had different migration policies and labor practices. Yet data shows similar patterns of labor and skill shortage profiles in both countries. This paper draws on empirical research to argue that such outcomes suggest that immigration policies will not alleviate labor and skill shortages unless accompanied by the transformation of employment and training practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mining & Metallurgy (10057854) is the property of Beijing Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy Technology Group 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 is one of the most developed countries in Asia. Japanese people are also famous for their work ethic. In addition, Japanese people also have the characteristics of discipline, persistence, loyalty and hard work. With such characteristics, Japan has become a very developed country, and can be in line with other developed countries such as America and other European countries. This paper also reviews the Japanese philosophy of life, one of which is the philosophy of kaizen. A philosophy that emphasizes continuous improvement and refinement is also carried out simply and gradually, until it finally reaches perfection. In the Rikuou drama, the writer finds many kaizen philosophies that are highlighted and displayed in every scene of the episode, so the writer feels interested in putting it in the form of this scientific article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake was a disaster that led to the greatest number of casualties related to any form of natural disaster seen in developed countries since World War II. Furthermore, this earthquake occurred in an area where tsunami countermeasures had been prioritized. This disaster, therefore, led to the question "Is it impossible to reduce the number of victims of huge catastrophes, even in cases in which advanced disaster prevention measures have been taken?" Part of the reason this particular earthquake caused the largest number of deaths was because the tsunami that followed—which exceeded the "design load" of the seawall—hit the urban area. In addition, the tsunami, which also exceeded the "estimated loads" of the established disaster prevention plan, caused many "evacuation failures." Another factor that contributed to the deaths was that the disaster prevention measures, up to that point, had relied primarily on the recognition that disasters could be prevented by the development of "hard," or tangible, disaster prevention facilities in addition to "soft," or intangible, measures, such as issuing warnings, without imposing space restrictions. Another characteristic of the Great East Japan Earthquake was that the largest reconstruction budget associated with any disaster in postwar Japan was compiled for it. Although the reconstruction project was over‐specified for the disaster‐afflicted area in terms of scale, cost, and duration of reconstruction, many unused land areas were also created in the new urban areas created during the reconstruction project. Furthermore, the reconstruction projects undertaken with the huge reconstruction budget were not based on the "choice to rebuild the lives" of the disaster‐afflicted areas and the victims, but were rather implemented while simultaneously "marginalizing" said victims and areas as a whole. The over‐specified reconstruction projects and the associated marginalization of disaster victims tend to exist in a mutually regulated relationship. Therefore, there are concerns about the future sustainability of the noted disaster‐afflicted areas, which are already suffering from a severe population decline. Based on the previously presented discussion, it is possible to highlight various issues associated with disaster measures implemented in developed countries. First, regardless of how advanced disaster measures are, a "surge in disaster damage" can occur, which can lead to a "black swan" event. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate disaster prevention measures based on the assumption that such crises will occur in the future. Second, it is necessary for developed countries to determine how best to formulate reconstruction policies to avoid marginalizing disaster victims as well as to prevent over‐specified reconstruction. In examining these two issues, the common problem that arises is how to conduct "risk assessment and enable its acceptance" most calmly immediately after a disaster and then formulate disaster prevention measures based on such assessment. Finally, the future of disaster sociology is detailed in this work. More specifically, in order for disaster sociology to escape its "marginal" status in sociology, it is necessary to consider "disaster" in the context of both a social structure and a social change—similar to how risk theory views the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the transition to depopulation and an aging society in Japan, the modification of community medicine and its related systems is required. With this in mind, the Japanese government has recently advocated two major plans: 'Community Healthcare Vision' and 'Community-based Integrated Care System'. This paper proposes a theoretical framework to understand modern community medicine based on the ongoing government plans. The key viewpoints consisting of the framework are 'community and/or region', 'care systematization,' and 'coworking with residents (citizens)'. This is expected to be useful for capturing and monitoring the whole picture of modern community medicine in Japan. Such modeling might aid in the future development of medicine and medical science, as in other developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of globalization, the international community has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of low-skilled workers migrating from developing countries to industrial countries. However, there remain competing approaches to the governance of lowskilled labor migration; that is, the economic theory and the rights-based approach. By utilizing the labor migration between Vietnam and Japan under the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), this article reveals the limitations of these two approaches in governing the migration of low-skilled workers. Moreover, through examining the Memorandum of Cooperation on the Technical Intern Training Program signed by the Vietnamese and Japanese governments in 2017 and its contribution to the TITP, this article suggests that to regulate labor migration properly, it is essential to uphold the rights-based approach and consider labor migration as a transnational issue that should be addressed at the international level; that is, through the bilateral or multilateral instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pen-pal clubs (PPC) are used worldwide for students to learn about different cultures and other skillsets without the need for travel. Many medical students are interested in global health opportunities abroad but costs, scheduling, and other barriers allow few to participate in such experiences. It is important that medical students have nuanced global medical perspectives and can contribute to the global medical community. Objective: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that an international medical student PPC improves medical students' perspectives of cultural competency and global health engagement. Methods: In 2021, a novel medical student PPC was established that began between an American and Japanese medical school. Following a shareholders meeting, it was decided that the number of medical schools involved globally be expanded through previous institutional affiliations and online presences. In total, the club connected 50 American medical students and 52 medical students from 17 high- and middle-income countries. The primary form of communication was online; pen-pals were encouraged to communicate monthly using provided topics, although frequency and way of communication was their discretion. In February 2022, American PPC members were emailed a qualitative survey to assess the PPC's impact. Results: The survey was completed by 42% of American PPC members, 95% of which were 22-26 years. Participants were preclinical medical students, 60% whom were female and the majority either white (47%) or Asian (43%). Overall, the PPC positively influenced American medical students' perception of global medicine, medical education, and their cultural competency after joining the PPC compared to prior (P = 0.004). Conclusion: PPCs encourage medical students to think from a global perspective and foster open-mindedness within varying social and cultural contexts. Having a global communication platform for students during medical school education may be an additional way to train aspiring global leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article historicises and examines the implications of internet-distributed television for televisual culture and viewing in Japan. It challenges the simplistic media discourse of ' terebi banare ' (i.e. the audiences' departure from television), which overlooks the complexities of evolving viewing practices. It explains why, largely due to the dominance of major terrestrial broadcasters in the media ecosystem, online consumption of television was slower to take hold in Japan than in other developed countries. It also demonstrates how, while Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have popularised pay online viewing from the late 2010s, the content Japanese viewers consume online remains inclined towards local outputs from terrestrial broadcasters. By elaborating on how terrestrial broadcasters have continued to play an important role in shaping audience experiences with their evolving content, frames, and services, this article provides a critical account of the meaning of terebi banare in the age of streaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding voters' conception of ideological labels is critical for political behavioral research. Conventional research designs have several limitations, such as endogeneity, insufficient responses to open-ended questions, and inseparability of composite treatment effects. To address these challenges, we propose a conjoint experiment to study the meanings ascribed to ideological labels in terms of policy positions. We also suggest using a mixture model approach to explore heterogeneity in voters' understandings of ideological labels, as well as the average interpretation of labels. We applied these approaches to conceptions of left–right labels in Japan, where the primary issue of elite-level conflicts has been distinctive compared with other developed countries. We found that, on average, while Japanese voters understand policy-related meanings of "left" and "right," they primarily associate these labels with security and nationalism, and, secondarily, with social issues; they do not associate these labels with economic issues. Voters' understandings partly depend on their birth cohort, but observed patterns do not necessarily coincide with what many researchers would predict regarding generational differences in Japanese politics. Mixture model results suggest that some individuals tend to associate left–right labels with security and nationalism policies, while others link them to social policies. Over one-third of respondents seemed to barely understand the usage of left–right labels in policy positions. Our study improves upon existing methods for measuring voter understanding of ideological labels, and reconfirm the global diversity of meanings associated with left–right labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future of work has become a prominent topic for research and policy debate. However, the debate has focused entirely on paid work, even though people in industrialized countries on average spend comparable amounts of time on unpaid work. The objectives of this study are therefore (1) to expand the future of work debate to unpaid domestic work and (2) to critique the main methodology used in previous studies. To these ends, we conducted a forecasting exercise in which 65 AI experts from the UK and Japan estimated how automatable are 17 housework and care work tasks. Unlike previous studies, we applied a sociological approach that considers how experts' diverse backgrounds might shape their estimates. On average our experts predicted that 39 percent of the time spent on a domestic task will be automatable within ten years. Japanese male experts were notably pessimistic about the potentials of domestic automation, a result we interpret through gender disparities in the Japanese household. Our contributions are providing the first quantitative estimates concerning the future of unpaid work and demonstrating how such predictions are socially contingent, with implications to forecasting methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Allergology / Alergologia Polska is the property of Termedia Publishing House 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.)

Accelerating the pace of energy technological innovation is essential to curb global climate change and build a clean energy system. Based on this idea, from the perspective of renewable energy technology gaps across countries, this study presents a thorough empirical analysis of the convergence of energy technology research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) budgets across OECD countries over 1985–2017. In doing so, we apply two-regimes threshold autoregressive approach to account for heterogeneity, nonlinearity, and transition path in energy technology RD&D convergence. One observation is that only a small number of advanced countries namely Canada, Japan, and the U.S. follow a nonlinear process and exhibit partial convergence in energy technology RD&D budgets with Japan as a transition country. Interestingly, our results also provide clear support for the global convergence of energy technology RD&D budgets once accounting for the two regimes jointly. These trends in national energy innovation policies could arguably help Canada, Japan, and the U.S. to drive up their energy RD&D trajectory into the future, suggesting that these countries would be able to achieve a more sustainable energy innovation supply system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intermediaries were once considered to be a product of a market economy, however, in some statist industrial countries, the top-down national innovation system limited the 'redundancy' in regions (cf. Leydesdorff 2018), and the local governments have to establish intermediaries to strengthen the regional knowledge base. An innovation intermediary established by a local government is an initiator of regional collaboration and a collaboration of triple helix spaces in itself. In this study, we consider public innovation intermediaries (PIINs) as hybrid innovation agents with an institutional design at the meso level and examine the role of PIINs played in regional innovation from the framework of triple helix spaces. To render the virtual spaces qualitative, we construct a framework of activity-functions-spaces (AFS) and analyse the innovation activities of PIINs. Through the comparison of two PIINs in Japan, we find the asymmetric relationship between the triple helix spaces in PIINs and the regional triple helix, and the differentiated but intersected spaces in PIINs are most conducive to regional innovation, which provides insights for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long‐term stabilities of shielded resistive voltage dividers for lightning and switching impulse, employed as the reference dividers of Japan High‐voltage Impulse testing Laboratory Liaison (JHILL) are investigated. The DC scale factors and the step‐response parameters have been annually measured for 20 years. Annual variations of impulse parameters, namely the peak value, the front time, and the time to half value of the calculated waveform from the step‐response waveforms by the convolution algorithm are investigated. Furthermore, long‐term stabilities of reference low‐voltage impulse calibrators are investigated. The parameters of circuit elements of the calibrators have been annually measured for 18 years. The impulse parameters of the output waveforms of the calibrators are calculated, and the annual variations of them are investigated. After the detailed evaluation, it can be expected that the measurement system employing the voltage dividers and the calibrators, including the analytical method of the data, has the similar performance to those of NMIs of developed countries. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evolving threshold of viability for extremely preterm infants in high-income countries, noting improvements in survival rates. Topics discussed include the recent study on extremely low birthweight infants in Japan, indicating high survival rates at 22-24 weeks gestational age, which sets a benchmark for other countries, and the need for future studies to assess detailed data, including long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes and ethical implications.

We question why child poverty still prevails even in high-income countries, such as Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom. We address the intersection between social relations and individual experiences that should be considered when optimising children's capability. The study is therefore aimed at exploring compensatory societal actions taken to optimise children's capability among these affluent countries. In order to do so, we operationalised children's capability by including key societal domains along with statistical indicators and variables from relevant sources. A secondary quantitative method was adopted by drawing upon data sources from 2000 up to almost 2020 from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank and the United Nations Children's Fund, with these being complemented by governmental data. Given a lack of currently available and comparable data for those three countries, four key societal domains were explored in an absolute descriptive analysis. It is obvious that child poverty prevailed over the focal 20 years in these three high-income countries. Also, the exploratory data analysis revealed a lack of sufficient supporting social services in each societal domain. This demonstrates that optimising children's capability should not just be about subsidising economic resources, but also supporting all initiatives aimed at addressing the lack of interactions between each domain of children's capability. The study shows how essential it is to consider societal compensatory measures along with supporting the financial circumstances. We therefore argue that optimising children's capability should not only be about subsidising economic resources, but also ensuring adequate social resources and relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]