Japanese Personality Research Articles

Patients with diabetes and obesity exhibit characteristics in eating and coping behaviors and personality traits.

In patients with diabetes, obesity is an aggravating factor for glycemic control and its vascular complications. However, the psychological and behavioral characteristics of those patients with obesity have not been fully clarified. This study investigated eating and coping behavior, personality traits, quality of life (QOL), and depression status in patients with diabetes with or without obesity. Questionnaires obtained from 567 patients with diabetes at Dokkyo Medical University were analyzed. Eating behavior, coping behavior, personality traits, QOL, and depression status were evaluated by the Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Brief COPE, Japanese Ten-Item Personality Inventory, EuroQol 5 Dimensions-5 Level, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. Participants were divided according to body mass index (BMI) into a non-obese group (BMI<25), obese group (BMI 25-35), and high-degree obese group (BMI≥35), and results were compared between groups. On all items of the Eating Behavior Questionnaire, scores were higher in the obese and high-degree obese groups than non-obese group, indicating worse eating behavior. In coping behavior, significant intergroup differences were found in self-distraction, substance use, using emotional support, using instrumental support, and venting. As for personality traits, the obese group had significantly lower conscientiousness and higher emotional instability than the non-obese group. There was no significant difference in QOL or depression status. These results suggest that there are some characteristics in eating and coping behaviors and some personality traits between obese and non-obese patients with diabetes. Treatment based on such characteristics may be useful for patients with diabetes and obesity. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13340-024-00721-w.

Mind your language! Lessons from the application of an English published version of a Japanese horse personality instrument to a French population

Replicability is a fundamental tenet of the scientific method and scientific reporting, but there is a preponderance to publish scientific research in English to increase international recognition, regardless of the country of origin of the research. Questionnaires are widely used to assess personality in animals. These psychometric instruments are mainly published in English but can be used all over the world in other languages. However, without safeguards relating to the translation process, the replicability of the quality of the instrument may change from its originally reported value. This study focuses on the particular issue of cross-cultural reliability of psychometric instruments used for assessing animals that have been translated from their original context. We examined the replicability of the structure of a personality scale originally used in Japanese (but reported in the English literature) on an English population (n=100), and then the reliability of the structure of a French translation of the English version with additional translational safeguards (e.g. back-translation and sense checking) on a French population (n = 159 horses). Horses were rated by 3 evaluators to also allow calculation of inter-rater reliability. We found that there was greater reliability and similarity of structure between the adapted English translation and French version of the Japanese scale, than with the originally published structure of the instrument used in Japan. These results highlight the importance of never assuming the reliability and thus validity of semantic instruments used to assess animal behaviour which have been published in a different language to that in which they were originally developed.

Early recognition of entrepreneurial traits and intentions: a comparative study on university students in Australia and Japan

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of entrepreneurial traits on entrepreneurial intentions, while exploring the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness. An online structured questionnaire (facilitated by Qualtrics tool) via the Facebook platform was used to collect data from university students in Australia and Japan. We applied bootstrapping and algorithms performed on Smart-PLS software to test the study’s developed hypotheses. The findings suggest risk-taking propensity affects Australian and Japanese students’ entrepreneurial alertness the greatest. However, Japanese students’ need for achievement has a considerable influence on entrepreneurial alertness and an indirect effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Japanese students’ self-efficacy has little influence on entrepreneurial awareness or intentions, but Australian students do. Overall, Japanese student personality factors affect more to entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial intentions. The research findings are original and unique and are based on established models and theories from the literature on entrepreneurship. The results are based on a sample of Australian and Japanese institutions owing to the Australia–Japan friendship, common strategy, and economic interests. Respondents are from six Australian and Japanese institutions. Educational institutions, academics, and policymakers may leverage the study results for entrepreneurial success. Future research should reflect this study’s limitations. The researcher did not study the direct impact of personality factors on entrepreneurial inclinations. Future studies should explore the influence of personality factors on entrepreneurial inclinations. Future research may conduct a similar study in other countries.

A validation of the Japanese adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2.

The purpose of this study was to adapt a Japanese version of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2-J) to examine its factor structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance. The BFI-2-J assesses five domains and 15 facets of the Big Five personality traits. We analyzed two datasets: 487 Japanese undergraduates and 500 Japanese adults. The results of the principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the domain-facet structure of the BFI-2-J was similar to that of other language versions. The reliability of the BFI-2-J is sufficient. The correlation coefficients between the BFI-2-J and the other Big Five and self-esteem measures supported convergent and discriminant validity. Moreover, we confirmed measurement invariance across age and sex groups in domain-level and facet-level models. The results suggest that the BFI-2-J is a good instrument for measuring the Big Five personality traits and their facets in Japan. The BFI-2-J is expected to be useful in Japanese personality research and international comparative research.

Utilizing short version big five traits on crowdsouring

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of the Japanese ten-item personality inventory (TIPI-J), a short version of the big five (BF) questionnaire, on crowdsourcing. The BF traits are indicators of personality and are said to be an effective predictor of study performance in various occupations. BF can be used in crowdsourcing to predict crowd workers’ performance; however, it will be difficult to use in practice for two reasons like the time-and-effort issue and the bias issue. In this study, an empirical analysis is conducted on crowdsourcing to examine if TIPI-J can solve those issues.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the issues, two tasks are posted on a crowdsourcing provider. Both TIPI-J and full version BF are conducted before and after selecting crowd workers. Structural validity and convergence validity are tested with correlation analysis between before (TIPI-J) and after (full version BF) data to examine the bias issue. Additionally, those correlations are compared with previous study and significances are examined.FindingsThe correlations in “conscientiousness” is 0.45-0.50, respectively, compared with a previous study, those two correlations did not show significance. This indicates that no clear bias exists.Originality/valueThis is the first research to investigate the efficacy of TIPI-J on crowdsourcing and showed that TIPI-J can be a useful tool for predicting crowd workers’ performance and thus it can help to select appropriate crowd workers.

A multi‐institutional assessment of a short‐form personality questionnaire for use with macaques

There are two commonly-used methods for calculating primates' personality dimensions, behavioral assessments and surveys, which can be used separately or in conjunction. However, these methods have limitations. Behavioral assessments, such as the novel object test or human intruder test, often require subjects to be separated and demand highly-controlled conditions. This is likely not feasible in many zoological institutions. Furthermore, it may be difficult to replicate methods across institutions. While surveys are easier to implement, the most commonly used one - the Hominoid Personality Questionnaire (HPQ) - is long and can be time consuming to complete, especially if multiple individuals need assessing. Therefore, we developed a short-form personality questionnaire for use with macaques. We aimed to retain elements of published scales while creating a tool that would be less time consuming to complete. After creating a novel 26-item scale (28 fewer items than the HPQ), we gathered ratings for 63 Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) living in eight zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Using principal components analysis, we identified four components to describe the Japanese macaque personality: Openneness, Friendliness, Dominance, and Anxiety/Reactivity. While further testing is required to fully validate this scale, we tested for the convergent validity of our questionnaire by correlating the responses of a subset of the monkeys to a novel object and assessed the face validity of our scale in comparison to previously-published scales.

Chapter 1: Psychoanalysis and the Japanese Personality Chapter 2: Psychoanalysis and Western Man Chapter 3: Amae and Transference-Love Chapter 4: Heeding the Vocabulary of Another Culture: Psychoanalysis in Japan

This posthumous publication consists of three parts written at different times by Takeo Doi. The second part was written in 1964 as his presentation at the first congress of the World Association of Social Psychiatry. The first part was added when the second part was introduced to the Japanese readers in 1969. The third part was written about Freud’s Observations on Transference-Love (Contemporary Freud) in 1993. Upon Doi’s return to Japan in 1956 after a disappointing experience in the United States, where it was recommended that he return to Japan by Dr. Reider, Takeo Doi investigated himself personally and culturally.

Japan's Deteriorating ties with China: The Koizumi Factor

In April 2005, anti-Japanese protests erupted in many cities in China and marked the lowest point in Sino-Japanese relations in more than 30 years. That these protests took place during the tenure of the Koizumi Administration should come as no surprise. Indeed, the policies and personality of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro have both contributed to this abysmal state of relations between the two neighbours. The Koizumi Administration has abandoned the low-posture, post-war framework of appeasing Beijing which had the following features: no explicit mentioning of Taiwan as falling within the ambit of the US-Japan Alliance, repeated offering of apologies over its past invasion of the Chinese Mainland and extending generous Official Development Assistance (ODA) in lieu of reparations. This article traces the growing assertiveness of the Koizumi Administration towards China. While the deterioration of bilateral ties is the responsibility and fault of both parties, Prime Minister Koizumi himself is a key problem — not a problem-solver in this worsening of Sino-Japanese relations. A main reason for the rising friction between Beijing and Tokyo is the fundamental shift in the political economy of East Asia: China's rise coupled with Japan's stagnation. The angst of being overshadowed by China's phenomenal economic growth and the fear that this growth will translate into greater Chinese political influence [End Page 275] and military power in East Asia have made many Japanese elites wary, if not hostile, to China. Notwithstanding such sentiments within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the rightwing mass media, the Japanese Prime Minister's personality is crucial in bilateral ties: a more reconciliatory Prime Minister will help mitigate bilateral differences, while a more assertive and combative one will make matters worse. Had Koizumi not adamantly insisted on making annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine (the symbol of Japanese militarism towards the Chinese and Koreans), then the burden of history which bedevils Sino-Japanese relations could have been lightened by half. The following areas of the Koizumi Administration's assertiveness towards China are examined: the decision to end ODA, the issue of an apology over Imperial Japan's invasion of the Chinese Mainland and the unprecedented and explicit mentioning of Taiwan as a common strategic objective for the US-Japan Alliance. It then examines the absence of politicians in the present Koizumi cabinet who are reputedly friendly towards China. The main conclusion is that the departure of Koizumi as Prime Minister will not necessarily lead to an improvement in Sino-Japanese relations. Indeed, Koizumi's successor might be even more assertive and prickly towards China. Ending ODA to China In March 2005, Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka officially announced that as of fiscal 2008 when Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, Japan would cease extending new yen loans to China.1 The ostensible reason (tatemae) is that Japanese funds are no longer needed given China's rapid economic growth. The real reason (honne) for ending ODA is the rise of negative sentiment in Japan towards China, stemming in part from the frustration generated by the phenomenon of "China rising, Japan stagnating".2 Many Japanese believe that Japan must stand up to China to avoid being displaced by an ascendant country. [End Page 276] In recent years, Japanese ODA has become less important to China's economic development. By 2004, Japan's cumulative ODA to China was 3.3 trillion yen (USD31.5 billion), a fraction of China's cumulative foreign direct investment of USD563 billion.3 Many Japanese, who are unhappy that Beijing has increased its military budget by more than 10 per cent annually and even offered aid to neighbouring countries, feel that Beijing does not appreciate Tokyo's generous ODA which has been used mainly to help improve the Mainland's infrastructure. They are angered by virulent anti-Japanese nationalism in China as evidenced by the abusive behaviour of Chinese soccer hooligans towards the Japanese national team during...

Japan's Deteriorating Ties with China: The Koizumi Factor

In April 2005, anti-Japanese protests erupted in many cities in China and marked the lowest point in Sino-Japanese relations in more than 30 years. That these protests took place during the tenure of the Koizumi Administration should come as no surprise. Indeed, the policies and personality of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro have both contributed to this abysmal state of relations between the two neighbours. The Koizumi Administration has abandoned the low-posture, post-war framework of appeasing Beijing which had the following features: no explicit mentioning of Taiwan as falling within the ambit of the US-Japan Alliance, repeated offering of apologies over its past invasion of the Chinese Mainland and extending generous Official Development Assistance (ODA) in lieu of reparations. This article traces the growing assertiveness of the Koizumi Administration towards China. While the deterioration of bilateral ties is the responsibility and fault of both parties, Prime Minister Koizumi himself is a key problem — not a problem-solver in this worsening of Sino-Japanese relations. A main reason for the rising friction between Beijing and Tokyo is the fundamental shift in the political economy of East Asia: China's rise coupled with Japan's stagnation. The angst of being overshadowed by China's phenomenal economic growth and the fear that this growth will translate into greater Chinese political influence [End Page 275] and military power in East Asia have made many Japanese elites wary, if not hostile, to China. Notwithstanding such sentiments within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the rightwing mass media, the Japanese Prime Minister's personality is crucial in bilateral ties: a more reconciliatory Prime Minister will help mitigate bilateral differences, while a more assertive and combative one will make matters worse. Had Koizumi not adamantly insisted on making annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine (the symbol of Japanese militarism towards the Chinese and Koreans), then the burden of history which bedevils Sino-Japanese relations could have been lightened by half. The following areas of the Koizumi Administration's assertiveness towards China are examined: the decision to end ODA, the issue of an apology over Imperial Japan's invasion of the Chinese Mainland and the unprecedented and explicit mentioning of Taiwan as a common strategic objective for the US-Japan Alliance. It then examines the absence of politicians in the present Koizumi cabinet who are reputedly friendly towards China. The main conclusion is that the departure of Koizumi as Prime Minister will not necessarily lead to an improvement in Sino-Japanese relations. Indeed, Koizumi's successor might be even more assertive and prickly towards China. Ending ODA to China In March 2005, Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka officially announced that as of fiscal 2008 when Beijing hosts the Olympic Games, Japan would cease extending new yen loans to China.1 The ostensible reason (tatemae) is that Japanese funds are no longer needed given China's rapid economic growth. The real reason (honne) for ending ODA is the rise of negative sentiment in Japan towards China, stemming in part from the frustration generated by the phenomenon of "China rising, Japan stagnating".2 Many Japanese believe that Japan must stand up to China to avoid being displaced by an ascendant country. [End Page 276] In recent years, Japanese ODA has become less important to China's economic development. By 2004, Japan's cumulative ODA to China was 3.3 trillion yen (USD31.5 billion), a fraction of China's cumulative foreign direct investment of USD563 billion.3 Many Japanese, who are unhappy that Beijing has increased its military budget by more than 10 per cent annually and even offered aid to neighbouring countries, feel that Beijing does not appreciate Tokyo's generous ODA which has been used mainly to help improve the Mainland's infrastructure. They are angered by virulent anti-Japanese nationalism in China as evidenced by the abusive behaviour of Chinese soccer hooligans towards the Japanese national team during...

The proposed factor structure of temperament and personality in Japan: combining traits from TEMPS-A and MPT

Background: In Japan, Kraepelin's descriptions on four “fundamental states” of manic depressive illness, the concepts of schizoid temperament by Kretschmer and obsessional and melancholic type temperament by Shimoda and Tellenbach have been widely accepted. This research investigates the construct validity of these temperaments through factor analysis. Method: TEMPS-A measured depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic and irritable temperaments and MPT rigidity, esoteric and isolation subscales measured, respectively, melancholic type and schizoid temperaments. Factor analysis was implemented with TEMPS-A alone and TEMPS-A and MPT combined data. Results: With TEMPS-A alone analysis, Factor 1 included 1 depressive, 11 cyclothymic and 12 irritable temperament items with a factor loading higher than 0.4; Factor 2 included 1 depressive and 10 hyperthymic temperament items; and Factor 3 included 2 depressive temperament items only. With TEMPS-A and MPT combined data, Factor 1 included 3 depressive, 11 cyclothymic and 5 irritable temperament items with a factor loading higher than 0.4 (interpreted as the central cyclothymic tendency for all affective temperaments along Kretschmerian lines and accounting for 11.7% of the variance); Factor 2 included 6 hyperthymic temperament items (6.22% of variance); Factor 3 included 1 cyclothymic, 7 irritable and 1 schizoid temperament items (interpreted as the irritable temperament and accounting for 3.24% of the variance); Factor 4 included 1 depressive temperament and 5 melancholic type items (interpreted as the latter, accounting for 2.66% of the variance); Factor 5 included 5 depressive temperament items, along interpersonal sensitivity and passivity lines, and accounting for 2.31% of the variance; and Factor 6 included 4 schizoid temperament items accounting for 2.07% of the variance. Limitation: We did not use the Kasahara scale, which some believe to better capture the Japanese melancholic type. Sample was 70% male. Conclusion: These analyses confirm the factor validity of depressive, hyperthymic, cyclothymic and irritable temperaments (TEMPS-A), as well as the melancholic type and the schizoid temperament (MPT). Traits of the depressive and melancholic types emerge as rather distinct. Indeed, our results permit the delineation of an interpersonally sensitive type that “gives in to others” as the core features of the depressive temperament; this is to be contrasted with the higher functioning, perfectionistic, work-oriented melancholic type. Mood dysregulation is represented by the largest number of traits in this population. Contrary to a widely held belief that the melancholic type with its devotion to work and to others is the signature temperament in Japan, cyclothymic traits account for the largest variance in this nonclinical population. Hyperthymic temperament, melancholic type and schizoid temperaments appear largely independent of mood dysregulation. In this Japanese population, TEMPS-A may identify temperament constructs more comprehensively when implemented with melancholic type and schizoid temperament question items added to it. The proposed new Japanese Temperament and Personality (JTP) Scale has self-rated items divided into six subscales.

A Multicultural Discussion About Personality Development

The use of knife and fork common inWestern cultures has influenced Japanese people not only in terms of eating habits but also Japanese personality characteristics. This influence fosters the notion of segmentation—that all areas of life, including people, can be sectioned into parts and so analyzed. Mind and body are considered two discrete elements. Likewise, Western influence in clothes, housing, and language has also brought the Japanese a great deal of change in their value system. The change has affected family structure; thus there is confusion to the extent the Japanese seem to be at loss as to what to do and how to deal with daily life. The authors also discuss how strongly personality theories mainly developed in Western cultures have influenced personality development and child rearing in Japan (Kurato).

Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: A study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constucts.

Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: A study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constucts.

Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: A study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constucts.

This research argues that the meaning embedded in consumption symbols, such as commercial brands, can serve to represent and institutionalize the values and beliefs of a culture. Relying on a combined emic-etic approach, the authors conducted 4 studies to examine how symbolic and expressive attributes associated with commercial brands are structured and how this structure varies across 3 cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a set of "brand personality" dimensions common to both Japan and the United States (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, and Sophistication), as well as culture-specific Japanese (Peacefulness) and American (Ruggedness) dimensions. Studied 3 and 4, which extended this set of findings to Spain, yielded brand personality dimensions common to both Spain and the United States (Sincerity, Excitement, and Sophistication), plus nonshared Spanish (Passion) and American (Competence and Ruggedness) dimensions. The meaning of these brand personality dimensions is discussed in the context of cross-cultural research on values and affect, globalization issues, and cultural frame shifting.

A Study of Japanese Coronary-prone Personality of Ischemic Heart Disease by Using a Broad Spectrum : Inventory System(JMI)

A Study of Japanese Coronary-prone Personality of Ischemic Heart Disease by Using a Broad Spectrum : Inventory System(JMI)

The Japanese political personality: analyzing the motivations and culture of freshman Diet members

List of Tables and Appendices - Foreword by Peter Suedfeld - Preface - List of Abbreviations - Introduction - The Political Personality: Setting the Frame - The Diet Member: Political Activity and Culture - Political Incentives: The Decision to Seek Office - Belief Systems: Their Effect on Political Behaviour - Self-Esteem: A Motivation for Action - Self-complexity: Attitudes Toward Significant Others - The Japanese Politician: Modal Personalities and Political Types - Appendices - Notes - Bibliography - Index

Book Review: Tokyo Life, New York Dreams: Urban Japanese Visions of America, 1890-1924

Reviewed by: Tokyo Life, New York Dreams: Urban Japanese Visions of America, 1890–1924 John Kuo Wei Tchen Tokyo Life, New York Dreams: Urban Japanese Visions of America, 1890–1924. By Mitziko Sawada. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Mitziko Sawada’s transnational, cross-cultural migrant study reminds us how important a carefully researched historical analysis can be in generating new lines of thinking. This ground-breaking book offers many provocative insights and sensitive thumbnail portraits of a pioneer generation of hi-imin (elite non-immigrants or non-laborer visitors such as students, professionals, and merchants) Japanese men who came to New York City during the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century. By focusing on these striving Meiji-era Tokyojin (people from Tokyo) males smitten with tobei netsu (crossing-to-America fever), Sawada has made a significant contribution to bridging East Asian and Asian American history. At the same time, she has written a history resonant with post-1965 middle-class migrants. [End Page 311] In this history, New York City is the imagined masculinized destination of personal, cultural, and political economic desire. Using a variety of Japanese language sources, especially success literature, novels, magazines, and guidebooks, Sawada contextualizes this New York fever within the Meiji patriarchal transformation of rural social relations into the Tokyo-centered, corporate hierarchies devoted to capitalist competition. New York became the romanticized promised land of various male escapes—from limited educational access, individual conformity to the family and state, social inequities, strained gender roles, ad infinitum. The actual experience of living and working in New York City, of course, proved to be a rude awakening. Most men ended up working as servants, found little time to study, and encountered racism. Those who stayed constituted the beginnings of a small but important Japanese New Yorker community. Tobei netsu in Westernizing cosmopolitan Tokyo became an important cultural mechanism that reformulated the Japanese male personality by recoding Western, Protestant capitalist ways into Japanese terms (wayo) for middle-classness (churyukaikyu). The inflection of Japanese qualities into Western forms of modernity (kindai) enabled aspiring individuals to compete in universalized capitalist terms. The embrace of Western ways led to a state-imposed curb, for example, on male and female public bathing so as not to offend visiting Westerners and later to the intense male exploration of renai (individual “free” love), which began to significantly shift everyday social life. Hence, the rise of Japanese capitalist modernity played a critical role in generating a cultural space of desire among the Tokyojin to change their relationship to traditions and reconstitute themselves as wannabe New York cosmopolitans. Tobei netsu encouraged aspiring Japanese men to dream of leaving and finding their place in the construction of a new imperial Japan. Not only would they learn the ways of Western power and wealth to bring home, but they could also become the outposts of Japanese power in a new pan-Asian empire. Such an ideology of overseas Japanese hi-imin was distinct from the lowly, rural agricultural imin (contracted skilled and unskilled emigrant laborers) who capitalists recruited to Hawaii, the U.S. Pacific coast, Brazil, and Peru. The process of becoming middle class in Japan, therefore, not only stimulated settlements overseas, but brought the island nation into a globalizing set of capitalist-state relationships. The Japanese state and elite consistently thought itself better than the stumbling Chinese empire and people. Thus the Japanese government voluntarily curbed its own immigration to the United States with the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907 to protect the continued admission of students, merchants, and scholars, who became a critical component of an industrial policy premised [End Page 312] on expansion into China, Korea, and the Pacific. In this way, the reconstituted modern, urban Japanese male became the harbinger of Japanese-U.S.-Pacific dynamics and policies which would forecast Japanese imperialism in the years to come. Indeed, what Tokyo Life exemplifies is the importance of understanding the interplay between the culture of the Japanese middle class and the capitalism of urban port cities in the proliferate exchanges of people, ideas, and profit. The Japanese state policy to modernize created an entrepreneurial space in which the cottage industry of American dreaming...

Chemical signaling disorders in the brain

Background: In Japan, Kraepelin's descriptions on four “fundamental states” of manic depressive illness, the concepts of schizoid temperament by Kretschmer and obsessional and melancholic type temperament by Shimoda and Tellenbach have been widely accepted. This research investigates the construct validity of these temperaments through factor analysis. Method: TEMPS-A measured depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic and irritable temperaments and MPT rigidity, esoteric and isolation subscales measured, respectively, melancholic type and schizoid temperaments. Factor analysis was implemented with TEMPS-A alone and TEMPS-A and MPT combined data. Results: With TEMPS-A alone analysis, Factor 1 included 1 depressive, 11 cyclothymic and 12 irritable temperament items with a factor loading higher than 0.4; Factor 2 included 1 depressive and 10 hyperthymic temperament items; and Factor 3 included 2 depressive temperament items only. With TEMPS-A and MPT combined data, Factor 1 included 3 depressive, 11 cyclothymic and 5 irritable temperament items with a factor loading higher than 0.4 (interpreted as the central cyclothymic tendency for all affective temperaments along Kretschmerian lines and accounting for 11.7% of the variance); Factor 2 included 6 hyperthymic temperament items (6.22% of variance); Factor 3 included 1 cyclothymic, 7 irritable and 1 schizoid temperament items (interpreted as the irritable temperament and accounting for 3.24% of the variance); Factor 4 included 1 depressive temperament and 5 melancholic type items (interpreted as the latter, accounting for 2.66% of the variance); Factor 5 included 5 depressive temperament items, along interpersonal sensitivity and passivity lines, and accounting for 2.31% of the variance; and Factor 6 included 4 schizoid temperament items accounting for 2.07% of the variance. Limitation: We did not use the Kasahara scale, which some believe to better capture the Japanese melancholic type. Sample was 70% male. Conclusion: These analyses confirm the factor validity of depressive, hyperthymic, cyclothymic and irritable temperaments (TEMPS-A), as well as the melancholic type and the schizoid temperament (MPT). Traits of the depressive and melancholic types emerge as rather distinct. Indeed, our results permit the delineation of an interpersonally sensitive type that “gives in to others” as the core features of the depressive temperament; this is to be contrasted with the higher functioning, perfectionistic, work-oriented melancholic type. Mood dysregulation is represented by the largest number of traits in this population. Contrary to a widely held belief that the melancholic type with its devotion to work and to others is the signature temperament in Japan, cyclothymic traits account for the largest variance in this nonclinical population. Hyperthymic temperament, melancholic type and schizoid temperaments appear largely independent of mood dysregulation. In this Japanese population, TEMPS-A may identify temperament constructs more comprehensively when implemented with melancholic type and schizoid temperament question items added to it. The proposed new Japanese Temperament and Personality (JTP) Scale has self-rated items divided into six subscales.

Correlation Analysis for Simultaneously Controlling Reliability and Validity

The purpose of the present study is to propose a procedure for correlation analysis of several (especially two) sets of variables, which includes canonical correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and multiple regression analysis as a special case. The proposed method derives components from each set of variables which maximize the weighted geometric mean of two types of indicators: one is the contribution rate of the components for their original variables, the other is the squared correlation between the components. In terms of the test theory, the former are indicators of reliability and the latter are indicators of concurrent validity. Through the numerical examples applying this method to the data of two Japanese language personality inventory, the method is shown to be particularly useful when determining the weights for test items.

Transethnic adoption and personality traits: a lesson from Japanese orphans returned from China to Japan

The authors interviewed 25 Japanese who had been left as orphans in China at the end of World War II and who had recently returned to Japan with their Chinese spouses after almost four decades. It was found that even though they had been raised as Chinese culturally for almost their entire lives, most of these subjects had retained certain Japanese personality traits and social behavior from early childhood, and these characteristics distinguished them from their Chinese counterparts.

性格表現用語に使われる“気”の研究

Since there are so many Japanese personality trait names, which include the word “ki”, it is plausible that these expressions reflect the characteristics of the way the structure of the personality is grasped by the Japanese. The purpose of the present study is to reveal those characteristics viewed through the word “ki” by means of factor analysis. Forty male and 31 female six-year-old children were rated by their preschool teachers with regard to the 25 personality trait names using the word “ki”. Factor analysis with varimax rotation yielded following four factors: “ki” was regarded as (1) changeable material. Our personality was metaphorically seen as having this “ki” within it and basically changeable. (2) Attention toward others. Our personality was evaluated by the extent we pay attentions to others. (3) Radio waves between people. Capacity of “tuning in” to others was our characteristic way of evaluating a person. (4) Quantity of psychic energy. In this factor, “ki” was thought as metaphorically related to the body.