Interaction In Japan Research Articles

Digital transformation and COVID-19: experience and prospects for the development of “society 5.0” in japan. analysis of the situation in Ukraine

In connection with the transformation of the civilizational landscape of the world, the need for the evolution of modern society is growing many times over, and Japan is a country where a new type of society is being formed at an unprecedented pace. The paper proposes to consider the features of the creation and development of “society 5.0” in the context of analyzing the implementation of the direction in Japanese practice by summing up the main components of the sphere. The main methods were the method of system analysis, with the help of which the key components of the digitalization of modern society in Japan were studied, and the historical method, with the help of which were outlined features of the implementation of information technology in all spheres of life of the country and society. The work examines the main semantic elements of such a phenomenon as “digital society” — definition, terms, characteristic features, common and distinctive factors. It was recorded that the quality indicators of modern humanity at the beginning of the 21st Century ceased to fully satisfy its needs and demands, and in connection with this, the need to create a new form of society is arose — a symbiosis of humans and digital technologies. In the context of the moral side of the issue, social and cultural problems arise, namely, how the synergistic combination of a living organism and robotic elements will affect Japanese society in the future. Through the prism of using the experience of digitalization of social, political and other spheres of interaction in Japan, it is summarized that Ukraine has all the prerequisites for their successful application in national practice. The results and conclusions of the work can be used as a practical basis for future scientific research, as well as in the context of developing state and social development strategies for the coming years.

China–Japan interaction in the Middle East: a battleground of Japan's remilitarization

ABSTRACTAs most studies on Middle East–East Asian relations focus on the interregional dimension, the manner in which relations between East Asian powers influence, and are influenced by, their policies in the Middle East are largely overlooked. Attempting to add another layer to the study of Sino-Japanese relations, this article explores whether Sino-Japanese rivalry extends to the Middle East. This undertaking requires a conceptual distinction between measures related to Sino-Japanese competition in the Middle East and measures which are related to their rivalry. Building on a minimal definition of interstate rivalry, the article argues that neither the effort to secure energy supply nor their economic or political competition there is shaped by their rivalry. The only field that can be associated with that rivalry is Japan's quasi-military activity in the Middle East, which may enhance its security policy's revision. That, in turn, causes much concern and criticism in Beijing, thus assigning the region a certain role in their relations.

Information sharing, neighborhood demarcation, and yardstick competition: an empirical analysis of intergovernmental expenditure interaction in Japan

The Japanese government provides information on local fiscal performance through the Fiscal Index Tables for Similar Municipalities (FITS-M). The FITS-M categorize municipalities into groups of “similar localities” and provide them with the fiscal indices of their group members, enabling municipalities to use the tables to identify their “neighbors” (i.e., those in the same FITS-M group) and refer to their fiscal information as a “yardstick” for fiscal planning. We take advantage of this system to estimate municipal spending function. In particular, we examine whether the FITS-M help identify a defensible spatial weights matrix that properly describes municipal spending interactions. Our analysis shows that they do. In particular, geographical proximity is significant only between a pair of municipalities within a given FITS-M group, and it does not affect competition between pairs belonging to different groups even if they are located close to each other. This would suggest that the FITS-M work as intended, indicating that spending interaction among Japanese municipalities originates from yardstick competition and not from other types of fiscal competition.

(De-)legitimizing medical professional discourses: evaluations from foreign English teachers in Japan

ABSTRACTUtilizing Donal Carbaugh's work on Cultural Discourse Analysis, this study explores the intersection of language, intercultural, and health communication within the context of globalization by focusing upon foreign language teachers as migrant workers. As part of a larger study interviewing 49 migrant workers in Japan, this study focuses upon 10 specific individual accounts of Assistant English Language Teachers' (ALTs) medical encounters and interactions with Japanese medical providers (JMPs) in Japan to uncover: (a) discursive practices ALTs use to (de)-legitimize JMPs and (b) cultural assumptions ALTs expect of JMPs. In particular, three ways are uncovered wherein terms of talk between ALTs and JMPs influenced perceptions and conceptions of medical interaction in Japan. First, place was rendered meaningful by ALTs by using two interrelated terms: ‘back home' and ‘here.' Such demarcations operated to (de)-legitimize the medical professional's practices, procedures, and credibility. Second, construals of ‘good' and ‘bad' providers are highlighted as ALTs attempted to make sense of their medical interactions. Finally, the relationship between ALTs’ conception of space and place are considered in light of ALTs’ provider construals. Theoretical, practical, and future implications are discussed.

Seasonal Abundance and Synchrony between Laricobius osakensis (Coleoptera: Derodontidae) and its Prey, Adelges tsugae (Hemiptera: Adelgidae), in Japan

Abstract Laricobius osakensis Montgomery & Shiyake, native to Japan, is being measured as a potential biological control agent of the hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand, in the eastern United States. Adelges tsugae, a destructive pest threatening the hemlock ecosystems in the eastern United States, was introduced from Japan. This is the first detailed study of the life history of L. osakensis, A. tsugae, and their interaction in Japan. The seasonal abundance of L. osakensis and A. tsugae was assessed in a field study conducted from December of 2007 to November of 2008 in Hyogo, Nara, and Osaka Prefectures (Japan). The sistentes generation of A. tsugae in Japan matured 2 mo later than that reported in British Columbia, Canada, but 1 and 2 mo earlier than in Virginia and in Connecticut, respectively. Timing of the sexuparae generation occurrence in Japan was similar to that observed in Connecticut and Virginia, but this generation has not been observed in British Columbia. Phenological differences among the various A. tsugae population in the eastern U.S. states and Japan can be explained by temperature differences at the locations. Aestival diapause of the predator L. osakensis coincided with diapausing first-instar A. tsugae sistentes. The start of L. osakensis adult activity, oviposition, and larval development was synchronized closely with sistentes development resumption, sistentes adults close to oviposition, and sistentes adults with eggs, respectively. These results indicate good synchrony between L. osakensis and suitable prey stages of A. tsugae in the native habitat of both species.

Environment, Ecology, and Interaction in Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East: the Millennial History of a Japan Sea Oikumene

Encircling the Sea of Japan, or East Sea in Korean terms, is a north-temperate landscape that includes thousands of miles of deeply indented seacoast, mountains, and plains, all covered by variously mixed woodlands. The Japanese archipelago comprises its eastern edge, fronting the Pacific Ocean, while the great Amur-Ussuri-Sungari riverine plain forms its far west. We perceive the region comprised by modern Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East as a "Japan Sea Oikumene," and review culture-historical and environmental evidence to show that—contrary to earlier historical and archaeological impressions—the region has a long-lived ecological and technological unity as a distinctive "cultural world" that can be traced continuously from late Pleistocene into recent times. To contextualize this "world" in comparative terms, we note that it is analogous in prominent ways to the Atlantic sides of both Europe and North America, feeling the cold of northern winters but also warmed by the currents of a southern ocean and having both coastal and deeply continental terrains. Like them also, it is a region of great biotic diversity and productivity where the species of northern and southern ranges overlap and hunting-fishing-gathering peoples developed prosperous, stable, and long-lived cultural traditions. All three of these north-temperate "cultural worlds" also saw their peoples relate increasingly over time to precocious southern lands "beyond," where husbandry, human numbers, and socioeconomic complexity grew on a steeper trajectory than they did farther north.

New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan

This volume of proceedings from the Conference on Meiji Studies presents a rare multinational interchange among professors, researchers, and graduate students investigating Japan. The essays reflect both an appreciation of past scholarship and a determination to destabilize existing paradigms about Meiji Japan in favor of a multiplicity of perspectives that privilege subjectivity and non-elite groups. Attention to relations of power challenges the notions of modernization as the master narrative in Japan's recent history and of consensus as the primary characteristic of social interaction in Japan. The authors present an array of intellectual perspective on topics in the social sciences, humanities, and arts, employing a variety of theories and methodologies. The book will be welcomed by readers interested in the Meiji era, contemporary Japan, and postmodern theories of power.

The Japanese Enterprise System: Competitive Strategies and Cooperative Structures.

This volume merges four streams of inquiry and interpretation in a study of the evolution and emergence of Japan's leading industrial firms during the twentieth century. First, it is a historical study of how the industrial institutions of modern Japan appeared and matured. Second, it is an organization study of the basic forms of social and economic interaction in Japan. Third, it is a development study of how circumstances of rapid technical and economic change have shaped the Japanese business system. It is also a strategy study of how Japanese managers have responded to and shaped these circumstances.

Changing Dynamics of Japan´s Interaction with Southeast Asia

Although Japan's interaction with Southeast Asia has progressively deepened since the end of World War II, the movement towards closer core-periphery integration accelerated sharply during the 1980s. It could be argued, on the basis of the collapse of the Cold War, the attenuation of the Cambodian conflict, and the dramatic increase in Japan's role as an investor, aid giver and trading partner, that Japan has emerged as the single most important external power to most Southeast Asian nations. It remains to be seen whether, and for how long, the trends that have shaped Japan's current interaction with Southeast Asia will continue. What is clear is that whatever Japan does from this point onwards will have enormous impact on the well-being of Southeast Asian countries and on the shape of intraregional and extraregional relationships. The history of Japan's involvement in Southeast Asia has been marred by sharply different notions of partnership. The region has long held an attraction for a mod ernizing island nation whose lack of natural resources, dependence on trade and assertive, commercially oriented nationalism strikingly paralleled that of two of the principal Western colonial powers in Southeast Asia ? Britain and the Netherlands. Despite Tokyo's efforts to promote concepts of mutual co-operation based on Asian solidarity, Japan's status as a developed industrial society has generally overshadowed any pan-Asian considerations. Moreover, long centuries of isolation appear to have reinforced Japanese concepts of their own uniqueness, and hence made them prone to chauvinism. Enduring Japanese interests relating to Southeast Asia derive from concerns about economic well-being and security from invasion. In the post-war era, the latter has generally been provided by the U.S. nuclear umbrella and the U.S. Seventh Fleet, leaving Japan to concentrate on promoting its economic well-being within the context of a U.S.-led Asia-Pacific security order and an open trading regime. In Southeast Asia, attention to this interest has taken the form of concerns about regional stability, the security of strategic trade routes, and access to the region's raw materials and markets. More recently, the region has emerged as a major manufacturing base for Japanese industry and, hence, a critical element in the maintenance of Japan's global competitiveness.

Mother and Infant Activity and Interaction in Japan and in the United States: II. A Comparative Microanalysis of Naturalistic Exchanges Focused on the Organisation of Infant Attention

This study compares and contrasts activities and interactions related to maternal organisation of infant attention toward mother and toward the environment in Japanese and U.S. American mother-infant dyads. Observational data derived from 48 Tokyo and New York City mothers and their 5month-old infants seen at home were submitted to microanalysis. Relations among selected mother and infant activities, notably maternal control of and responsiveness to attentional focus in infants, are evaluated using cooccurrence and lag-sequential analyses. American and Japanese mothers and babies engaged in most activities at similar rates. However, American mothers appear to respond to environmental involvement in their infants by further encouraging infants to attend to properties, objects, or events in the environment, whereas it is during periods of decreased environmental interest and increased social interest that Japanese mothers deploy didactic encouragement. The results reveal activity and interaction patterns which are similar between these two cultures, as well as patterns which are culturespecific.

Mother and Infant Activity and Interaction in Japan and in the United States: I. A Comparative Macroanalysis of Naturalistic Exchanges

It is widely held that Japanese and U.S. Americans differ in prominent aspects of their psychological make-ups, and that experiences of early life may be responsible for certain social and intellectual distinctions between members of these two cultures. To compare and contrast activities and interactions of Japanese and American mothers and their 5-month-old infants, 48 mother-infant dyads, half in Tokyo and half in New York City, were observed in the natural setting of their homes. This report examines mothers visual and verbal stimulation of infants and infants visual and tactual exploration and vocalisation from a macroanalytic viewpoint. First, similarities and differences among Japanese and American infants and mothers on these activities are assessed. Next, covariation among infants activities and among mothers activities within each culture is evaluated, and resultant patterns of covariation between the two cultures are compared. Finally, correspondence between mothers and infants activities in each culture is analysed, and patterns of interactions between the two cultures are compared. Two issues are discussed. First considered are the identification and description of activities, interactions, and developmental processes that are similar and different in these two cultures, and second considered are cross-cultural tests of developmental issues related to covariation and correspondence of activity in mother-infant dyads.

Mothernfant face-to-face interaction in Japan and the United States: A laboratory comparison using 3-month-old infants.

Mothernfant face-to-face interaction in Japan and the United States: A laboratory comparison using 3-month-old infants.

Mother-infant face-to-face interaction in Japan and the United States: A laboratory comparison using 3-month-old infants.

In this cross-cultural comparison 36 Japanese and 36 American 3-month-old infant-mother dyads were videotaped in a standardized laboratory setting in their own countries. Mothers in both countries responded contingently to these infant behaviors, but there were differences in the type and timing of maternal behavior vis-a-vis infant behavior. Japanese mothers were more likely than American mothers to punctuate their facial expressions and vocalizations with looming upper-body movements and with touches and they were less likely to respond selectively to infant vocalizations. American mothers held their faces closer to the infants' and provided primarily facial and vocal displays for the infant. Japanese infants tended to display longer average durations of smiling and vocalizing with a lower rate of onsets compared with American infants. The results have implications for understanding the role of the face-to-face period in human development and the way in which cultural differences in interpersonal communicative style may guide the development of infant affective expression, Between 2 and 3 months of age infants begin to look into adult's eyes and to express recognition and enjoyment by responsive smiling and disappointment by crying. Because reaching, grasping, and object interest have not yet developed, adult and infant engage in face-to-face play in which the topic of conversation is the mutual exchange of looks, smiles, touches, and sounds (Stern, 1974). The function—infant regulation of positive attention and affect—and the developmental course of infant behavior during this period is similar across a variety of cultures, with only minor variations in the age of onset and peak time for gazing at mother and for social smiling (Super & Harkness, 1982). At 3 months the primary responsibility for the sequencing of faceto-face interaction is with the mother, who provides a repeated series of exaggerated vocalizations, facial expressions, and body movements, all organized in a theme and variation format (Stern, 1974). Moreover, these maternal displays are usually timed to be responsive to changes in the infant's facial expression, vocalization, and gaze direction (Fogel, 1977). It is not

Patterns in Japanese Common Stock Returns: Day of the Week and Turn of the Year Effects

Stock markets in the United States and foreign countries exhibit a strong weekly seasonal,1 an empirical regularity for which no theoretical explanation has been found. One's belief in this phenomenon would be strengthened if it is known to also occur in capital markets separated from those in the United States by distance, institutional arrangements, and culture. This paper extends the results found in [5] and more closely examines the to stock market returns for Japan. While we find a weekly seasonal in Japan, its nature is significantly different in a statistical sense from the American one. For example, the lowest mean return in Japan occurs on Tuesday?not Monday, as in the United States. Thus, while the day of the effect for American stocks has been casually called the weekend effect, it should not be referred to in this way for Japanese stocks. The next part of the paper examines causes for the unique Japanese seasonal. We investigate whether the results in Japan are associated with those in the United States, and, in particular, consider whether the low Tuesday return in Japan and the low Monday return in the United States are due to time zone differ? ences. The settlement process and the measurement error problem also are treated. We next consider the relationship between foreign exchange returns and stock market returns. The seasonal in daily foreign exchange returns does not offset the seasonal in daily stock market returns. Thus, both Japanese and American investors confront a of the week effect in the Japanese stock mar? ket. Our data also allow us to investigate the turn ofthe year effect. Japanese stock returns in January are significantly above the returns during the rest of the year. However, unlike some reports using U.S. data (see [12] and [13]), we find no interaction in Japan between the Monday effect and the January effect.