Japan's Policy Research Articles

Explaining the reproduction of illegal drug use control regimes in Japan: the multi-centred governance thesis

ABSTRACT Despite current global trends towards diversification in policy responses to illegal drug use, including growing criticism of the War on Drugs, Japan continues to retain an ardently prohibitive approach. This article explains the reproduction of prohibitionist policies in Japan throughout the post-War period through use of the Multi-Centred Governance (MCG) thesis. This thesis acknowledges the facilitative power of exogenous shocks to the policy process, the causal power of particular policy actors, whilst also emphasising the importance of dispositional power, the rules of meaning and membership that integrate and bind policy actors into rival agendas of crime control, in maintaining policy agendas despite facilitative and agentic pressures for change. In these terms, the MCG provokes discussion of how alleged global trends in crime and control are mediated by a politics of risk and justice, constituted through the interplay of the facilitative, causal and dispositional circuits of power found in particular contexts.

National Archetypes in Modern Content of Japanese Cultural Policy Model

The purpose of the article is to reveal the content and main directions of implementation of the model of cultural policy in Japan. Its peculiarities related to the traditional worldview, visuality, sensuality, and oriental aesthetics, and combined with the orientation towards human values are substantiated. This model, the main recipient of which is young people, unlike many models of Western countries, is implemented within the framework of mass culture, significantly influences American culture and is attractive to residents of other regions. The researchmethodology consists in the use of such approaches as synchronic and diachronic analysis, phenomenology and hermeneutics in the selection and analysis of works of art, strategies of cultural policy of Japan. Scientific novelty of the work is the first cultural analysis of the combination of traditional and modern cultural heritage in such leading genres of Japanese visual art as anime and manga. Conclusions. Due to the sensual nature of the authors' nature, the products of the Japanese creative industry reflect on such important universal problems as ecology, social injustice, moments of important emotional experiences of teenagers at their tender age and family values. The important contextual content of anime and manga is presented in an extremely aesthetic visual form, which often makes animation and literature equal to works of art. Many animated films and series are considered by connoisseurs to be an example of an ideal balance of visual and semantic load, which allows both to plunge into philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, one's place in society, or the existence of the dichotomy of good-evil, and simply to satisfy aesthetic needs in contemplation of beauty. Thus, the combination of Japanese thought and Western technology was realised in products – anime and manga – that became desirable in European and Western countries. Key words: cultural policy, Japan, anime, manga, Shinto, visual thinking, tradition, universal values.

Most dentists approve of oral health check-ups for local residents at community pharmacies and desire collaboration with community pharmacists.

Community pharmacies are required to play a role in maintaining the health of local residents. Since September 2015, a national policy in Japan has allowed saliva tests to be used for oral health check-ups at community pharmacies. In the present study, we aimed to reveal dentists' perceptions and expectations for oral health check-ups provided at community pharmacies. A questionnaire survey was administered to dentists at 1,000 randomly selected dental clinics in Tokyo, Japan; 257 responses (25.7%) were included in the analysis and 85.2% of respondents approved of oral health check-ups at community pharmacies. Most respondents who approved of oral health check-ups expected that community pharmacists would recommend that local residents visit a dental clinic (85.8%) and provide a report to dentists (60.3%) after the check-up. Furthermore, 79.0% of respondents desired collaboration with community pharmacies. These findings suggested the potential for oral health check-ups to facilitate collaboration between community pharmacies and dental clinics aimed at maintaining and improving oral health of local residents.

“IBASHO” AND THE OBJECTIVE WELL-BEING OF OLDER ADULTS IN A MARGINALIZED COMMUNITY

Abstract “IBASHO” in Japan means a place where people can feel safe, have roles, and recognize their lives as meaningful. If IBASHO helps older adults to see their lives as meaningful, implementing “IBASHO” in the community would possibly contribute to community members’ objective well-being. This research examines the relationship between the activities that make up “IBASHO” and the objective well-being of older adults. Data were gathered by surveying a marginalized community every two years from 2009 to 2019 (Nf882). Multiple regression analysis was conducted. A six-point scale derived from a survey question measured the objective well-being of older adults as the dependent variable. For measuring “IBASHO,” five items asked about engagement in activities such as “hosting a tea meeting” or “holding a hobby workshop,” with the extent of engagement measured using a five-point scale. The total of these five items’ points (Cronbach’s alpha=.860) was analyzed as an independent variable. Gender, age, economic status, health status, and living alone were also included in the analysis. Results show “IBASHO” activity is a significant predictor of the objective well-being of older adults (p < .000) in the full model. Age, economic status, and health status are also significantly associated with well-being. Findings suggest that implementing “IBASHO” within community settings is associated with higher levels of well-being among older adults in the community. “IBASHO” is crucial to realizing the “no one left behind” policy in Japan.

Digital-Based Policy and Health Promotion Policy in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand: A Scoping Review of Policy Paths to Healthy Aging

People are living longer, and our life has become more digital. Hence, the benefits from digital technology, including economic growth, increasing labor productivity, and ensuring health equity in the face of an aging population emerged as a vital topic for countries around the world. Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Singapore, and Thailand are in the top ten rankings in terms of information and communication technology (ICT) development within the Asia Pacific Region and all are facing challenges of population aging. Well-designed national ICT policy and health promotion policies enabled the countries to make significant progress and development in terms of digitalization and healthy aging. This paper aims to answer questions regarding digitization and health promotion: when it started, how it is going, what are the achievements, and what it holds for the future, considering healthy aging and digitalization by reviewing the national ICT policy and health promotion policies of Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. This paper is expected to help readers build a comprehensive understanding of each country's journey towards building a healthy aging digital society. Furthermore, we hope this paper can be a source for countries to exchange experiences and learn from each other with a joint goal of building a healthy aging digital society.

Policy analysis and data mining tools for controlling COVID-19 policies.

Much research has been done on the efficacy of vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic, but the claims have not yet been realized in the real world. This paper proposes three COVID-19 policy outcome analysis tools such as jpscore for scoring and revealing the best prefecture policy in Japan, scorecovid for scoring and revealing the best country policy in the world, and finally hiscovid for visualizing and identifying when policymakers made mistakes in time-series scores. Poorly scored countries or prefectures can learn good strategies from the best country or prefecture with excellent scores. Three tools are based on a single metric dividing the number of COVID-19 deaths by the population in millions. Three tools suggest us that the sustainable mandatory test-isolation strategy should be adopted in the world for mitigating the pandemic. This paper also addresses what is lacking in Japan for scientific evidence-based research for mitigating the pandemic. Visualization tools and sorted and time-series scores of policy outcomes help policymakers make the right decisions.

Mixing age and risk groups for accessing COVID-19 vaccines: a modelling study

ObjectiveTo characterise the optimal targeting of age and risk groups for COVID-19 vaccines.DesignMotivated by policies in Japan and elsewhere, we consider rollouts that target a mix of age and risk...

Опыт реализации кластерной политики в странах Азии и Латинской Америки

In recent years the development of clusters on the territory of the Russian Federation became one of the most important tools for the development of an innovative and competitive economy, which is supported by the relevant legal framework, developed primarily at the federal level. The complicated political situation which emerged at the global level, makes us to revise the previously used approaches to the implementation of cluster policy, and dictates the search for new tools for the development of regional and national clusters of all types. In this regard, the experience of non-European countries which also use the cluster approach becomes particularly relevant. The purpose of the study was to analyze the features of cluster policy implementation in the countries of Asia and Latin America. In order to achieve this goal, the methods of induction, analysis, synthesis, and comparison were used. The analysis revealed the features of cluster policy models in the countries under analysis; clarified the goals, stages of implementation and the main agents of cluster policy in Japan, China, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico; suggested conclusions on cluster policies implementation in Russia, which can be used by public authorities within their powers. Particular attention is paid to the industry of developing clusters, their composition, and the role of government in this process, the direction of policies and stages of implementation of cluster support tools. One of the main conclusions is that the cluster policy in the more developed countries of Asia has a clear innovative orientation with a view to world leadership, while developing countries use clusters, primarily as a tool to address social issues, and to support exports.

Cases of Japan's After-School Activities Policies and Linking with Universities

Cases of Japan's After-School Activities Policies and Linking with Universities

Clinical Trials of Stem Cell Therapy in Japan: The Decade of Progress under the National Program

Stem cell therapy is a current world-wide topic in medical science. Various therapies have been approved based on their effectiveness and put into practical use. In Japan, research and development-related stem cell therapy, generally referred to as regenerative medicine, has been led by the government. The national scheme started in 2002, and support for the transition to clinical trials has been accelerating since 2011. Of the initial 18 projects that were accepted in the budget for preclinical research, 15 projects have begun clinical trials so far. These include the transplantation of retinal, cardiac, and dopamine-producing cells differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and hepatocyte-like cells differentiated from human embryonic stem (ES) cells. The distinctive feature of the stem cell research in Japan is the use of iPS cells. A national framework was also been set-up to attain the final goal: health insurance coverage. Now, insurance covers cell transplantation therapies for the repair and recovery of damaged skin, articular cartilage, and stroke as well as therapies introduced from abroad, such as allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells for graft-versus-host disease and chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapy. To prepare this review, original information was sought from Japanese authentic websites, which are reliable but a little hard to access due to the fact of multiple less-organized databases and the language barrier. Then, each fact was corroborated by citing its English version or publication in international journals as much as possible. This review provides a summary of progress over the past decade under the national program and a state-of-the-art factual view of research activities, government policy, and regulation in Japan for the realization of stem cell therapy.

Mortality differences in disabled older adults by place of care in Japan: nationwide 10-year results.

This longitudinal study aimed to compare 1-year mortality between users of home- and community-based services (HCBS) and residential facilities (nursing homes, group homes, and geriatric apartments) among non-hospitalized frail older adults in Japan. Using three nationwide data sources, we conducted a nationwide pooled cohort study of 1-year follow-up among certified users of long-term care insurance (LTCI) aged 65yearsand older from 2007 through 2016 to compare 1-year mortality using a logistic regression model. Overall, compared to HCBS users, mortality was higher in residents in nursing homes and geriatric apartments but lower in group home residents. While mortality gradually increased over time among those in residential facilities, it remained at a level similar to that of HCBS users. Since 2006, Japan's public health policy has been to increase end-of-life care in residential facilities. Our results indicate that this policy resulted in an increase in mortality in residential facilities, possibly due to accommodation of more severely ill people there, or a shift in their focus from transferring dying residents to hospitals to preserve the dignity of residents.

Ainu Policy Promotion Act: The problem of compliance with international standards on the rights of indigenous peoples

This article is devoted to the analysis of the Act on Promoting Measures to Realize a Society in Which the Pride of the Ainu People Is Respected (Act No. 16 of 2019). The problem of compliance of Japan's Ainu policy with international standards in the sphere of protection of indigenous peoples' human rights is actively discussed today by foreign researchers. However, it is hardly studied in the Russian historiography. The article discusses the main provisions of the new legislation and reveals the point of view of the Ainu representatives about the measures taken by the government. It has been found out that Japan's Ainu policy is greatly influenced by the position of international community towards the rights of indigenous peoples. International law has become the main lever of influence on the government for the Ainu people. It has been proven that the mechanisms for promotion and protection of the rights of the Ainu in Japan are imperfect and do not fully comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The main issues facing the Ainu are discrimination, collective rights, indigenous representation in the government, development of ethnic education, etc.

Roundtable “The Legacy of Shinzo Abe Cabinets: Politics, Economics, Diplomacy”

On July 8, 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, who remained one of Japan’s most influential political leaders, was shot dead while participating in an election event. A month and a half before Abe's assassination, a round table was held on the legacy of Abe's cabinets with the participation of Russian Japanese studies scholars from several universities and research institutions in Russia and Japan. During the discussion, a comprehensive analysis of the foreign policy of Abe's cabinets and, above all, his diplomacy vis-à-vis Russia was given. Japan's military security policy underwent radical changes under Abe, with the concept of proactive pacifism being its ideological formalization. Among Abe's achievements in the domestic political sphere, the participants of the round table especially noted his ability to control the bureaucracy and use the slightest miscalculations of his political opponents, as well as skillful image-making and the use of slogans for propaganda purposes. It was stated that the policy of ‘Abenomics’, proclaimed by Abe, remains relevant today, although some of its intermediate goals have already been achieved. The set of measures carried out by Abe's cabinets and aimed at creating conditions for expanding women's participation in the economy, called ‘Womenomics’, was analyzed. In conclusion, the data of a survey of Japanese students focusing on the transformation of their views on the outcome of World War II under the influence of Abe's ideas are presented.

On the state of multilingualism and polyglottery in Japan

In the research done for this article, the matter of multilingualism and polyglottery in modern Japan was addressed and the relationship between these phenomena and how they affect one another is discussed. Before discussing the matter of polyglots in Japan, it was felt to be useful to first examine what or what not a polyglot might be and how that term might differ from the word “multilingual” in the context of Japan, as we can assume that, even if the two terms cover much of the same semantic territory for a Japanese, they are not, as now generally understood, completely alike nor should the terms be considered interchangeable with one another. This matter is addressed in the section on vocabulary definitions. The second section, on factors of language relation, typology and culture, in which Japanese views on language and polyglottery are addressed, deals with the obstacles to becoming a polyglot that Japanese are often facing. It is proposed that the most important obstacle to achieving polyglottery by Japanese is imposed by time; and, for this reason, an overview of the approximate necessary timeframe to learn different languages for an elite cohort of American State Department educated individuals is provided. From this, guesstimates of what would be expected of a similar Japanese cohort in a Japanese context are given. The language policy and language education of Japan are also addressed. In connection with this, a short discussion is made as to why this might also contribute to the scarcity of polyglots in Japan, though it is also maintained that a scarcity of polyglots among people of Japanese ethnicity living in Japan does not necessarily mean that there is an equal level of scarcity of multilinguals, who, if they had learned their languages in different circumstances with more self-awareness, would be considered as polyglots.

［The 1st Seminar by Solid Wast Culture and History Reseach Group in 2022］ Night Soil Treatment Policy in Japan after World War Ⅱ

［The 1st Seminar by Solid Wast Culture and History Reseach Group in 2022］ Night Soil Treatment Policy in Japan after World War Ⅱ

전시기 일본의 대(對)중국 영화정책과 ‘대동아영화(大東亜映画)’

This article attempts to re-evaluate China United Productions Ltd(中華電映), which was established in Shanghai in June 1939. Japanese researchers previously suggested that Nagamasa Kawakita, who led the organization, was a person that resisted the demands of the Japanese military and tried to defend and protect Chinese filmmakers. This paper focuses on his salient activities and tries to break away from the existing research framework that was limited to the relationship between Japan and China. During the war, Japan made films with China and other countries. If a comprehensive review of the film policy direction in various regions, including China, is made, it could shed some light on whether Nagamasa Kawakita's activities and remarks were consistent with the policy directions for Japanese films at the time. To this end, this paper looks at the direction of film production in Japan, focusing on the concept used at the time, ‘Great East Asian Cinema (大東亜映画)’. It is found that the film production environment and the narrative of the cinema also changed due to the need for regional cooperation. Based on these findings, it can be evaluated that Nagamasa Kawakita was just one of the executives of Imperial Japan's film policy. And I suggest that future research on this period should move beyond the evaluation of the individual Nagamasa Kawakita and shift to analyzing the production environment and narratives of films in each region on its own.

Aging and the politics of monetary policy in Japan

AbstractThis paper explores how Japan's aging population impacts the politics of monetary policy. Previous research suggests that the elderly have a variety of distinct policy preferences. Given that elderly voters also have higher voting rates, the rapid greying of the population could have significant effects on distributive struggles over economic policy across much of the developed world. In Japan, aging is advancing rapidly, and the central bank has engaged in massive monetary stimulus to induce inflation, which existing work suggests the elderly should oppose. Analyzing results from three surveys, this paper has three central findings: (1) the elderly tend to have higher inflation aversion, (2) the elderly display some opposition to quantitative easing (QE), and (3) despite such policy preferences, the concentration of elderly in electoral districts has no significant effect on the preferences either of legislative incumbents or candidates. The third finding is attributable to the fact that elderly opposition to QE is moderated by their partisan identification. Elderly Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voters have systematically lower opposition to QE, likely reflecting that these voters have aligned their preferences with the LDP's policies.

Traveling and eating out during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Go To campaign policies in Japan

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic plunged many industries of the economy into contraction, particularly the travel, hotel accommodation, and eating/drinking industries. In Japan, some demand-inducing policies targeting such industries were implemented, known as the Go To Travel and Go To Eat campaigns. Using a unique individual-level survey, we investigate what factors make people respond to these campaign policies. We find that certain socioeconomics factors (e.g., gender, income, ICT skills) as well as noneconomic factors matter. In particular, risk attitudes, and personal traits (e.g., extraversion) crucially affect whether people traveled or dined out in response to these campaigns despite the spread of COVID-19.

Do house prices play a role in unconventional monetary policy transmission in Japan?

This study comprehensively analyzes the role of house prices in the transmission mechanism of unconventional monetary policy (UMP) in Japan using structural vector autoregression models. The empirical results show that house prices are significantly affected by UMP shocks, and fluctuations in house prices considerably affect macroeconomic variables. With a set of robustness checks and extensions, the findings indicate that house prices provide important channels for UMP transmission.

Русские эмигранты в Китае в 1920–1930-е гг.: две гражданские войны на одном жизненном пути

Introduction. The purpose of this study is to present a picture of the life path of Russians (military, cossacks) who witnessed and participated in two civil wars: in Russia and in China. This topic is relevant, since its research allows us to analyze the ways of adaptation of people who have experienced severe forms of transformation in various spheres of life of the two states. Methods and materials. The source base of the study is represented by narrative sources (personal diaries of Russian emigrants A.P. Budberg, G.P. Larin, E.N. Pastukhin, A.A. Tikhobrazova, I.I. Shtina) and periodicals published in Russian by Russian emigrants in China in the 1920 (newspapers “Molva”, “Zarya”, “Russian Voice”, “Gun-Bao”). To present a multifaceted picture of the life of Russian emigrants in China, the following methods were used: dialectical, systemic, analytical-synthetic, historical-comparative, historicalanthropological. Analysis. This study examines the unique history of various categories of emigrants who survived the collapse of spiritual values, ideology, political and economic systems, and the breakdown of the social structure during the civil wars. Against the background of political games, battles, the formation and destruction of military alliances, the story of former Russian military and civilians unfolds, who, in search of earnings and / or for ideological reasons, fought in the ranks of the military units of the Chinese militarists in the 1920–1930. The presented study reflects the struggle between Soviet and anti-Soviet ideology in the Far East, in China: the participation of Russians in the civil war in China, condemnation of Soviet policy on the pages of personal diaries and Russian-language newspapers published in China, support by some public organizations of fascist ideology and the occupation policy of Japan. Results. Historical events were identified that linked the fate of a large number of representatives of the two states. Shown are the various life paths that Russians chose in a foreign land, the difficulties they faced. Their attitude to the spiritual (moral) values of Russian culture is noted. The problem of disunity between military units and their leaders, which killed the “white” army in the civil war in Russia, was not overcome in China. The modern world never ceases to accept the challenges of supporters of radical transformations. This increases public interest in the experience of adaptation of Russian emigrants in China.