Search

This article examines the Japanese historical concept of nature in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Through modernisation, Japan was infused with Anglo-European philosophy. However, Japan's pre-modern concept of nature differed from that of the West or modern Japan and latently affected the Japanese modern educational system. The concept of nature comprised two modes: mizukara, meaning "voluntarily" or indicating the mode of the voluntary self or "I," and onozukara, referring to what is "spontaneously or naturally so" or indicating modes of transcendence beyond the self that permeate Japanese pre-modern reading education and apprenticeship as well as contemporary Japanese society. This study investigates Japanese modern texts by representative educator Sozo Kurahashi and philosopher Kitaro Nishida on education and philosophy to describe the latent and underlying connection between the concept of nature and Japanese ECEC as well as to depict the configuration of educational discourse focused on nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Cryptotympana facialis, a black cicada insect, threatens citizens and fiber-optic system in western Japan and other subtropical regions of eastern Asia. A survey conducted by Shigehiko Shiyake, curator of the Osaka Museum of Natural History, and Eiji Numata, a biologist at Osaka University, shows that the insect population increases every four years with nearly 2.5 times as many in 2006. Study also shows that these insects are mistakenly layed their eggs on fiber-optic cables as withered branches, however, telephone companies have responded by creating new cables with added protective plastic layer to the cable.

The article provides information on nature-related topics. Directors of the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, Alaska have agreed to transfer the world's most northerly elephant to a more comfortable home. Researchers at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan have trained their Pavlov's cockroaches to salivate. School children in Great Britain suffering from hay fever are twice as likely to drop a grade in their examinations.