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Copyright of Journal of the Institute of Conservation is the property of Routledge 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.)

A lawyer regulatory system will usually include a mechanism to discipline lawyers who have committed misconduct. Such mechanism may have different objective(s) and function(s), which may vary from jurisdictions to jurisdictions. The Japanese system seemingly has, inter alia, deterrent and educational purposes: discouraging further misconduct and/or educating lawyers to reduce recurrence of similar misconduct. This paper focuses on the deterrent function on Japanese lawyers who have been disciplined. Through an empirical analysis of the cases of lawyers who have been disciplined more than once, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of the lawyer disciplinary system in Japan in discouraging the disciplined lawyers from committing misconduct again. It also hypothesises on some of the possible contributory factor(s) for the multiple violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes intercultural issues in marriages between Japanese men and women from former Soviet Union countries. Focusing on the differences in meanings and assumptions that guide couples in their marriages and the historical-cultural roots of these differences, the paper argues that spouses adapt, negotiate, and change their expectations to each other in response to the cultural encounters that deviate from their familiar cultural patterns. The data for the research was collected by the author between 2006 and 2014 in urban areas of Japan. It consists in-depth interviews with Russian-speaking women (48) and Japanese men (20), participant observation in couples' homes, women's gatherings, and communication in an online Russian-language community. The analysis reveals the effects of cultural differences on relationships between spouses in international marriages in Japan, discusses the fluidity and change of cultural notions over time, and explains how spouses justify these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan formulated its first infrastructure export strategy in 2010. However, the outputs and effects of that strategy and its successive revisions over the preceding decade have not yet been extensively reviewed. Although infrastructure came to the fore of the international agenda over the past decade, existing research has mostly discussed individual infrastructure projects and accompanying signalling, sloganeering, and strategic communications in the geopolitical and geo-economic context. This paper therefore aims to make an empirical and interpretive contribution to existing scholarship by comprehensively reviewing Japan's infrastructure exports in 2010–19 and elucidating further its oft-disregarded commercial and developmental aspects. To do so, this article focuses on Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan projects, which count among the largest items of Japan's infrastructure exports. We introduce and analyse a previously unexamined dataset on infrastructure-related ODA loan projects and contract awards, while also showcasing the avoidance of zero-sum-game approaches in Japan's related strategy. We then discuss whether and how the changes of Japanese infrastructure export strategy affected the performance of Japan's infrastructure export through the ODA loan projects as well as Japan's relationship with the recipient countries, especially in the various parts of the Indo-Pacific region, such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese policy regarding arts education had not been well discussed. One of the reasons was the effects of the arts had not been highly regarded in Japan. This paper empirically addressed the effects of arts activities on years of schooling and income. Through path analysis, relationships were revealed between out-of-school activities and years of schooling, occupation, and income. Nationwide data -the Preference Parameters Study in 2013- is mainly utilized. For females, the results showed significant positive relationships between arts activities and years of schooling. For males, arts activities combined with sports and educational activities exhibited significant positive relationships with years of schooling. These results suggested creation of opportunities for all the students to take part in arts and other activities. This paper suggests the system, such as out-of-school voucher, for all the children to take the benefits of arts activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the perceptions of relations between two nations involve not only the institutionalized national-boundary but also the perspectives of multiple symbolic boundaries. Based on a qualitative study, this paper aims to explain how different symbolic boundaries impact Japanese experts' perception of interrelations between Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The paper includes an analysis of opinion surveys, 20 semi-structured interviews with experts, and three focus group interviews with university students of Peace Studies Departments conducted throughout June and July of 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. These results advance existing scholarship by showing that Japanese experts use the following four symbolic boundaries to comprehend relations between Japan and South Korea: boundaries between (1) victims and perpetrators; (2) 'the West' and the Asian cultural and political space; (3) nationalistic and peaceful countries; and (4) a state and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Japanese crown prince and emperor Hirohito during the 1920s to think more critically about how fashion historians can analyze "western" dress in non-western contexts. In particular, this essay looks at Hirohito's embrace of new forms of middle-class menswear—particularly sportswear and the lounge suit—to signal fundamental shifts in the relationship between monarch and subject. These innovations rested upon far more than simply imitating western centers of men's fashion. Instead, this paper argues that to understand the meaning of "western" clothing styles in non-western contexts, fashion studies needs a more sophisticated paradigm than the term "western clothes." While some garments carried strong resonances of their European antecedents, Japanese men like Hirohito adopted them primarily for what they could do in Japan, while also understanding their potential for integrating Japan into the broader world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I demonstrate how long-term multigenerational minorities and Japanese residents engage in the current socio-political discourse of "multicultural coexistence" society (tabunkakyōsei shakai), which had not previously been integral to the vocabulary of national rhetoric in Japan until the 2000s. I argue that the lack of clear definition and goals of multicultural coexistence by the current Japanese government generates obstacles in the attempt to build a multicultural society. While local municipalities' programs, such as multilingual services and lifestyle support, are certainly needed, long-term foreign residents with linguistic and cultural competence are suspicious of the concept of multicultural coexistence due to their own embodied marginalized positions. Taking a local municipality's intercultural event as a point of reference, this paper explores how long-term minority residents perceive their positions at the crossroads of seemingly paradoxical forces of multicultural trends and an ongoing national identity founded upon ethnic homogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity is prominent in academia, despite it being difficult to define and measure due to its dynamic and multifaceted nature. In Japan, awareness of the make-up of Japanese youth is increasingly crucial as Japan becomes a more internationalized and ageing society. This paper examines, by identity mapping and discriminant analysis, the cultural identities of 94 Japanese youth. While strong Global identities separated the respondents with from without overseas experience, ties to National identities and Relationships were found respectively for males and females. This paper suggests that regarding the study of cultural identities, gender does matter – at least in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the attempts of Japanese business groups to destabilize the discursive hegemony of Japanese-style management and replace it with a new neoliberal order advantageous to management interests. Japanese-style management (Nihon-teki keiei) can be seen as a key element of Japanese social identity, which interpellates both workers and management into performing particular institutional practices. Altering these practices requires not only deregulatory reforms to the labor market but also a powerful discursive intervention to undermine and replace sedimented positions. Through an analysis of public policy documents, this paper shows how Japanese business groups have been carrying out such an intervention through the articulation of two keywords - "diversity" (tayōsei) and "independent-style employee" (jiritsugata jinzai) - which are used ambiguously to structure a controversial deregulatory agenda into existing discourses of globalization, creativity and social values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin and purpose of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution seem shrouded in secrecy. This paper places Article 9 in the context of the UN Charter and peace constitutions which were emerging globally that aimed to limit state sovereignty in favor of international organization and the renunciation of war in the aftermath of WWII (Schlichtmann 2009b). It is a provision the Japanese people have upheld for more than seventy years. With the gradual return of block confrontation during the 1990s and the revival of the 'balance of power' concept, however, Japan came under pressure to change its Constitution and participate in military defense alliances. This has led to a noticeable shift in policy. Although Shidehara Kijūrō (1872–1951) had been well-known and respected for his peace diplomacy as foreign minister during the interwar period, it soon became expedient to deny him any direct involvement in the drafting of Article 9 when he was Prime Minister after the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have flourished in East Asia since the late 1990s. Japan and Korea were at the forefront of this trend. Nevertheless, most policymakers' preferences orbited around region-oriented FTAs out of reluctance to make a sudden policy shift away from their conventional emphasis on World Trade Organization-based multilateral negotiations. The trend continued in Japan throughout the 2000s. In contrast, Korea took a sharp turn toward a cross-regional strategy in 2003. By the mid-2010s, this had created a significant gap in the two countries' overall FTA partner choices. What caused policymakers' ideas in the two countries to diverge from their initial focus on region-oriented FTAs? This paper focuses on the conditions that enabled policymakers' ideas to explain the divergence by developing the contextual‒dynamic framework of FTA policies. At the dynamic level, individuals are more likely to emerge with new ideas when their expertise comes from outside the decision-making body, accompanied by their social qualities and power. Contextual conditions should also be met: the trade policy environment should reciprocate agent-level qualities to create a supportive atmosphere for policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at recent isekai ('different world') anime in relation to 2018s Goblin Slayer. It argues the latter is a settler-colonialist critique of the unconscious structural violence within former's tropes and presumptions. Isekai anime provide a space where superexploitation and the redistribution of surplus value are buried within a fantasy of non-alienated, non-commodified labor, and Goblin Slayer represents the exhaustion of this fantasy and the return of the repressed unconscious of settler violence on the frontier. Using Patrick Wolfe's theorization of a neoliberal settler-colonialism, this paper argues that Japanese settler-colonialism is not a primitive form of capitalism or a historical episode shed by postcolonialism but a contemporary mode of production that coexists alongside imperialism. Through an analysis of the historiography of the Japanese Empire, this paper constructs a general theory of settler-colonialism that situates Japan at the forefront of the late capitalist world system, anime as the system's cultural representation, and otakudom as its labor regime. Finally, it asks what lies beyond the settler-colonialist critique and the space Goblin Slayer opens up against its own ideological limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the first systematic analysis of China's conduct in its offshore territorial conflict with Japan to contend that Beijing has adopted a wedging strategy aimed at weakening the U.S.-Japan alliance. Building on previous scholarship, the article demonstrates that over the post-Cold War era China has consistently subordinated its territorial interests in the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute to help advance broader political and strategic goals. Drawing on Chinese writings, I argue that since 2010 Beijing has viewed U.S. and Japanese strategy in the conflict to be intended to contain it and that the empirical record suggests China's conduct has, in turn, sought to counter this perceived threat by weakening the alliance at its core. Beijing, it is argued, has aimed to sow discord in the U.S.-Japan alliance by "making use of contradictions" perceived to afflict U.S. strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is an excessive fear of social situations that can lead to serious functional impairment. The prevalence of SAD has increased over the past four decades, making it one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in Japan. Therefore, more effective interventions are needed to treat this disorder. False safety behavior elimination therapy (F-SET), which eliminates safety behavior (i.e., strategies that reduce anxiety), was administered in our study to six Japanese patients with SAD. This is the first adaptation of F-SET into Japanese. Patients were diagnosed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale was used as the primary outcome measure to evaluate the change in symptoms. All patients received five weekly 60-minute F-SET sessions. Participants who completed the treatment exhibited a substantial decrease in SAD symptoms, providing preliminary support for the adapted treatment's efficacy. We have discussed the cultural differences in SAD and the adaptation of F-SET. What is already known about this topic: (1) Transdiagnostic group CBT is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders. (2) Few studies have examined the effectiveness of transdiagnostic group CBT in naturalistic settings. (3) Few studies have examined the effectiveness of treatments as implemented by clinicians in routine clinical practice. What this paper adds: (1) Eight to ten sessions of transdiagnostic group CBT developed by practising clinicians seemed sufficient in improving anxiety and depressive symptoms, daily functioning, and quality of life in patients from an outpatient anxiety disorders clinic in a hospital setting. (2) Patients that completed treatment reported significantly more impairment in daily functioning before treatment than participants who dropped out. (3) High attrition rates suggest that organisational factors need to be considered while implementing evidence-based treatments into routine clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the particular circumstances of temporary dispatched workers ( haken rōdōsha) and a feature of their job insecurity as one facet of the growing inequality in contemporary Japanese society, focusing on the relative ease with which these workers are dismissed both legally and in practice. By contrasting with other more familiar forms of insecure labor in Japan, the paper examines the triangular relationship involving the three parties that characterize dispatched labor: the user, the employer, and the employee. The Worker Dispatching Act, which was enacted and then deregulated, enabled Japanese corporations to use dispatched workers while securing the capacity to remove them from their workplaces as a business transaction and not within the bounds of an employer-employee relationship. Using the theoretical framework of risk, the paper analyzes the emergence and spread of the triangular labor relationship as risk being shifted from the corporate level to the individual dispatched workers. It examines the consequences of the shift of risk by introducing cases of dismissal from fieldwork conducted during the global recession over the winter of 2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the observation that modern Japanese sexuality is often bewildering to western observers. In attempting to explain why this is so, this paper provides a highly selective genealogy of Japanese sexuality, focusing in particular on the discursive formulations of desire and eroticism in pre-modern Japan. By considering some literary texts of the early Meiji period, the paper highlights how Japanese sexuality, which formed part of the larger story of Japan's transition to modernity, emerged through a profound reorientation of the domain of pleasure as it had been thought and lived in the pre-modern period. At the same time, the paper argues that what emerged was not a homogeneous object called 'sexuality' with the same features that obtained in the west, and that it was through discursive reformulations and a creative engagement with texts and practices from its own past that a particular form of Japanese sexuality came into being. This may account for the fact that globalization notwithstanding, the codes that govern Japanese libidinous play today, while not uniquely Japanese, are nonetheless far removed from those that we are familiar with in the west. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is written about the transformation of children's playing spaces in one neighborhood in Tokyo (Taishido district in Setagaya ward). As part of an action research project that was initiated in 1981 and followed up in 2005, play maps were created for residents of four generations. In exploring historical changes in the town that have affected the play of children, we found many unwelcome patterns of change that have the effect of decreasing nature spaces, limiting communication between children, and even decreasing children's play outdoors. On a positive note, this action research illustrated an effective approach for engaging people of different generations and encouraging them to pay more attention to environmental changes that have an impact on children's play and to take actions to improve the neighborhood for and with children. This paper is meant to contribute to our understanding of children's environment issues, an area that has roots in several disciplines, including human development, environmental psychology, geography, urban planning, architecture, and landscape architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible causes and social background of the rising suicide rate among middle-age or older Japanese male workers, particularly a certain type of suicide called karo-jisatsu (suicide by overwork). The image of Japan as a culture that considers suicide a method of personal distress resolution is widespread overseas. Although such a cultural explanation holds somewhat true, other social structural factors should be taken into consideration before resorting to the historical and cultural explanations. This paper presents, based on the existing data and facts, a balanced view of both cultural and social structural explanatory models, analyzes the changing situation at Japanese workplaces, and strives to deepen the understanding of the reality of suicide in today's Japan. Pressures resulting from a long economic recession, a new evaluation system in the workplace, and the widening gap between the traditional concept of work and a new reality are some of the reasons behind karo-jisatsu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nosaka Akiyuki, a writer, singer, lyricist, and former member of the House of Councillors, is now struggling with the effects of a stroke which he suffered in 2003. Nosaka early identified himself as a member of the yakeato yamiichi sedai (the generation brought up in the ruins and black markets of the post-war period). In his works Nosaka repeatedly depicts his firsthand experience of the fire bombings of major Japanese metropolitan areas during the Greater East Asian conflict. This paper examines two recent satirical works before proceeding to a discussion of Nosaka's seminal work Hotaru no haka [Grave of the Fireflies, 1967], which deserves to be remembered as 'the most celebrated literary record of the yakeato generation'. Nosaka's original story has been overshadowed by the animated film version written and directed by Takahata Isao for Studio Ghibli. This paper describes and evaluates the unparalleled narrative style of Nosaka's original story, which covers an emotional spectrum ranging from the lighthearted depiction of the happy play of childhood, to the overwhelmingly dark and sorrowful portrayal of two children (brother and sister) dying from malnutrition in the dislocated society of post-war Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three main characteristics of Japanese-style ODA over the past 50 years and the basic principle of the support for “self-help efforts” mentioned in the Japanese ODA Charter are described in this paper. The role of ODA in generating development effectiveness is taken up and possible ways for Japanese participation in the PRSP system are examined. The paper concludes with the proposal that offering ODA benefits not only the recipient but also the one extending assistance and recommends that Japan take advantage of the opportunity to serve the public good and thereby know genuine happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine whether noise conditions at the workplace are associated with hypertension in Japanese male blue-collar workers, the authors analyzed data obtained in an annual workplace health examination. Two hundred forty-two workers who used ear protectors at their jobs in a paper manufacturing plant served as a noisy workplace group, and 173 individuals who worked in a chemical plant comprised a nonnoisy workplace group. The prevalence of hypertension was 16.9% in the noisy workplace group and 34.7% in the nonnoisy workplace group (p <.01). A Mantel-Haenzel analysis showed the difference between the 2 groups to be significant. A logistic regression analysis with adjustment for confounding factors also showed a significant inverse association between hypertension and noise conditions at the workplace (odds ratio = 0.48; 95% confidence interval = 0.28-0.81). The implementation of guidelines for occupational noise management might have contributed to the workers' concern over the prevention of adverse health effects caused by workplace noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study identifies specific preferences of Japanese visitors staying in U.S. hotels. Relevant literature is reviewed in an attempt to identify guest services which Japanese visitors prefer. This paper offers hotel operators suggestions about what they need to understand in order to attract and retain Japanese visitors. The results of the study will help hotel operators select appropriate products and services in order to better serve Japanese customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores challenges and opportunities for Japanese Studies during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea. From March 2014 to February 2022, after receiving a US PhD, I taught Japanese history in English at an international college for Korean and international students. The pandemic's initial effect was isolation: online courses reduced interactions with students and scholars in Japan cancelled our joint research project activity in Korea. Eventually, however, there emerged solidarity peculiar to where I taught, both with my students and with the Japanese, Korean, and American researchers. In my Japanese history courses, email exchanges with individual students in lieu of class discussion often generated academically valuable yet potentially sensitive inquiries, which could have upset some Korean students if raised in the classroom. For the research, some primary materials turned out to be available online on Korean national libraries' websites. Our further research indicated the richness of sources produced in colonial Korea, including police records documenting lives of Korean workers in wartime Japan. The students' critical inquiries and collaborative research suggest vast possibilities for Japanese Studies, yet illuminate the constraints of national boundaries, reemphasized by the pandemic, in a world that we had hitherto imagined to be moving toward the global and borderless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropologists and sociolinguists tend to overemphasize the fact that the Japanese conform to the norm culturally and linguistically, Similarly. The researcher has overlooked 'the way in which the individual in Japanese society manipulates other people To his or her advantage, and thereby frequently ignores group constraints'( Moeran, 1988:428). This paper will show how the Japanese reflect their individualistic spirit at the microlevel while conforming to the social norm at the macrolevel by analyzing the Japanese discourse modal mono. This author will first discuss the core meaning (context-free meaning) of the pseudo-noun mono and show that the extended meanings (context-bound meaning) are derived from the core meaning and that the various functions mono fulfills should be treated as what Austin (1962) calls the illocutionary force of the utterances. This author will then show that mono is a discourse modality conveying the subjective, emotional and psychological attitude of the speaker toward the message content, and toward his or her interlocutor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the popularity of hula in contemporary Japanese society in order to understand how Native Hawaiian images and traditions play a role in constructing the image of a ‘paradise’ in Hawai`i. By drawing on the personal experience of the author as a participant observer in hula lessons and performance in Tokyo, it argues that aiming for the sense of cultural authenticity is integral to the Japanese practitioners’ attraction to hula. It also shows how Native Hawaiian hula teachers and performers skillfully appropriate the Japanese desire to discover an ‘authentic’ Hawai`i for their cultural as well as personal gain. Today’s Japanese discourse of ‘Hawai`i as paradise’ derives from the contemporary socio-cultural context of a Japanese society that longs for the authentic culture of the indigenous ‘other’ as well as from the shrewd use of that longing by the ‘other.’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Journal of School & Educational Psychology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd 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 examines the interrelationships among Japaneseness, the Western and Japanese concepts of race, and the obfuscation of racism in contemporary Japanese society. The concept of race, which was conceived in the West in the modern era, has influenced the Japanese concepts of race,jinshuandminzoku. These two concepts played a key role in constructing modern Japan’s identity by distinguishing it from its significant discursive Others: Asia and the West. Today the Japanese simply call themselvesnihonjin, or Japanese people, rarely using the termsjinshuandminzoku, and racism is generally viewed as a ‘foreign issue’ that has little relevance to Japanese society. The purpose of this study is threefold. First, it discusses how the Japanese concepts of race,jinshuandminzoku, were constructed and shaped the dominant meaning of the Japanese in different historical contexts, intertwining with Western notions of race, nation,Volk, and ethnicity. Second, it suggests that obscured racism in contemporary Japan is linked with the conceptual presence and nominal absence ofjinshuandminzokuin defining Japaneseness. Third, it explores how the contemporary modality of racism in Japan overlaps with and differs from racisms in the West. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper evaluates Japan's multicultural policy, introduced as an extension of the internationalisation scheme under the banner of tabunka kyōsei (multicultural coexistence). I first review the framework of tabunka kyōsei as it is expressed in the policy documents, highlighting its apolitical ideas of coexistence, and then explore its local reception, impact and practice, drawing from the narratives of people involved in multicultural programmes. The delivery of Japanese language classes by volunteers in the Aichi Prefecture is used as a case study. The participants' accounts reveal that the multicultural policy is evaluated by the public as poor, and its intent is questioned. For volunteers, the framework has had both positive and negative impacts on the work they perform. Their practices, although limited and localised, demonstrate independent engagement with the local authorities and expose the current multicultural framework as both ambiguous and ambivalent in its concern for the social and political rights of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since the early 1990s, pushed by domestic economic recession and uncertainty of their life paths, young Japanese have been flying to Canada and Australia not only for holiday experiences, English learning, and temporary work, but also in the quest to find oneself. Searching for “international” work they really want to do, they often prolong their sojourning. Host countries often keep them in temporary resident status, postponing their career development. Suspended in foreigner status, the migrants themselves extend their “subjective youth” – what they see as an ongoing preparatory period in their lives. Based on fieldwork in Vancouver and Sydney, this paper elucidates how the emerging population of self-searching migrants blurs the conventional boundaries between youth and adulthood, and work and holiday, as well as sojourning and immigrating, thus extending “youth experience” indefinitely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When Hideo Nomo exploited a contractual loophole to transfer from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) to Major League Baseball in 1994, he provided the catalyst for change in the relationship between individual players and teams in Japan's number one sport. Nomo's ‘defection’ changed player/team attitudes as emphasis shifted from one of mutual trust to one based heavily on contracts. The Japanese version of sportsmanship until that point had been one that relied on the loyalty of players to a paternal and protective owner. The mutual trust established through a combination of loyalty and obligation was not unique to baseball, rather it should be seen as a reflection of many aspects of Japanese culture. By the turn of the century, baseball in Japan has changed greatly and this is especially so for not only labour relations in NPB but also High School Baseball. In 2007, it was revealed that 7921 high school players had been given illegal financial assistance causing a scandal that had repercussions throughout Japanese society. This paper investigates the implications of this change, particularly on NPB. The analysis extends to consider the broader effects this event had on baseball, especially within the Japanese education system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on the Japanese living in Manchukuo in August 1945 has generally fostered the assumption that all Japanese there wanted to return to Japan as soon as possible. Yet, some made the conscious and voluntary decision to stay, at least for the short to medium term. Among those who chose to delay repatriation were a number of technicians employed by Mantetsu's (South Manchurian Railroad Company) Chūo Shikenjo. This paper looks at the political and personal realities faced by these technicians when making their decisions as whether to stay or leave in terms of the concepts of voluntary and involuntary repatriation. It shows that the circumstances faced, and consequently the decisions made by the technicians, differed over time. It argues that there were three main reasons behind any decision to stay: pragmatism, a sense of responsibility for Japan's activities during the war and a sense of loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the last ten years or so, interest among the Japanese in their Korean neighbour has increased significantly. Yet, before the Korean Wave hit Japan in the early 2000s, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, member of popular Japanese boy-band SMAP, had already debuted and gained popularity as Chonangang, his Korean alter-self. From releasing a Korean pop-music single to interviewing South Korean Presidents on Japanese national television, it is undeniable that Kusanagi (and Chonangang) has brought Korea closer to the hearts of the Japanese. In this paper, I argue that Kusanagi's performances of and as Chonangang create a polyglotic, hybrid identity that functions as a 'third space' through which notions of an underlying, essential Japanese (and Korean) identity can be destabilised. Beyond mere entertainment, Kusanagi's adoption of an identity position that is neither Japanese nor Korean, yet also both Japanese and Korean, enables the articulation of difference and hybridity which, I contend, has direct relevance to Japan-Korea and Japanese-resident Korean relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard news is often assumed to be 'objective' and 'factual', with little or no trace of a 'subjective' authorial point of view. However, what is often forgotten is that journalists still choose what information to divulge, and how to communicate that information. This article explores how whaling news is presented in Japanese hard news reports, examining the types of 'voices' quoted and how these voices are presented. Analysing 176 quotations from 33 news articles published between 2014 and 2018 on news relating to controversies over Japan's whaling policy in relation to the International Whaling Commission's 2014 ban on whaling, this article found that in most cases, pro-whaling voices (43%) are quoted far more frequently than anti-whaling voices (24%). However, in news reports on Japan's resumption of whaling in 2015, pro-whaling voices became completely absent, because the Japanese journalists chose to quote foreign external voices that reject a pro-whaling point of view. Japanese journalists also incorporated emotional statements from local residents and fishermen in order to dramatise the issue and seek sympathy for those whose livelihood was threatened by the whaling ban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two urostylid ciliates, Trichototaxis marina Lu et al., 2014 and Uncinata bradburyae (Gong et al., 2001) Luo et al., 2015, new to Japan, were collected from coastal water in Nagasaki. Both were identified based on live and protargol-stained specimens. Morphologically, two new populations of T. marina correspond well with the type population in the live morphology and ciliature, especially a very flexible body having a long elliptical shape, and reddish cell colour caused by irregularly shaped pigments, multiple left marginal rows and marine habitat. A few morphological features were supplemented for the species. The Japanese population of Uncinata bradburyae presents the diagnostic features, especially the presence of an anterior snout-like procession and the elongated membranelles in the proximal portion of adoral zone, orientation of the anterior portion of the left marginal row, highly developed transverse cirri, and high number of dorsal kineties derived from two unique, de novo formed anlagen. Additionally, greenish pigments were first documented for the species. The new record suggests U. bradburyae might be a eurythermal species. The overall pattern of the divisional events resembles that of the Qingdao population described previously. Part of the reorganisation was also first revealed for U. bradburyae, which corresponds to the divisional processes in the opisthe. The present study corroborates the wide distribution of both species, and contributes to circumscribe the species by expanding the range of some morphometric data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Japan is commonly regarded as a strong proponent of the existing liberal international order championed by the US in the Indo-Pacific, sometimes it has been half-hearted in opposing a Sino-centric order and been rather supportive of Chinese diplomacy. In particular, it has to some degree supported the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) implemented by Beijing, effectively offered its endorsement to the international legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) without problematizing human rights issues, and severely restricted the enhancement of its own defense capabilities. These policies have been shaped by pro-China individuals and groups who hold privileged positions inside the government, and their privileged positions have been determined by haphazard domestic political factors which have little to do with Sino-Japanese relations. This means that, although on the surface Japan may seem to have rationally calculated its international strategic interests and implemented hedging as a coherent strategy amid Sino-US rivalries, its implementation of what seems to be a hedging strategy has actually been incidental. Its policy has turned out to resemble what has been regarded by International Relations (IR) theorists as a hedging strategy, due to haphazard domestic political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's big five general contractors -- Kajima, Obayahi, Taisei, Takenaka and Shimizu -- have developed efficient production systems for their construction site work. Earlier studies show that this has been achieved by applying a very standardized approach. Yet the Japanese building industry undertakes extensive research and development, the application of which could reasonably be expected to disrupt the efficient construction-site production systems. This paper describes a study undertaken in mid-1991 that began by exploring the relationship between the research institutes and the mainstream project work of the big five. This led to a review of established theories about the way that innovation takes place which in turn directed the study towards the interaction between the big five and their environments. Two major changes in these environments are currently under way. The first is growing demands by the big five's customers for higher standards and more fashionable design. The second is a serious labour shortage in the Japanese building industry. The big five have reacted in different ways to these two major environmental changes. This discovery finally led the study into a concern with the models that managers use in understanding their work. The paper suggest that a new model, based on using the human nervous system as a metaphor, is needed in order to understand the behaviour of the big five. It is also proposed that such a model will help in designing appropriate organizations for the big five as they face and seek to influence the rapid changes now resulting from the ambitions of Japan's increasingly affluent society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A few surveys have indicated that behavioural restrictions during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic have affected sleep and mental health. This study examined (1) the change in sleep-wake habits before and during the first self-restraint in Japan, (2) the factors that affect mental health, and (3) the model of mental health affecting the sleep quality, of workers. A cross-sectional internet survey. A total of 512 Japanese workers self-assessed their sleep quality, loneliness, anxiety, and depression during self-restraint. Their previous sleep habits were also assessed. Sleep habits remained almost regular, but 35.7% of participants reported poor sleep quality. Additionally, among the participants, 82.2% reported social loneliness, 37.9% reported emotional loneliness, 25.6% reported anxiety moods, and 49.0% reported depressive moods. Anxiety and depression were influenced by emotional and social loneliness, and marital status. These results showed that social and emotional loneliness worsened sleep quality with anxiety and depression. On the contrary, emotional loneliness had a significant and direct effect on sleep quality but not on social loneliness. This study shows that psychological factors affect subjective sleep quality during self-restraint. Psychological factors, such as loneliness, anxiety, and depression should be considered when maintaining good sleep quality under self-restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role women play in men's everyday grooming practices in contemporary Japan. The past few decades have seen increasing scrutiny of men's bodies with rising standards said to be in response to women's supposed desires. Yet research has thus far focused primarily on cultural representations such as pop idols or models, leaving our understandings of men's lived, everyday bodily experiences largely unexplored. Addressing this gap, I employ an ethnographic approach by drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirty-three heterosexual Japanese men of various marital statuses and ask how heteronormative imperatives of appealing to women inform men's understandings of their bodies. Working under a common-sense assumption that women are particularly sensitive to men's bodies, the single participants reported greater attention to bodily grooming in order to attract women in intimate, romantic situations. Meanwhile, married men rely on or are doted upon by their wives in relation to their grooming thus reinforcing orthodox gender roles. Although male grooming may appear to subvert orthodox gender norms according to which men should be disinterested in bodily care, these findings underscore how orthodox, heteronormative gender ideology is in fact reproduced through men's bodies, thanks in large part to women's role therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Etsuko Ichihara is a media artist who utilises digital media and robotic technologies, exploring Japanese traditional beliefs of the spirit and the supernatural in her recent works. Ichihara repurposes paranormal and folk religious ideas concerning the figure of the shaman, an ogre-like demon that features in some Japanese festivals, and ritual offerings, but reinvents these traditional elements through technological mediation. I discuss Ichihara's distinctive engagement with a contemporised notion of spirituality in Japan. In particular, this essay argues that Ichihara's media art aims to connect Japanese people in order to create sociality and community. Ichihara appropriates Japanese animistic beliefs and tailors them for a mediated and technologised Japan, utilising what might be called a 'techno-spiritual Japanese-ness', that is, self-orientalising tropes that paradoxically generate the means for social relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the varying intensity of political clash that South Korea has got involved in with Japan regarding the territorial dispute, Dokdo/Takeshima. Existing works are limited to acknowledging the role of nationalism as a key obstacle to the negotiation or settlement of the territorial dispute. However, democratically elected Korean leaders at times remained low key in the territorial problem and even sought collaboration with Japan despite the existence of nationalism. Specifically, South Korea employed both calm and hardline diplomatic choices in the territorial dispute. Why did South Korea choose disparate territorial policies despite the population's anti-Japanese sentiments? Under what circumstances did leaders in Korea employ dovish diplomacy that might cause a strong backlash from the public? Introducing the vulnerability-restraint theory, I argue that top decision makers' political vulnerability in domestic politics and the restraining pressure from the United States have impact on the final choice of foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a rising power, China has realized that it is an urgent task to improve its national image among foreign publics. In the era of Xi Jinping, China has invested a substantial amount of resources in its foreign-language media to present a more favorable national image to an international audience. This study provides a novel approach to examine the content of China's Japanese-language media and its dissemination. The study found that the Chinese state media promotes China's soft power using two main strategies: (1) highlighting China's culture and economic achievements, and (2) providing positive stories of China. A comparative content analysis of Chinese and Japanese media shows that Chinese media's narratives are not well circulated in Japan's public opinion field. This study has both substantive and methodological significance. Substantively, this investigation enhances our understanding of China's strategic use of state-owned media for public diplomacy. Methodologically, this research contributes to the employment of quantitative text analysis methods on Japanese-language data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, the Japanese government introduced a controversial education policy, which made moral education (dōtoku) a formal (as opposed to supplementary) subject in elementary schools, and the new scheme intends to teach, foster, and grade patriotic feelings among school children. By referring to semi-autobiographical narratives of 80 Japanese college students, this exploratory study delves into the question of how the Japanese college youth perceive the efficacy of patriotic education. Do we need to teach school children how to love Japan? If so, how? If not, why? This study suggests that the youth narratives do not necessarily align with this shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how social beliefs about language use and users influence writing-restricted variation in contemporary Japan by analyzing ojisan gokko ('impersonating middle-aged men'), a practice where young Japanese women playfully message each other as though they were lecherous men. While the production of a stylized ojisan voice during ojisan gokko involves many traditional Japanese indexes (markers) of 'male' language, it also relies prominently on particular uses of script, emoji, kaomoji, and punctuation, ultimately creating a form of mocking which is bound to the written mode. Using indexicality as a framework, the article analyses 195 screenshots of ojisan gokko acts shared on Twitter to establish which writing-restrict forms are key to the practice, and examines the multiple social motives and origins behind these forms. Ultimately, ojisan gokko is noted to involve a complex interplay of variants traditionally linked to distinct social groups, with this combined use traced to a series of Japanese social actors observing, imitating, discussing, or parodying how others write. Consequently, ojisan gokko shows that writing-restricted variation can be highly motivated by social concerns, ideologies, and conflicts, including the desire to establish, contest, and modify which identities and forms of language use are appropriate or 'cool'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through close observation of Japanese cybersecurity policy between 2017 and 2020, I demonstrate that changes made to the policy during the period were kept to a modest level largely by the resilience of existing constraints on the use of force. Investigating a set of key Japanese government documents such as the Cybersecurity Strategy, National Defence Programme Guidelines and Midterm Defence Programme, I show that, while Japan did much to reduce its vulnerability to hostile cyber operations and enhance long-term security through organisational overhaul and operational redesign, the developments turned out to be more cumulative than revolutionary in nature. That is, Japan's traditionally defensive defence posture continued to retain the restrained core of its cyber strategy, observable in the status-quo orientation of the legal system and compliance with the way the international community expects countries to behave in cyberspace. As such, I contend that structural impact will only emerge across government-led performance in the long run. The modest changes reflect Tokyo's established preference to adopt a patchwork approach to enduring problems in cyberspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a global emotional distress that affects women and their offspring regardless of their culture. The association between nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) and PPD has been widely described only for the severe form of NVP. We aimed to assess the relationship between PPD and NVP with regards to its severity.Methods: Data from the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS), a birth cohort study, were analyzed. PPD was assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Multiple logistic regression models were performed to assess the association between NVP and PPD.Results: Out of the 80,396 women included in the study 14% had PPD. Among them 4,640 (42.1%) had mild NVP; 3,295 (29.9%) had moderate NVP whereas 1,481 (13.4%) had severe NVP. All forms of NVP were associated with PPD and the association gradually increased with the severity of NVP symptoms with odd ratio (OR): 1.26; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.18-1.35 for mild, OR: 1.28; 95% CI: 1.19-1.38 for moderate and OR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.42-1.68 for severe NVP.Conclusion: Japanese women with NVP were more susceptible to develop PPD and the more severe the NVP symptoms were, the greater the risk of PPD. Thus, close monitoring of NVP-affected women is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To validate the revised criteria of the International Workshop on Ocular Sarcoidosis (IWOS) for the diagnosis of ocular sarcoidosis (OS). Methods: A retrospective chart review study was performed on 323 patients including 51 patients with biopsy-proven sarcoidosis and 272 patients with other uveitis entities. Data on intraocular signs and systemic investigations were collected, and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and the Youden index were calculated. Results: All intraocular signs and most systemic investigations showed high diagnostic parameters. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the revised IWOS criteria were 1.000, 0.930, 0.728, and 1.000, respectively. Presumed or probable OS showed lower sensitivity and higher specificity when compared with the best Youden index. Conclusion: The revised IWOS criteria are useful in Japanese patients, but could possibly be improved by modifying the criterion of presumed or probable OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines policing of the boundary of Japaneseness in contemporary Japan by analyzing the experiences of 15 young individuals. Despite their self-recognition as not having any foreign ancestors, they are often misrecognized as half-Japanese or non-Japanese by others. This article explores the causes and consequences of this categorization and reflects on the implications of ethnic or racial misidentification for the misidentified and for the wider society. The findings confirm that others labeled the participants as hāfu (mixed) or foreign to make sense of the inconsistency between the participants' 'non-Japanese-like' personal features and a narrow notion of Japaneseness. Their lack of Japaneseness meant the participants experienced exclusion owing to the unmarked norms in Japanese society. They were also treated as though they were hāfu or foreign. However, their belief or claim of having only Japanese ancestors often confused others as well as themselves, which resulted in various attempts to make sense of their 'differences'. This article concludes that the marginalization and othering of various ethnic or racial groups in Japan helped avoid challenging the notion of Japaneseness. Therefore, to tackle exclusion, diversity among 'majority Japanese' needs to be acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese people do not have charitable behavior and volunteerism compared to other countries, including other developing countries. For this reason, this study examines the effect of appeal of social products on the product choice of the Japanese people. The results show that negative messages, negative images, and negative and positive combinations (message × image) have a positive effect, whereas positive messages and images have no effect on the product choice. Additionally, we find that negative combinations are more likely to cause greater psychological reactance than positive combinations. We found that marketers can avoid psychological reactance by emphasizing the positive aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]