Abstract

Japan is assumed to have serious health and social problems due to Internet overuse, but little is known about the actual conditions. This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of problematic Internet use (PIU) and associated Internet use in adolescents in Japan. A nationwide survey of adolescent Internet use was conducted in 2012 and 2013. The participants were 100, 050 students from randomly selected junior and senior high schools nationwide who gave valid responses to a self-reported questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions on Internet use and the Japanese version of the Youngs Diagnostic Questionnaire (YDQ) as well as other questions related to lifestyle habits. Internet users were classified by gender according to three categories on the basis of their YDQ scores: adaptive use, maladaptive use, and PIU. The estimated prevalence of PIU was 6.2% in males, 9.8% in females, and 7.9% in total, it closely correlated with female gender, school grades, and number of Internet hours. The following common and gender-specific applications that conferred a risk of PIU were identified: downloading (both genders), online gaming (males), social networking services, blogs, and bulletin boards (females). A cross-sectional survey using YDQ of a large number of high school students yielded a PIU prevalence of 7.9% in Japan. This study showed that problems associated with Internet overuse have already become serious, therefore, planning and implementation of prevention and control measures is urgently required.

Abstract

Application of the SCImago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), based on the database Scopus, of Elsevier, to analyze the scientific output of the major Asian countries and their global impact, measured by the number of citations received. It can be observed a production increase of the Republic of Korea, India and especially China

Abstract

This research aims to give an overview of Japan’s national-level transport planning schemes, and to discuss interplays between them and recoveries from natural disasters. In the first part, Japan’s national spatial development plans and long-term planning schemes for railway, road, port and airport infrastructures are reviewed and compared. In the second part, imbalance embedded in the current planning scheme for different modes are demonstrated making use of recent post-disaster reconstruction processes. A literature-based desktop research is carried out focusing on Japanese literature. These include, but not limited to, official government reports and planning documents, statistical data, and handbooks for experts in the field. All of the long-distance modes have their planning schemes with different levels of comprehensiveness and robustness for each mode. Expressways and high-speed railways have the most comprehensive and robust network plans, while conventional railway, airports and seaports have ones with limited extent. Because of this, post-disaster reconstruction processes from damages to the infrastructure work differently in particular for conventional railways and for expressways in rural areas, which are competitors against each other. Strong framework for intermodal and multimodal transport is still in lack in Japan. Important structural imbalance between modes, in particular between conventional railway and expressway exist, and it becomes obvious in case of a natural disaster. Multimodal planning, frameworks for flexible adjustment of once-made long-term plans, and addressing imbalances regarding robustness between railways and expressways are identified as future challenges of the country’s planning schemes. Document type: Article

Abstract

This essay deals with the collective episodes of Christian martyrdom that took place in Japan in the Early Modern Time. On February 5, 1597 six Spanish Franciscans, seventeen Japanese catechists and three Japanese Jesuits, a priest and two brothers were martyred by crucifixion on the Nishizaka Hill, Nagasaki. This episode of collective martyrdom of Christians was the first of many such episodes that occurred to a great extent during the so-called Christian Century or Namban Era (1549-1639). The formation of communities of Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) or Sempoku Kirishitan (Underground Christians) was a main consequence of these episodes. The Kirishitan communities developed a very syncretic religiosity marked by the veneration of their ancestors killed for their faith. In 1627 the martyrs of Nagasaki in 1597 were declared blessed, as an overall recognition of this episode within a time characterised by such gruesome episodes in Europe and beyond. The atomic bomb thrown over Nagasaki in 1945 revived the memory of past martyrdoms dating back to 1597 among the local Christian communities. In June 1962, the Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum and Monument built on the spot of their martyrdom on the Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, Japan, opened to commemorate the centenary of the canonization of these martyrs. The subject remains actual in the 21st century. Hundred and eighty-eight Kirishithan martyred for their faith, and who were mostly laypersons, were declared blessed in 2008. The film Silence directed by Martin Scorsese and based on the novel by Shisaku Endo opened the debate on the significance of Christianity and martyrdom in early modern Japan to the wide public in 2016.