Suicide in Japan: present condition and prevention measures

This article introduces the reader to present conditions and suicide prevention measures in Japan. The suicide rate has increased gradually since the early 1990s, reaching a postwar peak in 1998. The number of suicides has remained at about 30,000 every year since 1998. Middle-aged (55-59 years) and elderly men have especially high suicide rates. In 2002, The Council of Learned People on Measures Against Suicides (organized by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare) released its report on national suicide prevention strategies. Although national suicide prevention strategies have just begun to be established, some prefectures or regions have undertaken unique suicide prevention measures.     

Thymus of abused/neglected children.

Forty-six cases of child abuse/neglect autopsied during the period of 1967 to 1990 were investigated. The weight and histological findings of the thymus were compared with those of control children. In most abused and/or neglected children, the weight of the thymus decreased conspicuously. Involution correlated well to the degree and period of maltreatment. In cases without weight loss of the thymus, i.e. spasmodic abuse by a mentally deranged parent or foster parent, a short history of maltreatment was noted. On the other hand, marked involution was observed in cases of prolonged physical abuse and/or neglect. Microscopically, a decrease in the number and pyknosis of lymphocytes were observed in the involuted thymus. Atrophy of the thymus was more conspicuous in the cortex than in medulla. Immunohistochemically, CD-1a positive cells (immature thymocytes) decreased in cases with thymic involution. This involution appears to be an important index of the degree and duration of child abuse/neglect. Furthermore, thymic involution in the early stage of childhood may also be related to insufficiency of the immune system.     

Food and agriculture problems for Japan and the World in the twenty-first century

This article examines the relationship between agriculture and food, agriculture and the environment and agriculture and trade, and discusses the various circumstances that affect the global supply of food. Japan's decline in international competitiveness and food self-sufficiency and the influence that may have on future food security is then discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for structural agricultural policy reform.     

A large-scale statistical analysis of barefoot impressions

In an earlier paper, outlines of footprints of persons walking normally were studied to determine whether different people make verifiably distinct footprints. Our basic null hypothesis is: given a footprint outline trace made by Subject A (Alice), then Subject B (Bob), a distinct person, cannot produce a footprint outline trace indistinguishable from that of Alice. We showed in the previous work that the probability of a chance match is less than 10(-8). In this paper we report two new advances in our research. First, we establish a rigorous mathematical framework for calculating worstcase and average chance-match probabilities. Second, we repeat the previous experiment to substantiate the earlier results, but with an expanded population sample size and a more representative and significantly bigger repeated sample. These improvements and a new automated tracing procedure for extracting all numerical measures lead to a sharpened accuracy with average chance match probabilities of 7.88 x 10-(10) for a general population. In other words, the odds of a chance match are one in 1.27 billion.     

Future targets for Asian regional integration

The central framework of Asian integration is ASEAN+3 and, since its first Summit meeting in 1997, it has advanced regional integration in East Asia. Based on the direct experience of the author, this article presents a critical assessment of the progress made over the past ten years and argues that the ‘Singapore Declaration’ of 2007 is not ambitious enough for the future. An East Asian customs union (EACU) and common regional market should be the next targets for trade integration. In terms of monetary integration, Asia should aim for de-dollarisation and to achieve this it is crucially important to create a regional Asian monetary system (AMS).

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A Vision for Postmaternalism: Institutionalising Fathers’ Engagement with Care

ABSTRACT

Social policy development under neo-liberal logic glorifies paid work in the market over relationships involving care, nurture and dependency. Under neo-liberal conditions, the social policy framework in a large number of welfare states has moved towards the norm of the adult worker model. The prevalence of this model, which signalled a ‘farewell to maternalism’, has had the consequence that supporting mothers’ care-giving roles are dismissed in state policy-making. Such neo-liberal logic leads to the creation of an apparent cultural anxiety about caregiving and nurturing. Julie Stephens [2011. Confronting Postmaternal Thinking: Feminism, Memory and Care. New York: Columbia University Press] calls this ‘postmaternal’ thinking. Drawing on feminist critiques of neo-liberal developments in social policy, this article provides a divergent and even slightly positive interpretation of postmaternalism that does not abandon care and nurture. This is evident in the recent development of parental leave policies that institutionally encourage men to become involved with caring. I argue that a ‘farewell to maternalism’ in social policy is therefore not too problematic. Parental leave policy – particularly with institutionalised incentives for men to take up parental leave – is creating a transformative space for men to experience the maternal thinking that confronts the cultural logic of what Stephens conceptualises as postmaternal thinking.