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This study investigates the persistence of gendered choice and use of media, particularly in Japanese domestic settings. It shows how women's significant presence in the digital media environment does not necessarily translate into substantial changes in gendered power dynamics in choosing and using particular media for certain purposes at home. This project's authors, researchers from Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the US, analyzed interview data from Japan by drawing on the Foucauldian concept of micro-level power, which is categorized into three main types: personal authority, media affordances, and space-time constellations. Through this process, we interviewed 77 individuals, revealing that persistent gendered media choices and use exist in Japan. The project team also looked for similar cases in other countries for further theoretical implications. As a result of this investigation, we argue that the patriarchy continues to influence women's choice and use of media at home even in this media-saturated digital age. Our interview data show that "old media" such as radio, television, newspaper, and magazines not only mediate information and entertainment contents at home, but also structure people's quotidian use of media, both old and new, and sustains existing gendered assumptions and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tectonic tremors occurring on subducting plate boundaries are known to migrate at various timescales and migration speeds. Spatiotemporal patterns of tremor migration are key to investigating the rupture growth of slow earthquakes. However, spatiotemporal patterns are not sufficiently simple to visually define tremor migrations. This study developed a space‐time Hough transform to objectively extract tremor migrations. The space‐time Hough transform enables the extraction of multiple tremor migrations with various durations, migration directions, and migration speeds. We applied this method to a catalog of tremors for the period from 2012 to 2014, which was determined from the data analysis of a dense seismic array deployed in the Kii Peninsula, Southwest Japan. We successfully extracted 1,010 tremor migrations with durations ranging from 10 min to 24 hr. Along‐strike migrations propagating southwestward were predominant in the northeastern part of the Kii Peninsula, whereas those propagating northeastward were principal in the southwestern part. Regarding the along‐dip direction, tremor migrations propagating in the up‐dip directions were predominant in the deep part, and those propagating in the down‐dip directions were principal in the shallow part. The patterns of along‐strike migrations were related to the distribution of tremor energies, suggesting that tremor migrations may be controlled by heterogeneous structures of frictional properties on the plate interface. We further found that the migration speed is proportional to the inverse of the square root of the duration. This relation implies that a diffusion process controls the growth of fault ruptures behind tremor migrations. Plain Language Summary: Tectonic tremors, which are continuous seismic signals with a predominant frequency of 2–8 Hz, have been discovered in subduction zones worldwide. The tremor activity continues for several hours to days, and source locations migrate at speeds ranging from 10 to 1,000 km/day. Tremor migrations provide us with key to understanding the associated fault ruptures. However, their durations, migration directions, and migration speeds have variations that are too large to be characterized visually. Therefore, it is necessary to objectively extract the characteristics of tremor migrations. We developed a space‐time Hough transform to extract tremor migrations and applied it to data from a tremor catalog in the Kii Peninsula, Southwest Japan. We extracted 1,010 tremor migrations with durations ranging from 10 min to 24 hr. The tremor migrations consist of long‐duration migrations at slow speeds and short‐duration migrations at high speeds. The migration speeds decreased as the durations increased, suggesting that there was a diffusion process behind tremor migrations. We identified four areas where tremor migration was active. Migration patterns are different in each area and are related to the distribution of tremor energies. The results suggest that the migration patterns may reflect the frictional properties of the plate interface. Key Points: We developed a new method using a space‐time Hough transform to objectively extract tremor migrationsTremor migrations show fine structures in which multiple short‐duration tremor migrations occur during long‐duration tremor migrationThe relation between migration speed (Vmi) and duration (T) follows Vmi ∝ T−0.5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hierarchical space–time version of the epidemic-type aftershock sequence (HIST–ETAS) model was constructed for an optimally adapted fit to diverse seismicity features characterized by anisotropic clustering as well as regionally distinct parameters. This manuscript validates this elaborate model for short-term prediction based on several years of recent inland Japan earthquakes as a testing data set, by evaluating the results using a log-likelihood ratio score. To consider intermediate- and long-term performance, several types of space–time Poisson models are compared with the background seismicity rate of the HIST–ETAS model. Results show first that the HIST–ETAS model has the best short-term prediction results for earthquakes in the range of magnitudes from M4.0 to M5.0, although, for the larger earthquakes, sufficient recent earthquake data is lacking to evaluate the performance. Second, for intermediate-term predictions, the optimal spatial nonuniform Poisson intensity model has a better forecast performance than the seismic background intensity of the HIST–ETAS model, while the uniform rate Poisson model throughout all of inland Japan has the worst forecast performance. For earthquakes of M6 or larger, the performance of retrospective long-term forecasts was tested in two ways. First, a retrospective forecasting experiment divided the entire period from 1885 to the present into two parts, with the recent ~ 30 years as the forecast period. Second, the historical damaging earthquake data (599–1884) were spatially validated using century data from 1885 to the present. In both validations, it was determined that the spatial intensity of the inland background seismic activity of the HIST–ETAS model is much better than the best-fit nonuniform Poisson spatial model, leading to the best results. The findings of this study will be critical for regional earthquake hazard planning in Japan and similar locations worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature often reports space–time relations between the abnormal variations of different kinds of nonseismological (i.e., geophysical, geochemical, and atmospheric) parameters and the occurrence of earthquakes. The integration of such observations with seismological ones could improve the quality of the seismic hazard assessment in the medium‐short term (months to days). Each considered parameter has, in principle, its capabilities to provide useful (and utilizable) information about seismic processes. Therefore, to define a system based on different observations, the first step is to estimate the informative contribution that each considered parameter could provide. In this paper, we will evaluate the potential of Significant Sequence of Thermal Anomalies (SSTAs). In particular, we adopted the broadly used Robust Satellite Techniques (RST) data analysis methodology to identify SSTAs over 11 years (June 2005 to December 2015) of nighttime satellite images acquired by MTSAT satellites over Japan. Aiming at reducing the false‐positive rate, we introduced and tested an innovative configuration of the RST, which is here presented. We executed a correlation analysis between SSTAs and Japanese earthquakes with MJMA ≥ 6 by applying suitable constraints concerning space, time, and magnitude. The analysis highlights (a) the occurrence of just 29 SSTAs in the 11‐year period of observation, (b) 18 SSTAs (i.e., 62%) occur in an apparent space–time relation to earthquakes, and (c) 13 of them occur before the quake. Results of the random test analysis, based on error diagrams, confirm a noncasual correlation between "RST‐based satellite thermal anomalies" and earthquake occurrences. In particular, for MJMA ≥ 6.5 earthquakes, probability gain is up to better than 4.3 as compared with the random guess. Key Points: We present an innovative version of the Robust Satellite Techniques able to reduce the proliferation of false‐positive thermal anomaliesA noncasual relation between satellite thermal anomalies and MJMA ≥ 6 earthquakes affecting Japan in the time span 2005–2015 was foundMultiparametric approach could accelerate the set‐up of a system for time‐dependent assessment of seismic hazard [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the decadal variability in sea surface temperature (SST) around Japan with a focus on its relationship with atmospheric circulation and its seasonality. Based on empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis, we found that the first mode and the second mode accounted for about 66% of the total variance of the detrended, low-pass filtered monthly anomalies. Seasonal EOF analyses using the winter and summer SST values revealed that the first and second modes for the whole-season analysis coincided well in time and space with the first modes for winter and the summer, respectively. These results indicate that the main variability in SST around Japan can be expressed by the superposition of the dominant variations in winter and summer. The first mode in winter showed large amplitudes in the west of Japan. The cold SST anomalies in this area are associated with the prominent troughs in the middle and upper troposphere that accompany cold air masses around Japan. We have concluded that the East Asian winter monsoon plays an important role in winter decadal variability, which is consistent with previous studies. On the other hand, the first mode in summer exhibited a large amplitude in the north of Japan. The corresponding atmospheric field is associated with mid-latitude tropospheric zonal warming. The temporal coefficient was highly correlated with the outgoing longwave radiation in the Maritime Continent. These tropical convective activities likely induce the mid-latitude tropospheric warming, thereby affecting summer decadal variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the decadal variability in sea surface temperature (SST) around Japan with a focus on its relationship with atmospheric circulation and its seasonality. Based on empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis, we found that the first mode and the second mode accounted for about 66% of the total variance of the detrended, low-pass filtered monthly anomalies. Seasonal EOF analyses using the winter and summer SST values revealed that the first and second modes for the whole-season analysis coincided well in time and space with the first modes for winter and the summer, respectively. These results indicate that the main variability in SST around Japan can be expressed by the superposition of the dominant variations in winter and summer. The first mode in winter showed large amplitudes in the west of Japan. The cold SST anomalies in this area are associated with the prominent troughs in the middle and upper troposphere that accompany cold air masses around Japan. We have concluded that the East Asian winter monsoon plays an important role in winter decadal variability, which is consistent with previous studies. On the other hand, the first mode in summer exhibited a large amplitude in the north of Japan. The corresponding atmospheric field is associated with mid-latitude tropospheric zonal warming. The temporal coefficient was highly correlated with the outgoing longwave radiation in the Maritime Continent. These tropical convective activities likely induce the mid-latitude tropospheric warming, thereby affecting summer decadal variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like the transfer of genetic variation through gene flow, language changes constantly as a result of its use in human interaction. Contact between speakers is most likely to happen when they are close in space, time, and social setting. Here, we investigated the role of geographical configuration in this process by studying linguistic diversity in Japan, which comprises a large connected mainland (less isolation, more potential contact) and smaller island clusters of the Ryukyuan archipelago (more isolation, less potential contact). We quantified linguistic diversity using dialectometric methods, and performed regression analyses to assess the extent to which distance in space and time predict contemporary linguistic diversity. We found that language diversity in general increases as geographic distance increases and as time passes—as with biodiversity. Moreover, we found that (I) for mainland languages, linguistic diversity is most strongly related to geographic distance—a so-called isolation-by-distance pattern, and that (II) for island languages, linguistic diversity reflects the time since varieties separated and diverged—an isolation-by-colonisation pattern. Together, these results confirm previous findings that (linguistic) diversity is shaped by distance, but also goes beyond this by demonstrating the critical role of geographic configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking to contribute to recent attempts to rethink the deepest foundations of the field, this paper offers news ways of contemplating time, specifically its relations to self, nihilism, and schooling. We briefly review how some leading Western thinkers have contemplated time before detailing Japanese scholars who have offered divergent, original, and arguably more sophisticated, theoretical accounts. We then illustrate these ideas by sketching how Japan ‘borrowed time’ following the abrupt political rupture of 1868, showing howLinear Timecame to be disseminated and diffused, largely through modern schooling. Last, we spotlight the nihilism that has arisen as consequence. Our primary aim is not empirical elaboration, however, but instead disclosure of a complex of relations that the field of comparative education has yet to discuss. We offer both the experience-cum-thought of Japan and this complex itself as reconstructive resources for the field which remains shallow in its parochial presumptions and unwillingness to engage ontologically. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the intersection of individuals' personal lives and world historical events such as the aftermath of colonialism, dispersion from homeland, and diasporic resettlement through the life history of an elderly Korean couple living in Japan. This exercise captures the shifting relationship of Koreans in Japan both to their home country, and to Japan, the former colonial metropolis. Known as zainichi Koreans, members of this group trace their origins to colonial-era migrants from the Korean Peninsula to Japan. Now that almost a century has passed since the first arrivals, their status shifting from that of stateless people to that of permanent residents, the lives of zainichi Koreans are being reconfigured, including those that were highly politicized in the past. This article aims to update this situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article analyzes temporal frames of reference that are metaphorically related to experiences of movement and location. Two path-configured temporal frames of reference are distinguished, both of which employ a metaphorical front/behind contrast: field-based (perspective neutral) and ego-perspective (perspective specific). Claims are illustrated with data from Wolof (Niger-Congo, West Africa), Japanese, and Aymara (Jaqi, South America). The paper focuses on a field-based analysis (akin to absolute) of deictically neutral uses of front/behind terms, and defends it against a possible analysis as intrinsic. Front in the field-based frame of reference maps onto ‘earlier’, and behind maps onto ‘later’. An ego-perspective frame of reference generally has the opposite orientation so that front maps onto ‘future’ and behind maps onto ‘past’. Both of these patterns seem to be crosslinguistically typical. However, there is one well-documented case of ego facing the past—that of Aymara. I argue that in the Aymara system, ego''s orientation is aligned with that of a field-based frame of reference: in Aymara the past is metaphorically in front of ego partly because the past is a special case of an earlier time that is metaphorically in front of a later time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper addresses fully space-time adaptive magnetic field computations. We describe an adaptive Whitney finite element method for solving the magnetoquasistatic formulation of Maxwell's equations on unstructured 3D tetrahedral grids. Spatial mesh refinement and coarsening are based on hierarchical error estimators especially designed for combining tetrahadral H(curl)-conforming edge elements in space with linearly implicit Rosenbrock methods in time. An embedding technique is applied to get efficiency in time through variable time steps. Finally, we present numerical results for the magnetic recording write head benchmark problem proposed by the Storage Research Consortium in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We studied the taxonomic and morphological compositions of Pleistocene coral assemblages in 24 quadrats in Okinawa-jima, southern Central Ryukyus, and in 14 quadrats in Kikai-jima, northern Central Ryukyus. A total of 72 species belonging to 35 genera were identified in Okinawa-jima, whereas 65 species coming under 33 genera were recorded in Kikai-jima. Cluster analysis of the Bray-Curtis (BC) similarity coefficient produced 8 coral associations and 3 ungrouped taxa; they correspond to a wide range of reef environments, from shallow lagoon to lower reef-slope settings. The analysis of taxonomic similarities among quadrats leads to the identification of 7 clusters and 5 isolated quadrats. The segregation of quadrats indicating a same reef zone into distinctive groups or single branches in the cluster diagram reflects the within-reef-slope variability in community structure. Specifically, encrusting Acropora palifera, indicative of the upper reef-slope zone, shows a great variability of associated coral species and morphologies. We also report differences in the geographic distribution of Acropora palifera and Platygyra contorta between present-day and Pleistocene reefs, which may be linked to changes in sea surface temperature. The decrease in the total species and generic richness recorded in modern reefs is not clearly detected in the fossil record. In addition, MDS ordination of the BC similarities highlights patterns of reef zonation and geographic differences in taxonomic composition. One-way tests of similarity (ANOSIM) show that differences in the composition of upper reef-slope coral assemblages between Okinawa-jima and Kikai-jima are not larger than those observed between southern and central Okinawa-jima. Finally, we report various types of coral successions. Sea-level changes resulted in transitions from one reef zone to another, whereas local disturbances are likely to have been responsible for the successions of distinctive coral assemblages with overlapping depth ranges, which reflect the within-reef-zone variability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article is concerted with objective estimation of the spatial intensity function of the background earthquake occurrences from an earthquake catalog that includes numerous clustered events in space and time, and also with an algorithm for producing declustered catalogs from the original catalog. A space-time branching process model (the ETAS model) is used for describing how each event generates offspring events. It is shown that the background intensity function can be evaluated if the total spatial seismicity intensity and the branching structure can be estimated, In fact the whole space-time process is split into two subprocesses, the background events and the clustered events. The proposed algorithm combines a parametric maximum likelihood estimate of the clustering structures using the space time ETAS model and a nonparametric estimate of the background seismicity that we call a variable weighted kernel estimate. To demonstrate the present methods, we estimate the background seismic activities in the central region of New Zealand and in the central and western regions of Japan, then use these estimates to produce catalogs of background events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cretaceous granitoids in NE Japan have adakitic affinity. • Inherited zircons with Archaen Hf model ages may have been derived from the Jurassic accretionary complex. • U-Pb ages young northward after restoration of post-plutonic sinistral faulting. • These plutons may have formed as a result of a northward migrating triple junction. • Eclogites of the Sambagawa belt may represent remnants of the slab from which adakitic melts were formed. We conducted major, trace element, Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic, and U-Pb geochronologic analyses of early Cretaceous Kitakami granitic plutons, northeast Japan. We suggest that these plutons include rocks of adakitic affinity, which indicate partial melting of an eclogitic slab. The Kitakami adakites were mostly derived from juvenile oceanic crustal sources, but include inherited zircons with Archean to Neoproterozoic Hf model ages. Rather than being directly derived from crustal rocks of these ages, zircons may have been detrital in the voluminous trench fill sandstone within the Jurassic northern Kitakami accretionary prism. The exhumation of older basement that served as the detrital zircon source may have been triggered by ridge subduction. Although the plutons show a general southward younging from northern Kitakami (120–130 Ma), southern Kitakami (115–125 Ma), and Abukuma (100–115 Ma), restoration of post-crystallization left-slip faults inverts this spatial pattern and results in a northward-younging pattern. This suggests northward migration of a trench-ridge-transform triple junction that included the Izanagi–Farallon ridge. The Sambagawa eclogite may be genetically related to the Kitakami adakite in time and space if the transform duplexing is restored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]