Rural Japan Research Articles

The Quantitative Effect of Community-Based Participatory Research on Building Teamwork among Medical and Long-Term Care Services in Rural Japan: The Tome Medical Project

Background: Comprehensive teamwork among medical experts, nursing-care experts and non-experts are essential in promoting medical and nursing care services in a community for the well-being of all residents. For accomplishment, inter-professional workshops have been conducted in various places throughout Japan. However, only a few studies have evaluated the effect of these activities, and most of them included only medical experts. Thus, we launched a community-based participatory research (CBPR), consisted of serial workshops in Tome City, a northeastern rural area in Japan. To our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitively evaluate the effect of CBPR. Methods: We held workshops including small lectures at a frequency of 1-2 times a month during six months. The participants discussed issues of medical or long-term care in Tome City. At baseline and the final workshops, we distributed to the participants questionnaires where they graded scores on the quality of cooperation among medical and nursing-care services in Tome. The summed scores were used as our main outcome. The higher scores mean better integration. Results: The median (range) of the scores for overall participants were 101.0 (66.0) at baseline, and 89.0 (76.0) at the end, with no statistical difference observed (p=0.50). Similar results were observed when stratified by number of times attending to other workshops and medical or nursing-care profession. Conclusion: No improvement in collaboration was observed after serial workshops in 6 months. Further discussions would be needed how we can promote better collaboration among professionals and citizens for the achievement of residents’ well-being.

Deconstructing the staged and existential authentic of rurality in Japan

Idealised rural lifestyles depicted in Japanese produced TV dramas and movies contrast with the tightly-held traditions and hard work of the real, rural Japan. Furusato (old hometown), fureai (connectedness to each other), and shizen (nature) are concepts assumed lost in urbanisation, an urban-rural dichotomy, becoming tropes in these dramatic 'pseudo-ethnographies', used by government economic and tourism policies designed to repopulate regional Japan. Tourism campaigns encouraging locals to experience Japan are swathed in nationalism. The rural is exemplified as authentic Japan, guardian of values, culture and community and historic components of tourism culture, over time transformed to 21st century staged authenticities. The reimaging of this Japanese rural space then becomes an existential authenticity for the visitor or new community member. Using a human geography lens for the movie, Departures, this paper deconstructs the transformation of staged authenticities into existential ones as visitors become part of the rural space and places.

Innovation in Rural Japan: Entrepreneurs and Residents Meeting the Challenges of Aging and Shrinking Agricultural Communities

This paper examines the function and features of entrepreneurial leadership in aging rural communities in Japan, referring to the Schumpeterian concept of entrepreneurship. In the demographically oldest society, Japan, agricultural communities in rural hilly and mountainous regions suffer most from demographic change. This usually leads to decline in the regional economy. Such communities have to redefine local business in order to survive. Schumpeter (2006) claims the importance of the function of entrepreneurs: they create innovation through new combinations of given resources with a strong leadership. In aging communities, elderly residents as a large population group there should and could be combined in a new business; however, in most communities they are not integrated into enterprises. The cases examined here suggest that the entrepreneurs who contribute to the economic reconstruction of the communities have, beside typical entrepreneurial features, strong empathy for the community, as well as for the residents there.JEL Codes: J14, L26, O22, P25

Reflections on the Challenges to Providing Optimum Environments for Play

 2018 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 28(2), 2018 Reflections on the Challenges to Providing Optimum Environments for Play John H. McKendrick Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow, Scotland Janet Loebach Centre for Addiction and Mental Health London, Canada Theresa Casey International Play Association: Promoting the Child’s Right to Play Edinburgh, Scotland Citation: McKendrick, J. H., Loebach, J., & Casey, T. (2018). Reflections on the challenges to providing environments for play. Children, Youth and Environments, 28(2), 262-272. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi Returning to Challenges Outlined in General Comment No. 17 This special issue of Children, Youth and Environments has outlined visions to create better play environments, reflected on the fusion of nature in everyday play, considered how play could be better facilitated for particular groups of children, and shown how technology could be used to the advantage of understanding and facilitating play. In conclusion, we reflect on the learning that is pertinent to each of the 11 challenges that were identified in General Comment No. 17. We end by reflecting on the role of experts in improving children’s play. Lack of Access to Nature The benefits for children of providing experiences to encounter the natural world through play are articulated in General Comment No. 17, noting that urban children in low-income families may have particularly poor access. The benefits do not only accrue to children; seeds for stewardship for the Earth’s resources can be sown through childhood play. Lack of access to nature is not universal. Profice and Tiriba (“Living and Playing in Nature: Daily Experiences of Tupinambá Children”) describe how indigenous education in Brazil facilitates engagement with nature. Outdoor play routinely and extensively utilizes the natural environment. These experiences respect community traditions, which include encouraging knowledge to be shared across generations. Reflections on the Challenges to Providing Optimum Environments for Play 263 The affordance of the local natural environment—rivers, trees, embankments—are utilized in daily play within the school day, with teachers presenting as both relaxed and engaged, encapsulated in their description as being “attentive to the safety of all, but not waiting for imminent disaster.” The young Tupinambá people convey strong positive associations with nature. Similarly, drawing from the IPA’s Access to Play in Crisis, in “Children's Coping, Adaption and Resilience through Play in Situations of Crisis,” Chatterjee shows how ready access to rivers for the children of both the Nimtola Ghat community in Kolkata and the Saphan Pla community southwest of Bangkok provides an exciting natural play resource, albeit one which is fraught with social and environmental danger. In these “crisis” situations, the key issue might be better understood as lack of access to “nature without danger.” Living in a rural area does not ensure access to nature in play. As Terada, Ermilova and Kinoshita explain in “Why Do We Need Adventure Playgrounds in Rural Areas? The Revitalization Project of Ishikawa, Fukushima, Japan,” rural depopulation has changed the landscape and play culture in parts of rural Japan to the point at which it has become necessary to stimulate environment-based play in some rural areas. The intergenerational evidence that the authors present provides powerful evidence of the loss of nature-based play in Japan in recent times; for example, 79 percent of parents reported that, as children, they went to the forests and hills to play, compared to only 37 percent of today’s children. This loss is also evident for playing in rivers, climbing trees, making fires and other dimensions of natural play. Access to nature can also be created in what is presented as “natural playscapes.” These manufactured environments are designed to provide opportunities to engage nature. Schlembach, Kochanowski, Brown and Carr explore “Early Childhood Educators Perceptions of Play and Inquiry on a Nature Playscape” on a university campus in North America. Initial concerns over risk and danger are allayed as early educators report how the natural playscape is encountered as relaxing space for both parents and children alike, and a place in which behaviors are improved, interactions among children are extended, and a range of opportunities to develop competencies present. On the other hand...

The Kindness of Strangers: Exploring Interdependencies and Shared Mobilities of Elderly People in Rural Japan

For over forty years, most residents in rural areas of Japan have relied on private vehicles to meet their mobility needs. Today, however, the rapid ageing of the population, coupled with low birth rates and migration of young people to urban areas, is posing a variety of new transport challenges. Most notably, the proportion of drivers to non-drivers is getting smaller. This means that non-drivers who relied on family and neighbours for trips in the past, as well as elderly residents who give up their licenses, have fewer people to drive them. Current policy debates tend to focus on technological “solutions”, and underestimate the complex social, cultural and inter-personal relationships which underlie transport dependencies in these environments. Using a qualitative semi-structured survey, the current study explores the current mobilities of older people living in a small rural district in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. The resulting analysis reveals how cultural attitudes and social norms affect the ways in which older people manage their mobilities.

Transport-Based Social Exclusion in Rural Japan: A Case Study on Schooling Trips of High School Students

The well-being of young people—particularly aspects such as physical and mental health—has become an increasing concern for Japan’s government due, in part, to the aging and declining depopulation that Japan has been experiencing in recent years. Considering this, a survey of well-being and travel-to-school behavior was carried out in four high schools of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan; between May and September 2016 with 1,017 valid samples. The respondents’ ages vary between 15 and 19 years old. We argue that transport-based social exclusion results from not only situations of transport disadvantage, but also reduced or deteriorated individual well-being. Here, well-being is measured by using constructs grouped into three main categories: happiness, healthy lifestyle propensity, and social exclusion. We found the following potential issues of transport-based social exclusion: residents in depopulating areas experience lower levels of well-being than people in non-depopulating areas. Travel times longer than 30 minutes have negative effects on happiness, traffic safety perception, health conditions, and personal health habits. Bicycle users tend to experience higher levels of well-being in general, whereas bus and car users tend to experience less in comparison. Special attention should be paid to improving affordability and flexibility of bus services for students.

庄司俊作著, 『日本の村落と主体形成-協同と自治-』, 日本経済評論社, 二〇一二・二刊, A5, 五三四頁, 八八〇〇円

庄司俊作著, 『日本の村落と主体形成-協同と自治-』, 日本経済評論社, 二〇一二・二刊, A5, 五三四頁, 八八〇〇円

The effects of previous land-use to herbaceous vegetation in Quercus acutissima stands before and after clear-cutting

ABSTRACTIn rural Japan, various types of forest and grassland once used for agroforestry have now been abandoned because of socioeconomic changes associated with the decline in forestry, falling birth rate and aging population. The biodiversity of such secondary forests and grasslands, which had been maintained by routine management, is now in crisis. Among them, Kunugi (Quercus acutissima) forests in Kyushu island were exceptionally maintained by its management with clear-cut every 15–20 years to produce bed logs for shiitake mushroom cultivation. Some of these Kunugi forests have been planted in abandoned cultivated fields and grasslands. To clarify the effect of clear-cutting on the conservation of herbaceous vegetation on the forest floor, the floor vegetation of Kunugi forests in Kumamoto Prefecture with various land-use histories was surveyed before and after clear-cutting. Detrended correspondence analysis showed that some plots that originated from grassland characterized by the dominance of Pleioblastus argenteostriatus before clear-cutting became dominated by Miscanthus sinensis after clear-cutting. After clear-cutting, species of grassland origin emerged and the biodiversity increased. The management of Kunugi forests has facilitated the survival of grassland species such as Solidago virgaurea subsp. asiatica, Eupatorium laciniatum, Adenophora triphylla var. japonica, Desmodium podocarpum subsp. podocarpum, Vincetoxicum amplexicaule and Sanguisorba officinalis. Therefore, the large-scale mosaic landscape of Kunugi patches of various ages within a 15–20-year clear-cutting cycle may have contributed to the maintenance of regional biodiversity.

Author Biographies

Previous article FreeAuthor BiographiesPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreLaura Ascenzi-Moreno is an assistant professor in the Childhood/Bilingual and Special Education Department at Brooklyn College. She received her PhD in urban education from the City University of New York Graduate Center. She worked in Brooklyn, New York, in a Spanish/English two-way immersion school as a dual-language teacher and curriculum coach for a combined 12 years. Her research interests include bilingual education, biliteracy, multiple literacies, assessment, teacher knowledge, teacher change, and school governance.Nancy R. Cirillo is an associate professor emerita of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and teaches one course a year for the Honors College. She holds a degree in comparative literature and has written on the rise of fascism and the arts in Western Europe and more recently has focused on Atlantic slavery and postcolonial studies in the Caribbean context. She is also curator of the H. D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies at the Richard J. Daley Library at UIC.Stacey A. Gibson is an educator, consultant, and writer working in Chicago, supporting those who have a vested interest moving beyond diversity conversations to exploring and articulating how patterns of race-based oppression shape interactions, institutions, and opportunity. Her past writing has appeared in Lee Mun Wah’s Let’s Get Real, and she has created and published antioppression curricula for teaching tolerance for the award-winning documentaries The Dhamma Brothers and American Promise. She would like to thank the nameless ones who preceded her, as she knows she could not be without them.T. Elijah Hawkes has been a public school principal for 12 years. He is currently coprincipal at Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vermont. He was founding principal of the James Baldwin School in New York City. His writings about adolescence, public school, and democracy have appeared in Huffington Post, Education Week, Kappan, Schools: Studies in Education, and in two books published by Rethinking Schools: The New Teacher Book and Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality.Avi D. Lessing, PhD, teaches English and is an instructional coach at Oak Park and River Forest High School, where he specializes in social and emotional learning. In addition, he directs plays with a focus on documentary theater. His teaching and directing have been featured on NPR, in the Chicago Tribune and the podcast “Minor Interruption,” and in a chapter of the book, Teaching the Taboo, by Rick Ayers and William Ayers. He has written and published numerous essays on teaching and life. He is currently working on a book called The Relational Teacher. Speaking of relationships, Avi wants to thank his wife, Bindi, and their two kids, Raiva and Rafi—the deepest relationships of them all.Yongjian Li (李咏健) is a postgraduate researcher at the School of Education of Renmin University of China, Beijing. He is also a member of the TENSION research group at the University of Helsinki, Finland (diversity in education). Li specializes in public affairs in education management. His current research focuses on equality/equity and social justice in rural education, contrasting China, Finland, and Japan. Li is the recipient of many honors, including the Uniqlo Global Talent Scholarship (2014).Jason Michael Lukasik is assistant professor of education and director of the master of arts in education program at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He earned his PhD in curriculum studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research interests include out-of-school learning, democratic teaching and community organizing, and museum/zoo education. Lukasik’s work draws on his diverse experiences in education policy and practice. He has been an advocate for students with special needs in Chicago, worked in museum education, collaborated with community organizations, and taught undergraduate and graduate students for the past 10 years.John S. O’Connor teaches at New Trier High School and in Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. His poems have appeared in many literary journals and in his recent chapbook, Rooting. He has written two books of haiku and two books on teaching writing: Wordplaygrounds and This Time It’s Personal. He reviews books of poetry for the Harvard Review, and he is the host and creator of the education show “Schooled: The Podcast” (http://www.schooledthepodcast.com). Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Schools Volume 14, Number 2Fall 2017 Published in association with the Francis W. Parker School, Chicago Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/694028 © 2017 by Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Tsugaru Gaku as Area Studies: Research plasticity and researcher hybridity

This review essay speaks to the crisis of Area Studies, offering a view from the field in the form of a review of Tsugaru Gaku (Tsugaru Studies) as a specific Area Studies research case. After presenting an overview of the work of social science researchers working in Japan, both foreign and Japanese, the essay turns to major questions articulated in the literature of Area Studies regarding the purpose, character and future of Area Studies. By reviewing the multi-dimensional and combinative implications in the process and dissemination of his own social science research work together with consideration of the work of Japanese social scientists conducting research in rural Japan and publishing in Japanese, the author positions such ‘domestic,’ place-based sociological and anthropological research as a vital contribution to the future of Area Studies. Capitalizing on social scientific research that can contribute to Area Studies research requires a view of the ‘plasticity of research.’ Further, recognition of the ‘hybridity of the Area Studies researcher,’ both as the trained Area Studies specialist as well as a ‘domestic social science researcher’ capable of theory, methodology and analysis, as well as dissemination of Area Studies research originating in a specific place and in a specific language, is vital to the future of Area Studies research.

CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF COLLECTIVE WATER MANAGEMENT IN RURAL JAPAN

Building resilience of rural communities is crucial to minimize damages caused by external factors including climate change. This paper attempts to analyze climate resilience in farmer-based irrigation system in rural Japan. This paper focuses on the Kako area in Hyogo Preefecturre, where farmers had been confronted water shortage for a long time. The Kako Land Improvement Dstrict (LID) is reponsible for water control. This paper is based on the interview with Kako LID officials and the documents kept by the LID office. Examining emergency measures taken against a severe drought in a water users association in western Japan, this paper reveals that former communal values on water allocation still survive even in an apparently modernized and individualized irrigation scheme. When the group encountered an acute shortage of rain, former communal approach in controlling water was re-introduced without hindrance, displaying remarkable resilience of village-based organization in times of emergency and crisis.

Clinical features of children with nontyphoidal Salmonella bacteremia: A single institution survey in rural Japan.

Nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS) can cause bacterial enterocolitis. Although some children with NTS infection develop bacteremia, its clinical manifestations have not been discussed adequately. Therefore, we examined children with NTS bacteremia. We retrospectively examined the medical records of 15 patients aged less than 15 years. Salmonella spp. were detected in the blood cultures of these patients between 1991 and 2014. We divided an additional sample group of 34 patients diagnosed with an NTS infection between 2005 and 2014, into 2 groups. Group bacteremia (B) included patients in whose blood cultures Salmonella spp. were detected, and group non-bacteremia (NB) included patients in whom Salmonella infection was not detected. We compared each group using Wilcoxon test and Fisher’s exact test. The number of patients with fever, diarrhea, or abdominal pain was 15 (100%), 13 (87%), and 9 (60%), respectively, in the first sample of patients. However, vomiting and bloody stool were observed in only 5 patients (33%). More than 70% of patients exhibited a reduced white blood cell count, while C-reactive protein levels were variable in the patients. Salmonella spp. were detected via stool culture in 10 patients (67%). Diarrhea persisted for more than 4 days more frequently in group B than group NB (p = 0.004). The number of patients whose fever persisted for more than 4 days was significantly higher in group B than group NB (p = 0.030). Therefore, if NTS bacteremia is suspected, blood cultures should be collected and antibiotics should be initiated in cases with diarrhea or fever for more than 4 days. Furthermore, a negative stool culture result does not preclude the possibility of NTS bacteremia.

Weight cycling and the subsequent onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus: 10-year cohort studies in urban and rural Japan

ObjectiveTo investigate how weight cycling (gaining and losing weight) affects the risk of diabetes.DesignCohort studies.SettingPrimary healthcare in urban and rural Japan.Participants20 708 urban and 9670 rural residents.Primary outcome measuresORs for...

Entrepreneurs in rural Japan: gender, blockage, and the pursuit of existential meaning

This article explores return migration for the purpose of starting small businesses. I discuss the cases of three individuals who decided to leave their employment in urban areas to start businesses in a small town in Tōhoku. The key research question focuses on how gender influences the ability of people to start and maintain small business in rural areas and the extent to which expectations and assumptions associated with gender roles inhibits the ability of women to start and continue small businesses. My findings suggest that gender can be an important inhibitor for people running businesses in rural Japan, but that this is not necessarily associated with being a woman. Furthermore, blockage of achieving personal and business goals, which are associated more with finding existential meaning rather than economic wealth, were more directly associated with one’s role in the family than with expectations specifically linked to gender.

Nested Houses: Domestication dynamics of human\u2013wasp relations in contemporary rural Japan

BackgroundDomestication is an important and contested concept. Insects are used as food worldwide, and while some have been described as domesticated and even ‘semi-domesticated’, the assumptions and implications of this designation are not clear. The purpose of this paper is to explore these aspects of insect domestication, and broader debates in domestication studies, through the case of edible wasps in central rural Japan.MethodsBoth authors conducted ethnographic fieldwork with communities in central rural Japan. Fieldwork comprised participant observation, semi-structured interviews, quantitative surveys and a review of resources including the personal and public records of wasp collectors.ResultsThe practice of keeping wasps in hive boxes has historical roots and has changed significantly within living memory. Current attempts to further develop the practice involve collectors’ great efforts to keep new queens during their hibernation. Collectors have also tried, still without success, to keep wasps living within a human-made enclosure for their entire life cycle. These and other practices are costly in both time and money for collectors, who emphasise enjoyment as their primary motivation. At the same time, they also engage in practices such as pesticide use that they recognise as damaging to wasp ecology.ConclusionsThese practices can be understood to some extent in domesticatory terms, and in terms of care. We develop a framework for understanding domesticatory practices of insect care, discuss how this case contributes to ongoing debates within domestication studies, and recommend further research to be pursued.

The Fate of a Materialistic Buddhist: A Cultural Editioin of "Jikininki" by Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn has written and adapted many Japanese folktales that explore religious and cultural traditions of the civilization. "Jikininki" tells the tale of a Buddhist priest who encounters a cursed, corpse-eating ghost. The authors examine the depiction of this corpse-devouring moster, its relation to teh cultural forces in rural Japan, and the representation of a fear of losing both the global Zen Buddhist and rural traditions through selfish mistreament and material desires.

Health Care for Elderly People in Rural Japan: Review of Issues and Analysis

Various issues confront Japan's elderly population, particularly in rural areas. These issues need to be examined to fully understand the dynamics of the provision of health care. Only by understanding the different components and their impact on patient care can improvements be made to the delivery of services and ultimately the quality of care. In this review, a consideration of different aspects of care is undertaken, with a focus on rural areas. Potentials for improvements are also discussed. Electronic databases such as CiNii and ICHUSHI searched by Japanese and PubMed and CINAHL searched by English were searched to retrieve peer-reviewed primary research literature. A narrative synthesis of the findings sections of the papers was applied to identify key themes. These themes consider the range of issues affecting health care in rural Japan: Service delivery, distribution, resources, health care, rural and elderly. In total, eight papers with either qualitative or quantitative methodology were included in the review. The review highlights a broad range of issues being confronted, most of them likely to have a medium to long term impact on the quality of care in Japanese rural areas. Government, community and professional carers’ attention to these issues is thus critical to ensuring improved health care to reassure a high quality of life for elderly in rural areas in Japan.

Potential benefit of physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service for regional trauma care system activation: An observational study in rural Japan.

Objective: Involvement of all regional medical facilities in a trauma system is challenging in rural regions. We hypothesized that the physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service potentially encouraged local facilities to participate in trauma systems by providing the transport of patients with trauma to those facilities in a rural setting.Materials and Methods: We performed two retrospective observational studies. First, yearly changes in the numbers of patients with trauma and destination facilities were surveyed using records from the Miyazaki physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service from April 2012 to March 2014. Second, we obtained data from medical records regarding the mechanism of injury, severity of injury, resuscitative interventions performed within 24 h after admission, secondary transports owing to undertriage by attending physicians, and deaths resulting from potentially preventable causes. Data from patients transported to the designated trauma center and those transported to non-designated trauma centers in Miyazaki were compared.Results: In total, 524 patients were included. The number of patients transported to non-designated trauma centers and the number of non-designated trauma centers receiving patients increased after the second year. We surveyed 469 patient medical records (90%). There were 194 patients with major injuries (41%) and 104 patients with multiple injuries (22%), and 185 patients (39%) received resuscitative interventions. The designated trauma centers received many more patients with trauma (366 vs. 103), including many more patients with major injuries (47% vs. 21%, p < 0.01) and multiple injuries (25% vs. 13%, p < 0.01), than the non-designated trauma centers. The number of patients with major injuries and patients who received resuscitative interventions increased for non-designated trauma centers after the second year. There were 9 secondary transports and 26 deaths. None of these secondary transports resulted from undertriage by staff physicians and none of these deaths resulted from potentially preventable causes.Conclusion: The rural physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical service potentially encouraged non-designated trauma centers to participate in trauma systems while maintaining patient safety.

5. Methods for interview survey in rural Japan and developing countries

5. Methods for interview survey in rural Japan and developing countries

Local Communities and the Funding of Hospital Medical Care in Early 20th Century Rural Japan:

Local Communities and the Funding of Hospital Medical Care in Early 20th Century Rural Japan: