Differentiated Citizenship and Ethnocultural Groups: A Japanese Case

It is a widely shared view that Japan is a culturally homogeneous country. This view is often deployed as justification for certain policy orientations to preserve cultural homogeneity. The goal of this article is to show that this line of thought is not acceptable on empirical and normative grounds. By considering two representative ethnocultural minorities—Ainu and Koreans—in terms of cultural, social, and political rights, I illustrate that there exists not only a plurality of ethnocultural groups in Japan with distinct claims to differentiated citizenship but also institutions and practices accommodating them. Moreover, a set of principles of differentiated citizenship underlying those institutions and practices are outlined. Finally, on the basis of the foregoing analysis, I argue that public policies attempt to preserve a cultural homogeneity that does not exist and such political aims as “enhancing social unity” are morally and prudentially undesirable.     

Politics in Indonesia: Current State and Future Outlook

Indonesia's sixth and first directly elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and his vice president, Jusuf Kalla, symbolically represent the social power of the military and business elite who was nurtured during the Suharto era. The “Unity Cabinet” of the new administration reflects not just the division of labor between the president and vice-president, but the division of power among contending parties that make up the still-mutating ruling and opposition alliances. The subsequent neutralizing of the leading Muslim social organization Nahdlatul Ulama, the collapse of the opposition alliance, and personnel changes in the military have given the current administration a measure of stability, even as the challenges of implementing a lasting solution to the conflict in Aceh and of putting Indonesia back on the track of viable economic growth depend on the as-yet untested leadership of the president.     

Measurement of Postmortem 1,5‐anhydroglucitol in Vitreous Humor for Forensic Diagnosis

In forensic diagnosis, postmortem blood glucose is known to be susceptible to change after death. However, the 1,5‐anhydroglucitol (1,5‐AG) concentrations in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) reflect the mean blood glucose level for a short period of time. In this study, we compared the postmortem 1,5‐AG concentrations in vitreous humor and CSF in 47 subjects to evaluate the utility of this concentration in the vitreous humor for forensic diagnosis. The postmortem 1,5‐AG concentrations in vitreous humor (mean±SD: 20.2 ± 8.7 μg/mL) and CSF (16.8 ± 8.7 μg/mL) did not differ significantly and showed a strong correlation (r² = 0.87, p < 0.01). These results suggest that the vitreous humor 1,5‐AG concentration provides useful information on the antemortem blood glucose level, in addition to the HbA1c value and the CSF 1,5‐AG concentration.     

日本刑法中对责任能力的认定

在日本刑法中,责任能力的判断是法律判断。通说是将规范责任论具体化,以反对动机形成可能性、他行为可能性为基础的非难为基本内容来把握责任能力。行为人是否可能具有规范意识(辨认能力),是否可能控制自己的行为(控制能力),是进行责任能力判断的核心内容。因此,在司法实务中,当行为人基于精神障碍而犯罪时,需要对其辨认能力、控制能力...     

US-Japan Alliance: The Political Dimension

George W. Bush was inaugurated as the new president of the United States on 20 January 2001. How will the change in personnel influence Washington's approach to its relationship with East Asia and, in particular, with Japan? Takashi Oka, a Washington-based consultant to the Liberal Party of Japan who was for many years a correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, considers this question in the following article. Oka argues that the strategic importance of the US-Japan alliance has not lessened with the end of the Cold War,and that in order to confront the security challenges of the twenty-first century, Japan's position within the US-Japan alliance needs to change from that of a protected subordinate to that of an equal partner. For this to be possible, a politician with sufficient vision and power, someone with a clear foreign policy, who is strong enough in domestic politics to carry out that policy, needs to emerge in Japan.     

Jobs Off the Farm: Wealth,Human Capital,and Social Group in Rural Eastern India

This study examines the effects of wealth, human capital, and social group on the occupational choice and income of farm households, to gain an understanding of the mechanism underlying the recently increasing income diversification in rural eastern India. The results show that wealth and human capital have a positive impact on the choice of high-return jobs, and low caste workers are more likely to work in casual, low-paying jobs, partly due to their dependence on personal networks in finding jobs. Notably, no clear evidence of association between social group and income is found.     

Indication and limitations of using palatal rugae for personal identification in edentulous cases

To explore the availability and the limitations of using the palatal rugae pattern in forensic practice for personal identification in edentulous cases, we set up an experiment, which involved 48 patients who had both old and new complete dentures and we observed their rugae. First, we made 48 pairs of maxillary casts from their old and new dentures and a further 50 maxillary casts from complete dentures at random, to use as variables. All the initial impressions taken from the mucosal surfaces of complete dentures were made from alginate impression materials, and the maxillary casts were made from hard dental plaster. Secondly, all 146 casts were trimmed so that all the areas except for the rugae area were removed. Subsequently, 50 examiners were given the 48 casts from the old dentures and were then asked to compare them with the other 98 casts for possible matches. The case numbers, which matched correctly, were recorded. The median percentage of correct matches among the 50 examiners was 94%, despite variations in their experience with forensic identification, and this accuracy does not differ significantly from that in dentate cases, as described in previous publications. The median percentage of correct matches among the 48 cases was 90%. Analyzing the incidence of obtaining a correct match in each case revealed that there were three major misleading shapes that could give rise to a low rate of correct matches; (1) severely low and poorly demarcated eminences of rugae, (2) change of palatal height, and (3) non-complex rugae pattern. These features are mainly due to the shape of the edentulous palate itself and rarely due to the dentures, and could lead to difficulties in finding unique points for use in matching rugae patterns. The results suggest that an appropriate selection of cases, taking into consideration the above misleading shapes, may establish an increased rate of accuracy for identification with this method, thereby bringing the percentage of correct matches closer to 100% in edentulous cases, which is also the percentage of correct matches previously reported in dentate cases.     

Japanese population study of a Y-linked dinucleotide repeat DNA polymorphism.

A polymorphic CA repeats (YCA II) was previously reported on the human Y chromosome. We have used a simple technique based on polymerase chain reaction amplification followed by native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to study the inheritance, the genetic stability, and the allele frequency distribution of this polymorphism in the Japanese. We found seven haplotypes which were tentatively designated as: A[(CA)19/(CA)21], B[(CA)19/(CA)22], C[(CA)19/(CA)23], D[(CA)19/(CA)19], E[(CA)21/(CA)21], F[(CA)22/(CA)22], and G[(CA)23/(CA)23]. The frequencies of these haplotypes were: A, 0.21; B, 0.29; C, 0.37; D, 0.02; E, 0.02; F, 0.07; G, 0.01. There was complete concordance with each father-son pairs. The results indicate the dinucleotide system YCA II is very useful for investigation of forensic samples, especially mixed stains in sexual offence cases.     

Nagano Shigeo: Business Leadership in the Asia Pacific Region and the Formation of the Pacific Basin Economic Council

The Pacific Basin Economic Council (PBEC) was established in 1968 through the initiatives taken by the Japanese and Australian business leaders. This article focuses on the ideas and activities of the Japanese and Australian business leaders in the establishment of PBEC, especially those of Nagano Shigeo and W.R.C. Anderson, both of whom devoted themselves to the establishment of PBEC, while cooperating with each other. The central questions posed are: how and why Nagano and Anderson came to consider it desirable to establish an economic institution in the Asia Pacific region in the mid-1960s; how and why those ideas were refined and transformed into the establishment of PBEC; what approaches business leaders in other countries took towards Pacific cooperation and how the Japanese and Australians adjusted different interests of people in other countries in organising PBEC. Finally, the article assesses the role played by PBEC in the development of economic cooperation in Asia and the Pacific and insists that it should help set up foundations for the subsequent organisations of regional economic institutions such as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.