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The use of the Internet and digital devices may encourage social interactions among the elderly. However, the utilization rate of smartphones and other digital devices is not very high among the elderly. A questionnaire was administered to 119 elderly people aged 65 years or older to determine the association between smartphone usage frequency and the frequency of social interactions among them. Our results discovered that 83.2% of the elderly respondents used smartphones. Those who reported using their smartphones more frequently had fewer instances of social isolation and greater numbers of social interactions with others. Our findings also revealed a significant association between the frequency of using social networking services (SNS) on smartphones and the number of social interactions among the elderly. Our findings indicated that the use of smartphones as a means of communication may lead to more social interactions among elderly people.

Undergraduate nursing students are required to acquire practical skills, and many of them may experience learning difficulties. However, the relationship between learning difficulties and motivation for pursuing nursing or vocational views remains unclear. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 92 undergraduate nursing students to determine the influences of their motivation for pursuing nursing and vocational views on learning difficulties. Our results showed that students whose motivation for applying was “because someone recommended me” had difficulty understanding the lecture content. Those who answered “yes” to the item “a career in nursing would help me become my ideal self” found it difficult to acquire practical skills because of fewer opportunities but did not have difficulty balancing their academic and personal lives. Our findings suggest the need to consider measures to support nursing students’ learning by focusing on the motivation for applying for nursing and the vocational views on their learning difficulties.

The rapid expansion of telework during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan brought a delightful opportunity for telework migration to Japanese rural areas that had not seen significant progress before the Pandemic. However, as the infection of COVID-19 began to subside, telework migration has shown some new aspects, such as an extension of commuting limits and simply relocating and moving to the edge suburbs. Considering that, this study takes the position that the area around JR Shin-Yamaguchi Station in Yamaguchi City is a marginal edge suburb for commuting to Hiroshima and Fukuoka cities, and examines the latent needs of telework migration targeting the hybrid workers who work in both cities. Also, considering migration as a kind of aggregation of real estate transactions and migrants as its target customers, the authors of this paper have tried to conduct a questionnaire survey of experienced teleworkers in Hiroshima and Fukuoka prefectures in July 2022. We attempted to understand their primary push and pull factors of the telework migration, and the size of the potential demand for the telework migration to the area around JR Shin-Yamaguchi Station. As a result, those who either themselves or their spouses are from or have lived in Yamaguchi Prefecture, plus those who have family and household reasons, such as nursing care for their parents, are the most likely to carry out telework migration. In addition, the size of the potential demand would be for approximately 3,400 people in the case where the telework implementation rate returns to the level at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Based on the results of theoretical and empirical studies, interviews were conducted with one affiliate and one subsidiary of Japanese ICT firms in Shandong Province. Although the productivity of affiliate and that of subsidiary were dependent on the headquarter, the affiliate made efforts to increase productivity by shifting from labor-intensive to more knowledge-intensive work, while the subsidiary was able to increase productivity even in labor-intensive activity as long as the parent company's management was doing well. Yet, in China, where human capital is growing considerably, the subsidiary was facing increasingly difficulty in recruiting workers for labor-intensive work. This indicates the need to investigate affiliated companies and subsidiaries separately, which has rarely been clarified in previous studies, many of which have been written from the parent company's perspective.

This paper is the result of a GIS-based analysis of the characteristics of the ancient Ouchi Basin. In the first half of the paper, we began with the characteristics of settlements and burial mounds, and examined the role of flood control works, etc. In the second half of the paper, based on the results of the first half, the actual conditions of the early activities of the Tatara clan (Ouchi clan), which expanded its power based in this area in the early medieval period, were elucidated based on various historical documents.

Declining birth rate in Japan is a pressing issue that has garnered a significant amount of scholarly attention.Many couples express barriers to having a third child, citing financial concerns as the main reason. In addition, mental factors are the primary drivers for the decision to have children. Developing supportive relationships with others may provide reliable support in childbirth and child-rearing.

The follow is our three conclusions. First, even though the Prevention Law for Hansen disease at 1907 and 1931 have been regarded as a symbol of infringement of patient’s human rights, these Laws were not specified the term “segregation”, which made possible to survive patients with Hansen disease in Okinawa Island. These Laws had been included some relief measures. Second, we consider comparative research on Okinawan medical history of three infectious disease: Hansen disease, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The following is common ground of three diseases, which came to the end after the Okinawan reversion at 1972, owing to “American medical benefits”. These diseases has each own medical conditions and social interests before Okinawan war. In general, Okinawan medical institution was very scarce at that time. In Okinawa society, people with Hansen disease and Tuberculosis were possible to be recuperation at home, because sanatorium for them had not been constructed. For only the people with Hansen disease, however, it was possible to recuperate at home until disclosing infection. From the viewpoint of social stigma, the people with Hansen disease was inferior to the people with Tuberculosis. The people who disclosed infection with Hansen disease had to usually run away from home, then lived at refugee’s camp in Okinawa. On other hand, socio－economical risk was immanent in Tuberculosis and Malaria, because their infection would decreased to the population of industrial workers. As especially toropical Malaria had high risk to die, many cultivate villages were broken at Iriomote Island. As Malaria prevented from exploitation and economy in Yaeyama, the Island people decided to introduce into the compulsory Medical policy for Malaria. This policy derived from medical practice in Taiwan. Though the Ya-eyama medical institution for Malaria was nearly finished, it was not possible to exterminate before Okinawan War. It was been increased infection with Tuberculosis at rural area in Okinawa Island. To the contrary, because of the number of inpatients with Tuberculosis had been amounted to ten thousand degree, it was not possible to construct the medical policy before Okinawan War. Compare Hansen disease with Tuberculosis and Malaria, the number of inpatients with Hansen disease was low score（about 1000 inpatients ）, and the social-economical risk was small. The construction of sanatorium for inpatients with Hansen disease was preceded to Tuberculosis. Third, in this research, our hypothesis schema《state - region – patient and home》was direct from the history of constructing processes of institution for public health. The political power of state is not direct to patient, but is mediate by region. It is important to construct the managing system of relationship between region and patient, because of the medical policy for infection is not functional without voluntarily corporation from regional institution and patient.

This article introduced the historical background of “MURA NO SAIGO” written by Nakamura Seiko in July 1909.

In this article, we discuss the application of image processing to old photographs. As concrete applications, we attempt to enhance the legibility of the characters on a notice board and to improve the quality of the image colored using the existing deep learning-based method. In addition, by using Python for image processing, we aim to complete the process using only open-source software.

This is an interim report on the background and implementation of the ongoing "Tego Project" activities by students in the Japanese and English teacher training programs. In the "Tego Project" activities, students in the Japanese Language Teacher Training Course and students in the Junior and Senior High School English Teacher Training Course (hereinafter referred to as "Language Supporters") will support students who need Japanese and English language instruction. In addition, to improve the support for these students, we will develop and test a curriculum for teaching Japanese and English through online learning. The goal is to build a "Japanese/English Start-up Learning Tego Site" and eventually disseminate the results of the project.

This paper aims to clarify the characteristics of library glossaries in Japan by the 1920s. Library glossaries and literature discussing library terms were used as guides for the analysis. The primary results are as follows: (1) Authors of glossaries valued the translation of foreign terms. (2) In these glossaries, English terms were the most common, followed by German. (3) Several terms were related to bibliography or publishing. (4) Glossaries published in later years included numerous headwords from previous glossaries. (5) The translations were inconsistent.

This article explores the relationship between media and politics during the war between Japan and China through articles published in “Style” by Uno Chiyo in 1936 . Uno declared this magazine was going to be “a fun magazine”, and would not cover comprehensive political issues. However, following the outbreak of the Japan-China war in 1937 , war-related articles appeared, but later suppressed. Eventually, Uno decided that the magazine adopt a governmental policy. However, “Style” did not become war time magazine. This article examines the reason for this.

The introduction of the long-term care insurance system and revisions to the Medical Care Act have increased the number of patients with intractable diseases who receive care in home settings. However, dissatisfaction and confusion were reported by patients and their caregivers when managing intractable diseases at home. To address this, a community care system was suggested as a "new system to support intractable diseases." This is in line with the Intractable Diseases Act, which aims to achieve and build collaborative relationships in which both parties and supporters can work together. Thus, in this study, the formation of a system for long-term, home-based, and community-centered care for patients with intractable diseases was composed across four chapters. This project also aims to investigate the feasibility and implementation of a community care system for intractable diseases. Chapter 1 reviews the history and research of community care systems for intractable diseases. It outlines the absence of specific measures for the establishment of a regional community care system, and the challenges of addressing individual cases of intractable diseases as regional issues. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing drastic changes in medical care of such patients in a timely manner. However, presently, little is known about the actual situation of patients with intractable diseases. Chapter 2 examines how patients with intractable diseases who receive home-based care rebuild their own lives. For these patients to continue their life at home, they must strive for self-management and receive the necessary support to build a lifestyle that adapts to long-term medical care. Building trust with health care providers and their engagement with systemic gaps has a significant impact on patients’ quality of life. Chapter 3 explores the experiences of a patient with an intractable disease who struggles with home-based care, its limitations, and deciding when to visit a health facility. They share that their life is unstable and repeatedly restructured, forcing them to make passive decisions when visiting a health facility, thereby experiencing a loss of autonomy and resulting in feelings of “giving up.” In Chapter 4, we examine the possible implementation of a community care system based on our findings. Such systems for intractable disease patients require a dual structure of common and individual systems, which can complement each other and enable multidisciplinary, professional support for intractable disease patients with a high level of individuality. The establishment of community care systems for patients with intractable diseases can lead to the construction of a more comprehensive healthcare system that addresses a wider range of health concerns.