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The article discusses cases, comparisons and contrast between Japan and the rest of Asia. The leaders of Japan were aware what was going on in rest of world. They leaned of Western scientific achievements and economic changes. They knew the great new economic and military power of England, the United States, and of other Western countries. Japan's own economic organization had already undergone an evolution of lesser degree but of the same kind as that which preceded the coming of the factory system in several Occidental countries. Japan already had a fairly elaborate division of occupations, based on handicraft, both retail and wholesale. A large urban population had grown up in the castle towns, especially at the Shogun's capital in Tokyo. These economic conditions did not differ too widely from those prevailing in other parts of Asia, especially in parts of India and China. There, too, were native merchants and workers, considerable production for near and some distant sale, and facilities for loaning and transferring money. Those countries also had considerable foreign trade. The difference lied in the industrialization and modernization in Japan, which was not there in any other part of Asia.

This article reports on some interrelationships between urbanization and social change in Japan since 1600. Japan is proposed for investigation of some possible interrelationships between urbanization and social change for several reasons. In the first place, Japan is the most highly industrialized and urbanized of the major nations of Asia. In Asia lives the bulk of the world's population, a population that is now in the midst of major social, economic and political transformations of enormous consequence to the rest of the world. In the second place, Japan lends itself to the testing of hypotheses regarding social and cultural change, which have been primarily documented with data on European, and European-dominated peoples. Third, Japan is an appropriate concern of American scholars because of close past and present relationships between the two countries. It is the central argument of this article that Japanese history since 1600 may profitably be regarded in terms of three remarkable experiments in planned social change undertaken by powerful, centralized governments which were relatively free to exercise unlimited authority. In each of these three instances the regime consciously set out to fashion Japan's national life after a preconceived pattern and in each case the planned change was in substantial degree realized.

The article shares the author's insights on the containment effort of the U.S. to retain its position as a major power in Asia which results to a struggle with China. The author points out that the U.S. containment of China depends on the chain of military bases in China's periphery. Vietnam on the other hand, represents the chain's anchor in Southeast Asia with its vast ports and airfields and its commitment to the American troops. The author cites that the U.S. military bases in Japan are responsible for the country's defense, yet the U.S. failed to link Japan to the containment policy. He suggested that the U.S. should refrain from military maneuvering in order to force Japan into a deeper commitment with its interests and to encourage increasing contacts between Japan and China.

Based on studies carried out by the author and his associates in areas of Japan and South Asia where malayan and bancroftian filariasis is endemic, this paper recommends methods for use in microfilaria surveys and in the analysis of data obtained in such surveys. The author recommends the use of measured blood samples of 30 mm(3), with which 3 linear smears are made on slides. The blood films are then stained with azure II and eosin. Microfilarial counts made with such smears are, it is claimed, simpler, less expensive, and more reliable than those made with round, thick smears. Furthermore, the use of 3 smears from each person permits the calculation of correction factors, by means of which the detection rates that would be obtained by the use of different volumes of blood may be calculated.Information obtained by the use of this method has proved to be of great use in epidemiological studies of filariasis in endemic areas, in comparing the prevalence of the disease in different populations, and in evaluating the results of control measures. Different ways of recording and classifying the results are described, and the frequency distribution of microfilarial densities is analysed.

The article describes research of article's author concerning religion and sociology. The author has been concerned with the problem of the place of religion in human culture, personality and society; religion as a transformative or retarding factor in modernization, especially in the several culture areas of Asia; and finally the transformation of religion and worldview in modern Japan at both the sophisticated and popular level. The problem is that religion is the most coherent, organized and systematic aspect of the non-rational. It does not follow the ground rules of pragmatic common sense or science. Whatever students may have read in graduate school most sociologists do not believe in the reality, importance or value of anything, which falls outside the areas of common sense and science. Or if they do it is partitioned off in a part of their lives, which has nothing to do with their work as sociologists. Sociologist made the intellectually impeccable distinction between the frame of reference of the actor and that of the scientist. A scientist ought to be able to deal with the world of the religious actor whatever be may think of the reality, importance or value of that actor's point of view.

"This paper uses family reconstitution to derive indices of marriage and birth rates from observation of class differences in six villages on the Nobi plain (near Nagoya), [Japan]." The study covers the Tokugawa period, which lasted from 1603 to 1868., (excerpt)

"This paper aims at constructing a certain type of double increment-decrement [life] table which will be suited to analyze intercensal mortality and migration experiences [in Japan]. Use was made of the two successive population censuses at a five-year interval from 1970 to 1975 for Kyoto city." (summary in ENG), (excerpt)

This article cites a variety of sources and synthesizes a number of studies on the social implications of technological innovations (microelectronics). These studies were related to six European and Asian countries and were also concerned with the international division of labor. (SSH)

This group of articles studies the effects of microelectronics technologies on the world of work and on the social and economic life in general. These studies are related to several industrial nations and are also concerned with the international division of labor. (SSH)

This series of articles cites a variety of sources and synthesizes a number of studies on the working conditions and the welfare of workers from several countries. (SSH)

"The aim of this paper is to illuminate basic characteristics of metropolitan areas in Japan. [The authors] first delineate the boundaries of ninety-eight Japanese metropolitan areas based on the concept of cut-off point on the P-M curve the idea of which was originally developed by Ogawa in 1957. Secondly, [they] carry out empirical analyses on spatial structure and growth patterns of those metropolitan areas by use of 1960 and 1975 data." The results indicate that the population share of central cities declined from 1960 to 1975., (excerpt)

Eleven theme articles focus on serving rural youth in the International Youth Year and describe vocational agricultural education in developing nations, new models for international agricultural education, and goals and objectives of the Association for International Agricultural Education. (SK)

Travel allows teachers to gather the data and realia to enliven history or global education in the classroom. In this special issue teachers describe personal travel experiences to many parts of the globe. Points of interest, itineraries, budgets, and artifacts collected are discussed. (RM)