Historically, the ‘periphery’ has held its place by interacting and playing a role in relation to the ‘center’. It served as a nexus between regions and communities. The Keihoku region, since Kyoto’s inception, has long been a supplier of raw materials essential for building maintenance, providing goods and manpower as the emperor’s manor. In other words, Keihoku was a ‘periphery’ of Kyoto, not only geographically but economically and culturally. With the birth of modern Japan and the subsequent relocation of the capital, advancements in technology led to stronger building materials, diminishing the importance of timber sourced from Keihoku. As a result, Keihoku has been focusing on other sectors, notably tourism. This could be seen as a shift in the ‘center’ from Keihoku’s perspective. When thinking of tourism as an economic pillar, pinpointing a clear ‘center’ for its operation is not straightforward. Still, by defining what the ‘center’ is, the ‘periphery’s’ position also becomes apparent. Thus, this paper will explore the ‘periphery’ and ‘center’ in tourism by reviewing the tourism promotional strategies of Keihoku. To verify this, this paper plans to employ the business model theory framework.

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My humble effort in the form of “Global Weapons Trade Between the United States and Japan: From the Civil War to the Boshin War” (2023) based on a previous study by Harald Fuess in “The Global Weapons Trade and the Meiji Restoration: Dispersion of Means of Violence in a World of Emerging Nation-States” (2020) introduces the following. A Swiss company, Siber & Brennwald was successful in closing the American carbines’ deal with the Shogunate, however, they failed to proceed with Swiss-made breech-loading rifles’ deal. Fuess’s article based on an abridged translation of Brennwald’s Diary (2015) does not clarify the specific reasons for this failure. This article, therefore, tries to elucidate circumstances of that time based on a complete translation of Brennwald’s Diary (2020). Furthermore, this article would also like to suggest certain factors that contributed to the spread of Western-Style rifles throughout Japan in the late 1860s.

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For the first time after “Carbon neutral declaration” by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on October, 2020, Japanese government started to implement decarbonization policies with clear targets together with economic and financial community. In difference to another industrial sectors, the carbon neutral rules and guidelines for shipping industry have been elaborated not by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)'s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) but by International Marine Organization (IMO) due to its cross border nature. The latest “IMO Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships” (2023）specifies to achieve not only GHG emission zero by 2050 for ocean going vessels but also alternative zero and near-zero GHG fuels. Based on the guidelines set by IMO, Japanese marine industry initiated the following efforts; 1)reduction of GHG emission by using LNG, 2)no emission of GHG with green energies such as Ammonia and Hydrogen, and 3)removal of CO2 through afforestation or carbon credit trading. This article analyzes the counter measures against global warming, which is considered as one of the most urgent and impactful target of SDGs, making use of Japanese marine industry as an example.

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Economist Hiroshi Kato sought to establish “comprehensive policy studies”. Why was this so? What was his ideological background? And did he succeed in his efforts? This paper has been developed to answer these questions. In conclusion, Kato believed that economics has not been able to provide effective solutions to social problems since the 1980s. He believed that economics alone was not sufficient for social analysis, and that it needed to be combined and synthesized with other social science disciplines besides economics. In accordance with his view of academia, disciplines have continued to subdivide throughout history. Therefore, Kato proposed the view that the synthesis of the social sciences would also mean a return to the way the disciplines were before their fragmentation. It is in this context that he emphasized Keio University’s philosophy of “practical science”. He introduced “natural language” and “information language” into the curriculum of Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Studies and “accounting language” into the curriculum of Chiba University of Commerce, in addition to these two languages, in order to develop human resources who can realize the synthesis of social sciences. It is fair to say that Kato succeeded in leaving behind a system of education based on his principles. However, the principles that were supposed to support that system have been forgotten. The current situation is that this has led to the rigidification of that system.

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In this study, the background of the change of “number card” to “athlete bibs” and the inconsistencies in the use of “athlete bibs”, “number card” and “zekken” are discussed based on the materials related to athletics and sports and the corpus of media. The results are as follows. It was around 2009, when the world championships and other competitions started to put names in Roman letters on “athlete bibs” worn on the abdomen. On the other hand, until around 2011, it seems that “athlete bibs” worn on the abdomen of the athletes in many local competitions were written in numbers.And, increasingly, marathons in which citizen runners can participate have an option to become an “athlete bibs” with their name written on it for a fee, or a combination of name and number, as in the Berlin Marathon. However, the name was “number card” until March 2020.In the corpus of 4 main papers (Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun) from April 1, 1994 to March 31, 2020, the fluctuations of the use of “athlete bibs” and “number card” was observed. The rules of the game were subsequently revised in April 2020. However, it has not been long since the rules of the game were revised, and as of September 30, 2022, the word “athlete bibs (number card) ” is often used in the game guidelines. On the other hand, in the corpus of the four major newspapers (Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun) from April 1, 2020 to September 30, 2022, there were only four cases of “athlete bibs (number card) ”. Many of them were “zekken.”

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This study is part of a series of research projects on incorporating online tools into lesson design in face-to-face classes. It proposes using Information and Communication Technology in face-to-face classes by classifying each online tool, based on a comparative verification of our teaching practices and statistical data on online tools for learners of Japanese. First, we examined whether current online tools can be used in face-to-face classes. Next, from a theoretical perspective, we attempted to organize this information by classifying online tools into two main categories according to their intended use and characteristics. From an empirical perspective, to demonstrate the appropriateness of adopting these online tools in Japanese language classes, we surveyed 30 learners of Japanese regarding their recognition of each online tool. Their responses demonstrated that more than 83% of them had Zoom experience and were familiar with Microsoft products, and they reported a good impression of the use of online tools such as Microsoft OneNote and Google Forms. After analyzing the responses obtained, we elaborated a classification table of online tools based on the high and low average evaluation scores of the respondents. We finally concluded that this classification table can contribute to developing of Japanese language education, especially for teachers who do not know what online tools are most readily available for their Japanese classes.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze homographs in Chinese and Japanese that include the character “正” (zheng/sei), particularly examining the Chinese term “正气” (zhengqi) and the Japanese term “正気” (shoki), and to clarify the differences in their etymology, meaning, and usage through example sentence investigation. The result is that the Chinese term “正气” (zhengqi) has been used since the Warring States period, meaning the vital energy circulating in the natural world, and it has also been associated with the Yin-Yang theory advocated by ancient Chinese Taoism.As an example of its application to people, possibilities are observed in the “suwen” section of the “黄帝内经” (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon). In modern Chinese, it is used to convey a positive evaluation when describing a person's character or good behavior. Furthermore, The Japanese term “正気” (shoki) is derived from Chinese, but its pronunciation is divided into “shoki” and “seiki”. “seiki” retains the meaning of “気” (ki) in the natural world as expressed in ancient Chinese. On the other hand, influenced by ancient medicine, “shoki” came to represent a person's thoughts or mentality.

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