Rhodopsins are one of the most studied photoreceptor protein families, and ion‐translocating rhodopsins, both pumps and channels, have recently attracted broad attention because of the development of optogenetics. Recently, a new functional class of ion‐pumping rhodopsins, an outward Na+ pump, was discovered, and following structural and functional studies enable us to compare three functionally different ion‐pumping rhodopsins: outward proton pump, inward Cl− pump, and outward Na+ pump. Here, we review the current knowledge on structure‐function relationships in these three light‐driven pumps, (...) mainly focusing on Na+ pumps. A structural and functional comparison reveals both unique and conserved features of these ion pumps, and enhances our understanding about how the structurally similar microbial rhodopsins acquired such diverse functions. We also discuss some unresolved questions and future perspectives in research of ion‐pumping rhodopsins, including optogenetics application and engineering of novel rhodopsins. (shrink)

Japan's founding myth tells the story of a crocodile princess called Toyotamahime, wife of Prince Hoori. She asks her husband not to look at her as she gives birth, but he disobeys her and so sees that his wife is a crocodile. Finding out that she has been seen, the princess goes back to her country, that is, the bottom of the sea. The tale can be compared to the one about Melusine: in both stories there are common motifs such (...) as the command not to look and disobeying the command, as well as the transformation into a reptile. Both stories are also tales about the founding of a royal house. This paper shows how Japanese myths, closely connected to maritime traditions, are at the crossroad of a cultural circulation extending from China and Korea to Indonesia, India, Arabia and Egypt. The chief actors in these stories are monkeys, hares, crocodiles or turtles. (shrink)

Kyosei, a traditional Japanese concept, has been applied to a variety subjects, from biology to business. It has more recently become synonymous with the concepts of corporate responsibility, ethical decision making, stakeholder maximization, and responsible reciprocity. The purpose of this paper is to trace kyosei's modern business application back to ancient Confucian thought. The ideals associated with Confucianism were instrumental in the creation of Japanese business codes of ethics during the early part of the seventeenth century. A short history of (...) this period is presented to provide a contextual framework for understanding these codes. A specific code of ethics, called the shuchu kiyaku, is presented for the first time in English and shown to have direct roots in Confucian writings. Statements from modern company codes and from modern Japanese and American businessmen are presented to reflect the philosophy of business embodied in that ancient code of ethics. (shrink)

This study examines whether the delegated monitoring of main banks effectively decreases severe agency problems. For example, this includes accounting fraud in bank-dominated corporate governance. In this context, the fraud triangle specifies the three main factors of opportunity, incentive, and rationalization. Main banks may reduce the factor of opportunity through actions such as monitoring, which plays a moderating role by reducing the potential for managerial misconduct, whereas, the incentive factor may be enhanced through the subsequent pressure that influences managers to (...) force turnover when they do not repay debts. The potential influence that the main banks have on the fraud rationalization factor may be stronger in firms that are more dependent on main-bank borrowing. This study analyzed data from publicly listed firms in Japan for the period between 2008 and 2016 to determine how main-bank relationships affected accounting fraud, thus allowing an assessment of delegated monitoring practices. Findings showed that main-bank relationships were helpful for reducing accounting fraud, suggesting its overall effectiveness in delegated monitoring. Results also showed that large audit firms did not necessarily prevent accounting fraud, which implies that main banks can employ their own monitoring as a substitute for the roles typically played by these firms. Here, the main policy implication is that main-bank relationships may strengthen business ethics in the context of bank-dominated corporate governance. In conclusion, the continued analysis of bank monitoring may benefit stakeholders while strengthening business ethics in bank-centered economies. (shrink)

This article describes a number of human cohort studies based on the concept of brain‐science and education. These studies assess the potential effects of new technologies on babies, children and adolescents, and test hypotheses drawn from animal and genetic case studies to see if they apply to people. A flood of information, virtual media, individualism and the pursuit of efficiency might be transforming our brain and its functions. An environmental assessment from the metaphysical aspect could be essential to providing an (...) appropriate environment for future generations. (shrink)

The article contributes to debates about core executive capacity by analyzing the British and Japanese cases. First it examines the historical development, contemporary structures and current operations of the two cases. Then it compares their performance in five key areas: overseeing government policy in the domestic sphere; overseeing government policy in the external sphere; managing executive relations with the legislature; overseeing public finances; and managing public relations. It finds that the performance of the two systems is variable both internally across (...) distinct areas of business and, to a lesser extent, comparatively across similar areas. Overall, however, the British core executive is shown to have considerably greater capacity for coordinating and managing policy flows through the system than the Japanese. Governing from the centre is more feasible in Britain than in Japan. (shrink)

For a prime k, the embeddability of finite lattices are discussed for various kind of the MODkP degrees of recursive sets. In particular, all finite lattices are embeddable into the MODkP Turing degrees, whereas the non distributive lattice M3 is embeddable into the MOD2P many-one degrees but N5 is not.

In July 2003, Prime Minister Koizumi successfully passed the legislation to dispatch ground SDF units to Iraq in the Diet. His top-down policy process was completely different from Japan's traditional bottom-up system, which Aurelia George Mulgan calls the in which the bureaucrats in the ministries play a central role with the LDP being the only political power to negotiate with them. Mulgan also argues that the system has not changed despite recent institutional changes. On the contrary, this paper illustrates how (...) Koizumi and his Cabinet took advantage of the strengthened authority of the Cabinet Secretariat to initiate policies, and successfully pushed the controversial national security legislation through LDP decision-making organs and the Diet by gaining support first from the coalition partners, presenting a new style of Westminster system. (shrink)

After the collapse of the Cold War system, Japan became more active in contributing to international peace and security. Especially under the Koizumi administration, Japan successfully passed major pieces of national security legislation, such as the 2001 Anti-Terrorism and the 2003 Iraq Special Measure Laws, in a timely manner. A changing international security environment in the Cold War transformed Japan's media and public opinion to a more realistic one, which supported Koizumi's active national security policy and changed the dynamics of (...) party politics. In order to prove this, this study first explores the influence of the Japanese media, especially the press. Next, it presents the opinion of major newspapers and the public on individual national security issues. Finally, it analyzes the press's influence on public over the issue of constitutional revision. (shrink)

This paper investigates the campaign waged by Islamic scholars affiliating to the Shādhiliyya-Jazūliyya Sufi order among tribal people in the mountain region of Northern Morocco in the sixteenth century. It examines these scholars’ campaign against bidʿa in the mountains, focusing on their attacks against traditional practices related to marriage and conjugal life that they considered religiously and morally aberrant. The primary source discussed here is a guidebook for marriage, titled Etiquette of Husband and Wife, containing diverse legal doctrines, fatwās, anecdotes, (...) and other accounts. Based on this document, we examine these scholars’ ideological background, the methods they used, and the kinds of practices they censured. They intended to enhance strict sexual segregation by using sufi masters’ religious authority and dhikr to conquer the resistance of the tribal people who had allowed men and women to mix each other publicly. They also demanded a hierarchical structure of religious education, with the family as the base for the Islamization of juridical norms in tribal society. This paper shows that the people did not strictly follow the scholars’ dictates because these restrictions were incompatible with their way of life in this region. It is probable that the leaders of the campaign afforded to the cause of the Saʿdids because they expected that their activity would proceed better under a new regime with more effective governance and control over society. (shrink)

The 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear reactors in Fukushima. Prime Minister Naoto Kan took this crisis seriously, and made himself personally involved with damage control, especially during the first week. This study examines the responses to the incident by the prime minister's office.

In the fall 2007 Diet session, the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) showed strong opposition against the government's proposal to continue the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) refueling operations to support maritime inspections in the Indian Ocean. In order to evaluate this parliamentary confrontation, the article compares the handling of this issue with the six past major post-Cold War national security policies. The DPJ constantly presented its own legislative proposals in order to participate in Diet deliberation. DPJ's counter proposals, however, (...) were not always cooperative with the government. This different attitude by the DPJ could not be explained by the public and media opinions or the position of the supporting organization but by DPJ's political calculation. (shrink)

There is a comeager set C contained in the set of 1-generic reals and a first order structure M such that for any real number X, there is an element of C which is recursive in X if and only if there is a presentation of M which is recursive in X.

The degree structure of functions induced by a polynomial-time reducibility first introduced in G. Miller's work on the complexity of prime factorization is investigated. Several basic results are established including the facts that the degrees restricted to the sets do not form an upper semilattice and there is a minimal degree, as well as density for the low degrees, a weak form of the exact pair theorem, the existence of minimal pairs and the decidability of the Π2 theory of the (...) low degrees. (shrink)

The structure of the p-s-degrees of recursive functions is shown to be inhomogeneous. There are two p-s-degrees a and b above 0 such that [0, a] is distributive and [0, b] is nondistributive. Moreover, we will investigate how the number of values of each function reflects on its degree.