Yu Par Khin, Floret Maame Owusu, Nobutoshi Nawa
et al.
Summary: Background: While Japan provides universal healthcare, immigrants may experience hampered access to healthcare. A comprehensive review of immigrant healthcare access is also lacking. This systematic review aims to examine barriers and facilitators of healthcare access among immigrants in Japan. Methods: We searched for literature published in English and Japanese until January 9, 2024. Studies were included if they assessed factors influencing any stage of immigrants’ healthcare access, such as perceiving needs, seeking, reaching, utilizing healthcare and the consequences of healthcare, as defined by the Levesque framework. We performed a thematic analysis to further identify categories (PROSPERO: CRD42023418554). Findings: After screening 2791 articles, we identified 67 studies (40 quantitative, 23 qualitative, 4 mixed methods) meeting eligibility criteria. Limited healthcare information led immigrants to seek alternative information sources and affected immigrants' perceived healthcare needs. Longer duration of stay improved access to healthcare information. Cultural and healthcare system differences affected healthcare seeking. Reaching and utilizing healthcare were hindered by heavy workloads, undocumented status, financial hardship, and limited insurance but were facilitated by support from family and friends. The healthcare system was often insufficient to support immigrants’ language and cultural needs leading to dissatisfaction and poor compliance. Interpretation: Findings highlight the critical importance of a multidimensional approach to support immigrants in Japan, ranging from improving healthcare information access to creating immigrant-friendly health systems. More research is needed on the healthcare access among vulnerable immigrants, such as undocumented and low-skilled labor immigrants and children. Funding: No specific funding source supported this study.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the selection and organization of poetic material of two medieval poetic collections, Shinsanjurokkasen and Koyasan Kongozanmai-in tanzaku, created respectively in the middle of the 13th and the middle of the 14th centuries, and to give information about the manuscripts of these collections stored at the Russian State Library in Moscow.
The concept of a strategic triangle, which is usually used to describe the great-power political dynamics among Moscow, Washington, and Beijing, can be relevant to analyze relations between Moscow, Tokyo, and Beijing. The paper provides an overview of the historical evolution of the Russia-China-Japan strategic triangle and examines contemporary relations in each pair of the triangle: Russia-China, Japan-China, Russia-Japan. The authors take the early 2010s as the start of the contemporary period in the Russia-Japan-China triangle development.
From the late 19th century, the strategic triangle of Russia, China, and Japan has tried almost all possible configurations. Nowadays, the axis of Beijing and Moscow is directed against Tokyo. The peculiarity of the modern Northeast Asia triangle is that it is situated within the gravitational pull of the global triangle of the United States, China, and Russia. The dynamics in the relationships of Russia, China, and Japan is, to a significant extent, determined by the fact that Tokyo lacks full independence as a foreign policy actor, being attached to its senior ally, the US. This imposes considerable structural limitations on possible transformations of the triangle, as the antagonism between Washington and Beijing, as well as between Washington and Moscow, makes it more difficult for Tokyo to reach compromises with its greatpower neighbors in Northeast Asia. This was one of the reasons why Abe Shinzo failed to make significant progress on the resolution of the territorial dispute with Russia. He also failed to prevent further rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing. In 2020, when Abe stepped down as prime minister, the Russia-China relationship was much stronger than it was in 2013, when Abe launched his diplomacy of courting Moscow.
It can be predicted, with sufficient confidence, that, in the coming years, the configuration and character of the strategic triangle in Northeast Asia will not undergo major changes. At the same time, the polarization of the triangle's structure and the polarization of the international system as a whole will grow more intense. Japan will preserve and strengthen close political-military relations with the United States and other “Indo-Pacific” allies. For its part, Beijing will seek to build its own system of strategic partnership s and quasi-alliances, in which, apart from China itself, Russia will be the most important member.
The article discusses the main directions of influence of the system of lifetime employment on contemporary Japanese society. This system evolved over several decades and became a major form of labor management in large Japanese companies in the late 1960s. However, the real scope of its impact was much broader, as not only middle, but also small companies tried to use to a certain extent its basic elements in order to increase the work motivation of their employees. Due to the fact that the system of lifetime employment was based on the fundamental characteristics of the nation’s culture and psychology, it is not only perceived by workers as reasonable, fair, and corresponding to their ideas of what a company is and how it should be managed, but it also became the foundation on which and around which the system of values and the way of life of several post-war generations of the Japanese were formed. In the early 1990s, the economy and society began to change, calling into question the very existence of the lifetime employment system. However, it has proved to be quite flexible and, thanks to a series of measures taken by Japanese companies, has been able to adapt to the changes that have taken place in the economy and society over the past quarter of a century. These measures include the reduction of employment of regular workers, a change in the wage system designed to make it more adequate to the new conditions, relaxation of the rigid conditions of lifetime employment by introducing a “restricted regular employee” status and a number of others. However, the norms and stereotypes generated by the system are much less mobile and flexible, and it became the cause of a number of painful phenomena in Japanese society. These include the “second-rate” position of non-regular workers (in terms of remuneration, the scope of social security, access to the system of in-house training, and social status), the preservation of gender inequality in employment and in family, the polarization of the Japanese youth by income levels and lifestyle, the fall in the marriage and birth rates, etc. Since shifts in public opinion occur rather slowly, Japan is likely to take quite a long time to resolve the contradictions between the entrenched stereotypes and the requirements of the time.
This paper will examine the lesser known poetry of Izumi Shikibu (b. 976?). As a poet, she had an interest in composing (or at times assembling) sets of poems in novel formats, and through a number of them, summoning up an image of herself as a solitary woman, bereft of the care of family or a lover. This paper proposes to examine two of these sequences of novel format: “Jūdai jusshu” (Ten Poems on Ten Topics) and “Gojusshu waka ” (Fifty-Poem Sequence).“Jūdai jusshu,” a less ambitious forerunner of “Gojusshu waka,” presents in ten poems on ten self-assigned topics the feelings of a woman dwelling alone without a lover, who fashions an image of herself within the poetic narrative of love, in particular that of the “waiting woman.”
I will argue that these two sequences show the integration of two forms of poetic production: the composition of novel formats of poems that became popular from the mid-tenth into the eleventh century and women’s tenarai, the solitary composition or copying of verses to express or explore their feelings, especially in times of emotional distress.
Language and Literature, Japanese language and literature
Abstract Background Metastasis to the pituitary gland is an infrequent clinical problem, and the symptoms caused by metastases have been reported in only 2.5–18.2% of the cases. However, metastasis to the suprasellar lesion has rarely been reported in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, only nine cases of hypothalamic hypopituitarism due to metastases of solid tumors have been reported in English-language journals. Case presentation A 67-year-old Japanese man presented to our hospital with generalized weakness, lethargy, and weight loss. Laboratory data showed hypoglycemia together with low thyroid-stimulating hormone and free thyroxine. We suspected hypopituitarism and performed imaging of the head, which revealed multiple tumors, one of which was in the suprasellar region. Computed tomography of the chest showed a tumor shadow, and a bronchoscopic biopsy pathologically showed small cell lung cancer. Hormone profiling demonstrated hypothalamic pan-hypopituitarism. We diagnosed hypothalamic hypopituitarism secondary to metastases from the primary lung cancer and initiated radiation, chemotherapy, and hormone replacement, but the patient died 10 months later. Conclusions We report a case of a 67-year-old man with hypothalamic hypopituitarism secondary to a suprasellar metastasis from a primary small cell lung cancer, and we review ten cases of hypothalamic hypopituitarism due to metastases, including our patient. Recognizing hypopituitarism can be challenging, especially in the elderly, whose symptoms such as lethargy and visual decline may be mistaken for the natural aging process. In patients with established metastatic conditions, the symptoms may be wrongly attributed to malignancy or to the side effects of therapy. When a patient is suspected of having hypopituitarism, a hormone load test can help to diagnose the type of hypopituitarism. It is important to evaluate the brain and the whole body to confirm whether metastasis and primary cancer exist. Because the mortality rate is very high, aggressive intervention for both diagnosis and therapy is required in cases of hypothalamic hypopituitarism secondary to tumor metastasis.
Hendy Reginald Cuaca Dharma, Timur Astami, Kelly Rosalin
<p>Penulis akan meneliti kalimat bahasa Jepang dan Mandarin yang mengandung unsur metafora/hiyu「比喩」pada novel Totto-chan. Pertama penulis akan mengambil kalimat-kalimat yang mengandung unsur metafora/hiyu pada light novel tersebut. Penulis akan mengumpulkan setidaknya 4 kalimat yang mengandung unsur metafora sebagai korpus data dari penelitian ini. Adapun keempat kalimat tersebut mengandung unsur metafora yang berbeda. Sesuai dengan jenisnya, penulis akan mengumpulkan kalimat-kalimat yang mengandung unsur chokuyu「直喩」/明喻(míngyù) dan inyu「隠喩」/暗喻(ànyù) dalam beberapa kalimat. Penulis akan menganalisis arti dari perumpamaan tersebut dengan teori -teori yang penulis dapatkan dan penulis bandingkan dengan Bahasa Mandarin. Korpus data akan diteliti dan dianalisis menggunakan kajian teori mengenai metafora dan teori makna. Metode yang penulis gunakan adalah metode kepustakaan. Selanjutnya setelah data-data terkumpul, penulis akan memulai penelitian dengan cara menganalisis data menggunakan metode deskriptif analitik. Untuk simpulan sementara adalah meskipun terdapat perbedaan cara baca, tetapi terdapat persamaan fungsi dan pola gaya bahasa metafora yang mirip satu dengan yang lainnya.</p><p><em>In this research, I will analysis Japanese and Chinese metaphors texts (hiyu)/</em>「比喩」<em>using Totto-chan novel. Firstly, I will pick up some texts contain metaphors in this light novel, at least 4 sentences. Those sentences will be divided into 2 different metaphors. First is chokuyu</em>直喩」/明喻(<em>míngyù</em>)<em> and the second one is inyu</em>「隠喩」/暗喻 <em>(ànyù). Those Japanese and Chinese metaphors will be compared using Chinese and Japanese language metaphors theories. For that reasons, I will use literature collection method in this research. And after completed the sentences data, those sentences will be analyzed using descriptive analytic. As a conclusion, even though both of the words did not have similar pronunciation, intonation, and character, but both of the metaphor sentences have similar function and metaphor literary style. </em></p>
Shiro Hasegawa's short story, "Small Chapel" ("Modern Literature" August 1951, later "Siberian Story" in 1952, Chikuma Shobo), was written based on his own “Siberian Detention Experience: Shiro Hasegawa.” This paper begins by analyzing the works of Shiro Hasegawa and Yoshiro Ishihara's discourse on the Siberian detention experience. The results highlight a disinterest in “accusation,” as a short-cut for the divide between victim and perpetrator. The analysis also reveals both the possibility and impossibility of attempting to reproduce the past as “memory.” “Small Chapel” reconsiders the viewpoint of the quantification of mass murder as death from the perspective of cultural annihilation, and looks at Siberian detention as an act of destruction and disturbance against human dignity. The portrait painted is one of self-recognition as a human who survived by chance, and confirmation of the divide between the living and the dead. The story also touches on the limits of the perception of genocide itself.
Based from many difficulties faced by Japanese learners, the most common difficulty is the mastering of Kana. This problem causes a decreasing number of Japanese learners' motivation. From the observation during learning process, more than 60% of the learners faced difficulty in recognizing the letters. Since they were kids, learners get used to a high technology gadget and it indirectly affects their personality. This is also becoming a main aspect which affects their reading habit. To deal with this problem, as the teachers and educators of the Z generation, it is an obligation for the teachers to improve their knowledge and have enough information related to students' interest and talent which inseparable from the information technology. For that reason, this research is aimed to get the description about the advantage of using Google Japanese Input application and also other supporting applications, in an effort to increase learners' ability in reading and understanding the Japanese reading passage. By using the recent technology which is suitable with the learning goal it is hoped that teachers could rebuild learners' interest in learning Japanese as well as foster the culture of literacy.
<p><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong><strong><em> </em></strong></p> <p><strong><em> </em></strong></p> <p><em>Greetings seems not important, but it is necessary in human relationship. Not to know how to use greetings can lead us to misunderstandings that would be bad for the relationship that has existed. Kansha (gratitude) and wabi (apology) is one of them. Kansha and wabi expressed using standard existing idiomatic expressions, describing the facts that occurred, describing the feeling of the speaker, an expression that is not a word.</em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><em>Keywords</em> : <em>greetings, kansha, wabi</em><em> </em></p>
This article examines a new mode of ‘Japaneseness’ emerging through increasing cross-cultural exchanges and interactions since the late twentieth century. Based upon ethnographic data and fieldwork, it demonstrates how Japaneseness is reconfigured through contact with other forms such as ‘whiteness’ within popular commodity culture. The article analyses the Japanese restaurant in Melbourne as an ‘exotic genre’ within which the new mode of Japaneseness is informed and constructed. It argues that this mode of the exotic can be distinguished from earlier formations of exoticism that unproblematically locate a subject monolithically within narrow stereotypes, although the old exoticism has not entirely disappeared. Rather than viewing the Japanese restaurant as a cohesive category, this study conceives of it as a cross-culturally implicated formation that challenges a fixed representation of Japaneseness constructed from a single point of view.