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Against the prevailing outcomes-based education and the instrumentalization of education, a movement has arisen towards holistic education. This aims to go beyond objective measurement of the outcomes of education in order to treat the student as a whole person. In this paper, we shall examine some strands of education in Japan which in some way or another feature the idea of the whole person. This includes the tradition of clinical pedagogy, which originated in Kyoto University, Yukichi Shitahodo's educational anthropology ("Kyoiku-Ningengaku"), Kuniyoshi Obara's "Zenjin" Education (the education of the whole person) and holistic education. Notwithstanding the fact that such education is benevolent in intention, it can be miseducative in some respects. In the light of this, and with some reference to criticism of the idea of the whole person, we shall point to an alternative vision of education of the whole person following Cavell's Emersonian moral perfectionism -- a perfectionism that is thoroughly anti-foundationalist and that transcends self-entrapment in circulatory discourse on the whole. In critical dialogue between the rich traditions of Japanese thought and the critical voice of liberalism raised from within the West, we hope to find a more nuanced answer to the question of how being a whole might make sense.

In this paper, I first provide a brief review of how scholars have conceptualized, tested, and elaborated aptitude frameworks relevant to second language (L2) speech learning. Subsequently, I introduce an emerging paradigm that assigns a fundamental role to domain-general auditory processing (i.e., having a good ear) in L1 speech acquisition and proposes that the same faculty acts as a cornerstone of L2 speech learning (i.e., the Auditory Precision Hypothesis-L2). This hypothesis predicts that learners with more precise auditory processing ability will be able to make the most of every input opportunity, which will result in more advanced L2 speech proficiency. To close, I will provide suggestions on how scholars can assess L2 students' auditory processing ability (e.g., our team's offline test deposited at L2 Speech Tools for Researchers & Teachers [http://sla-speech-tools.com/]) and discuss how the results can be used to maximize learners' L2 speech learning opportunities via optimal, profile-matched training programs (e.g., explicit vs. incidental training; naturalistic vs. classroom learning; phonetic vs. auditory training).

The current study investigated the effects of repetition on the learning of second language (L2) spoken word forms. Japanese university students learning L2 English were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (one, three, and six exposures) and learned 40 words while hearing them and viewing their corresponding pictures. A picture-naming test was administered before, immediately after, and approximately one week after the treatment. The elicited speech samples were evaluated for two aspects of spoken vocabulary knowledge: pronunciation (accentedness and comprehensibility) and form-meaning connection (spoken form recall). Results showed that (a) the number of exposures positively affected measures of form-meaning connection and pronunciation immediately after the treatment, and (b) cognateness moderated how strongly repetition impacted the pronunciation of L2 words. Moderate learning gains occurred for comprehensibility after six exposures to new words. However, with six exposures, only small effects of repetition were observed for accentedness.

Cultivating preservice teachers' "shutaisei" has been the focus of Japanese university-based teacher education since the late 1990s. This article contains the self-study of three teacher educators at different Japanese universities. All three of us believe that helping students cultivate their "shutaisei" should be an important part of our teaching practices; however, framing "shutaisei" and pursuing it in practice poses complex dilemmas. In this article, we explore our individual understandings of "shutaisei's" meaning in theory and practice, and reflect on how and why we considered it in these ways. We discussed our practices every two weeks online; all the conversations were videotaped and analyzed. Ultimately, through this self-study, we (teacher educators) found: (1) We had defined what "shutaisei" means based on our own educational experiences; and (2) We had suggested our own "shutaisei" to the students without being aware that it is based on our own educational experience. Teacher education institutions, we recommend, should provide opportunities for faculty members to explore themselves and their practices.

This study used class practices to verify the applicability of a web application specially developed for the observation in general elementary school classes of the blooming of cherry blossoms with time-lapse digital images. The learning effects of class practices on children's perceptions of the connection between familiar phenomena and climate change were examined with a questionnaire survey. The results further demonstrated the potential for plant phenology observation using time-lapse images to contribute to students' acquisition of multi-timescale concepts from seasonal phenomena around them to century-scale climate change. This study can help provide a participatory approach, to an issue that is difficult for many learners to experience directly from the perspective of digital technology on environmental education.

This article explores the relationship between the freedom granted to teachers to shape curricula and the function of national standards. In recent years, many countries have begun to introduce standards-based reforms in education, such as standardized curriculums and high-stakes tests. As cultural diversity within schools increases, the tension resulting from catering to this diversity while maintaining standards is also rising. This article offers a comparative analysis of the educational theories and practices in the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., debate and conflict between supporters of national standards and those of multicultural education have surfaced. In Japan, the government determines broad standards for all schools in order to ensure a fixed standard of education throughout the country. Thus, although the U.S. has a higher degree of cultural diversity than Japan, similar controversial issues will also face the Japanese educational system as school populations change rapidly due to the enrolment of children with diverse foreign heritages. Therefore, this article advocates the need for balance between the scope of regulation by the national government and the development of a citizenship education curriculum that uses teachers' own initiative in the modern age, and has practical implications for educational policymakers.

The aim of this study was to understand adult learners' strategy use in foreign language learning. It also explored how such strategy use relates to learners' sense of self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and language proficiency. Two questionnaires were administered to obtain data from 90 education majors in a Japanese university. Differences in strategy use in relation to self-efficacy, self-regulatedness, and proficiency were examined using Kruskal-Wallis H tests. Whilst some preferred and less preferred strategy items were identified, the findings suggested that possession of a high self-efficacy profile and self-regulatedness related to both greater use of language learning strategies and a higher level of language proficiency. However, a closer look detected a nuanced, important difference in the magnitude of the effect, whereby self-regulatedness may be more yielding than self-efficacy. Namely, self-regulatedness played a substantial role in differentiating use of several strategy items among different proficiency groups, whereas self-efficacy seems to play a smaller part than self-regulatedness in this respect, considering the effect sizes. Thus, this empirical study contributes to the ongoing discussion of the different roles and nature of the self-efficacy and self-regulatedness constructs in the context of language learning and teaching. Implications for language teaching are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

Scholars have extensively investigated the effectiveness of high variability phonetic training (HVPT), that is, identification and discrimination of second language speech sounds produced by multiple speakers followed by trial-by-trial feedback. Building on the notion of incidental and multimodal learning in cognitive psychology (e.g., Lim & Holt, 2011), we developed a new, HVPT-based videogame paradigm in which participants aimed to shoot clay targets as fast as possible while being guided to learn sound cues as a by-product of planned learning. Focusing on the speech acquisition of 58 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners, the current study set out to test the pedagogical potential and limits of the incidental HVPT approach. According to the results of statistical analyses, the effectiveness of incidental HVPT can be more clearly observed if it focuses on more learnable targets (e.g., acquisition of English [ae]-[open-mid back unrounded vowel] rather than [r]-[l] contrasts) with gains being more generalizable from trained to new speakers' voices and from perception to production dimensions.

We analyzed a Japanese lexical database to investigate the structure of the lexical environment based on the hypothesis that the lexical environment is optimized for the functioning of verbal working memory. Our prediction was that, as a consequence of the cultural transmission of language, low-imageable meanings tend to be represented by frequent phonological patterns in the current vocabulary rather than infrequent phonological patterns. This prediction was based on two findings of previous laboratory studies on verbal working memory. (1) The quality of phonological (phonemic and accent) representations in verbal working memory depends on phonological regularity knowledge; therefore, short-term phonological representations are less robust for words with infrequent phonological patterns. (2) Phonological representations are underpinned by contributions from semantic knowledge; therefore, phonological representations of highly imageable words are more robust than those for low-imageable words. Our database analyses show that nouns with less imageable meanings tend to be associated with more frequent phonological patterns in Japanese vocabulary. This lexical structure can maintain the quality of phonological representations in verbal working memory through contributions of semantic and phonological regularity knowledge. Larger semantic contributions compensate for the less robust phonological representations of infrequent phonological forms. The quality of phonological representations is preserved by phonological regularity knowledge when larger semantic contributions are not expected.

Ecocentric education programs should include a method for the in-depth understanding of multi-scale ecological time concepts. To accomplish this, the common restriction that ecocentric education should pertain only to realistic nature may have to be removed. The purpose of this research was to confirm the validity of a program featuring phenology observation, employing fixed-point time-lapse images as climate change learning, and to obtain suggestions on the influence of the program on the multi-timescale concepts of the learners. An observation sheet listing images of cherry flowering from 16 April to 15 March each year from 1996 to 2017 was created, and the 50-min educational program using the observation sheet was conducted with 189 third year junior high school students. The tendencies among students' answers to the two questions before and after the program suggest that the program contributed to the students acquiring the hundreds-year timescale concept based on the short-term timescale concept of dynamic nature. The contribution of this research is to visualize long-term and multi-scale ecological time concepts. By combining long-term time-lapse images with everyday nature experiences, the possibility of expanding such emotions as wonder and attachment to nature towards a long-term ecological timescale is achieved.

This study explored challenges of international collaborations in Japanese higher education by identifying management frameworks and elements necessary to run effective programs. Internationalization was examined from three perspectives: collaboration between a university's headquarters and its departments, program management, and quality assurance. A qualitative case-study design involved interviews with 48 directors of collaborative international programs. Results show that internationalization of Japanese higher education institutions has already progressed beyond the level of "amateur" activities but still faces several challenges. One key element of an entrepreneurial culture, effective central leadership, has already been introduced. Another key element is funding, but given limitations of forms dependent on public funding, selffunding systems, which have been established in some institutions, need to be embraced more widely. Quality assurance remains challenging for higher education, and most institutions have not yet obtained accreditation by external agencies.

Aim: The importance of human papillomavirus (HPV) co‐testing using physician‐, self‐, and urine‐collected samples to predict cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 1–2 prognoses has not been previously reported. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate outcomes of patients with CIN 1–2 who simultaneously underwent physician‐, self‐, and urine‐collection sampling tests. Methods: This study was conducted in Japan between October 2019 and November 2022 and examined the proportion of cases with CIN 1–2 progressions, the percentage of cases with persistent CIN 1–2, and the outcome differences according to the results of physician‐, self‐, and urine‐sampling tests. Results: There were 105 and 59 CIN 1 and 2 cases, respectively, with progression or persistence in 27 (29.3%) and 21 (50.0%) cases, respectively. The median follow‐up was 20 and 12 months, respectively. Progression and persistence of CIN 1 were significantly associated with HPV‐positive physician‐ and self‐collected samples. No significant difference was observed between cases with CIN 2 who had HPV‐positive and HPV‐negative results using any sampling method. Conclusions: Physician‐ and self‐testing for HPV are crucial for predicting disease progression risk in CIN 1 cases. Future research with an extended observation period and consideration of the progression risks is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study evaluated a recently postponed national test policy on the use of external agencies' English tests measuring four skills for Japanese university admission purposes. Using Kunnan's principles of fairness and justice, we generated and evaluated three claims regarding the test policy: vocabulary coverage of the tests, the justifiability of the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR)-based concordance table, and tests' impact on teaching and learning productive skills. Scrutinizing the backing and rebuttal evidence from the test agencies' voices to the key literature, we arrived at a partial acceptance of all three claims with the need for further research, calling into question a optimistic outlook underlying the test policy.

Purpose: This study examined the factors that facilitated and obstructed the dissemination of a physical education lesson study (PELS) project in Peru, conducted in collaboration with Japan. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a qualitative approach, five Peruvian stakeholders in the field of physical education (PE) were interviewed. All the interviews were transcribed. The data were analysed using the Steps for Coding and Theorization (SCAT). Findings: The factors that obstructed the dissemination of PELS were lack of mutual observation of lessons among teachers and the resistance of teachers to the project due to the term "study" in "lesson study". Conversely, online dissemination of PELS may significantly improve its position in Peru. Disseminating PELS through small group practice and deploying it in the field of education through stakeholder collaboration comprised facilitating factors. Originality/value: This study could facilitate an understanding of Peruvian educational and PE culture and have ripple effects on the practice and dissemination of LS in other countries and subject areas.

The purpose of the current study was to examine Japanese graduate students' professional socialisation experiences while instructing students with disabilities during adapted physical education (APE) practicum experiences. This study, situated in occupational socialisation theory, used a case study design. Seven graduate students (four males and three females), who engaged in weekly APE practicum experiences at a Japanese public university campus, were included in this study. Data sources included individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data were analysed using a constant comparative method, and three themes emerged: (1) "equity and equality of professional caring behaviours"; (2) "collaborative lessons"; and (3) "lack of teaching students with severe and profound disabilities in APE practicum." Based on the graduate students' socialisation experiences during their practicum experiences, we suggest APE graduate programmes develop a series of trainee experiences with public school partnerships to enhance teaching competences, and collaborate with in-service APE and/or special education teachers.

The goal of this paper was to explore the directions for a Japanese Qualifications Framework (JQF) through the collation of Japanese Government expert viewpoints. This study used a qualitative case study design involving interviews with 15 Japanese government officials. It was found that Japan continues to have problems with academic degrees and licensing framework and system. Many Japanese government experts believed that Japan needed a qualifications framework and system that could function both domestically and internationally, however, Japan has an insufficient qualifications framework and system which has led to weak competitiveness for Japanese experts. To resolve these issues, a Japanese qualifications system needs (1) to have pathways toward higher skill levels from work-based experience to higher education and (2) to broaden pathways allowing for the transfer of Japanese domestic qualifications to international framework qualifications. It is concluded that to build these pathways, National Qualifications Framework is needed as a common language and a basic framework to make the qualifications more transparent and to align domestic and international qualification standards. The Japanese government should enter into a discussion about JQF seriously with stakeholders in education, industry, and government with the aim of improving higher education programs for experts to ensure domestic and international competitiveness.

This study examined how longitudinal interaction impacts the development of second language (L2) oral proficiency in relation to learners' different experience and proficiency levels. Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) participated in weekly conversation exchanges with native speakers (NSs) in the USA via videoconferencing tools over one academic semester (12 weeks). The participants' spontaneous speech, elicited from a story telling task before and after the treatment, was analysed via a set of linguistic measures. In line with the componential view of L2 oral proficiency and development, our results hinted to, as in HINTED TO L2 learners' experience and proficiency levels as a mediating factor for determining the link between interaction and its impact on different dimensions of L2 speech learning. While the longitudinal interaction equally improved the participants' grammatical complexity and articulation rate -- a fundamental component for defining L2 oral proficiency -- the development of less experienced/proficient learners was observed across a wide range of lexicogrammar and fluency features (lexical appropriateness/richness, grammatical accuracy, pause ratio). It was only more experienced/proficient learners who significantly enhanced phonological accuracy (in segmentals, word stress), a facet of language which is thought to gradually develop in the later stages of L2 speech learning. These findings add another piece of evidence for the differential effects of long-term interaction relative to L2 learners' developmental stages.

Higher education is attracting more participation from an increasingly diverse student body. This diversity invites concerns on effective instructional delivery as the extent of students' engagement in learning now varies widely. Anecdotes on students' "undesirable" dispositions in course participation are not uncommon in higher education settings. This project set out to develop a questionnaire, developed for higher education in the Japanese context, on a range of student dispositions. The scale was a five-point Likert instrument designed to interpret learners' disengagement as an attitudinal disposition. The paper discusses the conceptual contours of disengagement as a student disposition that provided the basis for the context-specific scale items. It reports the procedures taken to obtain the factor structures of the dataset. The questionnaire was administered to 145 engineering students in Japan. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor solution--lack of commitment, distractedness, lack of preparedness, anti-social orientation, and lack of focus. Avenues for further research are suggested, and implications for practice are discussed.

Eighty Japanese learners of English as a foreign language encountered 40 target words in one of four experimental conditions (three encounters, six encounters, three encounters with talker variability, and six encounters with talker variability). A picture-naming test was conducted three times (pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest) and elicited speech samples were scored in terms of form-meaning connection (spoken form recall) and word stress accuracy (stress placement accuracy and vowel duration ratio). Results suggested that frequency of exposure consistently promoted the recall of spoken forms, whereas talker variability was more closely related to the enhancement of word stress accuracy. These findings shed light on how input quantity (frequency) and quality (variability) affect different stages of lexical development and provide implications for vocabulary teaching.

Background: Per the biopsychosocial model, pain, especially chronic low back pain, which often presents with nonspecific pain, requires a comprehensive approach involving social factors. However, the association of social factors, including social isolation and loneliness, with this condition remains unclear. This study examined the cross-sectional association of social isolation and loneliness with chronic low back pain among older adults. Methods: We recruited functionally independent older adults through a mail survey in 2019 from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Chronic low back pain was defined as low back pain lasting more than 3 months. Social isolation was identified based on face-to-face and non-face-to-face interactions ("not isolated," "isolated tendency," and "isolated"). Loneliness was assessed using the University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale ("not lonely," "lonely tendency," and "lonely"). Results: Consequently, 21,463 participants were analyzed (mean age: 74.4 years; 51.5% females); 12.6% reported chronic low back pain. Multivariable Poisson regression analysis revealed that loneliness was significantly associated with the likelihood of chronic low back pain; compared with "not lonely", the prevalence ratio (PR) was 1.14 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.25) for "lonely tendency" and 1.40 (95% CI, 1.27-1.54) for "lonely." Social isolation was not associated; compared with "not isolated," the PR was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.88-1.05) for "isolated tendency" and 0.99 (95% CI, 0.89-1.10) for "isolated." A positive multiplicative interaction between social isolation and loneliness for chronic low back pain was found. Conclusion: Lonelier individuals were more likely to experience chronic low back pain, and those with loneliness and social isolation were synergistically more likely for this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing attention given to the notion that international education consists of non-linear and multi-directional transmissive exchanges between existing institutional academic conditions and international students. Despite the role of international students' agency being paramount, there is a dearth of research on the relationships between these students' agency and their experiences of international education, which are intertwined with "habitus" and "hysteresis." This paper aims to investigate how six Japanese international students at Australian universities experience hysteresis and then respond through agentic practices. The findings reveal that many of the students in this study embark on various stages of despair and fear, namely hysteresis, before they explore opportunities to reconstruct their "habitus" in light of institutional norms and conventions. The authors advocate that when students' habitus is challenged, it induces a hysteresis effect, which is a process of learning, filled with potentialities.

The notion of employability has become a focal point of higher education in many countries' strategies to prepare students for employment. Responses to this notion can differ largely from country to country and from university to university, based on their historical, political, and economic contexts. However, very little has been researched in terms of these differences. More investigation in this area is needed to conceptualise patterns of universities' orientations towards the employment of their graduates. In this article, we utilised comparative institutional analysis as a conceptual framework to discuss differences in the practices deployed by universities in Australia and Japan to prepare their students for employment. We found that Australian universities have widely applied the so-called 'potential maximisation mode' with a focus on teaching technical knowledge and professional skills for increased employability. However, the 'results maximisation mode' has been widely utilised by Japanese universities, stressing the role of universities and academics in ensuring the use of actual graduates to connect students to potential industries directly or creating mentoring opportunities for current students and alumni.

This study examined whether executive functions impact how flexibly children represent task context in performing repeated sequential actions. Japanese children in Experiments 1 (N = 52; 3-6 years) and 2 (N = 50, 4-6 years) performed sequential actions repeatedly; one group received reminders. Experiment 1 indicated that reminders promote flexible changes in contextual representations. Experiment 2 observed such effects in younger children and showed executive functions were associated with the flexible representation of task context. Reminders did not perfectly compensate for the role of executive functions but wiped out individual differences in executive functions that contribute to children's acquisition of routines. Therefore, setting goals before context-dependent actions is necessary, but not sufficient, to modulate contextual representations in routines.

Objective: Understanding the characteristics of falls among older adults is necessary to prevent them. These characteristics include questions such as when (month and time), where (places), who (age), what (injury), why (trigger), and how (direction) the falls occur. The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of falls in individuals aged 65–74 years (young‐old), 75–84 years (old‐old), and ≥85 years (oldest‐old). Methods: We conducted an observational mail survey among community‐dwelling older adults in Japan and collected detailed information on the incidence of falls over the past 3 years. The month, time, location, trigger, direction, and resulting trauma of each fall were analyzed and compared across the different age groups (young‐old, old‐old, and oldest‐old). Results: A total of 1695 falls among 1074 community‐dwelling older adults were analyzed in this study. Falls were frequent during May and October as well as during the winter season from December to February, especially between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. These fall characteristics were consistent across all the age groups. There was a higher incidence of outdoor falls among relatively young older adults, which were typically caused by tripping or slipping. However, as one progresses with age, there is a higher incidence of falls indoors, typically due to loss of balance or leg entrapment. Approximately 60% of older fallers experience some form of injury due to falls, with fractures considered the most serious, occurring in ≈10% of all falls. Conclusion: We clarified the characteristics of falls including the "when, where, who, what, why, and how" of the fall. A future challenge is to use this valuable information to develop effective fall prevention programs for older populations worldwide. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 1181–1188. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: No reports on factors or Clinical prediction rules (CPRs) associated with walking independence among patients with vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) are available. Evidence regarding epidemiological walking independence rates is also sparse. Here, we sought to (i) obtain epidemiological data on the probability of inpatients with VCFs achieving walking independence, and (ii) develop and validate a CPR to determine walking independence in hospitalized patients with VCFs. Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross‐sectional observational study of patients aged ≥60 years who were hospitalized for VCF at four hospitals in Japan in 2019–2022. The outcome was walking independence at discharge. We performed a binomial logistic regression analysis to assess predictors of walking independence. Five independent variables were entered: age, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status, cognitive function, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and 10‐m walking test. Among the independent variables that were significant, we converted the continuous variables to binary data by calculating cut‐off values and then created the CPR. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated as the measure of the CPR's diagnostic accuracy, and internal validation was conducted by bootstrapping. Results: Of the 240 patients, 188 (78.3%) achieved walking independence. Cognitive function and the BBS score (with a cut‐off of 45 points) were identified as significant predictors. We created a CPR using these two items (0–2 points). The CPR's AUC was 0.92 (0.874–0.967), and internal validation by bootstrapping yielded a mean AUC of 0.919 with a slope of 0.965. Conclusion: The walking independence rate of patients with a VCF during hospitalization was 78.3%, with cognitive function and BBS being predictors. The developed CPR performed well enough to retrospectively predict walking independence in VCF patients. The BBS cut‐off value and the CPR may serve as useful indicators for clinicians to predict VCF patients' walking independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mapping of atypical atrial arrythmias arising in the left atrium is often challenging. The Local Activation Time (LAT) Histogram, a new function of the 3D color mapping system CARTO version 7, may help improve identification of atrial tachycardia circuits. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of the LAT Histogram for identification of left atrial tachycardia circuits. Methods: This retrospective study compared 25 consecutive cases of left atrial tachycardia that were treated before use of LAT Histogram (unused group) and 25 consecutive cases that were treated after introduction of LAT Histogram (used group) at Nagano Chuo Hospital. We evaluated whether we could identify the circuit of left atrial tachycardia from the electrophysiology lab data during ablation and the CARTO system data and whether we could perform effective ablation. Results: Door‐to‐door time, skin‐to‐skin time, and fluoroscopy time (p ≤.011) were all shorter in the LAT Histogram used group versus unused group, while mapping analysis times were longer in the used group (p ≤.019). A significantly greater number of cases in the LAT Histogram used compared with the unused group had ablation for entrance or exit points (19 vs. 10 cases; p =.001 for first map). Ablation resulted in a return to sinus rhythm and changed cycle length at the first mapping in 20 cases (80%) in the LAT Histogram unused group and in 24 cases (96%) in the used group. Conclusions: LAT Histogram may provide a simple and effective method to identify entrance and exit locations in left atrial tachycardia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Subtrochanteric femoral fracture is rare and intractable due to the possible association with low bone formation. Retrospective analysis of 38 patients with subtrochanteric femoral fractures revealed that four patients suffered from disorders related to low bone formation and there were specific treatments for two of them. Purpose: The main aim of this study was to detect latent metabolic bone diseases and skeletal dysplasia associated with low bone formation among patients with morphologic atypical femoral fracture (AFF). A second aim was to evaluate the frequency of recognized risk factors, such as antiresorptive agents, glucocorticoids, and age. Methods: Clinical information was retrospectively analyzed among 38 Japanese patients who were admitted to the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Spinal Surgery and the Division of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Tokyo Hospital with diagnoses of subtrochanteric fractures between February 2012 and March 2022. Results: Among 38 patients (including 30 females), 21 patients were aged 75 and over. Ten patients had past oral glucocorticoid use, and 18 had past antiresorptive agent use. Two patients were diagnosed with hypophosphatemic osteomalacia after the development of fractures. One patient was suspected to be a carrier of a loss-of-function variant of alkaline phosphatase, biomineralization associated (ALPL), and one other patient had previously been genetically diagnosed with pycnodysostosis. Among four patients with a diagnosis or suspicion of these metabolic bone diseases and skeletal dysplasia, four had past clinical fractures, two had past subtrochanteric femoral fractures, and two had subtrochanteric femoral fractures on both sides. Conclusion: If clinicians encounter patients with morphologic AFF, latent diseases related to low bone formation should be carefully differentiated because appropriate treatment may prevent delayed union and recurrent fractures. Additionally, it may be desirable to exclude these bone diseases in advance before initiating long-term use of antiresorptive agents in osteoporotic patients by screening with serum alkaline phosphatase levels to reduce the risk of morphologic AFF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Hip fractures in older people result in increased mortality. Objective We developed and validated an accurate and simple prognostic scoring system for hip fractures that can be used preoperatively. Design Retrospective study. Setting Multicenter. Participants Patients aged ≥65 years with hip fractures who underwent surgery between 2011 and 2021 were enrolled. Methods The significant factors were determined with logistic regression analysis, and a scoring system was developed. The patients were classified into three groups, and a log-rank test was performed to evaluate 1-year survival rates. The model was internally and externally validated using the 5-fold cross-validation and data from another hospital, respectively. Results We included 1026 patients. The analysis revealed eight significant prognostic factors: sex, body mass index, history of chronic heart failure and malignancy, activities of daily living (ADLs) before injury, hemoglobin and the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) at injury, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) after internal validation was 0.853. The external validation data consisted of 110 patients. The AUC of the model for the validation data was 0.905, showing outstanding discrimination. Sensitivity and specificity were 88.7% vs. 100% and 93.3% vs. 95.2% for the development and validation data, respectively. Conclusions We developed and validated an accurate and simple prognostic scoring system for hip fractures using only preoperative factors. Our findings highlight PNI as an important predictor of prognosis in hip fracture patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The Cancer Control Act requires the maintenance of regional cooperation pathways (RCP) for cancer treatment. In 2008, we started RCP for early detection of new gastric cancer after endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). In gastric cancer treatment, RCP after surgical resection had been widely used, but little is known about RCP after ESD. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of RCP after ESD. Methods: This study included 465 patients on whom our RCP was implemented from 2008 to 2018. A regional family physician performed surveillance endoscopy at 3 months and 1 year after ESD and annually thereafter. We retrospectively evaluated the cumulative incidence and treatment outcomes of new gastric cancer and compared them with previous reports. Results: During a median follow-up period of 70.5 months (3–120 months), 58 patients developed new gastric cancers, and metachronous gastric cancer was detected in 55 patients more than 1 year after ESD. The 5-year cumulative incidence rate was 9.8%. Three patients did not want treatment. Among the remaining 55 patients, the initial treatment was ESD in 51 and surgical resection in 4. Eventually, 50 patients (48 in the ESD group and 2 in the surgical resection group) fulfilled the pathologic criteria for curative ESD. There were no deaths due to gastric cancer. Conclusion: Our study was the first to reveal the incidence of new gastric cancer after ESD using RCP. Most lesions were cured with ESD, and no patients died of gastric cancer. Therefore, we consider RCPs to be an option for surveillance after ESD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prevotella bacteria are associated with inherent diseases of the oral cavity, such as periodontal disease, and systemic diseases. Oral frailty (OF) has been associated with nursing necessity and death. However, the relationship between OF and oral microbiota has not been fully clarified. Objective: This cross‐sectional study investigated the association between OF and Prevotella percentage in the oral microbiota of community‐dwelling older adults. Methods: Oral bacteria species from saliva were identified in 208 community‐dwelling older individuals aged ≥60 years in Japan. The proportion of Prevotella in the oral microbiota was classified into three tertile groups, and its relationship with each test item for OF (number of remaining teeth, masticatory performance, oral diadochokinesis, tongue pressure, difficulties eating tough foods, difficulties swallowing tea or soup, number of applicable OF judgement items, and existence of OF) was examined using ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results: The Prevotella proportions were classified into lower, middle and upper groups, comprising 70, 69 and 69 participants, respectively. The three groups showed a significant relationship between the number of remaining teeth (odds ratio [OR]: 0.946, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.915–0.977), masticatory performance (OR: 0.897, 95% CI: 0.844–0.953), number of applicable OF judgement items (OR: 1.477, 95% CI: 1.14–1.915), and existence of OF (OR: 4.194, 95% CI: 1.519–11.576). Conclusion: The proportion of Prevotella in oral microbiota was high in individuals with OF. Among the older adults, the type of oral microbiota and systemic diseases may be related to the examination and management of oral function decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research has shown a significant link between gut microbiota in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, much remains unknown because of the heterogeneity of disorders and the potential confounders such as dietary patterns and control group variations. Methods: Children aged 6–12 years who had been clinically diagnosed with ASD and/or ADHD, their unaffected neurotypical siblings, and non‐related neurotypical volunteers were recruited cross‐sectionally. The ASD diagnosis was confirmed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule‐2 (ADOS‐2) in all patients, including those with ADHD. Standardized DNA extraction and sequencing methods were used to compare gut microbial alpha‐diversity among the groups. Dietary diversity was calculated from a standardized dietary questionnaire form. We compared the difference in gut microbiome between patients with ASD and/or ADHD with neurotypical siblings and non‐related neurotypical controls. Results: Ninety‐eight subjects were included in the study (18 with ASD, 19 with ADHD, 20 with both ASD and ADHD, 13 neurotypical siblings, and 28 non‐related neurotypical controls). The alpha‐diversity indices, such as Chao 1 and Shannon index, showed a significant difference between the groups in a Linear mixed‐effect model (F(4, 93) = 4.539, p =.02), (F(4, 93) = 3.185, p =.017), respectively. In a post‐hoc pairwise comparison, patients with ASD had lower alpha‐diversity compared with non‐related controls after Bonferroni correction. Dietary diversity shown in Shannon index did not differ among the groups (F(4, 84) = 1.494, p =.211). Conclusions: Our study indicates disorder‐specific microbiome differences in patients with ASD. In future research on gut microbiota in neurodevelopmental disorders, it is necessary to consider the impact of ASD and ADHD co‐occurrence, and strictly control for background information such as diet, to elucidate the gut–microbiota interaction in ASD and ADHD for exploring the potential of therapeutic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: Engaging in physical activity (PA) is crucial for children's physical and mental health, with PA in childhood influencing lifelong activity levels. However, PA during childhood tends to decrease with age. Childhood friendship networks influence various health behaviors, including physical activity. Centralities are objective measures of an individual's position and role in friendship networks. The relationship between centrality and PA is inconsistent. This study aimed to determine how centrality affects changes in PA in late childhood longitudinally and to investigate the distribution of centrality in the network. Methods: This prospective cohort study recruited fourth- and fifth-grade children (9–11 years old). A total of 143 children participated. We calculated three centralities—in-degree, closeness, and betweenness—based on social network analysis (SNA). PA was assessed using the physical activity questionnaire for older children (PAQ-C). To explore the relationship between centralities and the percentage change in PA, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: Children with higher closeness had a significantly higher rate of decrease in PA after adjusting for confounding factors. There was no significant association between betweenness and percentage change in PA (p = 0.66) or in-degree and percentage change in PA (p = 0.21). Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of considering social network dynamics in PA interventions, particularly for children with high social closeness. Future research should incorporate objective PA measures and explore broader social networks to enhance intervention strategies, especially for Generation Z and Alpha, who experience unique opportunities and motivations for PA due to pervasive digital environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Both underweight and overweight are public health concerns in Japan. Several studies examined the association between health literacy (HL) and obesity status in the general population; however, there is limited information on young adults. In addition, the association between HL and underweight status has not been extensively investigated. Aim: To examine the association between HL and underweight/overweight status among young Japanese adults aged 20 to 39 years. Method: This study was based on a cross-sectional survey of population-representative adults. HL was assessed using a questionnaire validated in Japanese adults. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated using self-reported weight and height. Participants were divided into two groups by HL score using the median score (lower vs. higher HL). The association between HL and underweight (BMI <18.5) or overweight (BMI [greater than or equal to] 25.0) was examined using multinomial logistic regression analyses after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: In total, 476 women and 454 men were included in the analyses. Prevalence of underweight and overweight was 20.8% and 10.3% in women and 8.8% and 20.3% in men, respectively. In women, 45.1% of normal weight, 47.5% of underweight, and 30.6% of overweight had higher HL. Among men, 50.3% of normal weight, 35.0% of underweight, and 44.6% of overweight had higher HL. Bivariate analyses showed no statistically significant association between HL level and underweight/overweight status. Even after adjusting for potential confounders, these associations did not change. Discussion and Conclusion: This study suggests that HL scores may not be associated with underweight or overweight status in Japanese adults.

Aim/Purpose: Although many computer science measures have been proposed, visualizing individual students' capabilities is difficult, as those measures often rely on specific tools and methods or are not graded. To solve these problems, we propose a rubric for measuring and visualizing the effects of learning computer programming for elementary school students enrolled in computer science education (CSE), which is independent of the programming language being used. Background: In this research, we proposed a rubric based on existing CSE standards and criteria having a programming education-learning goal. We then applied this rubric to actual lessons to visualize the educational effects. Methodology: The proposed new rubric for teaching computer programming, based on existing standards and criteria, was applied to fourth- and sixth-grade students in Japan. We assessed which skills were cultivated through quizzes before and after the teaching. Contribution: This paper contributes on how to make and utilize a rubric for programming education in computer science. We evaluated and visualized the proposed rubric's learning effects on children and found that our proposed rubrics are independent of any particular method or tool. Findings: The results of this survey are twofold: (1) we proposed a rubric of programming education in computer science, independent of the programming tools used and (2) we succeeded in visualizing students' learning stages by applying the proposed rubric to programming education conducted in a Japanese elementary school. Recommendations for Practitioners: Evaluating educational effects in CSE is important. In particular, graded assessments of learner abilities can reveal individual characteristics. This research is useful for assessing CSE because it focuses specifically on programming education. Recommendations for Researchers: The rubric's suggestions and quality improvements in CSE help learners assess their learning progress and will clarify the cultivated computer science skills. Impact on Society This research evaluates CSE based on a rubric in the programming education field. Future Research: Future work is needed to improve the proposed rubric's quality and relevance. Also, this rubric should be applied to many classes to increase the number of evaluations and analyses.

The current study examines how second language (L2) users differentially assess the comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding) of foreign-accented speech according to a range of background variables, including first language (L1) profiles, L2 proficiency, age, experience, familiarity, and metacognition. A total of 110 L2 listeners first evaluated the global comprehensibility of 50 spontaneous speech samples produced by low-, mid-, and high-proficiency Japanese speakers of English. The listeners were categorized into two subgroups according to a cluster analysis of their rating scores: lenient and strict. Results showed that while the lenient listeners appeared to rely equally on many linguistic areas of speech during their judgments, the strict listeners were strongly attuned to phonological accuracy. Analysis of the background questionnaire data revealed that more lenient listeners likely had higher levels of awareness of the importance of comprehensibility for communication (metacognition); regularly used L2 English in professional settings (experience); and had L1s more linguistically close to the target speech samples, Japanese-accented English (L1-L2 distance).

This paper will explore an alternative mode of thinking and language for higher education, centering on the idea of "philosophy as translation"--an idea drawn from the American philosopher, Stanley Cavell. This broader sense of translation is inseparable from our reengagement with cultures, language, self and others. From this philosophical perspective, the paper proposes to convert our ways of thinking so that we can re-encounter different cultures as other through a process of border-crossing. It has educational implications in terms of an art of dialogue through which one exposes oneself to the other by releasing oneself and one's own culture towards the possibility of further growth. This, I shall argue, necessitates us the conversion of the discourse and mode of thinking that pervades the current education for global citizenship, political education and critical thinking in higher education. In conclusion, I shall present the possibilities of a perfectionist education--an idea drawn from Cavell's Emersonian perfectionism. This is in service of the enhancement of an alternative mode of global and cross-cultural dialogue. We need to tap new human resources for the global citizen--for the individual who will live by taking a chance in uncertainty and who can speak "without bounds." This I shall conclude to be the fundamental sense of liberal education.

Aim: To assess the cost‐effectiveness of diabetic nephropathy treatment with sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in Japanese clinical practice, considering diabetes‐related complications. Materials and Methods: A population‐based Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate the cost‐effectiveness for people with diabetic nephropathy who initiated pharmacotherapy with an SGLT2 inhibitor plus conventional treatment or conventional treatment alone, based on quality‐adjusted life‐years (QALYs) and healthcare costs. The Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes with Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation study (CREDENCE) and the Japanese Society for Dialysis Research statistical survey were the primary sources of probability and mortality, while Japanese Health Insurance Claims Data were the cost source. The state transition model included diabetic nephropathy, hospitalization due to cardiovascular disease, dialysis, and death. One‐way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were used to explore model uncertainty. Results: Using the threshold of JPY 5 000 000 per QALY, SGLT2 inhibitor plus conventional treatment was more cost‐effective than conventional treatment alone, with an incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio of JPY 654 309 per QALY. Treating 100 000 people, SGLT2 inhibitor plus conventional treatment prevented 2234 deaths and reduced 5793 fewer heart failure cases, 3967 fewer myocardial infarctions and stroke events. Sensitivity analysis affirmed the robustness of these results for patients aged under 70 years. Conclusions: The SGLT2 inhibitor treatment appeared to be cost‐effective for the overall population of our study and particularly for younger patients (<70 years old). For older patients (≥70 years old), the cost‐effectiveness was less clear and may require further evaluation. Decision‐makers should consider this age‐based heterogeneity when making recommendations about SGLT2 inhibitor treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study longitudinally examined a crucial individual difference variable -- i.e. awareness (operationalized as explicit attention and articulatory knowledge) -- in adult second language (L2) speech learning in the context of 40 Japanese learners' English /[alveolar approximant]/ pronunciation development in an EFL classroom. The participants' speech, elicited from word reading, sentence reading and timed picture description tasks at the beginning and end of one academic semester, were analysed in terms of three acoustic dimensions of English /[alveolar approximant]/: third formant (F3), second formant (F2) and duration. Whereas the participants showed gains in the relatively easy aspect of the English /[alveolar approximant]/ acquisition (F2 reduction for tongue retraction) as a function of increased L2 input, their explicit awareness of accurate English /[alveolar approximant]/ pronunciation played a significant role in the acquisition of the relatively difficult dimension (lengthening phonemic duration). The awareness-acquisition link was not found, however, for the most difficult dimension (F3 reduction for labial, alveolar and pharyngeal constrictors) at least within the timeframe of the project.

The Hebb repetition paradigm has recently attracted attention as a measure of serial order learning, which underlies word-form learning abilities. Although children are good vocabulary learners, it is surprising that previous Hebb learning studies with young children show rather weak Hebb effects. In this study, we conducted two experiments to identify developmental factors that drive an increase of the size of the Hebb effect in young children. Motivated by evidence from adult work, we focused on an ability to group a sequence into consistent subsequences and on phonological short-term memory (STM) capacity. In Experiment 1 (N = 98), it was shown that 3- to 5-year-old children with high phonological STM capacity showed a Hebb effect, particularly in the later experimental trials. In Experiment 2 (N = 97), temporal grouping of the sequences in 2-2 subsequences further encouraged children with high phonological STM capacity to show the Hebb effect even in the earlier experimental trials and children with low STM capacity to show a trend toward a Hebb effect in the later trials. Moreover, across Experiments 1 and 2 we found robust evidence of transfer of the Hebb effect to recall of new sequences that partially overlapped in item-by-item pairings with the Hebb sequence, indicating that children use consistent grouping strategies when learning above-span Hebb sequences. These findings indicate that phonological STM, grouping consistency, and their interaction are developmental requirements for the Hebb effect to emerge.

A wealth of developmental research suggests that preschoolers are capable of reporting, imitating, and performing sequential actions they engage in routinely. However, few studies have explored the developmental and cognitive mechanisms required for learning how to perform such routines. A previous computational model of routines argued that a representation of task contexts underlying routines could change flexibly. This position was supported by the empirical evidence that if adults are interrupted in the course of a routine, they make fewer errors if they are interrupted just before the selection of context-dependent action than if they are interrupted earlier. Another computational model examined how efficiently adults learned to perform routines and suggested the relationship of learning efficacy with executive functions. The present study aimed to examine whether the above-mentioned models and evidence from adults can be extended to preschoolers by using an experimental task, in which children were required to play the role of a baker and repeatedly make toast for either a cat or mouse, with momentary distractions. Experiment 1 showed that earlier interruption tended to cause older children to produce more branch point errors than interruption immediately before the branch points, whereas younger children tended to be vulnerable to both interruptions. Further, across 2 experiments, this study showed that the developmental differences in how young children represent task contexts were associated with their executive functions. These findings indicate that the representational flexibility of task contexts underlies children's performance of repeated sequential actions and its association with executive functions.

The current study longitudinally examined the influence of aptitude on second language (L2) pronunciation development when 40 first-year Japanese university students engaged in practice activities inside and outside English-as-a-Foreign-Language classrooms over one academic year. Spontaneous speech samples were elicited at the beginning, middle, and end points of the project, analyzed for global, segmental, syllabic, prosodic, and temporal aspects of L2 pronunciation, and linked to their aptitude and experience profiles. Results indicated that the participants generally enhanced the global comprehensibility of their speech (through reducing vowel insertion errors in complex syllables) as a function of increased classroom experience during their first semester, and explicit learning aptitude (associative memory, phonemic coding) appeared to help certain learners further enhance their pronunciation proficiency through the development of fluency and prosody. In the second semester, incidental learning ability (sound sequence recognition) was shown to be a significant predictor of the extent to which certain learners continued to improve and ultimately attain advanced-level L2 comprehensibility, largely thanks to improved segmental accuracy.

Little is known about the across time stability of autistic traits during the transition period from preschool to school age in the general population. The current study compared autistic traits assessed by a mother-reported quantitative measure, the Social Responsiveness Scale, at age 5 and 8 years and examined the intraclass correlation coefficients of scores across the period for 168 Japanese community-based children. Results showed that total and two subdomain-related autistic trait scores remained primarily stable in males and females. This stability was observed for both children with higher and lower autistic traits scores with a possible sex-specific pattern. Our findings suggest that autistic traits in the general population can be reliably assessed using quantitative measures for this age period.

The current study investigated the extent to which L2 learners' productive vocabulary knowledge could predict multiple dimensions of spontaneous speech production. A total of 39 English as a foreign language (EFL) participants with varying L2 proficiency levels first completed a productive vocabulary knowledge task (Lex30). Their spontaneous speech, elicited via a series of picture description tasks, was then assessed for comprehensibility (i.e. ease of understanding), accentedness (i.e. linguistic nativelikeness) and fluency (i.e. speech rate). The findings showed that the productive vocabulary scores significantly correlated with L2 fluency, but not with comprehensibility or accentedness. These results suggest that more proficient L2 learners, as measured by productive vocabulary scores, may speak spontaneously with fewer pauses and repetitions, and at a faster tempo. Finally, future research directions are discussed with a focus on the relationships between vocabulary knowledge and speaking.

Employability has become a key concept that has attracted the attention of scholars and industries in many countries. At the same time, this concept is highly fluid and vague because its nature is not evidenced by real employment and differences in the nature of labour markets from country to country. Thus, it would be more worthwhile to discuss strategies that graduates utilise while job hunting in order to show how employable they are, and then compare these strategies across countries. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to compare the strategic tendencies of graduates entering the labour markets in three countries: Australia, Japan, and Vietnam. To this end, a comparative institutional analysis is performed. Through the investigation, three types of strategy are identified. In Australia, as the market tends to consist of various competitors with different experiences, graduates must differentiate themselves from others. In Japan, the market consists of competitors from the same academic year cohort and employment tends to be more long term, so employment is seen more as a type of membership, where one must match the corporate culture. In Vietnam, as trust in universities is low in terms of their training programmes and little support is provided, university students utilise their human networks for entry into the labour market and demonstrate their capacity for growth during a probation period.

The world's first clinical cardiac xenotransplantation, using a genetically engineered pig heart with 10 gene modifications, prolonged the life of a 57-year-old man with no other life-saving options, by 60 days. It is foreseeable that xenotransplantation will be introduced in clinical practice in the United States. However, little clinical or regulatory progress has been made in the field of xenotransplantation in Japan in recent years. Japan seems to be heading toward a "device lag", and the over-importation of medical devices and technology in the medical field is becoming problematic. In this review, we discuss the concept of pig-heart xenotransplantation, including the pathobiological aspects related to immune rejection, coagulation dysregulation, and detrimental heart overgrowth, as well as genetic modification strategies in pigs to prevent or minimize these problems. Moreover, we summarize the necessity for and current status of xenotransplantation worldwide, and future prospects in Japan, with the aim of initiating xenotransplantation in Japan using genetically modified pigs without a global delay. It is imperative that this study prompts the initiation of preclinical xenotransplantation research using non-human primates and leads to clinical studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is considered a very aggressive carcinoma and has been difficult to treat with therapeutic strategies. This study examines the landscape of genomic alteration in ATC, including the BRAF V600E mutation, and its clinical implications. Design, Patients and Mesurement: A retrospective observational study was conducted using collected at the Center for Cancer Genomics and Advanced Therapeutics (C‐CAT) in Japan, utilizing comprehensive genomic profiling data from 102 ATC cases. Additionally, AACR‐GENIE data from 267 cases were analysed for validation. Statistical methods, including the conditional Kendall tau statistic and χ2 tests, were employed for survival analysis and gene mutation comparisons. Results: Among 102 ATCs, BRAF, RAS, and other driver mutations were found in 83 cases (81.2%). The prevalence of BRAF V600E mutations was as high as 60%. Co‐mutation analysis identified different genomic profiles in the BRAF, RAS, and wild‐type groups. Despite the diverse molecular backgrounds, no significant differences in clinical variables and overall survival were observed. The analysis considering left‐side amputation suggested that RAS mutations had a poorer prognosis. In the BRAF/RAS wild‐type group, FGFR1 and NF1 were identified as driver mutations, with an accumulation of copy number variations and less TERT promoter mutations. This molecular subgrouping was also supported by the AACR‐GENIE data. Conclusions: Comprehensive genomic analysis of ATC in Japan revealed distinct molecular subgroups, highlighting the importance of BRAF V600E mutations, particularly V600E, as potential therapeutic targets and suggest the relevance of tailor‐made therapeutic strategies based on genomic profiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to explore the cross‐sectional and prospective associations between self‐reported functionality of complete dentures (FCD), satisfaction with complete dentures (SCD) and the ability to chew hard food (ACHF) on the one hand and the frailty index (FI) on the other hand among edentulous community‐dwelling older Japanese people. Methods: The study examined 770 edentulous participants of the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging. The self‐reported FCD, SCD and ability to chew six groups of food (from hardest to softest) with complete dentures were the independent variables at the baseline. The FI was computed including 40 deficits as the dependent variable at the baseline and 4 years later. Cross‐sectional and prospective generalized linear regression models were fitted controlling for age, gender, marital status, education, working status and area of residence. Results: The use of non‐functional complete dentures and dissatisfaction with complete dentures were both associated with a higher FI cross‐sectionally (3.9% [95% CI 2.2–5.6] and 3.2% [95% CI 1.5–4.9], respectively) and prospectively (3.9% [95% CI 2.0–6.0] and 3.3% [95% CI 1.3–5.3], respectively). Regarding the ability to chew, a higher FI at baseline was observed among those able to chew food of Group 2 (1.9%, [95% CI 0.1–3.7]) and Groups 4–6 (1.9%, [95% CI 0.1–3.7]), and a progressive increment in the FI, as the participants reported being able to chew softer groups of food at the follow‐up (Group 2: 2.2% [95% CI 0.05–4.3]; Group 3: 3.6% [95% CI 1.2–6.0]; and Groups 4–6: 3.4 [95% CI 0.7–6.1]). Conclusion: Self‐reported use of non‐functional complete dentures, dissatisfaction with dentures and a reduced ACHF with complete dentures were associated with a higher FI both cross‐sectionally and prospectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]