Search

This paper replicates models developed by previous research to study the effects of graduate education on new graduates' initial employment in the Japanese labor market. If education is the best investment for an individual's economic success, then graduate degrees are expected to provide an individual with higher-earning job opportunities. Despite this reasonable economic premise, previous research showed that master's degrees in the humanities or social sciences in Japan have, in fact, a negative impact on obtaining initial employment compared to those with only a bachelor's degree in the humanities or social sciences. This previous research, however, could not overcome omitted variable bias because of data limitations. Omitted variable bias is a key problem for research on education; therefore, this study uses new longitudinal data to overcome omitted variable bias and clearly demonstrate the robustness of these earlier findings. The empirical results of this study corroborate earlier work, showing that master's degrees in the humanities or social sciences do not provide graduate students with an advantage in obtaining initial employment, after controlling for potential bias. At the same time, this study also confirms that natural science majors have a higher probability of obtaining initial employment in comparison with humanities or social science majors. In other words, this paper offers a valid replication of existing research. This shows that the Japanese labor market structure for graduate students has, in essence, remained the same since previous research was completed.

Purpose: This study introduces the idea of "Kyouzai Kenkyuu" and examines its potentiality as a conceptual tool to point to the curriculum design process with a case of social science education. By doing so, this study can contribute to expanding the target of reflection from the practices "inside" classrooms toward the curriculum design "outside" classrooms and the strengthening of teacher professionalism by understanding teachers as curriculum designers. Approach: The authors utilised literature review to illustrate how "Kyouzai Kenkyuu" can be a conceptual tool to point to the curriculum design process. Subsequently, the authors conducted interpretative practitioner research to showcase how "Kyouzai Kenkyuu" can be taught in pre-service teacher education and how teacher educators can educate pre-service teachers as curriculum designers utilising insider's perspectives. Finally, the authors discussed the potential of "Kyouzai Kenkyu" as a conceptual tool to indicate the content and method of designing the curriculum and as an approach to enhance teachers' development as curriculum designers. Findings: "Kyouzai Kenkyuu"--"Kyouzai" meaning learning material(s) and "Kenkyuu" meaning study or research in the Japanese language--is a practice for curriculum design and one of the dispositions to define teachers as professionals. In Japan, teachers are expected to be practitioners who conduct "Kenkyuu" (research) about discipline, students, and the context surrounding students to design suitable "Kyouzai" (learning material[s]) and a curriculum for individual classrooms. In method courses, pre-service teachers verbalize and reflect on their "Kyouzai Kenkyuu" and how it impacts curriculum design. Through these experiences, social science teachers in Japan can enjoy the opportunities to develop their design and teaching rationales. Research limitations: This study is limited to three method courses that the authors have taught; thus, the findings on how to teach "Kyouzai Kenkyuu" may not be generalizable.

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand students' achievements in learning and to improve the overall curriculum of the first-year experience course. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a series of questionnaire-based surveys were conducted on students enrolled in the Introductory Seminar for Policy Science, a mandatory first-year experience course offered in the first semester (from April to July) at a university in Japan. The studies were conducted in 2015 (n = 29), 2016 (n = 29) and 2017 (n = 31). Findings: Results revealed that, regardless of the year, students deepened their understanding of policy science and gained increased confidence to explain what group works and reports are throughout the semester. In addition, students' level of worry about life at the university decreased throughout the course in all three years. A stepwise multiple regression analysis (n = 84) revealed that those students who knew what policy science was (B = 0.271) and had the confidence to write their opinions in reports (B = 0.264) more likely answered that they knew what they wanted to study over four years at the university. Originality/value: This study revealed that the mandatory first-year experience course taught by the same instructor generated similar educational effects for different students in different years. The results elucidated the progressive effects of different components of the course, eliminating possibilities of any bias or specific characteristics of a single group of students.

This paper presents the importance of the visual expression of factor decomposition in regression analysis, which is particularly worthwhile for undergraduate students whose majors are not mathematics but social science. The conventional purpose of regression analysis is to examine specific hypotheses empirically. In particular, the statistical significance of the explanatory variable was tested, which may have been difficult for many students to understand mathematically. To remedy this, factor decomposition is introduced in the same way that human body composition is broken down into water, fat, and muscle. As an illustrative example, multiple regression was applied to the determinants of housing rents in Japan. The explanatory variables were the living area, building age, and walking time from the nearest station. The findings suggest that, with the help of visual expression, a student can easily appreciate which variable significantly affects housing rents.

In classroom management, it is well-known that students' mental states are strongly related to classroom conditions. There are many ways to describe human behavior in mathematical modeling in sociology. In social science, a model to describe human behavior has been developed by an analogy with the ferromagnetic spin model in statistical physics. Entropy, on the other hand, can express the order and/or disorder in many-body systems. The concept of entropy can be extended to continuous random variables in the information theory, which is called "differential entropy" and has been a powerful tool in many stochastic systems. Here, we show that classroom conditions can be expressed by the differential entropy, based on the model used in social science. To assess the applicability of this method to real classroom conditions, we investigated fluctuations in students' minds with pictures and a questionnaire relating to school life, and then applied this to the present method, and calculated the differential entropy. The results correspond well with real classroom conditions, and suggest the usefulness of the present method. The significance of the present research is the proposal of a new method which has not yet been used in educational psychology.

The increase in the internationalization of universities has been accompanied by an increase in multiculturalism in classrooms. Due to this situation, with the objective of knowing the conceptions of university professors around pluricultural competence and attending to the connection with their positioning in relation to the models of cosmopolitan citizenship; a mixed research is developed in the Hispanic-Japanese context of higher education, focusing attention on education and social sciences professors. In general, it is concluded that there are connections between the positioning of multiculturalism and cosmopolitan citizenship. Thus, the university professors of both countries highlight the advantages of cultural plurality in educational environments and, despite the fact that there is governmental support for academic internationalization, in the sample of Japanese professors, there is a greater concern about the preservation of national identity in cultural plurality.

This paper examines shifts in the knowledge production policy agenda at Japanese research universities -- a transition from discipline-based academic tradition towards interdisciplinary forms of knowledge production -- through a case study of a leading interdisciplinary research institute. We examine this transition through the case of Tohoku University, one of seven 'Designated National Universities', and its flagship International Research Institute of Disaster Science. Documentary analysis revealed a renewed emphasis on interdisciplinarity, evident in restructuring towards a 'blended hybrid' model to reconcile the different institutional logics of diverse research traditions among its staff. Interviews with key stakeholders uncovered the internal dynamics of this process, its barriers and opportunities. We conclude with implications for Japanese higher education, arguing that a shift to 'blended hybrid' institutional forms is necessary but insufficient to maintain successful interdisciplinary research institutes. Success is contingent on simultaneous commitment to sustainable international connections and relationships with diverse external stakeholders.

Polymathy may be defined as the productive pursuit of multiple endeavors, simultaneously or serially, across a lifetime. As such, polymathic breadth of interest across knowledge domains characterizes Nobel laureates in the sciences, literature, economics, and peace, though interest patterns vary between groups. Economics laureates, like science laureates, demonstrate significant trans-domain interests in mathematics and science but differ from scientists by focusing additional interests in the humanities and social sciences rather than in visual arts or crafts. Literature laureates share strong interests in visual arts with science laureates, but they engage far less in crafts and more in humanities. Literature laureates share with economics laureates a high interest in the humanities and social sciences but engage far less in the sciences. Peace laureates focus their multiple interests in the humanities and social sciences along with literature and economics laureates, but they differ from both by participating far less in arts or science. In addition, Nobel laureates are also intra-domain polymaths, engaging in more than one discipline within their primary field. Overall, Nobel laureates are significantly more likely to be trans- and intra-domain polymaths than the average person. Moreover, patterns of interest suggest that different professions select for or attract individuals with reasonably discrete combinations of talent.

In 2009, the Japanese government launched the Global 30 (G30) Project, a new initiative to internationalize universities. Selected universities had to create English-medium degree programs at undergraduate level in order to stimulate "internationalization at home." The G30 Project represented a major shift in the focus of internationalization efforts from quantitative to qualitative outcomes. Using a case study approach, this paper investigates one G30 program and the attempts made to open up English-medium course offerings to the wider student body. It explores two related issues: level setting and student attrition. A mixed methods approach was used with data gathered from students and course instructors. Sanford's (1966/2009) "support and challenge" conceptual framework, as adapted by J. M. Bennett (1993), and Vygotsky's (1978) "zone of proximal development and scaffolding" were employed. Results showed that to maximize learning it was important to have strategies to maintain a high level of course content while also providing targeted support to students at appropriate times. Effective strategies for reducing course attrition were identified.

Undergraduate research in Japan, called graduation research (GR), is comparable to that in other countries and is defined here as a final-year curricular activity that completes undergraduate study. This article aims to elucidate GR to contribute to the scholarship of undergraduate research from an international perspective. The main findings based on two nationwide surveys are (a) the percentage of degree programs with a compulsory course of GR is 87.8 percent in the humanities and 50.6 percent in the social sciences; (b) GR is more prevalent in national and public universities than private universities; and (c) undergraduates devote to GR an annual average of 430 hours in the humanities and 312 hours in the social sciences. These findings are interpreted in relation to national statistics of Japanese higher education.

Given California's role in the Pacific economy, its historic Asian heritage, and the strong and growing presence of Asian communities and businesses in the state, it is imperative that students statewide understand the history of Asia. Unfortunately, the California state curricular framework and standards in history and social science limit the coverage of Asia. Most K-12 students' learning of Asia comes through middle and high school world history courses aligned to state standards that not only are Eurocentric, but also present Asia through an Orientalist lens. With funding from the Freeman Foundation, the History-Social Science Credential Program at California State University, Long Beach developed a professional development program for university faculty involved in the preparation of pre-service history teachers. "Raising the Visibility of Asia in World History Teacher Preparation" seeks to develop curricular materials and instructional activities for the university pre-service classroom that engage novice teachers with the recent scholarship and historiography of the "New World History." This scholarship presents a global and integrated conceptualization of world historical development that both resituates Europe away from the center of investigation and raises the visibility and significance of Asia. Providing pre-service teachers with this historiographic and scholarly understanding imparts them with the tools to teach world history from a global perspective that deepens and expands student learning about Asia in a fashion that is current with contemporary scholarship, yet mindful of the curricular mandates of the state standards. This article presents three lessons created by Miguel Escobar and Manoj Choudhary that are part of a larger unit of study in world history within the California tenth-grade curriculum. The goal of this unit is to provide students with information and knowledge concerning the Industrial Revolution and its global historical significance. At the completion of the unit, students understand the Industrial Revolution and the importance of industrialization in a global context. Students demonstrate knowledge of key terms and vocabulary and are able to provide and evaluate alternative theories of industrialization. Additionally, as is part of a goal in the classroom throughout the year, students are able to synthesize how the Industrial Revolution fits within a broader concept of modernity and diffusion. The unit places specific emphasis upon the study of Asia with relation to the Industrial Revolution. This unit provides alternative ideas for the long-term process of industrialization in Asia. This unit includes topics and concepts associated with the New World History that include Southernization, hybridity, cultural and technological diffusion, and the notion of a Pacific Rim. (Contains 3 notes.)

This article examines the applicability of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi's (1871-1944) educational ideas in what Denzin and Lincoln (2005) call the "fractured future," a time marked by human, environmental, and climatic destabilization, and a time in which the social sciences "are normative disciplines always already embedded in issues of value..." (13). Specifically, this article presents a case study of a transformative learning approach to secondary-level introductory foreign language learning that contextualizes the human, environmental, and climatic condition in Makiguchi's idea of human geography ("jinsei chirigaku"), applies his concept of community studies ("kyodoka kenkyu") to curriculum, and uses his value-creating pedagogy ("soka kyoiku") as a theoretical framework for analyzing students' learning and development. Findings suggest that such applications resulted in students' empowerment and creation of the values of beauty, gain, and good, but that more curricular emphasis is, perhaps, necessary with regard to the value of gain. Findings also suggest that application of Makiguchi's ideas is possible in a contemporary context, but that more research is necessary.

This article looks at current university reforms in Japan through two slightly different social science prisms: how social science methodologies and theories can help us understand those reforms better and how social science teaching in universities will be affected by the current reform processes. (Contains 3 tables and 7 notes.)

Kiyo are journals published by Japanese academic institutions. As a scholarly communication medium, they have inherent problems such as limited accessibility and lack of quality control. Despite these problems, they have evolved to comprise the majority of academic journals published in the humanities and social sciences in Japan because they fit well within the culture of Japanese academia. Recent developments in digitization and open access to kiyo will help mitigate their limited accessibility. The increased availability of kiyo articles in electronic format to a wider range of scholarly readers may encourage improvements in quality. (Contains 43 notes.)

The role of risk taking in building trust relations has largely been overlooked in the burgeoning literature on trust in the social sciences; yet it is central to understanding how trust develops. We argue that a series of risk-taking behaviors is indispensable to building a trust relation. We conducted experiments in Japan and the United States to examine the independent and cross-cultural effects of risk taking on trust building. The results of these experiments indicate that the American participants took more risks than did the Japanese, supporting the general claim that Americans are inclined toward risk taking and trust building. Even so, the Americans were no better than the Japanese at improving the level of cooperation. The cumulative results of these experiments imply that risk taking is a critical element in trust building for Americans, but less so for the Japanese. Our results show clearly that it is important to distinguish trusting behavior from cooperation and to measure them separately if we are to study trust and trust building in relation to social cooperation. (Contains 5 figures, 1 table, and 18 footnotes.)

Focuses on how knowledge about Japanese psychological development and culture can serve as a corrective to the ethnocentrism of Western theory. Highlights the Japanese cultural concepts of "amae" and "kejime." (Author/KB)

Reports results of a study of internationalization practices of Japanese four-year colleges and universities with majors in humanities, social sciences, and education. Sketches Japan's policy concerning internationalization and its translation into higher education practice in the areas of numbers of students involved, program types, program goals, their organization and growth. Describes some new approaches to student exchange. (Author/MSE)

Liberal education has been a target of political discourse in many countries, and Japan is no exception. In Japanese higher education, there are three types of institutions: national public, local public, and private. In June 2015, Japan's minister of education, Hakubun Shimomura, called upon the country's national universities to take "active steps to abolish [social science and humanities] organizations or to convert them to serve areas that better meet society's needs." In this article, the author presents a brief history in the defense of Japanese liberal education.

Compares results of the Barth Shermis Social Studies Preference Scale given to groups of preservice teachers in five countries over several years. Reports that social studies has evolved through three patterns of teaching citizenship education: citizenship transmission, social science, and reflective inquiry. Concludes that teachers are confused about purposes, methods, and content of social studies. (DK)

Reviews the cultural, institutional, and professional factors which have inhibited the development of social sciences in Japan. Places major emphasis on the established system of graduate education and the academic culture of Japanese as factors which have limited social science development. (JDH)

A study of the patterns of employment and graduate study of recent graduates of five northeastern Japanese universities found differences in the patterns of the three groups (engineers and scientists, teachers, and arts and sciences majors), between men and women, and between the oldest university and the others. (MSE)

By using words transmitted and words attended to as common denominators, novel indexes were constructed of growth trends in 17 major communications media from 1960-1977. Findings from these indexes (intended to measure trends in the development of an information society) are presented as well as explanations for what has been found. (Author/JN)

Reports that social studies has declined in the school curriculum of Japan because of its failure to keep pace with the changing orientation of Japanese society toward the future and the emergence of an internationalized society. Summarizes recent policy initiatives and curriculum developments designed to accommodate these social changes. (JDH)

Introduction: Meaningful activities have been suggested to contribute to life satisfaction. Investigating the association between the awareness of meaningful activities and life satisfaction will help us develop a population-based occupational therapy strategy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the proportion of people who were aware of meaningful activities among middle-aged adults, and the relationship between the awareness of meaningful activities and life satisfaction. Method: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on 2698 middle-aged adults who participated in an online survey conducted in Japan by the Y-Cloud system. Participants responded to demographic questions, life satisfaction, and awareness of meaningful activities. We examined the association between the awareness of meaningful activities and life satisfaction using binomial logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the respondents, 77.4% were aware of meaningful activities. Binomial logistic regression analysis adjusted for covariates showed that the awareness of meaningful activities was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction (odds ratio, 2.97; 95% confidence interval: 2.45–3.61, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The results suggest the value of presenting that the awareness of meaningful activities should be considered in preventive population-based occupational therapy strategies for life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rocznik Gdanski is the property of University of Gdansk / Uniwersytet Gdanskim and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay introduces sociological studies on aging and related topics in Japan since 2000. It argues the three following points. First, the results of sociological studies on aging, and those from related social science disciplines, have moved away from a uniform understanding of aging to reveal greater diversity in the process. Second, it has become apparent that older people face various social problems, such as social isolation, social disparities, and family care problems. Studies have argued that it is essential to support mutual aid in the community. Finally, the reflexivity of high modernity attempts to push the problem of aging towards autonomy, but a new culture of aging assumes that dependence has the potential to overcome this reflexivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2010 announcement by the Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, related to accreditation by the World Federation for Medical Education, accelerated medical education reform in Japan. This article reviews reports on reforms undertaken in undergraduate medical education in psychiatry in Japan after 2010, and discusses resulting implications. While Japanese medical education has made significant progress, achieving global standards in less than a decade, there remain issues related to utilisation of active learning – inclusion of self-directed learning, problem-based learning, team-based and small group learning, and clinical training – as well as the provision of opportunities for students to be involved in certain medical procedures, and the integration of behavioural and social sciences, including communication skills, decision making, medical ethics, medical psychology, and general health promotion perspectives. These issues imply considerable paradigm shifts for psychiatry in Japan. It remains to be seen whether these progressive perspectives in undergraduate education can be effectively incorporated into postgraduate training, as well. There is also an issue of balance with specific important areas. The question of how undergraduate education in psychiatry in Japan can assimilate issues relevant to the practice of psychiatry in Japan, while ensuring conformity with high-level global standards, remains a serious challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) recruitment to Japan was very low during the early 2017−2018 recruitment season when most glass eels are usually caught, but catches increased in the late recruitment season when recruitment usually decreases. Concurrently, the Kuroshio meander south of Japan had formed again after the previous event ended in 2005. The role of the large meander and ocean circulation features such as the North Equatorial Current (NEC) in the unusual 2017−2018 Japanese eel recruitment timing-pattern was investigated using a three-dimensional particle tracking model that simulated swimming behaviors of virtual larvae (v-larvae) in addition to their drift in ocean currents. Four recruitment seasons were selected for when the Kuroshio large meander was present (2004−2005, 2017−2018) or absent (2009−2010, 2015−2016), and when NEC was shifted north (2004−2005, 2015−2016) or south (2009−2010, 2017−2018). The simulated recruitment timing-patterns were similar to the actual recent-year recruitment, with no early recruitment period v-larvae arrival to southern Japan and increased late period recruitment occurring. Rather than being related to the presence of the Kuroshio large meander, the late arrival appeared to be caused by a southward shifted, weak North Equatorial Current near the spawning area, a longer Subtropical Countercurrent eddy region retention time, and a weak Kuroshio during the early migration and recruitment period of those years. In the late recruitment period, the Kuroshio was stronger than other selected years near the East China Sea and south of Japan and v-larvae were transported more rapidly. The Kuroshio large meander may influence local eel recruitment in Japan, and the recirculation formed by the large meander could potentially enhance recruitment to the Tokai region. Oriented (northwestward) swimming v-larvae were less affected by the large meander, and showed higher recruitment success than those using along-current swimming. Although the Kuroshio large meander did not seem to be responsible for the unusual recruitment pattern in 2018, how Japanese eel larvae and glass eels actually cross out of the Kuroshio and reach coastal waters in Japan remains to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]