In recent years drastic shifts in the paradigms of politics, economics and technologies have occurred throughout the world. The shifts in these three fields are all related. It is our responsibility to investigate these shifts from the aspects of society and mankind for the prosperity of future generations. For this, societies should share with each other their wisdom and knowledge in an effort to plan for the future.

Japanese agricultural scientist Toyama Kametaro’s report about the Mendelian inheritance of silkworm cocoon color in Studies on the Hybridology of Insects spurred changes in Japanese silk production and thrust Toyama and his work into a scholarly exchange with American entomologist Vernon Kellogg. Toyama’s work, based on research conducted in Japan and Siam, came under international scrutiny at a time when analyses of inheritance flourished after the “rediscovery” of Mendel’s laws of heredity in 1900. The hybrid silkworm (...) studies in Asia attracted the attention of Kellogg, who was concerned with how experimental biology would be used to study the causes of natural selection. He challenged Toyama’s conclusions that Mendelism alone could explain the inheritance patterns of silkworm characters such as cocoon color because they had been subject to hundreds of years of artificial selection, or breeding. This examination of the intersection of Japanese sericulture and American entomology probes how practical differences in scientific interests, societal responsibilities, and silkworm materiality were negotiated throughout the processes of legitimating Mendelian genetics on opposite sides of the Pacific. The ways in which Toyama and Kellogg assigned importance to certain silkworm properties show how conflicting intellectual orientations arose in studies of the same organism. Contestation about Mendelism took place not just on a theoretical level, but the debate was fashioned through each scientist’s rationale about the categorization of silkworm breeds and races and what counted as “natural.” This further mediated the acceptability of the silkworm not as an experimental organism, but as an appropriately “natural” insect with which to demonstrate laws of inheritance. All these shed light on the challenges that came along with the use of agricultural animals to convincingly articulate new biological principles. (shrink)

Japanese agricultural scientist Toyama Kametaro's report about the Mendelian inheritance of silkworm cocoon color in Studies on the Hybridology of Insects (1906) spurred changes in Japanese silk production and thrust Toyama and his work into a scholarly exchange with American entomologist Vernon Kellogg. Toyama's work, based on research conducted in Japan and Siam, came under international scrutiny at a time when analyses of inheritance flourished after the "rediscovery" of Mendel's laws of heredity in 1900. The hybrid (...) silkworm studies in Asia attracted the attention of Kellogg, who was concerned with how experimental biology would be used to study the causes of natural selection. He challenged Toyama's conclusions that Mendelism alone could explain the inheritance patterns of silkworm characters such as cocoon color because they had been subject to hundreds of years of artificial selection, or breeding. This examination of the intersection of Japanese sericulture and American entomology probes how practical differences in scientific interests, societal responsibilities, and silkworm materiality were negotiated throughout the processes of legitimating Mendelian genetics on opposite sides of the Pacific. The ways in which Toyama and Kellogg assigned importance to certain silkworm properties show how conflicting intellectual orientations arose in studies of the same organism. Contestation about Mendelism took place not just on a theoretical level, but the debate was fashioned through each scientist's rationale about the categorization of silkworm breeds and races and what counted as "natural." This further mediated the acceptability of the silkworm not as an experimental organism, but as an appropriately "natural" insect with which to demonstrate laws of inheritance. All these shed light on the challenges that came along with the use of agricultural animals to convincingly articulate new biological principles. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Keigo in Modern Japan: Polite Language from Meiji to the PresentAnn WehmeyerKeigo in Modern Japan: Polite Language from Meiji to the Present. By Patricia J. Wetzel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004. Pp. 206.In Keigo in Modern Japan: Polite Language from Meiji to the Present, Patricia Wetzel delves deeply into social and analytical aspects of honorific and polite language from historical and contemporary perspectives. It (...) is a work unlike any other, with a rigorous analysis of "language intervention," the attempt to standardize keigo usage, over the last one hundred years. Wetzel envisions the audience for this book as the student of Japan in a broad sense, and there is much in this work to compel the attention of those in history, sociology, and anthropology, in addition to linguistics. Wetzel characterizes her work as a "search for vocabulary," a vocabulary that can account for keigo as a complex, commonsense system that native speakers feel less than secure in their use thereof.The first chapter, "Keigo in Linguistics," surveys analytic frameworks concerning the structure and syntax of honorifics within Western linguistics. Wetzel also proposes [End Page 191] one modification to theory, in arguing that it is the subject that should be regarded as the trigger for honorification in all instances, doing away with the notion of "object honorification." There is also discussion of issues that have been targeted in research on pragmatics and in research from sociolinguistic perspectives.In the second chapter, "Keigo in Kokugogaku," Wetzel locates the inception of Japanese-language studies of keigo in the Meiji period, under the influence of Latin-based Western methodologies, and the move toward universal education. Following Tsujimura's (1992) lead, she identifies three basic frameworks in the early history of the analysis of keigo, namely through "person," "meaning," and "target." Under person-oriented analyses, Wetzel discusses the work of Mitsuhashi, Tokieda, and Tsujimura; under meaning-oriented frameworks, the work of Yoshioka, Hashimoto, and Uchiyama; and under target-oriented approaches the work of Mitsuya and Matsushita. More recently, theoretical discussions have focused on just what is to be included in the analysis of keigo, and have reincorporated the concept of taigū "consideration," first introduced by Okada in 1900. The latter half of the chapter focuses on the recent work of Ō ishi, Minami, and Kikuchi and their debates on whether to incorporate socially meaningful aspects of deportment into the paradigm as well as the vulgar, demeaning, and haughty ranges of expressions.With chapter 3, "Inventing Keigo: Standardization," Wetzel turns to the ideological aspects of keigo, in an investigation of the history of language intervention in Japan. The late Meiji period witnessed the drive to unify the spoken and written idioms in the genbun-itchi movement. Keigo, like other aspects of spoken language, was part of what needed to be pinned down under the process of codifying a standard language for the nation. Wetzel chronicles the succession of official bodies created to address, first of all, standardization of language and, later, a variety of issues including orthographic reforms and keigo use. Among these official bodies are the Kokugo Chō sakai in 1899, Kokugo Chō sa Iinkai in 1902, Rinji Kokugo Chō sakai in 1921, Kokugo Shingikai in 1950, and Bunka Shingikai in 2001. Wetzel argues that keigo acquired "real salience" and "came of age" only in the postwar period. The Kokugo Shingikai issued two policy statements outlining an optimal system of keigo use: Kore kara no keigo (Keigo from now on) (1952) and Gendai ni okeru keii-hyōgen no arikata (Guidelines for respect expressions in the modern age) (1998), both of which Wetzel translates in their entirety and includes in the book's appendixes, along with the original Japanese.In chapter 4, "The Modernization of Keigo," Wetzel studies the social phenomenon of keigo anxiety, as reflected in the plethora of popular how-to manuals on keigo usage, and the occasional "manner poster" displayed in public venues. She applies Giddens' notion of "disembedding," Faircloth's notion of "technologization of discourse," and Bourdieu's concept of "linguistic capital" to help understand why it is that people feel the need to be instructed on the proper use of keigo. Wetzel herself attended several... (shrink)

Experimental studies have developed, conducted, and evaluated classroom interventions for foreign language anxiety reduction. However, various characteristics of those classroom interventions make it difficult to synthesize the findings and apply them to practice. We conducted what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic review on educational interventions for FLA. Six criteria were established for inclusion of studies. Using English keywords, we identified 854 potentially eligible studies through ProQuest and Scopus, 40 of which were finally included. All included (...) studies were published from 2007 to 2020. The studies differed in type of intervention, duration of intervention, and scale to measure FLA. Our systematic review resulted in seven features of classroom interventions, categorized as student–student interactions, student-teacher interactions, self-management, and mood boosters; we also categorized interventions as either individual or interactional. (shrink)

V članku poskušam analizirati nekatere značilne diskurze posvečene »neuspehu avantgarde« ter tako osvetliti latentno strukturo zanikanja / potlačitve / izključitve, na kateri leži temelj zahodne moderne umetnosti, se pravi strukturo, ki je bila razvita kot druga plat samooblikovanja umetnosti v dobi, ko je nastal mit o njeni avtonomiji. Odkar so moderne »umetnosti« padle v rodovno kategorijo »Umetnost«, ta daje videz, da je postajala vedno bolj obrobna, da pa je hkrati pridobivala v zameno več privilegijev. Da bi se lahko vzpostavila v (...) sublimiranem območju visoke kulture, je bila umetnost morda prisiljena zavreči vse, česar ni bilo mogoče udobno uskladiti z njeno samodefinicijo. Medtem ko so dualizem med »visoko« in »nizko« kulturo prenehali utemeljevati v realnosti, so izumili nov pripomoček, da bi zavaroval navidezne meje, ter da bi pospešil proces avtonomizacije umetnosti. Modernizem v tem primeru služi kot bolj izpopolnjen ter okrepljeni vzvod potlačitve; vsebuje tudi uporniško avantgardo, ki služi za začasno sprostitev potlačenega. Medsebojna povezanost med modernizmom in avantgardo se bo tako pokazala kot spopad med estetiko nadzora in estetiko anarhije. (shrink)

三島教授は、60年代末から70年代はじめの社会的思想的な激動期を挾んで、長年、法思想史・法哲学の研究と教育に携わって、わが国の法哲学界において思想的支柱を担う一人として活躍してこられた。カントをはじめ とするドイツ観念論の法思想、プラトンを中心とする古代ギリシャ法思想、現代自然法論の法思想などに関する一連の研究は、わが国の法思想史研究の画期をなすものであるのみならず、その背後にあって導いている「人間 存在の根源」への真摯な問は、教授の研究に接する者に絶えざる再考を促している。教授の退官を記念して、論集を編むこととなったのは、教授が研究してこられた学問分野と、教授の研究の背後にあるものへのあらたな関 心をよぶ機会としたいと願うからである。.

Shaping off-job life is becoming increasingly important for workers to increase and maintain their optimal functioning. Proactively shaping the job domain has been extensively studied, but crafting in the off-job domain has received markedly less research attention. Based on the Integrative Needs Model of Crafting, needs-based off-job crafting is defined as workers’ proactive and self-initiated changes in their off-job lives, which target psychological needs satisfaction. Off-job crafting is posited as a possible means for workers to fulfill their needs and enhance (...) well-being and performance over time. We developed a new scale to measure off-job crafting and examined its relationships to optimal functioning in different work contexts in different regions around the world. Furthermore, we examined the criterion, convergent, incremental, discriminant, and structural validity evidence of the Needs-based Off-job Crafting Scale using multiple methods. The results showed that off-job crafting was related to optimal functioning over time, especially in the off-job domain but also in the job domain. Moreover, the novel off-job crafting scale had good convergent and discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability. To conclude, our series of studies in various countries show that off-job crafting can enhance optimal functioning in different life domains and support people in performing their duties sustainably. Therefore, shaping off-job life may be beneficial in an intensified and continually changing and challenging working life. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Kiyozawa Manshi’s Two Theories of Evolution and Their Western InspirationDennis PROOIIntroductionIf one solely were to confine the scope of one’s inquiry into the defining trait of a “Tokyo School of Philosophy” to the years immediately following the founding of Tokyo University in 1877, it would be hard to escape the conclusion that philosophy there at the time was determined almost entirely by the dominant intellectual wind blowing through its (...) lecture halls, namely that of evolutionary theory. Katō Hiroyuki (1836–1916), president of the university from 1890 to 1893, was one of its staunchest advocates, doing much to foster the spread of ideas that would today be typified as “Social-Darwinian.”1 Inoue Enryō (1858–1919), undoubtedly the Meiji period’s most successful public philosopher, came to embrace many Spencerian ideas on evolution under the influence of Toyama Masakazu (1848–1900), a devout Spencerian, during his time as a student there (from 1881 to 1885).2 Ernest F. Fenollosa (1853–1908), an American philosopher who exerted great influence over the university’s young philosophical minds, was working on a synthesis of the Spencerian and Hegelian philosophical systems.3 He had been brought to Tokyo University by the Darwinian zoologist Edward S. Morse (1838–1925), who was himself instrumental in the spread of evolutionary ideas. This quick survey of Tokyo notables serves not only to establish the dominance of evolutionary theory, but also to show how in the context of late nineteenth-century Japan, “evolutionary theory” (shinkaron 進化論) is best understood as an umbrella term that could refer to a wide array of ideas—including, but certainly not limited to, Darwinian, Social-Darwinian, Spencerian, and Hegelian ones, or a mix of these—on the nature of (individual and social) change, development, and progress.Although the impact of 1859’s The Origin of Species made Darwin a figure impossible to ignore, by no means was evolutionary theory [End Page 77] equated with his theory of natural selection. For their ideas of evolution, many looked to Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), regarded by the Victorian English as the philosopher of evolution and whose system of synthetic philosophy presented positivist-leaning Meiji-era Japanese intellectuals with a definitive model of philosophical achievement. Spencer prided himself in having been the first to formulate the principle of evolution, remarking in the revised version of Social Statics (1892) that he had arrived at the general idea as early as 1850, many years before The Origin of Species had appeared in print.4 From Spencer’s point of view, Darwin had done no more than confirm a posteriori for biological organisms what was in fact an a priori law of evolution, established by Spencer in First Principles (1867) both inductively and deductively as the universal tendency of phenomena to pass from “an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity,” a process accompanied by “an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion.”5 Spencer’s nod to the materialist tradition by formulating his conception of evolution in terms of matter in motion in his own self-understanding placed him in the camp of English philosophy, which did not let itself be deluded by the wrong use of language and spurned the invocation of what from its perspective was superfluous metaphysics. The opposing camp of German philosophy—following William Hamilton (1788–1856), derided by Spencer as “absolute theorisers”—made abundant use of such metaphysics to defend a teleological understanding of evolution—the kind of understanding Darwin (with his emphasis on the non-teleological character of natural selection) and Spencer (with his focus on matter in motion) attempted to render obsolete.6Under the influence of Fenollosa, many students of philosophy at Tokyo University became attracted to the alternative German teleological model of evolution, the history of which via the German Romantics goes back to Leibniz’s attempt to reintroduce into physics the idea of final causes after these in that domain had been eliminated by Descartes.7 Descartes, to begin with, was the one to revolutionize natural philosophy by reducing the physical world to one of matter in motion ruled by efficient causation, imagining, much like Spencer two centuries later, that such a minimalist view of... (shrink)

Against the prevailing outcomes-based education and the instrumentalization of education, a movement has arisen towards holistic education. This aims to go beyond objective measurement of the outcomes of education in order to treat the student as a whole person. In this paper, we shall examine some strands of education in Japan which in some way or another feature the idea of the whole person. This includes the tradition of clinical pedagogy, which originated in Kyoto University, Yukichi Shitahodo’s educational anthropology (...) (Kyoiku-Ningengaku), Kuniyoshi Obara’s Zenjin Education (the education of the whole person) and holistic education. Notwithstanding the fact that such education is benevolent in intention, it can be miseducative in some respects. In the light of this, and with some reference to criticism of the idea of the whole person, we shall point to an alternative vision of education of the whole person following Cavell’s Emersonian moral perfectionism – a perfectionism that is thoroughly anti-foundationalist and that transcends self-entrapment in circulatory discourse on the whole. In critical dialogue between the rich traditions of Japanese thought and the critical voice of liberalism raised from within the West, we hope to find a more nuanced answer to the question of how being a whole might make sense. (shrink)

Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science argues that Eurocentric blindness is a scientific failing, not a moral one. In a way true of no other political system, Japan's greatness has the potential to enliven and reform almost all the main branches of Western Political Science. David Williams criticizes Western social science, Anglo-American Philosophy and French Theory and explains why mainstream economists, historians of political thought and postculturalists have ignored Japan's modern achievements. Williams demonstrates why the (...) renewal of social science and the nurturing of a "a philosophy of the Pacific Century" requires a sustained act of intellectual demolition. (shrink)

Bushibo: The Soul of Japan is his most famous work. Published in 1900 this work was one of the first samurai ethics books.

This book puts forward a revisionist view of Japanese wartime thinking. It seeks to explore why Japanese intellectuals, historians and philosophers of the time insisted that Japan had to turn its back on the West and attack the United States and the British Empire. Based on a close reading of the texts written by members of the highly influential Kyoto School, and revisiting the dialogue between the Kyoto School and the German philosopher Heidegger, it argues that the work of (...) Kyoto thinkers cannot be dismissed as mere fascist propaganda, and that this work, in which race is a key theme, constitutes a reasoned case for a post-White world. The author also argues that this theme is increasingly relevant at present, as demographic changes are set to transform the political and social landscape of North America and Western Europe over the next fifty years. (shrink)

Interwar Japan saw the rise of a generation of intellectuals, bureaucrats, and educators who were uneasy about modern life. One expression of this malaise was the introduction of calligraphy in the 1941 and 1943 school curricula. Calligraphy injected aesthetics into writing education. Yet it also compromised the speed and efficiency of writing, which lay at the core of Japan's system of modern education. The solution was to teach writing twice, once as an art in the `art section' and (...) once as a functional skill in the `language section'. As an art, writing was a means to cultivate the spirit, discipline the body, escape from the calculated logic of linear time and produce an aesthetic epiphany. As a functional tool, it was a skill for keeping pace with the demands of the modern world by communicating meaning quickly and efficiently. Bureaucrats and educators from 1941 were thus simultaneously engaged in the task of overcoming modernity on the one hand and of instilling proficiency in modern life on the other. This duality of the word as a functional code for transmitting meaning and the word as an aesthetic form both echoed and shaped the double nature of Japan's modernity. (shrink)

Interwar Japan saw the rise of a generation of intellectuals, bureaucrats, and educators who were uneasy about modern life. One expression of this malaise was the introduction of calligraphy in the 1941 and 1943 school curricula. Calligraphy injected aesthetics into writing education. Yet it also compromised the speed and efficiency of writing, which lay at the core of Japan's system of modern education. The solution was to teach writing twice, once as an art in the `art section' and (...) once as a functional skill in the `language section'. As an art, writing was a means to cultivate the spirit, discipline the body, escape from the calculated logic of linear time and produce an aesthetic epiphany. As a functional tool, it was a skill for keeping pace with the demands of the modern world by communicating meaning quickly and efficiently. Bureaucrats and educators from 1941 were thus simultaneously engaged in the task of overcoming modernity on the one hand and of instilling proficiency in modern life on the other. This duality of the word as a functional code for transmitting meaning and the word as an aesthetic form both echoed and shaped the double nature of Japan's modernity. (shrink)

This book raises questions about what really matters through its account of Japan’s March 11, 2011, triple catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, exploring the relationship between culture, community, and disaster.

This book raises questions about what really matters through its account of Japan’s March 11, 2011, triple catastrophe of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, exploring the relationship between culture, community, and disaster.

Describing and defining what 'Japan style' is, this book explores specific achievements in Japanese art and architecture, offering an analysis of the Japanese culture, its vision of the world and of humankind.

SummaryThis article aims at exploring Japan and its cultural and symbolic representation in the Republic of Letters from the end of the seventeenth century until the mid-eighteenth century. In order to do this, the article focuses on early modern scholarly journals, as they were the most comprehensive and up-to-date instruments of communication for the international community of scholars during that time. By analysing the journals’ content we will see which topics were more commonly connected to Japan and understand (...) the role Japan played in the development of the increasingly comprehensive and methodical knowledge of the early modern savants. This article provides a picture of the heuristic and rhetorical role of Japan in the shaping of new, expanded representations of the world. On the one hand, connections between the cultural representations of Japan and other extra-European lands are highlighted; on the other hand, Japan's peculiar and unique features within the cultural and scientific discourses of the Republic of Letters are examined. Finally, how the representations of Japan relate to the divisions and identities within the Republic of Letters itself is considered. (shrink)

Korea is one of the most complex, critical, and yet understudied of Japan's foreign policy relationships. While much attention in US policy and academic circles has focused on Japan's future relations with China as the key variable for regional stability in the twenty first century, an integral part of the security dynamic in East Asia has been driven by the JapanRepublic of Korea (ROK) axis facilitated the American presence as an Asia-Pacific power and security guarantor. And in the (...) post-cold war era, outcomes in the Japangrand strategy’ regarding the peninsula? (shrink)

Driven by the demographic tsunami of a rapidly aging population, costs of universal healthcare in Japan have grown at an unprecedented rate. These trends are mirrored elsewhere, so industrialized countries are asking if Japan will become a global test case for healthcare delivery.