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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to many countries around the world, but the infection and death rates vary widely. One country that appeared to have kept the infection under control despite limited societal restrictions is Japan. This commentary explores why Japan may have, up to now, been spared an escalation of the SARS-CoV-2 infections., (© 2020 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.)

Adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG) has heterogeneous carcinogenic process due to its location straddling the esophagogastric junction. We assessed background mucosal pathology and its correlation with clinicopathological features of each Siewert type of AEG. Clinicopathological and immunohistochemical analyses of 103 AEGs and 58 gastric cancers (GCs) were conducted. Background mucosal features were evaluated according to the updated Sydney System. Siewert classification divided 103 AEGs into three type I, 75 type II, and 25 type III tumors, respectively. Two type I, 9 type II AEGs, and none of type III AEGs were Barrett-related and were excluded from further analysis. Background mucosa of type III AEGs more frequently showed moderate to marked degree of atrophy and intestinal metaplasia than those of type II AEGs and was very similar to those of GCs. Among type II AEGs, tumors with atrophic background were significantly associated with higher patient age and intestinal-type histology. Type II AEGs with nonatrophic background, but not those with atrophic background, showed more frequent mismatch repair deficiency, TP53 overexpression, and less frequent intestinal phenotypic markers expression than type III AEG or GC. Type II AEGs with atrophic background involved suprapancreatic nodes more frequently than those without. We demonstrated that chronic atrophic gastritis was a major precancerous condition of AEG in the Japanese population, especially Siewert type III which had background mucosal pathology similar to that of GC. Type II AEGs with and without atrophic background showed some clinicopathological differences, and these observations might represent heterogeneous carcinogenic process within type II AEGs., (© 2018 The Authors. Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between work environment and moral sensitivity among Japanese (n = 138) and Norwegian nurses (n = 71), and to compare the results from a sociocultural perspective using a descriptive-correlational design. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results point to a significant relationship between work environment and moral sensitivity for both groups of nurses. In comparison, the Japanese nurses were more focused on 'patient centered oriented care', reported 'work engagement', seeking 'meaning in difficult caring situations' and 'following rules'. In addition, they ranked the factor 'values in action of patient care' as significant and 'relation to superior and colleagues' and 'job stress and anxiety' ranked significant to 'moral conflicts'. The Norwegian nurses were more independent, which was correlated with moderate significance with 'job stress and anxiety'. A significant correlation was found between 'physical and mental symptoms' and 'moral conflicts' among Norwegian nurses.