Dialogue, distance and difference: Feminism in contemporary japan

In this article, I examine the ways in which women’s groups in Japan have attempted to deal with issues of difference prompted by the co-existence of residents of different ethnicities in contemporary Japan, and the new issues raised by labour migration in the context of globalization of economies and labour markets. Japan’s place in contemporary East Asia can be clarified by using the term colonial modernity, to refer to Japan’s early 20th-century history; and the term postcoloniality to refer to the legacy of the colonial project in the culture of the metropolitan society. In representations of Japan’s contemporary “Others,” notions of gendered difference interact with representations of ethnic and cultural difference. Contemporary attempts to deal with these issues will be placed in the context of several decades of feminist activism in Japan.     

Budgetary Politics and Veto Players

In this article we examine whether and how the policy‐oriented coalition building and the gridlock model of legislative choice explain changes in the allocation of German budgetary items between 1961 and 1994. The policy‐oriented coalition‐building approach suggests that only policy‐connected budgetary actors can make changes in the budgetary composition, while the location of the status quo is essential for budgetary modifications according to the gridlock model. We also draw the attention to the identification of the set of relevant budgetary veto players and their preferences by distinguishing between models of the government, the political parties of the Bundestag, and the two of them. We test the predictive power of these approaches and conceptions in a competitive manner and control for macroeconomic and other political factors that might influence changes in the budgetary allocation. Our findings show that the gridlock model better explains budgetary changes, and that the government is responsible for decreasing, but the political parties of the Bundestag majority are decisive for increasing the size of budgetary items. We conclude that identifying the relevant veto players and using these more sophisticated approaches on budgetary decision making provide significant insights into the political reasons for changing the allocation of the German budget.     

Examining the predictors of juvenile probation officers' rehabilitation orientation

According to the importation model, individual attributes such as gender and race influence correctional orientation. In contrast, the work/role model contends that differences in correctional orientation are due to work experiences and environment. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether individual attributes, work-related experiences, and perceptions of one's own cultural competency and juveniles' social supports predicted rehabilitation orientation for one hundred juvenile probation officers working within an organization framework that favored a balanced approach to juvenile justice. Multiple regression results indicated that the importation variables were not predictive of rehabilitation orientation, either as a set or individually. The work/role model and the perception variable sets predicted rehabilitation orientation. Employment type and perceptions of social support were most strongly related to rehabilitation orientation. The study's unique contribution stems from its use of unordered sets analyses to examine the relative validity of theoretical grounded sets of variables.     

Sharing the Fruit of Labor: Flexible Application of Justice Principles in an Ultimatum Game with Joint-Production

Individuals often need to negotiate how to distribute jointly produced goods—equally (e.g., 50:50) or equitably (e.g., proportionally to their contributions). We examined whether people have stable preferences, or whether they switch between equality and equity in different situations. Pairs of anonymous participants first produced a common pie, and then distributed it in an ultimatum game. Results suggest that individuals apply different justice principles depending on their contribution. When they produced less than 50%, proposers divided the pie equally. However, when they produced more than 50%, their offers fell between equality and equity. Responders’ ratings of fairness and satisfaction varied similarly; with low production, equality was preferred, whereas with high production, equity was preferred. Nevertheless, equal and equitable offers were generally accepted, and only outright unfair offers were rejected. This suggests that individuals are relatively flexible about which justice principle should be applied, but punish proposers whose offers violate both principles.     

Adolescents' evaluations of Peers' motives for helping

Four groups of high-school students (N=92) were each informed about a pair of helpers, either male or female, who independently helped a sameor opposite-sex peer. Within each pair of same-sex helpers, one was presented as having helped for empathic reasons and the other was presented as having helped for nonempathic reasons. The adolescents' ratings of the helpers indicated that they generally favored empathically motivated helping in both male and female peers. However, a female helper who did not express sensitivity and emotional responsiveness to the feelings of the needy other in her prosocial moral reasoning tended to be judged more harshly by the adolescents than did a male helper who failed to express such sentiments.Received Ph. D. from Northwestern University. Research interests include empathy and prosocial behavior.All received B.S. in psychology from Kansas State University in 1987.     

The Applicability of the Lamendin Method to Skeletal Remains Buried for a 16-Year Period: A Cautionary Note

The Lamendin method is widely reported as one of the most reliable means of age estimation of skeletal remains, but very little is known concerning the influence of burial in soil. This study aimed at verifying the reliability of the Lamendin method on corpses buried for 16 years in a cemetery. The Lamendin and the Prince and Ubelaker methods were applied. In all age groups except the 40- to 49-year–olds, the error was higher in the buried sample. The age-at-death error ranged between 10.7 and 36.8 years for the Lamendin method (vs. the reported 7.3–18.9 years) and 9.5 and 35.7 for the Prince and Ubelaker one (vs. the original 5.2–32.6 years); in all age groups, the error is closer to that found on archeological populations. These results suggest caution in applying the Lamendin method to forensic cases of human remains buried even for a brief period under soil.     

Decomposing Human Blood: Canine Detection Odor Signature and Volatile Organic Compounds

The admissibility of human “odor mortis” discrimination in courts depends on the lack of comprehension of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the human decay process and of the lack in standardized procedures in training cadaver dogs. Blood was collected from four young people who died from traffic accidents and analyzed using HS‐SPME/GC‐MS at different decompositional stages. Two dogs, professionally trained, were tested to exactly locate blood samples, for each time point of the experiment. We found a long list of VOCs which varied from fresh to decomposed blood samples, showing differences in specific compounds. Dog performance showed a positive predictive value between 98.96% and 100% for DOG A, and between 99.47% and 100% for DOG B. Our findings demonstrated that decomposing human blood is a good source of VOCs and a good target for canine training.     

From Hiroshima to Lausanne: the World Congress of Mothers and the Hahaoya Taikai in the 1950s

ABSTRACT

The World Congress of Mothers in Lausanne in 1955 brought together over 1000 women from more than sixty countries. The Congress was held under the auspices of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). In this article, the relationship between the World Congress of Mothers and the Japan Mothers' Congress (Nihon Hahaoya Taikai), which has met annually since 1955, is considered. This provides a suitable locus for exploring the dynamic interrelationships of local, national, international and global politics, especially from 1953, when women from Japan started to interact with the WIDF, until the late 1950s, by which time the Hahaoya Taikai meetings were well established there. Three stages are explored—preparations for the World Congress of Mothers in Lausanne by the WIDF and by delegates from Japan; the participation of the Japanese delegates in the World Congress in 1955, and the legacy of the Japanese delegates' participation in the Lausanne Congress. By focusing on these three stages in one country's interactions with an international organisation, we can gain a more complex understanding of the dynamics of transnational politics and the embeddedness of global politics in local contexts. Although common issues were often discussed in different places, discussions in each place were inflected by their local contexts. The positioning of a particular nation in the global geopolitics of the Cold War also affected the possibilities of participation by individuals in such international congresses.