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Accurate traffic volume prediction plays a crucial role in urban traffic control by relieving congestion through improved regulation of traffic volume. Network‐level traffic volume prediction and detector failure have rarely been considered in the literature. This paper proposes a framework based on long short‐term memory and the multilayer perceptron that can predict network‐level traffic volumes even with detector failure. A profile model learns the profile of the detector's signature (traffic pattern). Detectors with similar profiles are considered to have similar traffic patterns and are grouped into a cluster. Failed detectors can obtain reference information from similar detectors in the same cluster without additional information. A predictive model is developed for each cluster. The proposed method is validated using Japan Road Traffic Information Center data for three cities. The computational results indicate that the proposed method performs well both on typical days and atypical days (the COVID‐19 lockdown period and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics). Further, it considers detector reliability: the increase in mean absolute error is less than 1 veh/5 min when the probability of detector failure increases to 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns the bipartite consensus problems of directed cooperative and antagonistic networks (CANs) with time‐varying communication delays. A distributed control protocol is proposed based on the nearest neighbor rule. In order to derive the convergence analysis of the proposed protocol, a model transformation is introduced, based on which the consensus can be equivalently transformed into the asymptotic stability of a reduced‐order system. Besides, the sufficient conditions are provided to ensure the bipartite consensus (respectively, state stability) of CANs whose topologies are structurally balanced (respectively, unbalanced). In addition, numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of our developed results. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the amount of the photovoltaic (PV) system has been rapidly increasing from the viewpoint of carbon neutral. There are concerns about voltage rises and grid congestion in the electrical distribution network because of large‐scale PV increases. In order to address these issues, we focused on the control of water supply pumps in the water distribution system, which is infrastructure equipment for consumers. By controlling the start/stop of the water pump, it is expected to contribute to the power distribution system by increasing Demand Response (DR) and reduce CO2 emission from the electricity used by the pump. In this paper, with the aim of constructing an optimal operation planning method for water pumps that can evaluate DR and CO2 reduction effects, the optimal operation plan is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming problem. We numerical evaluated impact of water pump operation for CO2 emission and electrical distribution network. © 2023 The Authors. IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering published by Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cogging torque can affect the performance of permanent magnet (PM) homopolar inductor machines (HIMs). In order to find the reduction methods of the PM HIM cogging torque, it is necessary to investigate its production mechanism and analytical model. In this paper, the production mechanism of the PM HIM cogging torque is revealed from the perspective of air‐gap field modulation principle. It is found that the air‐gap permeance of PM HIMs can modulate their air‐gap magneto‐motive force (MMF) and then a large number of modulated air‐gap magnetic fields are generated. These magnetic fields with identical production condition but different rotation speeds or rotation directions can interact with each other, hence the production of the PM HIM cogging torque. By the combination of energy method and air‐gap field modulation principle, the cogging torque analytical model of PM HIMs is derived. Based on the obtained analytical model, the methods for reducing the PM HIM cogging torque are further analyzed. Finally, a 48‐slot/4‐pole (48S4P) PM HIM is designed and exampled. The air‐gap flux density of the 48S4P PM HIM is simulated by three‐dimensional (3‐D) finite element analysis (FEA). Based on the harmonic analysis for the simulated results, the correctness of the proposed cogging torque production mechanism is validated. In addition, a prototype of the 48S4P PM HIM is manufactured. The cogging torque in the prototype is obtained by the analytical model, 3‐D FEA and experiments, respectively. The simulation and measurement results verify the correctness of the cogging torque analytical model. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent sequential recommendation methods have aimed to enhance the modeling of users' diverse interests to provide more accurate and varied recommendations. Despite great success, existing models possess a limitation in their capacity to solely perceive items within a user behavior sequence. Such an approach may potentially constrain their ability to effectively discover users' multiple interests. In this paper, we present a novel approach that addresses this gap by harnessing global item transitions to uncover users' potential interests, subsequently modeling them as local subsequences. To achieve this objective, we represent global item transitions as a directed graph, constructed by amalgamating behavior sequences from the training set. This graph‐based representation allows the design of a specialized module capable of aggregating global item transitional information and uncovering local subsequences specific to individual users. Consequently, downstream sequence models can focus on pertinent item transitions, disregarding unrelated ones. We evaluate the effectiveness of our method on four public data sets, outperforming existing alternatives or delivering competitive results. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rear‐lamp tracking at night is a research topic in night vision that is essential for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Most current computer vision‐based methods address this problem using color features because rear lamps are lit during night driving. However, such methods are sufficiently robust in complex environments owing to the lack of feature diversity. On the other hand, as there is no off‐the‐shelf dataset, the application of deep learning to nighttime rear‐lamp tracking has been sparsely explored. To tackle the above issues, in this paper, we propose hierarchical rear‐lamp tracking at nighttime (H‐RTN) and create a novel dataset for rear‐lamp tracking. Specifically, the H‐RTN consists of a rough detection hierarchy (R‐hierarchy), an accurate detection hierarchy (A‐hierarchy), and an optimization hierarchy (O‐hierarchy). The R‐hierarchy determines the region of interest (ROI) containing the target rear lamps, the A‐hierarchy samples the rear‐lamp candidates in the ROI, and the O‐hierarchy selects the best pair of candidates as the final location of the target rear lamps. The experimental results show that H‐RTN outperforms the alternative existing methods. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) has been widely used in the permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM) drive system for its strong anti‐disturbance ability and fast response speed. However, a large number of adjustment parameters add difficulties to its application. To solve this problem, a novel sliding mode‐based active disturbance rejection control (SM‐ADRC) with autotuned parameters is proposed in this paper. In this control strategy, the SM is incorporated with extended state observer (ESO) and nonlinear state error feedback (NLSEF) to reduce the number of adjustment parameters. The simulated annealing particle swarm optimization (SAPSO) algorithm is carried out to achieve the optimal configuration and realize parameter self‐tuning. The experimental results of the PMLSM speed servo system demonstrate the proposed control method has better suppression of chattering effect, disturbance rejection ability and fast dynamic response. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object tracking tasks often face problems such as illumination and appearance changes due to various scenarios. To effectively solve such problems, single object tracking algorithms in recent years have improved the stability of the tracker by introducing online learning, reducing tracking drift, and tracking objects stably even with large deformations. However, on the one hand, employing online learning increases computation costs, causing the tracker to run slower. On the other hand, because it learns from the tracking results, the tracking template will only be correctly updated if the object is accurately tracked. Any incorrect update will result in tracking failure. In this paper, we propose a filtering algorithm for online learning sample processing in object tracking to remedy these issues. Our method can select valid training samples and discard unnecessary training samples in object tracking. Numerous experiments demonstrate that our algorithm improves the tracking accuracy, reduces the computation complexity, and improves the running speed and run‐time. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to decrease the reradiation interference (RRI) of power transmission lines, aiming at the defects that the existing RRI suppression methods cannot be applied to the constructed power transmission lines, and cannot suppress all the RRI extreme values in the frequency band, this paper innovatively proposes a RRI suppression method based on characteristic mode (CM) theory. Firstly, we briefly introduce the CM theory and decompose the total scattering field into the superposition of the characteristic electric fields; secondly, the influence of inductance and capacitance characteristics of the reactive loads on radiation behavior of the CMs is analyzed, and the ideal position for reactive loading is also discussed to reduce the contribution of CM to the total RRI; finally, a simulation experiment is carried out in AM broadcasting band, and the modal weighting coefficients of main CMs affecting the RRI is greatly reduced in the frequency band by reactive loading. Simulation results show that compared with the existing method, the proposed method can reduce the peak value of RRI by 43.9% and the overall RRI by 29.7%. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replicating specific scents by mixing 'base odors' is the main idea behind the concept of odor reproduction. Just as primary colors can be combined to generate a wide range of colors in visual perception, the hope is to find a similar principle in olfaction. However, defining such 'primary odors' is difficult due to the complexity of our sense of smell, which is much different from vision. In spite of these challenges, numerous scientists have endeavored to identify a combination of basic smell components that can mimic various scents. Currently, the suggested combinations of smell components are typically only successful at recreating specific, intended scents. The range of reproducible scents differs based on the selection of base odors, yet these studies have provided valuable knowledge about the nature of these primary odors. This review paper will focus on the latest studies related to odor reproduction. Understanding odor space, odor reproduction, and the challenges encountered when expanding the range of odors will be explained. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Sociology is the property of Sage Publications Inc. 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.)

This paper aims to study the safe haven attribute of the Japanese yen under domestic and U.S. economic and policy uncertainty (EPU). Because of the existence of structural changes, a bootstrap rolling window subsample causality test is used to enhance the credibility of the results. The empirical results confirm that the exchange rate returns (RER) and Japanese EPU are correlated in specific periods when major economic or political events occur. In most crisis periods, the Japanese EPU has positive effects on RER, and the yen appreciates when the EPU is increasing. In addition, the RER of the yen and U.S. EPU are both negatively and positively connected. This finding confirms the hedging function of the yen in certain periods. The reason for this relationship is that Japan's low interest rates make the yen the primary funding currency in speculative carrying trade strategies, and thus, it tends to appreciate during crisis periods regardless of the origins of the EPU shocks. Therefore, the yen can be held as a safe haven currency unless the government intervenes artificially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen energy technologies are envisioned to play a critical supporting role in global decarbonisation. While low-carbon hydrogen is primarily targeted for reducing industrial emissions, alongside decarbonising parts of the transport sector, environmental benefits could also be achieved in the residential context. Presently, gas-dependent countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom are assessing the feasibility of deploying hydrogen home appliances, as part of their national energy strategies. However, prospects for the transition will hinge on consumer acceptance, alongside an array of other socio-technical factors. To support potential ambitions for large-scale and sustained technology diffusion, this study advances a Unified Theory of Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance. Through an integrative, comparative literature review targeting hydrogen and domestic energy studies, the paper proposes a novel Domestic Hydrogen Acceptance Model (DHAM), which accounts for the cognitive and emotional dimensions of human perceptions. Through this dual interplay, the proposed framework can increase the predictive power of hydrogen acceptance models. [Display omitted] • A unified theory of domestic hydrogen acceptance is proposed. • Researchers should integrate multiple acceptance constructs into survey studies. • Comprehensive perceived risks, costs, and benefits predict attitudes toward hydrogen. • Cognitive and emotional processes influence perceptions of hydrogen homes. • Community-level factors should be incorporated into hydrogen acceptance research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in diversifying the understanding and discussion about the causes of depression to move beyond biomedical determinism—a view that biomedical factors are the ultimate cause of an individual's depression. There is increasing emphasis on diversity in how people seek to articulate the causes of depression to incorporate non-biomedical dimensions. Furthermore, the biomedical understanding of depression has been increasingly questioned due especially to emerging limitations in pharmacotherapy. These shifts encourage social analyses that explore what narratives as to the causes of depression are constructed and presented with relative plausibility in different contexts and why and how. By analysing published memoirs of individuals diagnosed with depression in Japan, this study aims to provide fresh insights into narratives around the causes of depression. It illustrates how memoirs portray depression and its perceived causes in characteristic ways in a nation that adopts Western diagnostic systems, biomedical therapeutics and other relevant technologies. I will show that 'burnout' is the dominant theme in the Japanese data, diverging from the predominantly biomedical narrative in Western societies. This burnout narrative depicts depression as the somewhat unfortunate but unsurprising result of overwork arising from individual active adaptations to structural features of the Japanese work culture. I argue that reasons, rather than causes, articulate the making of the burnout narrative by revealing the interplay between the structural and individual and ultimately enrich the understanding of depression. The paper concludes with a call for exploring the shifting relationship between illness and normalcy that the burnout narrative implies. I suggest that further studies could explore how the boundaries between normalcy and illness are enacted and re-enacted and to what avail through public discourse and through shifting diagnostic schemata in the context of different national norms and practices. • There are international differences in how depression is experienced and represented. • Biomedical explanations of depression are frequently documented in the literature. • This paper shows ways in which depression is explained in the language of burnout. • Burnout emphasises the interaction between the individual and the structural. • Distinguishing reasons from causes helps better understand burnout and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conflicts and challenges faced by women managers in Japan following the introduction of a new law in 2020 which merely obliges employers to take preventive measures against workplace bullying and pawahara (power harassment), but does not stipulate any criminal punishment for corporations or individuals responsible for workplace harassment, or the specific grounds for victims to have the right to claim damages. Cases are left to be disputed and decided in a costly and complicated process of arbitration, which could further exacerbate the precarious position of vulnerable workers, including women managers who are not only a small minority, but many are also marginal players in the workplace where job promotions do not enhance their participation in corporate decision-making. This paper elucidates how the new law ironically enables employers to legitimize discriminatory practices and acts of harassment against women, with serious, long-term ramifications on the emotional and mental health of these workers, as well as on the gendered workforce in Japan amidst global trends towards improving gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep disorder, and polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSA. However, patients often have to wait long before receiving the costly PSG test in a hospital. Hence, low‐cost and easy‐to‐use portable screening tools were developed for predicting OSA. Based on our recent study, this paper presents a feature extraction method with multiple receptive fields applied to the input electrocardiography (ECG) signals of a model to improve its performance in OSA severity classification. This work also employs unsegmented ECG signals as input to keep all the advantages from our original approach. The proposed model achieves an overall accuracy of 59.49% for four‐level OSA severity classification, giving an improvement of approximately 2% compared to our original work. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involuntary non-regular employment is a severe inequity problem worldwide, and it may significantly affect the mental health of employees. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between employment type and mental health. Additionally, the characteristics of involuntary non-regularly employed workers were explored. An online-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Japan, and 1566 participants were included in the data analysis. The eligible participants were divided into four categories: regularly employed (n = 1092), voluntary (n = 134), average (n = 233) and involuntary (n = 107) non-regularly employed individuals, respectively. Involuntary non-regular employment was associated with greater lack of vigour, anger-irritability, fatigue, anxiety, and depression. It was higher among women, those who were single or had no childcare, and those who had lower personal income or shorter working hours, or who tended not to practice relaxation activities. Lower personal income was associated with a risk of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Those individuals experiencing involuntary non-regular employment had a higher risk of poor mental health; subgroup analysis showed that this was particularly true among men. Both encouragement of employment stability via policy reform and workplace mental health support for involuntary non-regularly employed individuals are urgent health concerns., (© 2023 International Union of Psychological Science.)

We revisit the predictive ability of dividend changes for firms' future earnings and extend the literature by examining the effect of management forecasting ability. Although prior studies have examined the relationship between dividend changes and future earnings, the empirical evidence is mixed. The belief that dividend changes have implications for future earnings depends on the assumption that managers can accurately assess future earnings prospects. In this regard, we posit that the predictive ability of dividends can vary with managers' forecasting ability. Analyzing a large sample of Japanese dividend-paying firms, we find that dividend changes, particularly dividend increases, are positively associated with increases in future earnings. Consistent with our hypothesis, this positive association is more pronounced for firms with high-forecasting ability managers. Our findings support the signaling theory of dividend changes and indicate that management forecasting ability has a moderating effect on the linkage between firms' dividend changes and future earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University campuses are known to be a driving force of knowledge. Moreover, due to campuses' impact on their surroundings, they are also considered as a driving force of physical, social, cultural, and economic change. Therefore, this paper conducts a statistical multi-variate analysis to uncover campus-neighbourhood interaction and the following socio-economic outcomes. Thirteen different variables related to 43 university campuses in Japan and their neighbourhoods' attributes have been collected and measured. Principal component analysis and multi-linear regression analysis have been applied to uncover associations between selected variables. Additionally, k-means cluster analysis has been applied to discover hidden spatial trends between selected cases studies. Findings have shown that campuses located in highly urbanised accessible neighbourhoods create numerous benefits for students such as maximising students' residential preferences and modes of transportation. The main outcome of this paper lies in providing the grounds for a holistic framework towards a better decision making for campus development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at explore international ocean governance issues through the perspective of Japan's nuclear contaminated water discharge to the sea. This paper analyzes the core issue of Japan's plan to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the ocean from the perspectives of Japan's international legal obligation, law enforcement issues, and judicial issues after integrated analyzing academic research paper and cases. Japan has obligations such as timely notification, information disclosure, environmental impact assessment, and avoidance of transboundary harm. Intergovernmental and non-governmental international organizations, such as IAEA, IMO and WHO should play a role in setting up an international group of experts to carry out monitoring and assessment, and whose positions and attitudes are important references for judging Japan's behavior. Cases heard before ICJ, ITLOS, and advisory opinion proceeding could provide reference from the judicial perspective on the issue of transboundary harm and proof of damages. Furthermore, this paper discusses the response strategies that the international community especially the opponents may adopt, including promoting the adoption of relevant treaties, take a combination of requesting advisory opinion and file arbitration, establish effective international monitoring mechanism, and engage in close communication with stakeholders. • This paper explored international ocean governance issues through the discharge of Japan's nuclear contaminated water. • This paper majored in Japan's international legal obligation, law enforcement issues, and judicial issues. • This paper discussed the response strategies that the international community especially the opponents may adopt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shear wave velocity is among the key parameters that are responsible for damage caused during an earthquake. Determining shear wave velocity is a costly and time-consuming direct geophysical method. In the present paper, a machine learning model has been developed to obtain the subsurface shear wave velocity profile without using direct methods. The bore log information and the subsurface shear wave velocity profile available at various stations of Japan's Kyoshin network (K-NET) have been utilized for training this machine learning model. The parametric correlation study indicates that simple parameters like rock/soil type, the thickness of the layer in the model, and standard penetration test (SPT-N) value directly correlate with the medium's shear wave velocity. A stacked ensemble machine learning model named VelProfES (an acronym for Velocity Profiler using Ensemble machine learning models) has been developed in this paper and has been utilized for effective prediction of the shear wave velocity profile using basic information from borelog data. The dataset used in the training and testing of the machine learning model consists of borelog and shear wave velocity information from 1101 stations. Of 1101 stations, 657, 283, and 71 stations have been utilized for training, testing, and validating the machine learning model. Training, testing, and validation of the developed machine learning model consist of parameters from 12351, 5279, and 1388 velocity layers. The problem of data imbalance based on soil type has been addressed using an additional 10510 layers of synthetic borelog data generated from conditional generative adversarial networks (CTGANs). A feature and model ablation study was conducted for the VelProfES model to provide substantiation for the model and feature selection choices. The predicted shear wave velocity profiles were compared at specific stations, focusing on average velocities at 5, 10, 15, and 20 depths. Further, the predicted values have been compared with the empirical relation of Sil and Haloi (2017) and a trained polynomial model. The machine learning model demonstrates close alignment between predicted and actual values across a broad spectrum of velocities, a contrast not observed in the empirical relation and polynomial model. The results show that the machine learning models and augmented data generated using CTGANs can efficiently minimize the error between actual and predicted subsurface shear wave velocity values. • Describe detailed machine learning strategy for predicting shear wave velocity. • Generative Adversarial Network used to handle unbalanced data problem. • Describes correlation of shear wave velocity with Rock/soil type, layer, and SPT-N. • Comparison of described model with recently developed methods for all regions. • Performance of the machine learning model is predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involving the global issues as listed in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is necessarily done in the education process, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. Exposure to global issues is known to improve students' understanding, awareness, and ability to solve urgent issues faced by global society. This paper aims to find out the trend of research on the coverage of SDGs in students' learning process. This systematic literature analysis was done by applying Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Method. A total of 25 studies were recognized through a systematic search by using Sustainability, SDGs, and EFL as keywords. The result shows that the trend of associating SDGs with EFL settings was done mostly in Indonesia. In the recent year 2022, it reached the highest number of studies in the particular matter with 7 total of research. It was also found that the study involving SDGs on EFL learning was mostly done in the tertiary setting, compared with K-12, junior high school, secondary, high school, and other educational institutions. It was also discovered that the specific area of study enhances EFL students' learning achievement, environmental awareness, global citizen values, as well as students' levels of self-norms, beliefs, and self-value.

This study presents an international collaboration in the Students Meet Internationally through Language Education (SMILE) project and investigates how the SMILE project impacts Thai EFL students. This program provides students with opportunities to use English as an Authentic Communication Tool (E-ACT) by sharing their experiences and culture with high school peers in Japan online. Thirty-one Thai twelfth graders from a public high school in Bangkok participated in the SMILE project in the 2022 academic year. The course of the SMILE project we describe in this paper consisted of four collaboration classes (50 minutes, four times), and each class consisted of two sessions (25 minutes, twice). In each session, the Thai students met Japanese students in the same school grade in small groups with four or five students in total. These classes were conducted via online channels. Thai students' data were collected from class observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The results revealed that the Thai students: (1) increased their confidence in using English; (2) gained broader perspectives from the cultural exchange sessions; (3) were eager to have similar collaborations with new Japanese students; and (4) showed clear enjoyment in their activities. Given these benefits, we conclude that the experience that student participants gained through the SMILE project had a substantial impact on them, which is likely to change their attitude toward studying English in the future. Besides, we discuss how current approaches to learner psychology may or may not be applied to our findings. Based on the results, the authors argue that having students with different first languages meet online should be conducted more widely in EFL circumstances.

Purpose: During Japan's initial pandemic prevention and control period, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (MEXT) issued several notifications to ensure students' continuous learning according to the "leave no one behind" philosophy. This study focused on the comprehensive measures comprising top-level arrangements to implement the "suspending classes without stopping learning" initiative. Design/Approach/Methods: The study reviewed MEXT's guide on ensuring learning for Japanese primary and secondary school students during the pandemic. Findings: The pandemic has accelerated the development of the information and communications technology educational environment and the implementation of the Global and Innovation Gateway for All (GIGA) schools initiative. These developments laid the foundation for the evolution of diverse pedagogical models and feasible methods for promoting equity. The home schooling experience during the pandemic provided a natural base for students to practice and foster survivability. Originality/Value: This paper provides scholars with an understanding of the opportunities and challenges encountered in educational innovation in Japan. It provides insights into the future direction of pedagogical development, capability development, and effective educational arrangements for extraordinary circumstances to facilitate educational development from a broader perspective, particularly under the new normal.

This article briefly introduces and comments on the EPAT special issue 'Philosophical reflections on modern education in Japan: strategies and prospects' edited by Morimichi Kato. There are seven papers excluding the editor's introductory essay. This special issue provides a unique approach to Japanese educational philosophy by offering and deliberating features and concepts peculiar to Japanese education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the entrepreneurship strategy is demonstrated by evidence as a path to enhance the performance of service firms, the question of how it happens has yet to be adequately studied in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) realm. More specifically, how an entrepreneurial strategy enables a T&H firm to enhance its performance through service innovation exploration-exploitation ambidexterity has created a strategic dilemma in extant T&H literature. Constructed on the dynamic capabilities view and organizational ambidexterity theory, our paper addresses this dilemma using data from a drop-and-collect survey of 303 T&H firms in Japan. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial strategy fosters service innovation exploitation and service innovation exploration within T&H firms. In contrast, service innovation exploitation helps T&H firms design unique service offerings, yielding a sustained competitive advantage and superior corporate performance in the long run. Further, the availability of slack resources within T&H firms fosters service innovation exploration and service innovation exploitation. • The effect of service innovation exploration and exploitation and their effects on service design and sustained competitive advantage • The findings reveal that service innovation exploration and exploitation have differential effects on sustained competitive advantage. • This research shows that service innovation exploitation is significantly related to sustained competitive advantage, whereas service innovation exploration is not. • The link between entrepreneurial strategy and performance is mediated by service innovation exploitation, service design, and sustained competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the automatic analysis of natural environment images acquired with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has rapidly gained popularity. UAVs are specially important in mountainous forests where access is difficult and large areas need to be surveyed. In Zao mountains in northeastern Japan, regenerated fir saplings are competing with sub-alpine vegetation shrubs after a severe fir tree mortality caused by bark beetle infestation. A detailed survey of vegetation distribution is key to improve our understanding of species succession and the influence of climate change in that process. To that end, we evaluated the suitability of deep-learning-based automatic image classification of UAV images in order to map sub-alpine vegetation succession in large areas and the potential of fir regeneration. In order to assess the contribution of this technology in this research field, we first conducted an observer study to assess the difficulty for humans of the task of classifying vegetation from images. Afterwards, we compared the observers' accuracy to four state-of-the art deep learning networks for automatic image classification. The best observer accuracy of 55% demonstrates the limitations of species classification using only images. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the sources of error showed that even though humans could differentiate between deciduous and evergreen species with an accuracy of 96%, identifying the correct species within each group proved much more challenging. In contrast, deep learning networks achieved accuracy values in the range of 70–80% for species classification, clearly demonstrating capabilities beyond human experts. Our experiments also indicated that the performance of these networks was significantly influenced by the similarity between the datasets used to fine-tune them and evaluate them. This fact highlights the importance of building publicly available images databases to further improve the results. Nevertheless, the results presented in this paper show that the analysis of UAV-acquired with deep learning networks can usher in a new type of large-scale study, spanning tenths or even hundreds of hectares with high spatial resolution (of a few cms per pixel), providing the ability to assess challenging vegetation dynamics problems that go beyond the ability of conventional fieldwork methodologies. • UAV Shrub image classification. • Deep Learning vs human expert comparison. • Focus on Practical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies urban–rural mobilities in contemporary Japan using several island communities in the Setouchi region of the Seto Inland Sea as a case study. It seeks to examine the phenomenon of den-en kaiki (rural return) with a focus on young Japanese urbanites moving to depopulated regions outside large cities. Based on a 15-month ethnographic study, the paper draws on original in-depth qualitative interviews with 35 individuals in their 20s–40s. The findings show that while some may be more traditional "lifestyle migrants," many are adopting rural living as a temporary escape from the city and are not necessarily committed to staying long term. The narratives reveal diverse mobilities as a reflection of the changing attitudes of young Japanese attempting to find meaning and satisfaction while sustaining a livelihood in post-growth Japan. The growing importance of the "relationship population," referring to urbanites who spend extended time in rural communities but do not live there, is discussed to broaden existing conceptions of rural mobilities from the Japanese context. The messiness of rural mobilities in contemporary Japan highlights the need for an expanded understanding of concepts such as counter-urbanization to include various forms of exchange and consider how they can contribute to the future sustainability of rural spaces. • Fluid urban-rural mobilities are reflective of new values amongst young Japanese. • I-turners displayed varying levels of commitment to rural living while U-turners are more likely to settle. • Ethnographic data reveal a desire to explore alternatives to traditional lifelong employment. • Urban-rural migrants struggle to balance financial security with lifestyle aspirations. • More study on the 'relationship population' as a growing influence on the future of rural Japan is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors regret to inform readers of the following corrections required in the article. Upon meticulous examination, an error has been identified in the data concerning the fixed-capital utilization matrix C, detailed in Section 2.2 of the paper. Regrettably, this discrepancy has resulted in an inaccurate calculation of the material carbon footprint, encompassing the effect of fixed-capital supply chain. The authors regret that the values of the material footprint (MF) in the sentences [Our results show that the fixed-capital formation was responsible for 454 million tons MF,...] and [The fixed-capital formation for the service sector produced an MF of 168 million tons ...] are incorrect. The correct value are 428 million tons and 145 million tons, respectively. [Display omitted] The authors regret that the values of the material and carbon footprint are incorrect. The correct version of graphical abstract is the one provided here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing climate change has increased the impact of landslides and related slope disasters on infrastructure and human lives. Microwave satellite remote sensing, particularly interferometric analysis of synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data, is a powerful tool for routine monitoring of the displacement of slopes on small wavelength scales, independently from solar illumination and cloud coverage. Although various sophisticated techniques for time-series InSAR have been developed, practical application in conjunction with geological analysis to reveal intrinsic and triggering factors of slope displacement is still limited. In this paper, we describe a practical case of time-series InSAR analysis with a special focus on its geological implications in northwestern Kyushu, a high-risk area for slope-related disasters in Japan. The extracted susceptible polygons from the InSAR results show accuracy comparable with that of other recent research on landslide mapping. Intrinsic factor analysis based on a geographic information system reveals that the displacement occurs on relatively gentle slopes instead of steep areas, corresponding to the transient zone of Paleogene-Neogene sedimentary rocks and basalt. Triggering factor analysis based on correlation coefficients reveals a significant link between some displacement areas with mean and/or maximum precipitation for each observation duration. Those findings confirm the importance of carefully accounting for the geological background for landslide susceptibility assessment and policy making, apart from topographic and meteorological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The blanket testing facility for WCCB TBM was newly built in Rokkasho Fusion Institute, Japan. • An apparatus for flow accelerated corrosion testing under coolant condition of TBM was installed. • An apparatus for high heat flux testing under cooling with pressurized water using electron beam gun was installed. • An apparatus for ingress testing of pressurized water inside TBM was installed. • An apparatus for evaluating characteristics of beryllium-water reaction was installed. Intensive research and development activities have been conducted for designing a water-cooled ceramic breeder (WCCB) blanket system. In this system 325 °C/15.5 MPa of pressurized water removes heat injected and accumulated in blanket containers made of a reduced activation ferritic/martensitic steel, F82H. The container has lithium ceramics and beryllium pebbles as tritium breeder and neutron multiplier, respectively. In order to demonstrate performance of the system, especially for high-temperature pressurized water coolant, experimental apparatus have been installed in Rokkasho Fusion Institute, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Japan. These apparatuses enable to conduct the following experiment on full-scale mockups: 1) high heat flux (HHF) test to demonstrate heat removal of surface heat flux by electron beam gun simulating plasma, 2) flow assisted corrosion, 3) coolant ingress into dummy pebble beds, and 4) beryllium-water reaction between the coolant and the pebbles. In this paper, overviews, specifications, early results of these apparatus are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broflanilide is a newly-developed meta-diamide insecticide, proposed for the control of a wide variety of chewing pests on many crops. In view of the proposed use of broflanilide and its environmental fate, it may be exposed to consumers and non-target organisms, which adversely affect human and the environment. In this paper, a rapid, sensitive and valid UPLC-MS/MS method was established for simultaneous analysis of broflanilide and its two major metabolites, DM-8007 and S (PFP-OH)-8007, in cauliflower. Then, the dissipation behaviors and final residues of broflanilide and its two major metabolites in cauliflower from eight sites with different climatic conditions in China were studied via the described analytical method. In addition, the acute toxicity test of 9.5 % suspension concentrate of broflanilide, broflanilide standard, DM-8007 and S (PFP-OH)-8007 were conducted to non-target terrestrial organisms. Risk assessment for human and non-target terrestrial organisms in cauliflower production was evaluated based on the maximum annual application rates and intervals. The results showed that the highest residue of broflanilide detected in cauliflower samples was all lower than the corresponding MRLs (2 mg/kg) in Japan. Chronic food dietary risk estimates for broflanilide do not exceed 50 % for all the Chinese population groups. Moreover, broflanilide is of low acute toxicity to birds and earthworm, while broflanilide and its metabolites is classified as highly toxic to adult honeybees. Acute risks of broflanilide to birds and earthworms were deemed to be acceptable in a realistic worst-case scenario, while its risk to adult honeybees and ladybug was unacceptable. A protection statement for honeybees and ladybug is required to recognize the high toxicity of broflanilide on related product labels. The study will be conducive to provide guidance for the rational application of broflanilide in cauliflower production. [Display omitted] • Chronic food dietary risk does not exceed 50 % for all the Chinese population. • Broflanilide is of low acute toxicity to birds and earthworm. • Broflanilide and its metabolites is highly toxic to adult honeybees. • Acute risk to adult honeybees and ladybug was unacceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-rate GNSS technology is invaluable for capturing surface displacements. However, vertical displacement is strongly linked to zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) and receiver clock bias, compromising accuracy and impeding the detection of weak seismic waves. Some GNSS stations, fortunately, feature high-stability oscillators, enabling receiver clock modeling instead of epoch-wise estimation. This paper introduces an epoch relative positioning approach (ERP)with receiver clock modeling (CMC-ERP) to enhance coseismic displacement accuracy. Applied to earthquakes in Japan and the United States, the method improves vertical displacement accuracy by 24% to 61%. Furthermore, P-wave arrival times are determined by processing displacement sequences extracted through both CMC-ERP and ERP methods using STA/LTA. Compared to theoretical arrival times calculated by TauP software, CMC-ERP accuracy is enhanced by 74%–99%, further confirming its effectiveness. • GPS receiver clock modeling is considered to improve the accuracy of dynamic coseismic displacement solution. • A new GPS-extracted coseismic displacement model with clock modeling constraint is constructed. • Further improvement of vertical displacement accuracy and extraction of P-wave arrivals through specific seismic case validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Broader Approach (BA) activities aim to complement the ITER project and to promote the early realization of fusion energy through research, development, and tests of technologies supporting the future demonstration fusion reactor (DEMO). These activities are implemented under the BA agreement, which was signed and ratified in 2007 between Euratom and the Government of Japan. In essence, the BA activities consist of three projects: a) The Satellite Tokamak Programme Project JT-60SA, the world's largest superconducting tokamak until ITER starts, aims to support the assembly, commissioning and preliminary operation of ITER, and carry out demonstration and optimisation of steady-state operation of advanced plasma configurations for DEMO; b) The International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC), which comprises three different sub-projects: the DEMO Design Research and Development Coordination Centre to coordinate design and R&D on materials and components for DEMO, the Fusion Computer Simulation Centre for the simulations of fusion plasmas, the analysis of experimental data, modelling of ITER operation, and contribution to the design of DEMO, and the Remote Experimentation Centre to allow scientists to participate remotely in fusion experiments from its control room in Japan; c) The Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities for the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF/EVEDA) focused on the design and validation of key components needed for the future Fusion Neutron Source facilities to characterize materials envisioned for DEMO. After 13 years of fruitful collaboration, Euratom and Japan launched the second phase of the BA activities in 2020. It is focused on exploiting and enhancing the facilities that have already been built and on working more closely than ever with ITER as the latter advances towards the first plasma. This paper will present a synthesis of the achievements already obtained thanks to the three BA projects and will address the future developments planned in 2023 and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a fusion reactor, the plasma based on a deuterium-tritium reaction generates high energy neutron flux interacting with the materials of the plasma facing components. In order to study the irradiated behavior of these materials, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) was conceived to generate these fusion relevant neutrons through d -Li stripping source. IFMIF is presently in its Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) phase under the Broader Approach agreement signed between EURATOM and Japanese Government in 2007. This agreement mandates the IFMIF/EVEDA project to validate the design of the different systems of IFMIF and to produce an integrated engineering design of IFMIF, together with the data necessary for future decisions on its construction and operation. While the Engineering Validation Activity (EVA) of the Lithium Target Facility and the Test Facility was completed by constructing prototypes, the EVA of the Accelerator Facility with the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) is still on-going at the Rokkasho Fusion Institute, Japan. This paper overviews the achievements in the previous phase ended on 31 March 2020 and the progress in the current phase to complete the commissioning of the LIPAc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As international students and English-medium Instruction (EMI) programs increase, Japanese universities need to adapt their programs to fulfill the needs of these students. One often overlooked area is academic writing in English. This paper discusses an action research study examining the challenges of providing formal academic writing support for English-speaking students in an EMI-program at one large private university in Tokyo. The study utilizes a participatory action research approach (Burns, 2009). The study attempted to examine what aspects of academic writing are these students most confident and most insecure about, and what aspects of the writing course did the students feel are most useful for them in preparing them for further academic writing, and how this EMI program can help students overcome these challenges. The data comes from a multiple choice and open answer questionnaire as well as focus group interviews. Suggestions on how to create and implement successful academic writing courses in an EMI context, based on the lessons learned from this course from the administrative point-of-view as well as both from faculty and students' perspectives will be provided to conclude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities throughout Japan, especially in the most peripheral regions, are experiencing rapid demographic, socio-economic, and environmental decline, with many facing the possibility of vanishing in the coming decades. To address these issues, the Japanese government has implemented various policy initiatives aimed at rural revitalisation, some of which focus on attracting newcomers to depopulating rural communities and encouraging counterurbanisation. The relocation of urban residents is therefore considered essential to the regeneration of rural and peripheral areas. This paper examines the characteristics and practical implementation of the chiiki okoshi kyouryoukutai (Local Revitalisation Cooperator, LRC) initiative, a well-established national level policy that supports rural revitalisation through counterurbanisation. The initiative offers aspiring urban in-migrants a salary and housing for up to three years, while also requiring them to engage in community-oriented and entrepreneurial activities. The study uses secondary and qualitative primary data to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of LRC members and the successes and challenges of the initiative in meeting its two key policy objectives, namely the settlement of newcomers and the development of local entrepreneurship. The results contribute to our understanding of contemporary urban-to-rural mobilities in Japan, particularly the way counterurbanisation is normatively framed as a process that should benefit both in-migrants and receiving communities. We conclude by delineating the broader potential of this kind of initiative as a rural revitalisation instrument that can be flexibly tailored to the needs of each community and that can facilitate newcomers' integration. Concurrently, we also raise questions about the degree of success of the policy, particularly regarding its effectiveness in stimulating entrepreneurship and retaining newcomers in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the improvement of fire prevention technology and legislation, the number of fires has been decreasing year by year in Japan. Nevertheless, nearly half of fire-related fatalities are caused by delayed evacuation. For rapid evacuation from hazardous areas to safety, it is important to improve the visual environment of evacuation routes. The current paper describes the scientific basis for establishing effective safety evacuation countermeasures and relevant behaviors regarding evacuees' vision during fires. First, the basics of visibility are explained. The role of luminance as a photometric quantity related to visibility is discussed, and a visibility evaluation method is presented. Regarding human behavior related to visibility, the legibility of characters and walking speed are explained based on previous research. Additionally, visibility in fire smoke is discussed, including smoke adhesion and luminance distribution, as well as walking speed and psychological state in smoke. On the basis of this analysis, evacuation route design is discussed in relation to visibility for reducing evacuation delays. • Basics of visual environment design. • Luminance as a photometric quantity related to visibility. • Evaluation structure of visual environment. • Human behavior on the basis of visibility. • Visibility in fire smoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes female make-up and modern consumerism in Uno Chiyo's early short stories Shifun no kao ('Painted face', 1921) and Rōjo Manon ('The old woman Manon', 1928). These works were published as the notion of beauty transitioned in Japan's modern era, shifting from a preference for heavy to light make-up. The obsession with whiteness of the female protagonists, as well as unique motifs in Uno's short stories, suggests racial and sexual issues in modernity. Despite the common perception of their cosmopolitanism, this article argues that the modern girls described in Uno's works tend to internalize the ethnic and cultural hierarchy between Caucasian men and Japanese women, denigrating and othering non-Western people, including the Japanese whose bodies do not successfully represent Westernization or modernity. In a similar vein, Uno portrays the failure of female make-up as the attempt to emulate an artificial Western beauty, thereby illustrating the challenges faced by female authors describing Japanese female characters in the modern era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should we understand the relationship between nationalism and discourses of national decline, and more specifically the discourses of a shrinking nation? Driven by this question, this article highlights how bleak imaginings of the future also work to construct the relationship of the individual to the putative national community, creating forms of sentimental national belonging. This article analyses an emerging genre of best-selling books in Japan, Mirai no nenpyō [The chronology of the future] series, that present a dismal vision of Japan's national demographic future. Their goal is to provoke a sense of national urgency by encouraging Japanese nationals to feel personally the shrinking nation through imagining its coming consequences for everyday life. Such narrations of an imagined shrinking community act to create a timeless sense of national belonging, with daily lived experience in the imagined future interpreted through the lens of the contracting nation. Importantly, the future that these discourses present is nationalized within boundaries separating it from global developments and intercourse. Ultimately, this form of nationalism is constituted not by dying for the nation, but instead by people seeing the continued stability of everyday life as intricately tied to the fate of the national community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is widespread concern about declining literacy skills in recent young Japanese. The present study investigated how higher-level reading and writing proficiencies are underpinned by basic literacy skills in Japanese adolescents. From a large database of the most popular literacy exams in Japan, we retrospectively analyzed word- and text-level data for middle and high school students who had taken the exams during the same period in the 2019 academic year using structural equation modeling. We extracted main data for 161 students as well as six independent datasets for validation. Our results validated the three-dimensional view of word-level literacy (reading accuracy, writing accuracy, and semantic comprehension) and demonstrated that writing and semantic skills underpinned text writing and reading, respectively. The semantic comprehension of words affected text writing indirectly via text reading; however, it could not replace the direct effect of word writing accuracy. These findings, which were robustly replicated with multiple independent datasets, provided new evidence of dimension-specific relationships between word- and text-level literacy skills and confirmed the unique contribution of word handwriting acquisition to text literacy proficiency. The replacement of handwriting by digital writing (e.g., typing) is a global trend. However, the dual-pathway model of literacy development identified in this study suggests there are advantages in sustaining early literacy education by handwriting for the growth of higher-level language skills in future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the patterns of educational attainment and first employment among young Japanese, and their effects on the likelihood of first marriage, using micro-level data drawn from a national family survey in 2004 and its follow-up in 2007. Attainment of higher education increased dramatically in postwar Japan, and such gains were especially notable for women. Meanwhile, regular employment has decreased, and temporary employment has risen rapidly among young Japanese since the 1990s. The study reveals that obtaining regular employment as the first job strongly enhances the likelihood of first marriage for both genders although the marriage-enhancing effect is stronger for men than for women. First entry to the labor market as a temporary worker also significantly diminishes the likelihood of first marriage for men. Like other industrialized economies in Asia, improving educational attainment is found to be a factor causing declining first marriage among young Japanese women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the different activities and distinctive roles undertaken by the 67 schools for the blind across Japan. A qualitative content analysis based on primary sources, including annual reports published by the Association of Principals of Schools for the Blind from 2011 to 2020 was conducted. From the identified activities, two themes: "activities targeted to individuals with visual impairment" and "activities targeted to environment of individuals with visual impairment," with nine total categories emerged. Several findings of this study corroborated those from previous research. However, this research elucidates how Japanese schools for the blind approach crucial elements needed in ensuring equal access to education and social participation for all students with visual impairment (VI) including those in mainstream classrooms. The findings highlight the complexity of the debate surrounding segregated schools in this era of inclusion and calls on policy makers and school administrators to adopt a more nuanced understanding of the roles these schools play in supporting inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to analyse Japanese elementary school teachers' learning experiences during professional development (PD) regarding immigrant parental involvement in physical education (PE) at public schools in Japan. Based on andragogy theory, this study used an explanatory case study research design. Nine Japanese elementary teachers participated in the study. Data were collected from digital portfolios about immigrant parental involvement in PE, self-reflective journal logs, and semi-structured online interviews. Three major interrelated and complex themes were constructed from the data analysis: (a) digital portfolios as a problem-based learning tool, (b) transformative learning experience regarding communication with immigrant parents, and (c) the need for Kenshu (teacher training) for all elementary school teachers. The findings suggest that the PD focusing on immigrant parental involvement in relation to PE allowed teachers to transform their practices and perceptions in order to minimize psychological, cultural, and social distance from immigrant parents. This study may help teachers, school administrators, and researchers develop new insights and motivation to integrate the concept of immigrant parental involvement regarding PE into the PD systems of public elementary schools in order to enhance teachers' problem-solving knowledge and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addressed the issue of determining multiple potential clusters with regularization approaches for the purpose of spatio-temporal clustering. The generalized lasso framework has flexibility to incorporate adjacencies between objects in the penalty matrix and to detect multiple clusters. A generalized lasso model with two L 1 penalties is proposed, which can be separated into two generalized lasso models: trend filtering of temporal effect and fused lasso of spatial effect for each time point. To select the tuning parameters, the approximate leave-one-out cross-validation (ALOCV) and generalized cross-validation (GCV) are considered. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the proposed method compared to other approaches in different problems and structures of multiple clusters. The generalized lasso with ALOCV and GCV provided smaller MSE in estimating the temporal and spatial effect compared to unpenalized method, ridge, lasso, and generalized ridge. In temporal effects detection, the generalized lasso with ALOCV and GCV provided relatively smaller and more stable MSE than other methods, for different structure of true risk values. In spatial effects detection, the generalized lasso with ALOCV provided higher index of edges detection accuracy. The simulation also suggested using a common tuning parameter over all time points in spatial clustering. Finally, the proposed method was applied to the weekly Covid-19 data in Japan form March 21, 2020, to September 11, 2021, along with the interpretation of dynamic behavior of multiple clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines the impact of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation on education quality. We discern the prospective influences of AACSB, focusing on shifts in teaching methods and content and assessment procedures. Design/methodology/approach: Using a case study approach, in-depth interviews are conducted with a Japanese-accredited business school's faculty members to understand their perceptions of the school's education-quality issues. The data were thematically analyzed. Findings: Respondents acknowledged that AACSB accreditation has positively influenced teaching, encouraging active learning and the case method. However, they also indicated that accreditation had a restrictive effect on assessment activities, pushing toward compliance rather than genuine learning evaluation. This dichotomy suggests a need for balancing standard adherence with the flexibility to maintain educational depth and assessment integrity. Research limitations/implications: Convenience sampling may introduce self-selection bias. Furthermore, the qualitative case study approach does not allow for statistical generalization. However, when combined with existing literature, the findings can be analytically generalized and transferred to other contexts. Originality/value: We provide insights regarding AACSB accreditation's impact on business education, encompassing shifts in teaching methods and content and faculty perceptions of assessment. This study enhances the scholarly understanding of business school accreditation and offers guidance to accredited or accreditation-seeking academic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]