The Making of Nakasone Yasuhiro’s Diplomacy

The upbringing and early life experiences of a political leader strongly influence development of the policy framework implemented when in office. In the case of Nakasone Yasuhiro, his experiences during the Pacific War would later be reflected in both domestic policy and international affairs. In terms of international relations, Nakasone formed relationships of trust with international leaders in both East and West that engendered respect and that contributed to his exceptional leadership in Japan’s diplomacy.     

Discrimination of paper-based kraft tapes using Fourier transform of transmitted light images

This study focused on two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT) as a new technique for the discrimination of kraft tapes, which is a kind of adhesive packing tape. The 2D power spectrum (2D-PS) obtained by applying 2D-FFT to an image enables us to obtain information about the spatial periodicity, even if the periodicity is invisible within the image. However, in the case of kraft tape, peaks in the 2D-PS are too unclear to determine its periodicity. We developed novel analytical image processes combined with 2D-FFT. 2D-FFT was applied to 50 randomly selected areas in a transmitted light image of kraft tape. The 2D-PSs were calculated from each area without applying a logarithmic transformation, accumulated, and processed by the removal of the area surrounding the center, and finally normalized for visualization. These processes enhanced the peaks and eliminated local variations. Through an intra-roll comparison, the 2D-PSs collected from a roll were similar in the location of the peaks and in their patterns at low frequency area. Using an inter-roll comparison, the 2D-PSs from 50 commercially available brand-name products were classified into 26 groups based on these peaks and patterns. All results demonstrate that this method, which is convenient, rapid, and non-destructive, could be a valuable tool for the identification of kraft tapes.     

Vision for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

The term “Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy” was used by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the first time at the sixth Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD VI), held in Kenya in August 2016. Today, the United States also supports this initiative. Consequently, many regard it as part of the conflict between the United State and China, and furthermore believe that it is in opposition to China’s “One Belt One Road” (the Belt and Road Initiative). I would like to state that I do not believe this to be the case.     

Illegal Route Estimation of the Seized Illicit Drug, Methamphetamine, by the Comparison of Striation Marks on Plastic Packaging Films

Abstract:  In Japan, the most common illicit drug is methamphetamine. It is possible to trace the origin of this drug by analyzing its organic and inorganic impurities and/or byproducts using several methods, such as GC, GC/MS, and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). As reported here, one other method includes comparison of the striation lines of polymer sheet layers from packaging using a polarized light method. Other alternative methods include analyzing the heat sealer pattern, layer thickness surface characteristics, and/or components of polymer sheet layers using infrared spectroscopy. Several of these alternative methods were used to analyze the origins of 29 packages confiscated from three regions over a 1000 km distance in Japan. Results indicated that packages seized from different regions had some polymer sheet layers which contained striation lines and heat sealer patterns that were similar.     

A Simple Solubility Tests for the Discrimination of Acrylic and Modacrylic Fibers

In a crime scene investigation, single fibers play an important role as significant trace physical evidence. Acrylic fibers are frequently encountered in forensic analysis. Currently, acrylic and modacrylic are not discriminated clearly in Japan. Only results of FT‐IR, some of acrylics were difficult to separate clearly to acrylic and modacrylic fibers. Solubility test is primitive but convenient useful method, and Japan Industrial Standards (JIS) recommends FT‐IR and solubility test to distinguish acrylic and modacrylic fibers. But recommended JIS dissolving test using 100% N,N‐dimethylformamide (DMF) as a solvent, some acrylics could not be discriminated. In this report, we used DMF and ethanol (90:10, v/v) solvent. The JIS method could not discriminate 6 acrylics in 60 acrylics; hence, DMF and ethanol (90:10, v/v) solvent discriminated 59 of the 60 fibers (43 acrylic and 16 modacrylic fibers) clearly, but only one modacrylic fiber incorrectly identified as acrylic.