This research was initiated by the Planning and Design Laboratory of Yamaguchi Prefectural University in 2011 as part of a project to revitalize a mountainous area in the Tokuji region of Yamaguchi City
The Tokuji area is blessed with rich nature (forests), and the culture of papermaking has been passed down from generation to generation in the upper reaches of the pure "Saba River. Focusing on this precious regional resource, the company created clothing using knit art works that fuse plant material with natural knit materials, and presented them at fashion shows and exhibitions with the message of "Return to Nature," thereby exploring new possibilities for Tokuji handmade paper
In 2021, the compilation of this series of exhibitions was held at the Suo Kokubunji Temple in Hofu City, downstream from the Saba River, where the Knit Art Exhibition was held
This report describes the process and the results of the creation of cultural exchange between Yamaguchi City and Hofu City through an exhibition whose method is Installation, that fuses the regional resources between the two cities.

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.

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.

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.