Knowledge In Japan Research Articles

Information Sources for Investment Decisions: Evidence from Japanese Investors

Although the traditional sources of financial knowledge in Japan are financial advisors and investment groups, the digital era and artificial intelligence have made other sources of information, such as social media and mass media, more influential. As such, it has become important to examine the socioeconomic, demographic, and psychological factors influencing the use of these information sources in the context of investment decisions. However, little research has been carried out to examine such associations using a large-scale nationwide dataset. We fill this gap by utilizing a dataset comprising almost 65,000 active investors from one of the largest online security companies in Japan, ensuring the representativeness and generalizability of our results. We show that active investors are more inclined to use social media and mass media than financial advisors and investment groups. The probit regression model shows that the use of each of the four sources of information is strongly shaped by an individual’s characteristics, which, to some extent, are not mutually exclusive for each source type. The study results imply that the government should regulate and monitor the quality and accuracy of the information disseminated by mass media and social media and educate investors on how to critically evaluate and verify the information that they receive.

Descriptive Study on a Nationwide Exploratory Questionnaire Survey of Emergency Contraceptive Pills and Their Sexual History and Knowledge in Japan.

A shift towards obtaining emergency contraceptives without a prescription have been discussed in Japan. In response to this social background, we aimed at investigating the background of sexual intercourse, emergency contraceptive use, and knowledge of sexual and reproductive health education among women of reproductive age in Japan. In this study, we conducted a national wide cross-sectional questionnaire survey using a total of 4 web-based domains (background, sexual history, emergency contraceptives, and sexual and reproduction-related knowledge) composed of 50 questions. We obtained responses from a total of 4,631 participants of varying age groups (18-25, 26-35, and 36-45 years old) and 47 prefectures (84 to 118 from each prefecture). Among participant responses, 69.7% are sexually active, of which 49.0% had experiences of sexual intercourse with an unknown person. The responses from a total of 737 participants who have sexual intercourse, know of emergency contraceptives, and have experienced a situation that necessitated the use of emergency contraceptives, were analyzed. Of these participants, 46.4% (342/737) took emergency contraceptives, while 43.6% (321/737) participants did not take emergency contraceptives. Participants who have the knowledge for obtaining emergency contraceptives through the correct means were 52.6% (2438/4631). This study showed that approximately half of participants may not have correct knowledge of emergency contraceptives. In addition, approximately half of sexually active participants are facing unintended pregnancies due to a lack of sexual and reproductive awareness. Hence, comprehensive sex education is necessary to achieve social and regulatory changes centered on emergency contraceptives.

A cross-sectional survey on principal investigators' clinical research knowledge in Japan.

Principal investigators (PIs) play a key role in clinical research, and must thus understand the role of clinical research support staff to conduct successful and appropriate clinical research. This study evaluates clinical research capabilities by examining the clinical research knowledge of PIs and clinical research support staff. The participants of this cross-sectional study were academic researchers and clinical research support staff from Japanese universities and research institutions. The participants comprised of 54 respondents, among whom 36 were PIs (physicians) and 18 were clinical research support staff. A self-administered electronic survey was created and evaluated by experts, with 50 knowledge items. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine the significance of the differences in knowledge between clinical research support staff and PIs. We compared the correct answer rate of clinical research support staff and PIs for each knowledge category and observed that the clinical research support staff scored significantly higher than the PIs in all aspects of clinical research knowledge sections, including total score. Our findings showed that PIs did not have the same amount of clinical research knowledge as the clinical research support staff. Clinical research knowledge is essential for investigators, especially PIs, to protect patients and promote medical breakthroughs. Thus, more accessible clinical research education and mandatory knowledge testing will allow PIs to lead successful clinical research and further the level of medical research in Japan.

Contact of Cultures and the Image of Japan in European Fiction (Frigate “Pallada” by I. Goncharov and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by D. Mitchell)

This article studies the situation of contact between European and Japanese cultures and the image of Japan created in the classical work of Russian literature Frigate “Pallada” (1858) by I. Goncharov and in the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) by David Mitchell, a contemporary British writer. The books were written during different periods of time, but they describe the same historical period and similar events; they both have documentary foundation. Special attention is paid to translators as characters of the books who play an important role in the plot development and provide intercultural communication. The research methodology combines methods of comparative literary criticism with a post-colonial approach, E. Said’s ideas about orientalism and ethnocentrism in particular. Comparative analysis of the two books demonstrates that the image of Japan created by the two writers has a number of similar features, which confirms its objective nature. Conversely, the authors’ perspectives and points of view of Japan differ drastically. The Russian writer looks at the Japanese down and from the outside; he considers “strangeness” and “childishness” to be their national features. Goncharov’s Eurocentric position is explained by several reasons: his knowledge of Japan was external, he was a civil servant, who cared mostly about the interests of Russia, and he represented an influential group of Eurocentric intelligentsia. D. Mitchell’s knowledge of Japan and its culture is deep and internal due to his biography. The English writer creates a bicultural novel in which the European and the Japanese worlds are equally significant. Thus, in the novel, the author offers a modern point of view on the world order and intercultural communication.

Japan–Indonesia Economic Cooperation: An Overview

This article aims to deepen our knowledge of Japan’s foreign policy in the Southeast Asian region and its role in Indonesia’s economic development, focusing on their economic cooperation via the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) and Manufacturing Industry Development Centre (MIDEC) programme. The former has promoted cooperation via a tariff reduction scheme, while the latter facilitates the Indonesian government’s aid to micro, small and medium enterprises in the entrepreneurial sector.

Beyond the silkworm eggs. The role of the Italian semai (silkworm eggs merchants) in spreading knowledge of Japan in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century between art and science

ABSTRACT Due to a disease that affected European silkworms in the 1850s, Italian silkworm eggs merchants travelled from the Near East to the Far East looking for a solution. Few of them visited Japan as early as 1859 and from 1864 until the early 1880s they travelled to Japan yearly and some of them settled in Yokohama. They spent large amounts of money to buy silkworm eggs, but they also played an important role in the diffusion of Japanese objects especially in Northern Italy and they contributed to the development of the knowledge of Japan and of Japanese (and Chinese) flora and fauna. This essay will present the results of an ongoing research and will investigate some case studies, revealing the semai crucial role in shaping the early relations between Italy and Japan and in contributing in their country to the raising of the interest towards Japan, fueling also contemporary giapponismo.

Teachers’ knowledge of student mathematical thinking in written instructional products

The successful use of lesson plans as the primary vehicle for storing and sharing teachers’ instructional knowledge in Japan has given impetus to calls by US researchers for the development of a system for sharing teachers’ knowledge through instructional products to improve teachers’ capacity to implement high-quality instruction and to build a knowledge base for instruction. These products would be created by, and for, teachers to use in guiding instruction, thus building and sharing teachers’ instructional knowledge. In this study, we try to characterize one aspect of teacher knowledge that is central in building a knowledge base for instruction, knowledge of student mathematical thinking. We analyze ten written instructional products from the USA and Japan to better understand what knowledge of student mathematical thinking can be shared in such products. We also look at how knowledge of student mathematical thinking is used to guide and justify instructional decisions. One key finding is that the knowledge of student mathematical thinking shared in the top written instructional products is specific to a task or mathematical topic, varied with descriptions of multiple solutions or ways of reasoning, and sufficiently detailed to make the knowledge usable for teachers.

Prerequisites for the Development of Regional Studies in Japan within the Framework of Japanese Traditional Science

Introduction. The variety of elements of the field of regional studies in Japan makes it possible to state that the sources of regional studies are heterogeneous not only in content, but also in their relation to different historical periods. The objective of the study is to analyze the processes of development of proto-regional knowledge in Japan from ancient times until the middle of the 19th century Materials and Methods. Japanese works on history and geography, as well as works by Russian researchers in the considered fields were used as the materials of the study. Particular attention was paid to historical and geographical texts; other sources (religious texts, poetic texts, etc.) were also considered. The basic methods employed were those of systemic, comparative, conceptual and terminological analysis. Results. The article discusses the stages of development of proto-regional knowledge in Japan in the framework of traditional science. Based on the analysis of works created before the middle of the 19th century, the authors conclude that the basic factor in the formation and development of knowledge about regions was the opposition “We vs. Others,” characteristic of Japanese ethnoculture, and this knowledge itself is largely Japanocentric. The article reveals the role of several schools of traditional science: kokugaku (school of national sciences), rangaku / yogaku (Dutch / European studies) and kangaku (school of Chinese sciences), as well as the role of their cultural and ideological confrontation in stimulating the development of proto-regional knowledge. Discussion and Conclusion. The article presents the results of the initial stage of a comprehensive study, which will examine the history of the development of Japanese regional knowledge and the methodology of regional research in Japan. The results of the work may be useful to researchers and specialists in the field of history of regional development of various countries and regions.

Baseline characteristics of patients from ongoing post‐marketing surveillance, evaluating the real‐world efficacy and safety of edaravone, a novel, free radical scavenger, for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients in Japan (SUNRISE Japan)

AbstractBackgroundThe ongoing SUNRISE Japan post‐marketing surveillance is collecting real‐world data about the long‐term efficacy and safety of edaravone in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for up to 5 years.AimTo provide detailed methodologic information about SUNRISE Japan and report baseline data.MethodsSurvival time, time to invasive tracheal intubation, other clinical events, ALS Functional Rating Scale‐Revised [ALSFRS‐R] scores, and safety will be assessed.ResultsIn total, 797 patients were included in the safety and efficacy analysis sets; 55.3% were male, two‐thirds of patients were aged ≥65 years, and 86.1% had a body mass index of <25 kg/m2. Disease duration was <1 year (37.3% of patients), or 1‐2 years (32.1%). Disease severity (Japan ALS severity classification) included grade 2 (42.0% of patients), grade 3 (28.5%), or grade 1 (15.7%). Most ALS cases were sporadic (96.4% of patients). The most common site of symptom onset was the upper limbs (43.5% of patients). ALS diagnosis (El Escorial revised Airlie House criteria) was definite (34.5% of patients), probable (36.1%), probable supported by laboratory data (19.4%), possible (6.4%), or suspected (3.5%). The mean ALSFRS‐R score was 38.5, and mean percent forced vital capacity, 83.6%. Over 60% of patients had been treated with riluzole, and over 60% were receiving other concomitant drugs. Complications were noted in two‐thirds of patients.ConclusionData from the SUNRISE Japan study are expected to extend ALS knowledge in Japan and worldwide, and the study methodology may provide a model for other long‐term surveillance studies in neurodegenerative diseases.

Normality of International Norms: Power, Interests, and Knowledge in Japan's ODA Politics

Normality of International Norms: Power, Interests, and Knowledge in Japan's ODA Politics

Pilgrimage and prestige: American anime fans and their travels to Japan

ABSTRACTThe Japanese animation and comics first introduced to the United States were carefully scrubbed of cultural markers, but for hardcore aficionados the ‘Japanese-ness' of such products is part of the allure; fetishized elements of difference are embedded within a comforting familiarity of commonalities. These fans are only the most recent manifestation of a phenomenon in which a fantasy Japan becomes a kind of undiscovered homeland for Westerners who experience disjointedness and displacement within their own culture, Among anime fans, knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language is a significant source of social and cultural capital, with individuals who have traveled to or lived in Japan acquiring special status. But what of the experience itself? When these fans travel to Japan, there is an inevitable gap between the fantasy and their actual perceptions and interpretations, but this is not unlike the gap between an imagined Japan of the nostalgic past and contemporary life experienced by the Japanese themselves. This paper explores this topic via a series of interviews with fans who have traveled to Japan, examining their feelings of difference and belonging before and after their travels, and how they navigate their disappointment and delight in both the anticipated and the unexpected.

Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan: Evangelism, Rural Development, and the Battle against Communism by Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald

Reviewed by: Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan: Evangelism, Rural Development, and the Battle against Communism by Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald Akiko Takenaka (bio) Paul Rusch in Postwar Japan: Evangelism, Rural Development, and the Battle against Communism. By Andrew T. McDonald and Verlaine Stoner McDonald. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2018. Pp. viii, 287. $50.00 cloth) In May 2017, I had an opportunity to volunteer at the Model Lab School at Eastern Kentucky University. I was there as an interpreter for [End Page 374] a guest from Japan: Mr. Genki Ueno, an artist from Hokuto City, Yamanashi Prefecture, who was scheduled to teach several classes at the Lab School. As I translated Mr. Genki's lectures from Japanese into English to the 5th and 7th graders, and as I helped the children wrestle with lumps of clay for their projects, I learned that the visit was a part of an annual artist exchange between Madison County and Hokuto City. It was therefore a pleasure to read and review a book about Paul Rusch (1897–1979), the inspiration behind this exchange program. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Rusch first arrived in Tokyo in 1925. His mission, through the YMCA, was to rebuild the churches that had been destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. He remained in Japan and dedicated most of life to projects that he believed would improve Japan, initially through the Tokyo chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew (BSA) that he created at Rikkyo University in 1927, and then through Seisen–Ryo, the mountain retreat in Hokuto City that later expanded into an experimental farm project. He tirelessly commuted across the Pacific to the U.S. to raise funds for his projects. Even in advanced age and ailing health, Rusch refused to stop his work for Seisen–Ryo. In one account, the story of Paul Rusch is about a foreigner—a Westerner, to be more precise—who stayed for an extended period in Japan and became an "expert." Many have done this in the past. There have been architects such as Josiah Conder and Antonin Raymond, who aspired to bring the "West" to modernizing Japan. Cultural connoisseurs like Edward Morse and Ernest Fenollosa, on the other hand, lamented the loss of "traditional" Japan and collected what they deemed authentically Japanese to bring back to the U.S. for safekeeping. What is remarkable about Paul Rusch is his audacity, determination, and lack of expertise. He sought to transform all of Japan and the Japanese, first through faith as a Christian missionary, and later through what he coined "practical Christianity" and "democracy in a kimono" (p. 135, 181). Indeed, during the Allied Occupation (1945–1952), the American occupiers' goal was to deliver democracy to Japan. But even after [End Page 375] Japan recovered from the devastation of the war, fully democratized, and emerged as a world economic power, Rusch still held on to his belief that the Japanese people needed to be salvaged through his brand of democracy. Rusch never acquired adequate command of Japanese, despite his lengthy stay in Japan. His knowledge of Japan, then, was always filtered through his handlers who consistently aimed to please him. What Rusch did possess were exceptional networking skills and opportunities. His networks in Japan grew from the Japan Episcopal Church contacts to quickly include social elites, prime ministers, and members of the imperial family. His American networks grew first through the Church, and later, in the U.S. Army. Rusch was also an opportunist. In the years leading up to Japan's military clash with the U.S., Rusch, still living in Japan, acted as an apologist for the Japanese military's aggressions in Asia—a stance that gave him privilege when he was detained once war broke out. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1942, Rusch promoted himself as an expert on Japan and joined the Military Intelligence Service. In this capacity, he supported the expansive aerial bombing that devastated Japan. Back in Tokyo as a part of the Allied Occupation Forces, Rusch used his vast networks in the Japanese political world to access intelligence material, which he used to aid Douglas MacArthur's mission...

Japan Watchers and the crisis in East Asia, 1931–1941

This paper is concerned with the changing informal views of Japan held in Britain in the decade after 1931. It investigates the relationship between understanding and policy, and how the needs of policy, most significantly the subordination of Asia to Europe, impinged on understanding. In looking in microcosm at where Japan Watchers, made up of newspapermen, missionaries and businessmen, interacted with formal diplomats and government officials, this paper focuses on the lectures and journals of learned societies in London, especially the Royal Central Asian Society, which served as one conduit through which knowledge of Japan passed to an audience with a regional interest. A wider audience was reached through newspapers. In trying to influence the reading public, the importance of ideas having to resonate with the concerns of the reader is stressed. It is emphasized that influence on perception is often dependent on a particular time. The views of Old China Hands came to supplant those of Japan Watchers in influencing the British image of Japan by the late 1930s.

Evaluation of an ad hoc paper-based syndromic surveillance system in Ibaraki evacuation centres following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Outbreaks of infectious diseases can occur after natural disasters as vital services are disrupted and populations move into evacuation centres. National notifiable disease surveillance may be inadequate in these situations because of resource-consuming disease confirmation or system interruptions. Although syndromic surveillance has been used as an alternative in post-disaster situations, no systematic evaluations of it have been published. We evaluated the ad hoc paper-based syndromic surveillance system implemented in evacuation centres in Ibaraki prefecture after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. We assessed the simplicity, acceptability, data quality, timeliness and portability of this system and reviewed its usefulness. We concluded that the system was simple, acceptable, portable and useful. The documentation and monitoring of disease events and trends were useful for developing interventions in evacuation centres and have since been used to improve post-disaster infectious disease and surveillance knowledge in Japan. We believe timeliness was a challenge due to the chain of data transmission and communication passing through an intermediary. Future implementations of this system could consider a more direct chain of data transmission and communication from collectors to analysers. Too few key informant interviewees and the inability to obtain original paper-based data from evacuation centres limited our findings; we conducted this evaluation four years after the response occurred. Future evaluations should be completed closer to when operations cease. The usefulness of the system suggests adopting it in future disasters. A simple, plain-language manual should be developed to improve future employment.

Stigma associated with autism among college students in Japan and the United States: An online training study

Misconceptions and stigma associated with autism vary across cultures and may be influenced by various factors. Undergraduates in Japan (N = 212) and the United States (US) (N = 365) completed an online autism training, with pre- and posttest surveys assessing autism-related stigma (i.e., social distance) and knowledge. Aims were to examine differences in autism stigma and knowledge in Japan and the US, while extending prior research demonstrating benefits of an online autism training in the US and Lebanon to Japan. The results revealed that Japanese students indicated greater autism-related stigma than US students, which was not attributable to differences in autism knowledge, prior experience with autism, or college major. In both countries, students majoring in “helping professions” exhibited greater willingness to engage with people with autism. Japanese and US students varied in their misconceptions about autism, with significant differences on about half of the knowledge items. Japanese students showed decreased stigma after completing the autism training, yet continued to exhibit greater social distance towards people with autism relative to US students. Future research should focus on identifying specific cultural factors (e.g., conformity to social norms and homogeneity within communities) that contribute to fear and exclusion of people with autism in different societies.

Managing Halal Knowledge in Japan: Developing Knowledge Platforms for Halal Tourism in Japan

Managing Halal Knowledge in Japan: Developing Knowledge Platforms for Halal Tourism in Japan

Reconfiguring Orientalism: Japan and Korea as Depicted by Early Twentieth-Century French Orientalist Literature

This essay investigates the nature of western knowledge of Japan and Korea by examining French Orientalist literature in the early twentieth century. The point of departure is the idea that as Japan and Korea cannot be lumped together under an umbrella term such as “the Orient”, the diverse attitudes Europeans exhibited towards them cannot be uniformly branded with Eurocentrism founded upon the East–West dichotomy. The process in which westerners formed knowledge of Asia was not monolithic, in that they employed not a single but multiple conceptual repertoires in order to make sense of their experience of the two countries. Nor was it unilateral, in that they made use of local knowledge they encountered there rather than imposing their conceptual frameworks upon the experience. The examination will show the following. First, the dichotomy between East and West was visibly registered in western discourse of both Japan and Korea, where they were often reduced to the uncivilized Other. But the binary framework was not the only conceptual repertoire with which French Orientalists made sense of their experience and observations of the two countries. Other ones, such as cultural relativism, are seen to have been adopted, which contributed to alleviating the reductive effects of the dichotomous view. Second, the diverse conceptual repertoires, however strongly they challenged the binary model, themselves constituted another layer of epistemic alienation; they were employed in a discriminatory manner, like the relativist attitude being shown towards one (Japan) more frequently than the other (Korea), thereby facilitating the establishment of a hierarchy within the conception of the Orient. Lastly, western engagement with local knowledge was highly selective and did not always end up with eroding the multiple layers of alienation. For this reason, Orientalism is defined as an interactive epistemic process with multiple structures of alienation in it.

The Desperate Diplomat Revisited

This article, an elaboration on The Desperate Diplomat (2016), reexamines Japanese Special Envoy Kurusu Saburo’s mission to the United States before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, presenting a new “concurring opinion” in support of his innocence. The u.s. government firmly believed that Kurusu had been informed of the impending attack prior to coming to the United States and thus acted as a smoke screen. And so, the myth of the deceitful ambassador was born. Nevertheless, Kurusu insisted that he had no prior knowledge of Japan’s military action. Misunderstanding of his role in the Pearl Harbor attack and harsh remarks about it upset him. Utilizing Kurusu’s unpublished and previously unused materials in both Japanese and English housed in the National Diet Library in Tokyo, records from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and The Desperate Diplomat, based on his original memoir, this article helps Kurusu tell his side of the story to initiate scholarly debate on this insufficiently researched diplomat. This reassessment also presents excerpts from Kurusu’s unpublished personal correspondences with E. Stanley Jones, Bernard M. Baruch, and Joseph C. Grew.

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Personality on Accounting Knowledge in Japan

An Empirical Study of the Effect of Personality on Accounting Knowledge in Japan

A cross sectional study on fertility knowledge in Japan, measured with the Japanese version of Cardiff Fertility Knowledge Scale (CFKS-J)

BackgroundA recent survey of 79 countries showed that fertility knowledge was lower in Japan than in any other developed country. Given the fertility decline in Japan and the importance of fertility knowledge, we conducted an online survey to examine fertility knowledge and the related factors for effective public education.MethodsWe studied people aged 18-59 years old, n = 4,328 (the “General” group), and also people who had been trying to conceive for at least six months, 18-50 years old, n = 618 (the “Triers” group). Fertility knowledge was assessed using the Japanese version of the 13-item Cardiff Fertility Knowledge Scale (CFKS-J). All participants provided socio-demographic and fertility information. Participants also completed a 14-item health literacy scale and an 11-item health numeracy scale. We asked participants who were aware of age-related decline in fertility when and where they first acquired that knowledge.ResultsThe average percentages of CFKS-J items answered correctly were 53.1% in the Triers group and 44.4% in the General group (p < 0.001). Multivariate linear regression models showed in the Triers group greater fertility knowledge was associated with greater health literacy and prior medical consultation regarding their fertility. In the General group greater fertility knowledge was associated with being female, younger, university educated, currently trying to conceive, non-smoking, having higher household income, having higher health literacy and having higher health numeracy. Of those who were aware of the age-related decline in fertility, around 3% first learned the fact “at school”, and around 65% first learned it “through mass media” or “via the Internet”. More than 30% of the respondents first learned it “less than 5 years before” the survey.ConclusionsAlthough fertility knowledge had improved since a previous study, possibly due to recent media coverage of age-related infertility, it was still low. Educational interventions, both in schools and in the community, may be needed to increase fertility knowledge in the general population because most people obtain fertility knowledge from mass media, which has been shown to often present distorted and inaccurate fertility information.