Kanazawa City Research Articles

The sediment-related disaster in Tagamishinmachi, Kanazawa City and Uchinada Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

The sediment-related disaster in Tagamishinmachi, Kanazawa City and Uchinada Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

Urban sacred forests support human well-being through cultural ecosystem services

PurposeSacred forests are biocultural landscapes deeply rooted in centuries-old traditions of spiritual veneration. These sacred sites, including shrines, temple forests churches and graveyards, have historically been significant reservoirs of traditional resource management practices underpinned by spiritual reverence. However, despite their cultural and ecological importance, the cultural ecosystem services inherent to these sacred forests remain unexplored, particularly in urban settings.Design/methodology/approachThis study focused on six sacred sites within Kanazawa City, Japan, using a meticulous face-to-face survey with 342 participants. We collected data on the extent of forest utilisation, the breadth of activities engaged in by visitors and their holistic appraisal of the rendered cultural ecosystem services. The findings illustrate the multifaceted benefits of urban sacred forests, encompassing participation in religious ceremonies, cultural events and festivals, complemented by educational programming that elucidates the historical and traditional underpinnings of the shrines and their surrounding communities.FindingsIt has been observed that urban forests have a crucial role in providing spiritual and communal connectivity, preserving traditional heritage, offering vital aesthetic values as green spaces and making visitors connected with nature while they are in the urban landscape. However, a concerning trend has emerged, as the younger demographic appears to lack interest in participating in the stewardship and cultural activities associated with these biocultural landscapes. Community engagement strategies must be strengthened, conservation measures should be implemented and cultural awareness programs need to be established to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of these valuable urban sacred forests.Originality/valueThis study provides original perspectives on the measurable cultural ecosystem services and intangible values associated with urban sacred forests using the sacred forests in Kanazawa City, Japan. Our research illuminates the various advantages that visitors derive by examining the intersection of spiritual traditions, resource management practices and cultural significance, which has been relatively unexplored. The present study provides a significant basis for establishing initiatives that seek to promote the cultivation of respect and responsibility towards urban sacred forests.

Transition of the coastal forest reserve in Kanazawa City and the involvement of local communities

Transition of the coastal forest reserve in Kanazawa City and the involvement of local communities

Using the extensions of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for behavioral intentions to use public transport (PT) in Kanazawa, Japan

Public Transport (PT) systems play an essential role in fulfilling the travel needs of the commuters’ specially in the urban settings. However, with varying attitudes, beliefs, and satisfaction levels of commuters, it is imperative to check if the current PT system is able to fulfill the needs of the commuters. In order to extract the underlaying factors which might affect the use of PT, a questionnaire survey was administrated in the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan. The intentions of the residents of the city were predicted using the theoretical backgrounds of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), based on their attitudes, Subjective Norms (SN), Perceived Behavioral Control, Moral and Environmental Concerns, Access by Public Transport (APT), and Travel Cost Consciousness (TCC), the intentions and public transport behavior (PT behavior) was predicted. The results of Personal Norm (PN) and Environmental Concern (EC) factor shows that respondents place high belief on moral obligations to protect environment and prefer using PT for traveling. The APT has a positive and significant estimate with PT behavior variable. The results of TCC factor depict that the traveler’s consciousness about cost and travel time elements of their journey would cause significant impact on their travel choices. The findings of this research study can offer valuable insights for the government as well as PT service operators for policy making in Kanazawa and other cities with similar socio-economic demographics in the country.

Parents’ views on mumps, mumps vaccine, and the factors associated with vaccination in Japan

BackgroundThe measles-mumps-rubella vaccine was withdrawn from the National Immunization Program in 1993 because aseptic meningitis was reported as a post-vaccination adverse reaction in Japan. This study aimed to measure the uptake of and determinants influencing mumps vaccination, including concerns about adverse reactions. MethodsWe conducted this cross-sectional survey for all parents whose children underwent 18-month health checkups in Kanazawa City between October 2019 and February 2020. Community nurses interviewed the parents using a unified questionnaire, and 1422 parents responded. ResultsBased on records from maternal and child health handbooks, the mumps vaccination rate was 55.6%. The most common reason for parents not vaccinating their children against mumps was that “it is not a routine vaccine” (35.9%), whereas “concern about adverse reactions” accounted for only 2.2%. In multivariate analysis, the significantly positive factors associated with vaccination against mumps were children whose parents knew that adverse reactions were fever, rash, diarrhea, and vomiting; had received a recommendation for vaccination from their family members; had read the Vaccination Guide issued by the city; vaccinated with other voluntary vaccines or treated for gastroenteritis; and had a deep general understanding of vaccination. Conversely, the significantly negative factor was children whose parents had not received any recommendation for vaccination. ConclusionThe mumps vaccination rate could be improved by adding the mumps vaccine in the routine vaccination program and educating parents by disseminating correct information on mumps and the mumps vaccine, and by primary care physicians routinely recommending vaccination.

Multiple Gamma‐Ray Glows and a Downward TGF Observed From Nearby Thunderclouds

AbstractAround 17:00 on January 12, 2020 (UTC), radiation detectors installed at two locations with a 1.35 km separation in Kanazawa City, Japan, captured a total of four gamma‐ray enhancements. The first pair was simultaneously observed at the two locations at 17:03 and were abruptly terminated by a lightning discharge. The remaining two enhancements were also nearly simultaneously observed 3 min later, and one of them was also terminated by another lightning discharge. At the last termination, a downward terrestrial gamma‐ray flash and a negative energetic in‐cloud pulse were observed. Both pairs were associated with thundercloud cells. In the first pair, simultaneous detection in two locations 1.35 km apart suggests either a gamma‐ray glow emerged in‐between and time variability of its intensity were directly observed or there were two (or more) gamma‐ray glows in the cell which reached the two detectors coincidentally. In the latter pair, the peak time in the downwind detector was 40 s later than that of the upwind detector. If the irradiation region moved with the cell, it would have taken ∼110 s. The discrepancy suggests either the glow moved 2.5 times faster than the cell or there were two (or more) glows in the cell. Also, the fact that the thunderstorm cell hosting the latter glows experienced the lightning discharge 3 min before suggests that the strong electric field in the cell can develop within a few minutes.

Association between Cardiovascular Health and Incident Atrial Fibrillation in the General Japanese Population Aged ≥40 Years

This study explores the association between lifestyle behavior and incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in the general Japanese population. Japanese residents aged ≥40 years undergoing a national health checkup in Kanazawa City were included. We hypothesized that better lifestyle behavior is associated with lower incidence of AF. Lifestyle behavior was evaluated by the total cardiovascular health (CVH) score (0 = poor to 14 = ideal), calculated as the sum of the individual scores on seven modifiable risk factors: smoking status, physical activity, obesity, patterns of eating schedule, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose. The association between CVH and incident AF was assessed, adjusting for other factors. A total of 37,523 participants (mean age 72.3 ± 9.6 years, 36.8% men, and mean total CVH score 9 ± 1) were analyzed. During the median follow-up period of 5 years, 703 cases of incident AF were observed. Using a low CVH score as a reference, the upper group (ideal CVH group) had a significantly lower risk of incident AF (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.79, 95% confidence interval 0.65–0.96, p = 0.02), especially among those aged <75 years (HR = 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.49–0.94, p = 0.02). Thus, ideal CVH is independently associated with a lower risk for incident AF, particularly in younger Japanese individuals (<75 years).

Pleistocene Shallow-Water Whale-Fall Community from the Omma Formation in Central Japan

We report a single whale bone associated with many molluscan fossils from the Omma Formation, Lower Pleistocene shallow marine deposits, along the Sai-gawa River, Kanazawa City, in central Japan. Most molluscan species which are commonly found in the Omma Formation show disarticulated and/or damaged shells, indicating semi-autochthonous or allochthonous modes of occurrence. However, the assemblage contained chemosynthetic bivalves, such as lucinid, solemyid and thyasirid bivalves, which are rare in the Omma Formation. The lucinids and solemyids show a high articulation ratio, along with some predatory and scavenging gastropods, such as naticids, nassariids and borsoniids whose well-preserved shells indicate an autochthonous mode of occurrence. In addition, most of the lucinid bivalves show an umbo-upward position similar to the life position of Recent species. Recent lucinid, solemyid and most thyasirid bivalves harbor chemosymbiotic bacteria in their gills and are well known members of the chemosynthetic community. These lines of evidence indicate that the community, mainly comprising lucinid bivalves and other autochthonous molluscan species associated with the whale bone, is an ancient whale-fall community. This shallowest fossil whale-fall community differs from deep-water cases in the dominance of infaunal bivalves, such as lucinids, and in the lack of epifaunal and semi-infaunal chemosynthetic bivalves, such as bathymodiolins and vesicomyids. This community supports a previous suggestion that the difference in characteristic species of the whale-fall communities depends on the water depth.

Abstract P004: Association Between The Liver Fibrosis-4 Score And Incident Atrial Fibrillation In A General Japanese Population Of Middle-aged To Older Adults

Background: There is increasing evidence that end-organ liver dysfunction is an important risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF). Whether a non-invasive, laboratory-based marker of liver fibrosis, the fibrosis-4 score (FIB-4), is associated with incident AF is not known. Aim: To examine the longitudinal association of FIB-4 with incident AF in a general Japanese population with public health insurance. Methods: We used data from the National Japanese Health Check-Up performed in Kanazawa City, which included unemployed or retired participants aged ≥ 40 years. The baseline examination occurred in 2013 and participants were invited for annual routine examinations with follow-up data available through 2018. We excluded participants with pre-existing AF or missing data at baseline or follow-up. Incident AF was based on 12-lead electrocardiogram. We calculated the FIB-4 score (composed of age [years], aspartate and alanine aminotransferase, and platelet levels) for each participant and estimated the cumulative incidence of AF stratified by FIB-4 score quartiles. We also examined the association between quartiles of FIB-4 and incident AF using Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for risk factors with the lowest FIB-4 quartile as referent. Results: Of 37,892 participants, 37% were male and mean age was 72.4±9.6 years. Median (interquartile range [IQR]) of the FIB-4 score was 1.75 (IQR 1.38, 2.27). During a median (IQR) follow-up period of 5.0 years (4.0, 5.0), 707 cases of incident AF were identified. Cumulative incidence in the highest quartile of FIB-4 was 3.9% compared with 1.0% in the lowest quartile (log-rank p&lt;0.001, Figure A ). Higher quartiles of the FIB-4 score had a dose-dependent increased risk of AF with adjusted HR of 1.70 (1.29, 2.23) in the highest quartile compared with the lowest quartile ( Figure B ). Conclusion: FIB-4 was independently associated with incident AF in a general, older Japanese population and may reflect risk of AF, in addition to traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

Improvement of Evacuation Modeling by Considering Road Blockade in the Case of an Earthquake: A Case Study of Daitoku School District, Kanazawa City, Japan

In disaster management, evacuation modeling is considered a useful visual tool to disaster managers for reviewing current evacuation strategies, estimating the ability of shelters to accommodate all evacuees, and developing evacuation route planning. Though there are several existing studies on evacuation modeling in the case of an earthquake, research that integrates road blockades into evacuation simulations is quite limited. From that viewpoint, this research aims to develop evacuation modeling with consideration of road blockades to simulate how residents move to evacuation centers (hereafter, shelters) through urban areas following an earthquake occurrence. The research also determines difficulties that residents may encounter under earthquake conditions, compared with normal conditions, corresponding to considering or not considering road blockades, respectively, such as having no access to shelters, taking longer routes instead of shortest routes, and so on. Debris from damaged buildings in an urban area is assumed as the main source of debris that would cause a road blockade. The model is applied to a case study of the Daitoku school district in Kanazawa city. According to simulated results, due to road blockades, occupants of many damaged buildings did not have access to shelters, and a lot of evacuees needed to move to shelters with longer routes instead of taking the shortest routes. Furthermore, the research results show the possibility of considering road blockades for improving current evacuation modeling and making evacuation simulations more realistic.

Study regarding the coordination of multifunctional use and management for each canal water conservation by the Kanazawa City Canal Water Council

Study regarding the coordination of multifunctional use and management for each canal water conservation by the Kanazawa City Canal Water Council

First-degree atrioventricular block is significantly associated with incident atrial fibrillation in the population predominantly including participants aged ≥ 60 years

Some previous studies demonstrated that first-degree atrioventricular block (f-AVB) was associated with incident atrial fibrillation (AF), while evidence is scarce regarding the association between f-AVB and incident AF in older populations. Therefore, we sought to investigate the association of f-AVB with incident AF in the population predominantly including participants aged ≥ 60years. Eligible participants were residents in Kanazawa City, Japan aged ≥ 40years who underwent 12-lead ECG at the National Japanese Health Check-up in 2013. Participants with AF detected at the baseline exam and those without adequate follow-up were excluded. f-AVB was defined as PR interval ≥ 220ms based on the Minnesota code (6-3). The cumulative incidence of AF was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier curve analysis, and statistical significance was evaluated by the Log-rank test. Unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were computed by Cox proportional hazard models. HRs were adjusted for conventional risk factors for AF. 37,730 participants (mean age, 72.3 ± 9.6years; male, 37%) were included. Baseline f-AVB was observed in 667 (1.8%) participants. During the median follow-up period of 5years (interquartile range, 4.0-5.0years), 691 cases of incident AF were observed. A 5-year cumulative incidence of AF was significantly higher in f-AVB (+) group compared with f-AVB (-) group (6.8% vs 2.1%, p < 0.01). In the fully adjusted model, f-AVB was significantly associated with incident AF (HR, 1.75; 95% confidence interval 1.25-2.45; p value < 0.01). f-AVB was independently associated with incident AF in the population predominantly including participants aged ≥ 60years.

Case Study： The Damages Case Related to the Disapproval Decision of Holding a Rally in the Kanazawa City Hall Square (the Decision of Kanazawa District Court Dated September 18, 2020.).

Case Study： The Damages Case Related to the Disapproval Decision of Holding a Rally in the Kanazawa City Hall Square (the Decision of Kanazawa District Court Dated September 18, 2020.).

Abstract 13015: First-degree Atrioventricular Block is Associated With Incident Atrial Fibrillation in the Japanese General Population Aged ≥ 40 Years

Introduction: First-degree atrioventricular block (fAVB) is a common cardiac conduction disorder diagnosed by prolongation of the PR interval ≥220 msec. Although it is generally considered benign, some previous studies demonstrated that fAVB was associated with incident atrial fibrillation (AF). However, evidence is scarce regarding the association between fAVB and incident AF in older populations. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that fAVB was significantly associated with incident AF in older populations. Methods: Eligible participants were residents in Kanazawa City who aged ≥ 40 years and underwent 12-lead ECG at the national Japanese health checkups in 2013. Participants with AF detected at the baseline exam and with no follow-up examinations between 2014 and 2018. fAVB was defined as PR interval ≥ 220 msec based on the Minnesota code (6-3). Incident AF was defined as the first episode of AF detected by 12-lead ECG at the annual health checkups. The cumulative incidence of AF was estimated by the Kaplan Meier curve analysis, and statistical significance was evaluated by the log-rank test. Unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) were computed by the Cox proportional hazard model. HRs were adjusted using three models in which conventional risk factors for AF were included (Table). Results: 37,730 participants (mean age, 72.3 ± 9.6 years; Male, 37%) were included. Baseline fAVB was observed in 667 (1.8%) participants. During the median follow-up period of 5 years (interquartile range, 4.0 - 5.0 years), 691 cases of incident AF were observed. Kaplan Meier curve showed that a 5-year cumulative incidence of AF was significantly higher in fAVB (+) group compared with fAVB (-) group (6.8% vs 2.1%, p &lt; 0.01). In the fully adjusted model, fAVB was significantly associated with incident AF (HR, 1.75; 95% confidence interval, 1.25 - 2.45; p-value &lt; 0.01) (Table). Conclusion: fAVB was independently associated with incident AF in this predominantly elderly Japanese population.

Prevalence, self-awareness, and LDL cholesterol levels among patients highly suspected as familial hypercholesterolemia in a Japanese community

BackgroundsThe prevalence of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) among Japanese populations is still unclear. In addition, no prior data exist regarding the self-awareness. Accordingly, we aimed to investigate the prevalence, self-awareness, and LDL-C of patients with highly suspected as FH using data obtained in a community-based medical checkups. MethodsThis study included 52,276 subjects (18,588 men, 35.6%) aged ≥40 years who underwent the Japanese specific health checkup in Kanazawa City during 2018. We assessed the self-awareness of dyslipidemia (and the age) as well as the prevalence of patients with highly suspected as FH whose naïve LDL-C levels were ≥250 ​mg/dl. Naïve LDL-C levels were estimated by the adjustment (LDL-C/0.7) for those on lipid-lowering medication. We divided subjects into 3 groups based on their naïve LDL cholesterol level (≥250 ​mg/dl, 140–249, and ≤139 ​mg/dl). ResultsWe identified 262 (0.5%) individuals highly suspected as FH whose naïve LDL-C levels were ≥250 ​mg/dl. Most of them (234 among 262, 89%) were under lipid-lowering medication; however, the self-awareness as dyslipidemia was not quite high (200 among 262, 76%), and their mean LDL-C level under lipid-lowering medication was 203 ​± ​35 ​mg/dl. Interestingly, the age of acknowledgement of dyslipidemia among the patients with highly suspected as FH was significantly younger than those in other categories (58 vs. 60/62 ​yrs, respectively, p ​< ​0.05 for both). ConclusionsThe prevalence of patients highly suspected as FH was around 1 in 200, and their self-awareness as well as control were not still good enough among Japanese general populations.

Construction of Urban Planning Supporting System Using Genetic Algorithm Responding to Urban Decentralization: Case of Kanazawa City

Abstract In this research, from a macro perspective, we studied the impact of urban development planning on population changes in central urban areas. Regional development plans have different aggr...

Association of proteinuria with incident atrial fibrillation in the general Japanese population

BackgroundAlthough proteinuria has been associated with incident atrial fibrillation (AF) in Western countries, the association has not been investigated in the general Japanese population. MethodsParticipants aged ≥40 years who underwent the Japanese specific health check-up in Kanazawa City in 2013 and who completed a urine dipstick test were included in this study. Exposure was considered as presence or absence of proteinuria (≥1+). The outcome was incident AF confirmed by 12-lead electrocardiography. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to compute hazard ratio (HR) of proteinuria (≥1+) for incident AF after adjustment for traditional risk factors. We also completed stratified analyses by baseline characteristics. ResultsA total of 37,910 participants aged ≥40 years were included (mean age: 72.3 years, male sex: 37%). Proteinuria ≥1+ was observed in 2.765 (7.3%) participants. During a median follow-up period of 5 years, 708 incident AF cases were observed. Proteinuria ≥1+ was associated with incident AF (HR, 1.47: 95% confidence interval, 1.18–1.84) after covariate adjustment. Stratified analysis demonstrated that the association of proteinuria with AF was stronger in participants <75 years [HR 1.89 (95% CI 1.32–2.70)] compared with those ≥75 years [HR 1.27 (95% CI 0.95–1.69)] (interaction p-value=0.02). ConclusionsProteinuria was significantly associated with incident AF in the general Japanese population. The evaluation of proteinuria using urine dipstick test may be useful in the evaluation of incident AF, especially in younger general population.

2018年2月の北陸地方における大雪の被害と影響に関する一考察 ―金沢市・福井市を対象として―

2018年2月の北陸地方における大雪の被害と影響に関する一考察 ―金沢市・福井市を対象として―

SAT-LB121 Development of a Machine-Learning Method for Predicting New Onset of Diabetes Mellitus: A Retrospective Analysis of 509,153 Annual Specific Health Checkup Records

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disorder, characterized by impaired glucose metabolism. It is linked to increased risks of several diseases such as atrial fibrillation, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, DM prevention is essential. However, the traditional regression-based DM-onset prediction methods are incapable of investigating future DM for generally healthy individuals without DM. Employing gradient-boosting decision trees, we developed a machine learning-based prediction model to identify the DM signatures, prior to the onset of DM. We employed the nationwide annual specific health checkup records, collected during the years 2008 to 2018, from Kanazawa city, Ishikawa, Japan. The data included the physical examinations, blood and urine tests, and participant questionnaires. Individuals without DM (at baseline), who underwent more than two annual health checkups during the said period, were included. The new cases of DM onset were recorded when the participants were diagnosed with DM in the annual check-ups. The dataset was divided into three subsets in a 6:2:2 ratio to constitute the training, tuning (internal validation), and testing datasets. Employing the testing dataset, the ability of our trained prediction model to calculate the area under the curve (AUC), precision, recall, F1 score, and overall accuracy was evaluated. Using a 1,000-iteration bootstrap method, every performance test resulted in a two-sided 95% confidence interval (CI). We included 509,153 annual health checkup records of 139,225 participants. Among them, 65,505 participants without DM were included, which constituted36,303 participants in the training dataset and 13,101 participants in each of the tuning and testing datasets. We identified a total of 4,696 new DM-onset patients (7.2%) in the study period. Our trained model predicted the future incidence of DM with the AUC, precision, recall, F1 score, and overall accuracy of 0.71 (0.69-0.72 with 95% CI), 75.3% (71.6-78.8), 42.2% (39.3-45.2), 54.1% (51.2-56.7), and 94.9% (94.5-95.2), respectively. In conclusion, the machine learning-based prediction model satisfactorily identified the DM onset prior to the actual incidence.

Demand Estimation of a New Light Rail Transit in a Tourist City Considering the Change in Population Distribution –A Case Study for Kanazawa City, Japan–

Demand Estimation of a New Light Rail Transit in a Tourist City Considering the Change in Population Distribution –A Case Study for Kanazawa City, Japan–