Graves and families in Japan: Continuity and change

The population aging in Japan has been accelerated not only by the nation's longest life expectancy at birth but also by its falling fertility rate. As the existence of a Japanese family's grave presupposes the continuity of the family line, Japan's current low fertility rate has increased families without progeny who now face problems of their family graves becoming “disconnected.” In this study, historical trends of graves in Japan were analyzed — how the idea of traditional family grave was socially constructed and how it has transformed society, culture, and families. In addition, analyzing the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS) 2001, it addresses the importance of gender on people's expectations about burial partners in current Japanese society. The analysis of JGSS-2001 data revealed that although the majority of people chose graves with succession across generations, younger generations were more likely to support diversified graves than were older generations, and this difference was greater for women than for men. Finally, understanding problems and limitations of current Japanese graves, future issues of Japanese graves will be addressed.     

The ‘informal sector’ and the political economy of development

This paper takes an initial step in integrating insights from two sets of literature which have focused on central aspects of development with unfortunate independence. It highlights politically valuable resources, which are identified in the political economy literature, and shows that the informal sector literature provides ample evidence that these resources in general are (i) scarcely available to informal entities, (ii) poorly valued in their possession, and (iii) more often collectively unexploited by them. Overall, there seems to be an important though neglected bias in how the political system in less developed countries formulates, crafts, and implements policy.     

Prompt Release in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Some Reflections on the Itlos Jurisprudence

Netherlands International Law Review -     

Preliminary evaluation of the childhood experiences of violence questionnaire short form

Despite advances in child maltreatment research, accurate measurement of exposure remains a key issue. In this study, we evaluated a short form (CEVQ-SF) of the Childhood Experiences of Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ) in a sample of adolescents involved with child protection services in an urban city in Ontario, Canada. Focusing on the two most readily defined maltreatment types, physical and sexual abuse, we evaluated the short form's comparability with the full version of the CEVQ. Both versions had good internal consistency and moderate-to-good 2-week test-retest reliability. The criterion validity of the two CEVQ versions in comparison with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was satisfactory. Construct validity for both versions was demonstrated: physically and sexually abused youth had higher odds of reporting clinical traumatic symptoms compared with either type alone. The CEVQ-SF is as reliable and valid as its full version. Implications for its use in large population-based surveys are discussed.     

Immunohistochemical study of blood group activities in severely burned human tissue

The blood, livers and lungs obtained from donors or cadavers of known blood groups were experimentally burned, while the temperatures inside the tissue specimens were automatically measured. All the distinguishable portions with various thermo-changes in each burned tissue specimen were examined for their blood-group activities A, B, Lea, Leb and P1 by means of the immunofluorescence and immunoperoxidase techniques. In the layer immediately before charring of the blood masses (tissue temperature: ca. 200-250 degrees C), the activities A, B, Lea, Leb and P1 could be specifically demonstrated on the erythrocyte membranes. In case of the burned livers and lungs, the A- and B-activities could be detected in the small blood vessels in the layer immediately before charring (ca. 200-250 degrees C), though the layer was so severely thermo-changed, that their original tissue structures could be no more observed. In the severely thermo-coagulated, porous and hardened layer of both organ tissues, the A- and B-activities could be demonstrated on the endothelial cells of the hepatic sinus and small blood vessels (especially in the alveolar walls). The simply thermo-coagulated inner portions well retained their original tissue structures and the A- and B-activities remained on the epithelial cells of the alveoli and bronchioles of the lung as well as the cells described above. The Lewis blood-group activities could be demonstrated on the epithelial cells of the bronchioles in the simply thermo-coagulated inner portion of the lung. The P1-activity could not be demonstrated in the burned tissues of the livers and lungs.     

Modeling Determinants of Individual Punitiveness in a Late Modern Perspective: Data from Japan

Asian Journal of Criminology - There is a growing trend to both theoretically and empirically explain public punitiveness from a general social theory of late modernity. Yet, research which has...     

Urinary ortho-cresol concentrations as an indicator of toluene inhalation in glue-sniffers.

In a Japanese study of glue-sniffers, urinary ortho-cresol and expired air toluene concentrations were determined by gas chromatography, and urinary hippuric acid concentrations by high performance liquid chromatography. There were significant differences among three sample groups (30 male "glue-sniffers", 13 "non-glue-sniffers" and 32 industrial workers) in their expired air toluene, urinary hippuric acid and ortho-cresol concentrations. Moreover, there was a better correlation between expired air toluene and urinary ortho-cresol concentrations than between toluene and urinary ortho-cresol concentrations than between toluene and hippuric acid. These results suggest that urinary ortho-cresol is a good indicator of toluene inhalation in glue-sniffers.     

Immunohistochemical study of blood group activities in the alimentary canal in normal and pathologic conditions with reference to the nature of epithelial mucopolysaccharides

ABO(H)- and Lewis-activities in the human alimentary canal were investigated by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method using commercial mouse monoclonal antibodies in order to clarify (1) the changes apparent in these activities in carcinoma of the digestive tract or premalignant intestinal metaplasia of the stomach and (2) the relationship of the activities to the histochemical properties of epithelial mucins examined by Alcian blue (pH 2.5)/periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) double staining. In intestinal metaplasia, ectopic goblet cells showed various degrees of ABO(H)-activities according to the PAS stainability of mucins and revealed Lea-activity even in a Le(a-b+) group. In carcinoma of the alimentary canal, ABO(H)- and Lewis-activities compatible with the donors' blood groups were located mainly at the PAS-positive cell surface, and in the Golgi bodies and secretions. It was thus concluded that quantitative and/or qualitative changes in blood group activities were closely associated with those of epithelial mucopolysaccharides.     

Discourses of the Vanishing: Modernity,Phantasm, Japan by Marilyn Ivy

Abstract

Discourses of the Vanishing has been anticipated for several years now; it won't disappoint. Despite the rising number of authors who seek to “explain” Japan or attack its essentialism, Ivy is one of the few who have the understanding of modernity and the methodological tools to excavate the celebration (Japanese and American) of Japan's “uniqueness.” Discourses is by far one of the most sophisticated inquiries into what Ivy calls—properly I believe—the “Japanese thing.” The juxtaposition between the singular, thing, and plural, discourses, suggests her overall theme: to discuss the always incomplete reconfigurations of the many pasts that have existed within the archipelago into a singular ideology of Japan.