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The 'China threat' has been identified as an important driver of Japan's security agenda and discourse. The threat posed by China has been discussed either as a given factor determining the trajectory of Tokyo's security approach, as a product of identity construction, or as an expression of securitizing processes that facilitate institutional and policy change. This paper contributes to this debate by offering an alternative explanation of the process through which the Abe government constructed China as a threat. Building on securitization theory, the paper examines the modes and strategies employed by the Abe Administration to successfully securitize China. The paper argues that, while Beijing was labeled a 'concern' rather than an 'existential threat,' it was still securitized through a process of securitization that involves an association with those domains in which China engages assertively, namely the maritime commons. The paper suggests calling this type of securitizing pattern 'transversal securitization' and explores how this indirect strategy allowed the Abe government to pragmatically pursue its objectives both domestically and at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal psychology is field of research which seeks to bring evidence-based practice to the vital work of the criminal justice system. This research is increasingly being conducted and its findings applied around the world. However, worldwide legal systems and their processes can vary greatly. In the current paper, we summarise discussions between legal psychology academics and criminal justice practitioners from Japan. Together, we examine how practices in the Japanese criminal justice system interact with the international evidence base for psychologically-informed 'best practice' approaches. Our discussion targets areas of popular study in legal psychology, focusing on concealed crime knowledge detection, line up identification procedures, and investigative interviewing of witnesses, suspects, and victims. Each section features a description of current Japanese practice, followed by a review of the current state of the relevant academic legal psychological literature. We then connect this practice and research synergy to a reflection with suggestions for future research. Taken together, our paper acts as a conduit to incentivise more research and practice collaboration for Japanese and non-Japanese audiences and presents opportunities for collective international legal psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does a country embark on large-scale R&D programs? Among R&D programs, this is an intriguing question for large scale Science and Technology (S&T) projects such as space programs, because of the necessity for large resource commitments, and the difficulty of being accountable to the taxpayers when the outcome is not always known. It can be assumed that engineers, scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians play respective roles. This paper aims to shed light on the specific role of politics, through the examples of policies of and decisions by NAKASONE Yasuhiro. Nakasone was the minister for science and technology (1959–1960, 1972), and later became the prime minister (1982–1987). He played a crucial role in establishing the Science and Technology Agency and the National Space Activities Council in the 1950s, which would be the foundational institutions responsible for space policy for the next half century. As prime minister, he decided to participate in the Space Station program. Within his vision for Japan for the 21st century, he emphasized the need for radical change in economic policy, education, defense and S&T investment. He was one of the few politicians that had vision to promote S&T and recognized the strategic value to the nation. He was able to explain to the nation why Japan should promote the development of a launch vehicle, when the engineers faced development difficulties in doing so. Thus, he was influential both in the policy layer and in promoting specific programs to support his national vision. Politics intersects with S&T projects because of the uncertainty and tradeoffs associated with these efforts. Japan did not address space programs for national security and commercial space for a long time. It is a politician's role to create institutions, to allocate resources and, more importantly, to explain to the taxpayers why policy measures or programs are necessary. R&D investment is a societal activity: it reflects the social, political, and economic situation, as well as being important for diplomacy and international relations. Bearing in mind that it would be misleading to attribute the initiation of largescale S&T projects to the leadership of a single individual, this paper will attempt to show the driving forces behind, and fundamental objective of Japan's space policy, in addition to the historical shift in that policy by examining the influence of this notable politician. • Nakasone played the key role in establishing institutions promoting space development in post-war Japan. • Nakasone made the best use of close relationships with the U.S. in promoting Japan's space activities. • Nakasone made decisions on space policy process, resource allocation with vision, thus integrating the stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Realism theory, this paper provides an explanation of the importance of power in International Relations, by analyzing the behavior of China and Japan in the East Asian region, and also the behavior of the United States of America towards them as the dominant superpower under the current international system. It answers the problem of the transfer of power from the West to the East, and in return supports the assumption that the Great Powers seek to possess relative power as much as possible. The paper also emphasizes that the State should not undermine or renounce its offensive power, as with Japan, because that will put it in front of a dilemma of the growing the power of neighboring States that seek to achieve regional hegemony, such as China. Therefore, all of these transformations show that international relations are a complex field and should not be reduced to a specific ideal field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the earthquake detection capacity of DONET (Dense Oceanfloor Network system for Earthquakes and Tsunamis) operating in the Nankai Trough, a target region monitored for future megathrust earthquakes. The focus of this paper was to evaluate the impact on this capacity from the malfunction of parts of the network. For this purpose, the completeness magnitude, above which all earthquakes are considered to be detected by a seismic network, was used. Then, a catalog that includes events observed by DONET was used. We found spatiotemporal variability of completeness magnitude, ranging from values below 1 in one of the areas where stations are densely deployed to values above 2 at the periphery and outside of the DONET area. We conducted a simulation computation for cases of malfunction of densely distributed stations. The results showed that completeness estimates in the area near the malfunctioning stations were about 1 magnitude larger. This implies that malfunction repair and/or replacement with new stations would be desirable because they pronouncedly affect earthquake monitoring. We then demonstrated an example of how to use the information of completeness magnitude as prior knowledge to compute the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter distribution. The result indicates the b value as a proxy that can help to image stress heterogeneity when there is a magnitude-6 class slow slip event on the Nankai Trough plate boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his government have implemented bold defence, diplomatic and economic policies against the challenges to the status quo order posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and increased Chinese assertiveness. What do these policies unveil about Japan's strategy and response to the transformed strategic environment? This article argues that the Kishida government has upgraded Japan to a front-line guardian of the status quo order. To achieve its front-line role, the Kishida government has consolidated Japan's deterrence policy, namely focusing on two main pillars—military and rules. To ensure Japan's frontline role is sustainable, this policy paper makes three recommendations: Japan must develop strategic clarity and clear operational plans on how to respond to a regional contingency, such as the Taiwan Strait; Japan must resolve domestic problems that prevent the increase in defence spending to 2 per cent in the period to 2027. Japan's role as a front-line state to protect the status quo order is very much dependent on the availability of resources that would be provided by this increase in defence spending; Japan should re-energize its efforts towards east Asia through a sustained diplomatic, economic and security means. This is important in securing support for Japan's preferred vision of regional and global order from not only like-minded partners and friends in east Asia, but also China. Japan's approach should underscore how the extant status quo order benefits all states, including China, especially in terms of spreading economic prosperity, development and connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sophora flavescens, which was first recorded in Shen Nong's Herbal Classic, has the functions of clearing away heat, drying dampness, killing parasites and promoting urination. In its long-term application, traditional Chinese medicine has gradually deepened its understanding of the origin and efficacy of S. flavescens. In order to explore changes in the origin and efficacy of traditional Chinese herb S. flavescens in the history of China and Japan, in this paper, the origin and development of S. flavescens in China and Japan were compared from three aspects; the origin, medicinal efficacy, and processing methods of S. flavescens in China and Japan, hoping to provide clear understanding of the medicinal plant S. flavescens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though there is now a substantial body of research on the relationship between nonprofits and the state, examples from non-Western countries have been lacking in the nonprofit literature in English. This paper attempts to fill this gap using nonprofit cases in three key districts in Fukushima after the Great East Japan Earthquake. By focusing on these cases, this study captures the complex nature of the relationship between the nonprofit sector and state in Japan during a period of increased activity of both the nonprofit sector and the state. The idea of the nonprofit sector, state, and market as relatively separate and with different interests, influences discussions on themes related to the nonprofit sector (e.g., business-like behavior). The study suggests how the Japanese case can contribute in uncovering assumptions that are embedded in the existing understanding of the nonprofit sector, based primarily on Western examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is the extended version of a paper presented at the conference HMM2021, about the history of mechanical engineering. First, the initial cultural and industrial steps in the robotic field in Japan are introduced, to display the beginning of this interlaced path, before WW2; then, in the context of the aftermaths of the war, some famous anime heroes are presented as ancestors of the coming mecha anime series. The rising research in the field of robotics and more generally the developments of contemporary Japanese automation industry are then drawn, as a technological substrate for mecha conception. In particular, Masahiro Mori studies are taken into consideration to identify an actual robot design pattern to apply to the following comparative description and examination of the different mecha; finally, thanks to this analysis, the common breeding ground whence robotics and mecha (and their reciprocal influences) arise, is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on migrants' experiences of moving house in the country of settlement, the study explores the housing pathways of Russian-speaking migrants in Japan over their life courses. This paper emphasizes the need for the anthropology of migration to consider not only the housing events but also the housing pathways experienced by cross-border migrants in receiving countries. It is argued that the act of moving from one accommodation to another plays a crucial role in how migrants develop their biographies and perceptions of self. In addition to investigating house relocation, the study borrows from the Russian formalist school of narratology to examine how migrants narrativize their experiences in stories that intertwine housing pathways and movers' identities. The study reveals how the instances of moving—and not necessarily the physical qualities of housing—emerge as dynamic forces that initiate migrants into their desired statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with Gaucher disease (GD), a rare lysosomal storage disorder, have reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL). A patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for HRQOL developed for type 1 GD (GD1) is not appropriate for patients with neuronopathic GD (nGD) types 2 (GD2) and 3 (GD3). In this study, we developed a new PROM for use in all GD types. We previously reported the qualitative analysis of interviews with Japanese patients with nGD, which was used to create nGD-specific PROM items. Here we evaluated the full PROM combining the type 1 questionnaire with the new nGD-specific items. Methods: Patients with confirmed GD were recruited (Association of Gaucher Disease Patients in Japan or leading doctors) for pre-testing (May 2021) or the main survey (October–December 2021). The PROM had three parts: Parts 1 and 2 were translated into Japanese from the pre-existing GD1 PROM, whereas Part 3 was newly developed. Patients (or their caregivers, where necessary) completed the PROM questionnaire on paper and returned it by mail. Mean scores were determined overall and by GD type. Inter-item correlations, content consistency (Cronbach's alpha), and test–retest reliability (Cohen's kappa; main survey only, taken 2 weeks apart) were calculated. Results: Sixteen patients (three with GD1; six with GD2; seven with GD3) and 33 patients (nine with GD1; 13 with GD2; 11 with GD3) participated in the pre-test and main survey, respectively. All GD2 patients and one-third (6/18) of GD3 patients required caregivers to complete the questionnaire. Mean scores indicated that the burden was highest in GD2 and lowest in GD1. In the main survey, internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.898 overall, 0.916 for Part 3), and test–retest reliability was high for Part 3 (kappa > 0.60 for 13/16 items) but low for Part 1 (kappa < 0.60 for 12/15 items). Conclusions: We have developed a flexible and reliable PROM that can be tailored for use in all types of GD and propose using Parts 1 and 2 for GD1, Parts 2 and 3 for GD2, and Parts 1, 2, and 3 for GD3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated how Japanese young people's attitudes toward politics and the social environments they are in affect their interaction with political information in their daily life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty people to gather data about their experiences with political information and their attitudes toward politics. The results show that they have mixed feelings about political information, which arise from personal factors but are interrelated with broader social factors. Their attitude, which comprises their sense of remoteness to politics, low political efficacy, and difficulty understanding politics, reduces their interest in knowing political information. Social factors that limit opportunities for political participation and conversation diminish the utility of information and the motivation for seeking information. The habit of monitoring political information, often facilitated by experience watching television news with family, emerges as a factor that can maintain young people's exposure to political information, regardless of their level of political interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in diversifying the understanding and discussion about the causes of depression to move beyond biomedical determinism—a view that biomedical factors are the ultimate cause of an individual's depression. There is increasing emphasis on diversity in how people seek to articulate the causes of depression to incorporate non-biomedical dimensions. Furthermore, the biomedical understanding of depression has been increasingly questioned due especially to emerging limitations in pharmacotherapy. These shifts encourage social analyses that explore what narratives as to the causes of depression are constructed and presented with relative plausibility in different contexts and why and how. By analysing published memoirs of individuals diagnosed with depression in Japan, this study aims to provide fresh insights into narratives around the causes of depression. It illustrates how memoirs portray depression and its perceived causes in characteristic ways in a nation that adopts Western diagnostic systems, biomedical therapeutics and other relevant technologies. I will show that 'burnout' is the dominant theme in the Japanese data, diverging from the predominantly biomedical narrative in Western societies. This burnout narrative depicts depression as the somewhat unfortunate but unsurprising result of overwork arising from individual active adaptations to structural features of the Japanese work culture. I argue that reasons, rather than causes, articulate the making of the burnout narrative by revealing the interplay between the structural and individual and ultimately enrich the understanding of depression. The paper concludes with a call for exploring the shifting relationship between illness and normalcy that the burnout narrative implies. I suggest that further studies could explore how the boundaries between normalcy and illness are enacted and re-enacted and to what avail through public discourse and through shifting diagnostic schemata in the context of different national norms and practices. • There are international differences in how depression is experienced and represented. • Biomedical explanations of depression are frequently documented in the literature. • This paper shows ways in which depression is explained in the language of burnout. • Burnout emphasises the interaction between the individual and the structural. • Distinguishing reasons from causes helps better understand burnout and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conflicts and challenges faced by women managers in Japan following the introduction of a new law in 2020 which merely obliges employers to take preventive measures against workplace bullying and pawahara (power harassment), but does not stipulate any criminal punishment for corporations or individuals responsible for workplace harassment, or the specific grounds for victims to have the right to claim damages. Cases are left to be disputed and decided in a costly and complicated process of arbitration, which could further exacerbate the precarious position of vulnerable workers, including women managers who are not only a small minority, but many are also marginal players in the workplace where job promotions do not enhance their participation in corporate decision-making. This paper elucidates how the new law ironically enables employers to legitimize discriminatory practices and acts of harassment against women, with serious, long-term ramifications on the emotional and mental health of these workers, as well as on the gendered workforce in Japan amidst global trends towards improving gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article briefly introduces and comments on the EPAT special issue 'Philosophical reflections on modern education in Japan: strategies and prospects' edited by Morimichi Kato. There are seven papers excluding the editor's introductory essay. This special issue provides a unique approach to Japanese educational philosophy by offering and deliberating features and concepts peculiar to Japanese education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological data provide a potential to investigate the diffusion of technological and cultural traits. However, much of this research agenda currently needs more formal quantitative methods to address small sample sizes and chronological uncertainty. This paper introduces a novel Bayesian framework for inferring the shape of diffusion curves using radiocarbon data associated with the presence/absence of a particular innovation. We developed two distinct approaches: 1) a hierarchical model that enables the fitting of an s-shaped diffusion curve whilst accounting for inter-site variations in the probability of sampling the innovation itself, and 2) a non-parametric model that can estimate the changing proportion of the innovation across user-defined time-blocks. The robustness of the two approaches was first tested against simulated datasets and then applied to investigate three case studies, the first pair on the diffusion of farming in prehistoric Japan and Britain and the third on cycles of changes in the burial practices of later prehistoric Britain. • Bayesian methods for modelling diffusion curves with radiocarbon dates are introduced. • Sample interdependence and non-sigmoid diffusion curves can be handled. • Robustness is tested on simulated datasets and archaeological case studies. • Code and data are available on a GitHub repository and archived on Zenodo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural communities throughout Japan, especially in the most peripheral regions, are experiencing rapid demographic, socio-economic, and environmental decline, with many facing the possibility of vanishing in the coming decades. To address these issues, the Japanese government has implemented various policy initiatives aimed at rural revitalisation, some of which focus on attracting newcomers to depopulating rural communities and encouraging counterurbanisation. The relocation of urban residents is therefore considered essential to the regeneration of rural and peripheral areas. This paper examines the characteristics and practical implementation of the chiiki okoshi kyouryoukutai (Local Revitalisation Cooperator, LRC) initiative, a well-established national level policy that supports rural revitalisation through counterurbanisation. The initiative offers aspiring urban in-migrants a salary and housing for up to three years, while also requiring them to engage in community-oriented and entrepreneurial activities. The study uses secondary and qualitative primary data to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of LRC members and the successes and challenges of the initiative in meeting its two key policy objectives, namely the settlement of newcomers and the development of local entrepreneurship. The results contribute to our understanding of contemporary urban-to-rural mobilities in Japan, particularly the way counterurbanisation is normatively framed as a process that should benefit both in-migrants and receiving communities. We conclude by delineating the broader potential of this kind of initiative as a rural revitalisation instrument that can be flexibly tailored to the needs of each community and that can facilitate newcomers' integration. Concurrently, we also raise questions about the degree of success of the policy, particularly regarding its effectiveness in stimulating entrepreneurship and retaining newcomers in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discourse and material manifestation of kankeijinkō , a phrase used in Japan to describe, primarily, highly mobile groups of urbanities who make regular visits to the countryside. Drawing on Japanese grey literature, secondary data analysis, national-level policy reports and exploratory fieldwork in the northwest of Japan, we argue that the concept of kankeijinkō offers a view of rural mobility quite different from more established views of counterurbanisation, at least in the way that it has been captured in the global north. As a concept, kankeijinkō invites us to move beyond simple and binary taxonomies of migration and settlement, and destabilizes the notion of rural vitality as being linked to rural populations that are spatially fixed and bounded. Further, the promotion of kankeijinkō in policy discourses in Japan has the potential to support new hybrid, fluid and place-based rural lifestyles that contribute to an interconnected global countryside. On the other hand, the discourse of kankeijinkō might privilege certain modes of rural mobility and being, circumscribing the potentialities of these mobile groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]