Young Japanese Men Research Articles

Hyperinsulinemia in Obese and Non-Obese Young Japanese Hypertensive Men.

We investigated whether hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance were associated with hypertension independent of obesity in young (mean age 20 years) Japanese men. Subjects were classified as hypertensive if their systolic or diastolic blood pressure (BP) was≥40 or≥90mm Hg, respectively. Subjects were classified as obese if their body mass index (BMI) was≥26. We divided 88 subjects into four groups: 29 nonobese normotensives (NONT), 12 nonobese hypertensives (NOHT), 28 obese normotensives (ONT), and 19 obese hypertensives (OHT). We conducted a 75g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and measured plasma glucose and serum insulin at 0, 30, and 60min. We found similar glucose levels at fasting and during OGTT in all groups. Compared with the NONT group, the insulin levels at fasting and during OGTT were significantly higher in the NOHT group. No difference was found between the NOHT and ONT groups. The glucose/insulin ratios and the ratio of glucose area to insulin area were significantly lower in the NOHT group than in the NONT group; no difference was found between the NOHT and ONT groups. The OHT group had higher fasting insulin levels and lower fasting glucose/insulin ratios than the NOHT or ONT group. The fasting glucose/insulin ratio was correlated with the mean BP when the normotensives and hypertensives were combined. In a multiple regression analysis including BMI, the mean BP was still significantly related to the fasting glucose/insulin ratio. Our data indicate that hyperinsulinemia is associated with hypertension and is independent of obesity in young Japanese men. (Hypertens Res 1994; 17: 133-136)

Fetishized Blackness: Hip Hop and Racial Desire in Contemporary Japan

Flipping television channels late one insomniac night in Tokyo in the winter of 1990, I happened upon a Japanese dancing duo performing with darkened faces, singing, outfitted in the trendiest costumes: baseball caps with brims turned to the back, expensive sneakers, and baggy trousers. That same year, a friend who was visiting Japan entered a dance hall which to his surprise appeared to be peopled almost exclusively by youths. Upon closer scrutiny he realized that the young men were Asian: Japanese with darkened faces, some with dreadlocks and some with fades, performing hip hop dance steps and breaking to rap music. The encounter of teenage and young adult Japanese men and women with rap music, hip hop style, and signs of blackness is a multifaceted reconfiguration of these variant signs, bound to global commodity exchange, Japanese racialism, and Japanese national identity. The contemporary pop-culture Japanese rendering of hip hop and rap consists of a fascination with the aural and visual styles (the sounds, movements, body language, and outfits) and an African American symbolic presence signaled by fetishizing skin and hairstyles. This disposition of hip hop requires as its foundation a separation of hip hop and rap from the specifics of American racialism, and a reconstruction bounded by Japanese racialism. The phenomenon of nonblack youth dressing themselves in black style is not unique to Japan. In the United States, white teenagers have also adopted the clothing, mannerisms, hairdos, vernacular, and other markers of hip hop style. In Japan, special salons advertise their expertise in dread-hair (doreddo hea), a process which may cost dearly in time and money; in America, white girls may plait their hair in small braids.' What is strikingly different in Japan is that skin is incorporated as an essential signifier of hip hop style. Japanese youth enamored of hip hop regularly darken their complexions with makeup, especially when they go out dancing. Recent works by John Russell have mapped out a domain of Japanese representations of blacks which he holds to be directly imported from the West. But present-day Japanese black face is usually not determined by the American historical counterpart.2 In the United States, the history of white entertainers in blackface has marked as racist the darkening of the skin in imitation of African Americans. The debacle of Ted Danson at the Nina Cornyetz

5-alpha-reductase activity and risk of prostate cancer among Japanese and US white and black males

The incidence of prostate cancer varies widely between countries and ethnic groups. Black-Americans have the highest incidence rates world wide, whereas native Japanese have among the lowest. The reasons for this risk differential are unknown, although we have previously shown that higher circulating testosterone concentrations in young adult black men compared with young adult white men may explain the underlying differences in subsequent prostate cancer incidence between these two populations. We have now compared serum testosterone concentrations in young adult Japanese men with those of young adult whites and blacks, but found no significant differences. However, these white and black men had significantly higher values of 3α, 17β androstanediol glucuronide (31% and 25% higher, respectively) and androsterone glucuronide (50% and 41% higher, respectively) than Japanese subjects. These two androgens are indices of 5α-reductase activity. Our results raise the possibility that reduced 5α-reductase activity has a role in producing the low prostate cancer incidence rates among Japanese. This finding may have important implications for prostate cancer prevention.

Risk factors for coronary atherosclerosis in young Japanese adult men

Risk factors for coronary atherosclerosis in young Japanese adult men

Relationship between serum lactate dehydrogenase and the pattern of food intakes in Japanese.

It was of interest to investigate the effects of nutrient intake levels upon values of serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). As described in a previous paper (imake et al, 1984; Yoshimura et al, 1985), significant correlations were found between the percentages of LDH-4 and LDH-5 and protein and vitamin C intakes. In this study, applying the statistical technique of multivariate analysis which is widely used in various fields such as public health or nutritional science, we examined the relation between LDH activity and LDH isozyme pattern and the pattern of food intake in healthy young Japanese men.

Prediction of body composition of young and middle-aged Japanese men.

Prediction of body composition of young and middle-aged Japanese men.

Hemoglobin Aichi [α50(CE8) His → Arg]: a new slightly unstable hemoglobin variant discovered in Japan

A new abnormal hemoglobin, Hb Aichi [α50(CE8) His → Arg], was discovered in a young Japanese man. This variant was isoelectrofocussed between Hb A and Hb A 2 and amounted to about 21% of the total hemoglobin in the hemolysate. This hemoglobin showed normal oxygen affinity but slight instability.

Hemoglobin Kariya [α40 (C5) Lys → Glu]: a new hemoglobin variant with an increased oxygen affinity

A new abnormal hemoglobin, Hb Kariya [α40 (C5) Lys → Glu], with an amino acid substitution at the α 1β 2 contact was discovered in a young Japanese man. This variant migrated to the anode faster than Hb A, being nearly the same as Hb I in electrophoretic mobility. It amounted to about 6% of the total hemoglobin of the hemolysate. This hemoglobin showed an increased oxygen affinity, decreased heme—heme interaction and a lowered 2,3-DPG effect.

Correlation between human erythrocyte aldehyde dehydrogenase activity and sensitivity to alcohol

Young healthy Japanese men were given 0.48 g ethanol/kg body weight orally. Those responding with a marked increase in heart rate after alcohol also exhibited facial flushing and had higher acetaldehyde levels than those not responding, in spite of similar blood alcohol levels. The activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase in erythrocytes was found tocorrelate significantly (r=−0.73, p<0.01) with the increase in heart rate after alcohol drinking. It is suggested that erythrocyte aldehyde dehydrogenase activity affects or reflects blood acetaldehyde levels and physiological response to alcohol, and may prove useful as a marker for alcohol sensitivity in Orientals.

Renin response to upright posture in varying sodium balance in normal young Japanese men.

For the quantitative analysis of the effect of sodium balance on renin secretion, plasma renin activity (PRA) was measured in 9 healthy young males in the respective 3- or 4-day periods of sodium repletion, mild sodium restriction, moderate and severe sodium depletion. In the latter 2 periods, sodium balance was made negative by low salt diet and furosemide administration (120mg/day, p.o.) for 1 or 3 days. Blood samples for PRA determination were obtained at supine position (8:00 a.m.) and after 1-, 2-, and 4-hour's upright posture. PRA was also measured after furosemide stimulation (80mg, p.o.) plus 2-hour's upright posture in the period of sodium repletion.Change in the supine PRA was directly correlated with that in hematocrit (r=0.81) and inversely with that in body weight (r=-0.64). The PRA rose significantly from 1- to 2- and 4-hour's upright posture in the period of mild sodium restriction, whereas it reached the maximum level at 1-hour's upright posture and remained unchanged thereafter in either period of negative sodium balance. The upright PRA after furosemide stimulation in the period of sodium repletion was almost identical to 2- and 4-hour's upright PRA in the period of mild sodiom restriction, and less than 1-hour's upright PRA in either period of negative sodium balance.These data suggest that 1-hour's upright posture is enough to evaluate PRA when sodium balance is negative.

Individual Renin-Aldosterone Responses of Clinically Healthy Young Japanese Men to Dietary Sodium and Posture

Responses to the changes in dietary sodium and posture were investigated in 9 young clinically healthy Japanese males who customarily consumed a larger amount of salt than North Americans or Europeans of mixed white ethnic background. Plasma renin activity (PRA), plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC), and urinary aldosterone excretion rate (AER) differed at each end of 3- to 4-day spans on a "control", a high-salt and a low-salt diet and of furosemide administration. PRA and PAC, also determined during the upright position following the supine blood sampling, increased after only 1 hour of standing in each condition (p less than 0.05 or more). PRA and PAC were well correlated in all 4 conditions, regardless of the posture (r = 0.806, p less than 0.001). There were also highly significant correlations between the "supine" PRA or PAC and the preceding 24-hour AER (r = 0.869, p less than 0.001) for PRA; r = 0.855, p less than 0.001 for PAC). Correlation coefficients between PRA and PAC in 9 individual subjects ranged from 0.823 to 0.987. The estimates of constant and slope of the regression line between PRA and PAC varied from subject to subject. The renin-aldosterone axis in response to changes in dietary sodium and posture must be individually assessed.

Effect of low-protein diets on free amino acids in plasma of young men: effect of protein quality with maintenance or excess energy intake.

Hematological changes due to protein deprivation were studied in 34 young Japanese men who were given a standard diet with an N intake of 200mg/kg for one week and then low-protein diets with maintenance (45 +/- 2 kcal/kg) or excess (57 +/- 2 kcal/kg) energy and N intakes of about 44 to 99 mg/kg of whole egg or about 50 to 121 mg/kg of polished rice for three weeks. In the period of the low-protein diet the concentrations of most individual free plasma essential amino acids (EAA) decreased significantly in general, and thus the total EAA concentration decreased significantly. Lowering of the valine concentration and elevation of the alanine concentration were the highest changes. The total nonessential amino acid (NEAA) concentration increased significantly in men fed a low-rice-protein diet, but not in those fed a low-egg-protein diet. Consequently, in the former group the ratio of essential to nonessential amino acids fell significanly from 0.96 in the control period to 0.61--0.74 in the period of consuming the low-protein diet. The effect of protein deprivation on the plasma EAA concentration was also larger with egg protein than with rice protein, and the total EAA concentration of men fed egg protein changed significantly and in parallel with the N intake over the range of 44 to 99mg/kg. The decreases in serine and threonine and increase in alanine tended to be more when energy intake was over the maintenance level. The concentration of plasma proteins and especially albumin decreased significantly during the period of consuming the low-protein diet. The interrelation of plasma-free amino acids, the amino acid pool in tissures and dietary N and energy intakes is briefly discussed.

Terrorism at Tel Aviv Airport and a "New Left" Group in Japan

On May 30, 1972, three young Japanese men who had boarded an Air France jetliner at Rome arrived at Lod International Airport at Tel Aviv, Israel. At about 10:30 p.m., they suddenly began to hurl grenades toward milling crowd in custom house and opened fire from submachine guns which they had calmly removed from their luggage and assembled. Twentysix persons, including one internationally renowned medical physicist, Aharon Katchalsky of University of California at Berkeley, were killed, and more than seventy were wounded in assault. Although two of terrorists perished, one of them shot by his comrade, third, later identified as Kozo Okamoto, 24 year old agriculture student at Kagoshima University, was arrested by Israeli police. The incident, according to reports from Tel Aviv, was perpetrated by members of extreme leftist group in Japan known as Reng5 Sekigun (the United Red or URA). Okamoto testified before Israeli military tribunal at Rishon le Zion that the attack was carried out in partnership between Red of Japan and Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). And that Japanese collaboration with Arab organization was a means of propelling ourselves on world stage, in order to prepare for the creation of world Red Army which would then implement world revolution.' Okamoto's justification for collaboration with PFLP clearly reflects ideology of Red Army, which I will examine later. Although Japanese police have found no evidence that Okamoto was member of Red Army, Okamoto was evidently influenced by his two brothers, both of whom were members of extremist groups. One of them, as leader of Red Faction (one of two groups composing URA), was among highj ackers who successfully forced Japan airlines pilot to go to Pyongyang, North Korea, in March 1970. Furthermore, Okamoto had arranged for showing of film on Red Army-PFLP World War Declaration when activists of Red came to Kagoshima University in November 1971.2 Therefore it is clear that Okamoto was at least psychologically and