Search

To deal with the risk of emerging diseases with many unknowns, close and timely collaboration and communication between science experts and policymakers are crucial to developing and implementing an effective science-based intervention strategy. The Expert Meeting, an ad hoc medical advisory body, was established in February 2020 to advise Japan's COVID-19 Response Headquarters. The group played an important role in the policymaking process, promoting timely situation awareness and developing science-based proposals on interventions that were promptly reflected in government actions. However, this expert group may have been overly proactive in taking on the government's role in crisis management. For the next stage of managing the coronavirus disease pandemic and future pandemics, the respective roles of the government and its advisory bodies need to be clearly defined. Leadership and strategic risk communication by the government are key.

BACKGROUND A worldwide overabundance of information comprising misinformation, rumor, and propaganda, concerning COVID-19 can be observed occurring alongside the pandemic itself. In opposing the challenges of this information turmoil, Wikipedia has become an important source of information. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the ways that the editors of Wikipedia have handled COVID-19 information. Specifically, it focused on the following two questions. 1) What knowledge background do the editors who participated in the production of information on COVID-19 have? 2) How did editors with different knowledge backgrounds collaborate? METHODS This study used a large-scale dataset including over 2 million edits in the histories of 1,857 editors who involved in editing 133 articles related to COVID-19 in Japanese Wikipedia. Machine learning methods, including graph neural network methods, Bayesian inference, and Granger causality analysis, were used to establish the editors’ backgrounds and collaboration patterns. RESULTS Three tendencies were identified. 1) Two groups of editors were involved in the production of information on COVID-19. One group had a strong background in sociopolitical topics (soc-pol group), and the other group had a strong background in scientific and medical topics (sci-med group). 2) The soc-pol group played the central role (contributing 70.04% of the contents and 75.61% of the references) in the information production part of the COVID-19 articles on Wikipedia, Here, the sci-med group played only a secondary role. 3) The severity of the pandemic in Japan activated the editing behaviors of the soc-pol group and made them contribute more to the COVID-19 information production in Wikipedia, but it reduced the activation of the editing behaviors of the sci-med group and made them contribute less (correlation coefficient = 0.231, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS This study showed how crowd-sourced, community-produced knowledge of COVID-19 was developed through collaboration in the face of scientific uncertainty with reference to the novel pandemic of COVID-19; because the discussions of COVID-19 from a sociopolitical perspective were more controversial, the Wikipedia community expended more effort in editing and revising this information to ensure its quality and reliability.

In this paper, we focus on the Japanese context of ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications) and RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) related issues, delving into the cases of the dual-use issues led by the Japanese physicists, stem cell research (SCR) and regenerative medicine (RM), and the media coverage on the risk of nanotechnology in Japan. Through our quantitative analysis of discussions on the three topics, we found the diverse ways people shape the ELSI/RRI discussions regarding the three technologies. In the first two cases of dual-use and SCR, the similar structure of discourses concerning the technology is identified: while those affirmative on the technology tend to emphasize the technical and economic aspects, those negative on the technology criticize such moves on the basis of ideal of pacifism or responsible governance. In the last case of nanotechnology, on the contrary, criticism of concentration on the technical and economic aspects of technology was shared throughout the arguments. We showed that Japanese media utilized the memory of post-war pollution disasters in order to help people imagine the risks of the emerging nanotechnology, and thus argued for the overcoming of the economy-first principle. These findings showed how the social context shapes people’s imagination on the benefits and risks of certain technologies. We must take such “socio-technical imaginaries” into consideration during ELSI and RRI discussions.

The Japanese government instituted countermeasures against COVID-19, a pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus, in January 2020. Seeking “people’s behavioral changes,” in which the government called on the public to take precautionary measures or exercise self-restraint, was one of the important strategies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how and from when Japanese citizens have changed their precautionary behavior under these circumstances, where the government has only requested their cooperation. This study uses micro data from a cross-sectional survey conducted on an online platform of an online research company, based on quota sampling that is representative of the Japanese population. By the end of March 2020, we had recruited a total of 11,342 respondents, aged from 20 to 64 years. About 85% reported practising the social distancing recommended by the government. More females than males and more older than younger participants are supportive of practicing social distancing. Frequent handwashing is conducted by 86 percent of all, 92 percent of female and 87.9 percent of over-40 participants. The most important event influencing these precautionary actions was the infection aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which occurred in early February 2020 (23%). Information from the central and local governments, received by 60% of the participants, was deemed trustworthy by 50%. However, the results also showed that about 20% of the participants were reluctant to implement proper prevention measures. The statistical analysis indicated that the typical characteristics of those people were male, younger (under 30 years old), unmarried, from lower-income households, with a drinking or smoking habit and a higher extraversion score. To prevent the spread of infection in Japan, it is imperative to address these individuals and encourage their behavioral changes using various means to reach and influence them.

Over the last decade Japanese researchers have taken the lead in the emerging discipline of molecular robotics. This new technology aims to produce artificial molecular systems that can adapt to changes in the environment, self-organize and evolve. This paper explores the question of how to stimulate responsible research and innovation in the field of molecular robotics technologies. For this, we first draw lessons from earlier societal responses in Japan to emerging technologies, such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology, synthetic biology and genomic research. Next we describe various real-time technology assessment (TA) activities on molecular robotics in Japan to depict the state-of-the-art of the academic and public debate on the social aspects of molecular robotics. Lessons from earlier societal responses to emerging technologies demonstrated three potential challenges: finding and involving the ‘right’ experts and stakeholders, keeping regulations up to date, and getting scientists and citizens involved in science communication. A literature review, ‘future workshop’ and scenario workshop raised a number of ethical, social, political and cultural issues, and addressed desirable and undesirable scenarios for the next few decades. Twitter text mining analysis indicates that the level of attention, knowledge and awareness about molecular robots among a broader audience is still very limited. In conclusion, we identify four activities crucial to enable responsible innovation in molecular robotics—getting to grips with the speed of the development of molecular robotics, monitoring related technical trends, the establishment of a more stable TA knowledge base, and a sustained interaction between molecular roboticists and social scientists.

The Japanese government instituted countermeasures against COVID-19, a pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus, in January 2020. Seeking "people's behavioral changes," in which the government called on the public to take precautionary measures or exercise self-restraint, was one of the important strategies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how and from when Japanese citizens have changed their precautionary behavior under circumstances in which the government has only requested their cooperation. This study uses micro data from a cross-sectional survey conducted on an online platform of an online research company, based on quota sampling that is representative of the Japanese population. By the end of March 2020, a total of 11,342 respondents, aged from 20 to 64 years, were recruited. About 85 percent reported practising the social distancing measures recommended by the government including more females than males and more older than younger participants. Frequent handwashing is conducted by 86 percent of all participants, 92 percent of female, and 87.9 percent of over-40 participants. The most important event influencing these precautionary actions was the infection aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which occurred in early February 2020 (23 percent). Information from the central and local governments, received by 60 percent of the participants, was deemed trustworthy by 50 percent. However, the results also showed that about 20 percent of the participants were reluctant to implement proper prevention measures. The statistical analysis indicated that the typical characteristics of those people were male, younger (under 30 years old), unmarried, from lower-income households, a drinking or smoking habit, and a higher extraversion score. To prevent the spread of infection in Japan, it is imperative to address these individuals and encourage their behavioural changes using various means to reach and influence them.

This chapter presents the background for the book. Our point of departure is a distinction between occurrences (contingent things that take place in the world) and events (discursive constructions that make sense of occurrences). This chapter opens the central trajectories that come together in our attempt to explain how the triple disaster on 11 March 2011 in Japan was made sense of. This chapter suggests that the meanings, affects and articulations are linked to four intersecting discussions, looking at the event (1) as a dramatic example of processing cultural trauma, (2) as a disruptive global media event that unfolds in (3) a new kind of hybrid media environment, and that carries with it the exceptional political and cultural tensions related to (4) nuclear politics.

This chapter discusses the temporal aspects of the Fukushima disaster in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Following the live press conferences of the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, we trace the temporal trajectory of the development of #edano_nero (‘Get some sleep, Edano!’), a Twitter hashtag that was developed by viewers of the press conferences on their second screens. The reading of live press conferences suggests that a disruptive media event can involve strong emotional dynamics and that it can include somewhat surprising registers. Our empirical findings indicate that in the traumatic situation of an ongoing disaster, social media feeds can serve not only as outlets for feelings, but also as platforms for collective emotion formation that form trajectories in time.

This chapter examines the role of experts and expertise in the news coverage of Fukushima Daiichi disaster by the Finnish broadcasting company Yleisradio (YLE) between March 2011 and December 2016. The chapter analyses both YLE’s news coverage and online comments about the news of Fukushima Daiichi. Reflecting findings from previous studies on perceptions on nuclear energy, expertise and affect, this chapter argues that experts often become nodal points of discussion that become sticky with affect. Moreover, the presence of sticky figures such as the experts appears to influence affective dynamics of online comments by often dividing the commenters into opposing positions.

This chapter looks at the Fukushima disaster as a media event from a spatial perspective by raising the question of how social media activity constructs social distance, and in so doing conditions the dynamics of public discourse. By applying co-retweeted network analysis of retweeting in Japan during three consecutive years, the chapter shows how the ambient sense of community in Twitter feeds about Fukushima moved from an early ‘disaster utopia’ to a more acute political polarization that in the context of national nuclear politics is articulated as a core theme. Polarization of discussions in the aftermath of Fukushima, the general political landscape and the increasingly strategic use of social media lead to a mediated social geography where it is difficult for science and journalism to play a constructive role.

This chapter looks at the tension between the assumed tendencies of journalism and the deep, inherited social and journalistic structures that anchor news coverage to a particular place, to an assumed audience and thus to specific affective dynamics and identities representation. Empirically, this chapter focuses on four levels of mainstream newspaper coverage—the local, the regional, the national and the international—and tracks how the image and meanings related of the disaster was re-negotiated over time, during five years after the event. By applying a computer-assisted modelling and quantitative text analysis of the key vocabularies of journalism at different levels, it highlights the way that mainstream media function as differentiated affective platforms that emphasize alternative sensibilities.

This chapter studies temporal aspects of the Fukushima disaster from the perspective of remembering. This chapter demonstrates how the meanings, interpretations and uses of media events change and develop through time, as narratives and counter-narratives vary and shift. We demonstrate how temporal affordances are dependent on technological affordances and interpretations of a disruptive media event. This chapter contains a social network analysis (SNA) of commemorative tweets from 2016 demonstrating that public actors, such as media operators and NGOs like Greenpeace, gain the most retweets and thus the most visibility. This chapter ends with a qualitative analysis of Greenpeace International tweets 2011–2016 that demonstrate how temporal and technological affordances change the mode of tweeting.

This chapter examines the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster through circulation of affect in a hybrid media environment. Using the news coverage of potassium iodide tablet buying sprees in the Northern Hemisphere in March 2011 as its case study, this chapter examines how affect sticks and circulates in the news coverage, as areas outside Japan anticipated and speculated about the possible nuclear fallout from Fukushima Daiichi. The chapter introduces the notion of affective discipline and uses it to illustrate how distinct cultural tropes are used to manage circulation of affect during a crisis. Moreover, this chapter suggests that acts of affective discipline render visible the dual role of the public in crisis reporting: represented as panicky but addressed as rational.

In this concluding chapter, we revisit the beginnings of our book and discuss the main findings of our project. The case studies presented herein are a unique combination of wide-ranging data from different sources, the innovative use of computational and qualitative methods and ambitious theoretical cross-pollination. This multifaceted approach has allowed us to address the hybrid logics of the circulation of meanings and emotions in the contemporary media environment over time. Moreover, our enquiries have made visible how mediated communication and affect are used by societies to maintain the status quo after traumatic, disruptive events. The findings provide new insight into disruptive events in the global hybrid media environment and into the way they are influenced by the factors of time, space and emotion.

On March 11th in 2011, a huge earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and caused severe accidents at the Fukushima first nuclear power plant (NPP). The impact and damages of these triple disasters, called “3.11,” continue to this day. There was a diversity of damages and social conditions among devastated areas. This means that this disaster struck so broad area that it brought many kinds of “realities” to different areas. Therefore, we cannot treat the various regions that were affected uniformly. At the same time, the attention given to the 3.11 based on location has ultimately been covered differently between various media sources. The aim of this paper is to share basic descriptions and media analysis of the 3.11 disasters for future discussions. Through our analysis, it is showed that there is a different framing of the 3.11 between national and local media. The difference implicates that it is deprived of social interest in the national newspaper by the NPP accident, and on the other hand, the local newspaper kept their perspectives reflecting damages from the earthquake and tsunami.

Cell shape and adhesion and their proper controls are fundamental for all biological systems. Mesenchymal cells migrate at an average rate of 6 to 60 μm/hr, depending on the extracellular matrix environment and cell signaling. Myotubes, fully differentiated muscle cells, are specialized for power-generation and therefore lose motility. Cell spreading and stabilities of focal adhesion are regulated by the critical protein vinculin from immature myoblast to mature costamere of differentiated myotubes where myofibril Z-band linked to sarcolemma. The Z-band is constituted from microtubules, intermediate filaments, cell adhesion molecules and other adapter proteins that communicate with the outer environment. Mesenchymal cells, including myoblast cells, convert actomyosin contraction forces to tension through mechano-responsive adhesion assembly complexes as Z-band equivalents. There is growing evidence that microtubule dynamics are involved in the generation of contractile forces; however, the roles of microtubules in cell adhesion dynamics are not well determined. Here, we show for the first time that αB-crystallin, a molecular chaperon for tubulin/microtubules, is involved in cell shape determination. Moreover, knockdown of this molecule caused myoblasts and glioma cells to lose their ability for adhesion as they tended to behave like migratory cells. Surprisingly, αB-crystallin knockdown in both C6 glial cells and L6 myoblast permitted cells to migrate more rapidly (2.7 times faster for C6 and 1.3 times faster for L6 cells) than dermal fibroblast. On the other hand, overexpression of αB-crystallin in cells led to an immortal phenotype because of persistent adhesion. Position of matured focal adhesion as visualized by vinculin immuno-staining, stress fiber direction, length, and density were clearly αB-crystallin dependent. These results indicate that the small HSP αB-crystallin has important roles for cell adhesion, and thus microtubule dynamics are necessary for persistent adhesion.

Among the autophagic vacuolar myopathies (AVMs), a subgroup is characterized pathologically by unusual autophagic vacuoles with sarcolemmal features (AVSF) and includes Danon disease and X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy. The diagnostic importance and detailed morphologic features of AVSF in different AVMs have not been well established, and the mechanism of AVSF formation is not known. To address these issues, we have performed detailed histologic studies of myopathies with AVSF and other AVMs. In Danon disease and related AVMs, at the light microscopic level, autophagic vacuoles appeared to be accumulations of lysosomes, which, by electron microscopy consisted of clusters of autophagic vacuoles, indicative of autolysosomes. Some autolysosomes were surrounded by membranes with sarcolemmal proteins, acetylcholinesterase activity, and basal lamina. In Danon disease, the number of fibers with AVSF increased linearly with age while the number with autolysosomal accumulations decreased slightly, suggesting that AVSF are produced secondarily in response to autolysosomes. Most of the AVSF form enclosed spaces, indicating that the vacuolar membranes may be formed in situ rather than through sarcolemmal indentation. This unique intracytoplasmic membrane structure was not found in other AVMs. In conclusion, AVSF with acetylcholinesterase activity are autolysosomes surrounded by secondarily generated intracytoplasmic sarcolemma-like structure and delineates a subgroup of AVMs.

In the present day, social agenda is constructed on media, but its manner has become complicated after the rise of the Internet. Socio-scientific issues also form their shape on media, so it could be said media is an origin where misunderstanding between experts and citizens begins. The theme of this chapter is to depict the difficulty of performing deliberation within this complex media ecosystem with subsuming socio-scientific issues. Furthermore, by figuring out its difficulty, this chapter will throw questions at Science and Technology Studies (STS) about its significance and role in the face of the media argument. In order to outline this complicated problem, this chapter takes the following configuration: First, depict the structural features of science media in Japan, which is an object of intervention of the Science Media Centre of Japan (SMCJ). Then we will describe the functional procedures of the SMCJ. This will lead to a reflexive examination of the SMCJ’s activity following the Great East Japan Earthquake, where we will discuss the significance and limitation on intervening agenda building and framing processes in the media

Xenopus laevis A6 cells, which are cloned epithelial cells from the Xenopus kidney, differentiate into a dome structure when the cells reach confluence. We investigated the gravitational responses of A6 cellular motility during normal differentiation and differentiation under hypergravity conditions using centrifugation (1-100 x g). Progression to dome formation was analyzed by time-lapse micrography. Dome formation and increased expression of Na(+)/K(+)-adenosine triphosphatase were used as markers of differentiation. Interestingly, a high rate of cellular proliferation was observed at a low level of hypergravity (5 x g). Despite this, there was no difference in the time to dome formation between the control cells at primary cell density and those that differentiated under hyper- or hypogravity conditions. In conclusion, this experiment on amphibian cells revealed that the proliferation of A6 cells was strongly affected by gravity conditions, but the differentiation step appears to be controlled by an intra- or intercellular clock.

On March 11, 2011, the east coast of Japan was struck by a major earthquake. TRight after the earthquake and tsunami, three nuclear reactors lost power, causing a core meltdown, and the release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere. The disaster and following the nuclear power plant accident is unprecedented in history. The crisis communication especially about scientific information was abundantly mixed. In this article, I would like to review the communication between people and the government, providing mass media and how people seeking the information. In crisis situation, people don’t know what they want to know but they want to know something about their concern. In the crisis, people utilize the internet especially social network sites. That is interactive media. And a new NPO, Science Media Center Japan provide scientific information rapidly. The Q&A style information that was provided by SMCJ gained mass acceptance.