Global attributes or local literacy? International students in Japan’s graduate employment system

International students graduating from Japanese universities are becoming an important component of graduate recruitment strategy in globalising Japanese firms. They are praised for possessing exactly the kinds of attributes seen as lacking in their Japanese counterparts – such as intercultural communication skills, self-confidence and a competitive spirit. Their value is also emphasised in national policies addressing the human resource challenges of globalisation. Higher education policy-makers, too, are increasingly conscious of the need to connect efforts to attract international students to Japan with strategies to maximise their utility in the Japanese workforce. To succeed in the job market, however, international students are required to conform to the conventions of graduate job-hunting. Career support services offered by universities and third-party intermediaries tend to focus on bringing students into line with these conventions rather than developing alternatives thereto. This article explores this interface between policies and practices surrounding international graduate job-seekers, analysing the positions of several different stakeholders – including the job-seekers themselves – in order to develop a more critical understanding of the possible outcomes of current moves towards internationalisation of higher education and employment in Japan and the future of the graduate job-placement system itself. The article highlights a paradox whereby the ‘global’ attributes that underpin the expectations placed on international students originally are overshadowed by a concern with testing local socio-cultural literacy through the application of the conventional norms and practices of the graduate job hunt.     

Prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits in the household population of Great Britain

There are no previous surveys of psychopathy and psychopathic traits in representative general population samples using standardized instruments. This study aimed to measure prevalence and correlates of psychopathic traits, based on a two-phase survey using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) in 638 individuals, 16–74 years, in households in England, Wales and Scotland. The weighted prevalence of psychopathy was 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2–1.6) at a cut score of 13, similar to the noncriminal/nonpsychiatric sample described in the manual of the PCL: SV. Psychopathy scores correlated with: younger age, male gender; suicide attempts, violent behavior, imprisonment and homelessness; drug dependence; histrionic, borderline and adult antisocial personality disorders; panic and obsessive–compulsive disorders. This survey demonstrated that, as measured by the PCL: SV, psychopathy is rare, affecting less than 1% of the household population, although it is prevalent among prisoners, homeless persons, and psychiatric admissions. There is a half-normal distribution of psychopathic traits in the general population, with the majority having no traits, a significant proportion with non-zero values, and a severe subgroup of persons with multiple associated social and behavioral problems. This distribution has implications for research into the etiology of psychopathy and its implications for society.     

Private authority and public policy interactions in global context: Governance spheres for problem solving

Private organizations play a growing role in governing global issues alongside traditional public actors such as states, international organizations, and subnational governments. What do we know about how private authority and public policy interact? What are the implications of answering this question for understanding support for, and effects of, policy development generally? The purpose of this article is to reflect on these questions by introducing, and reviewing, a special issue that challenges explicit claims, and implicit methodologies, that treat private and public governance realms as distinct and/or static. We do so by advancing a theoretical and conceptual framework with which to explore how the contributions to this special issue enhance an understanding about governance interactions across a range of empirical, sectoral, and regional domains. We specifically introduce the concept of governance spheres to capture the proliferation of issue domains denoted by highly fluid interactions across public and private governance boundaries.     

The Future of Empirical Research in Bioethics

Good empirical research is essential to providing sound answers about the facts of the matter, thereby informing bioethical theory and policy. Nevertheless, relatively few topics have been addressed adequately and the most powerful methods have not been exploited to maximize the potential contribution of this work to the field.