In Japan, "Manager" is defined under Article 41(2) of the Labor Standards Act, as a person in a position of supervision or management or person handling confidential matters, regardless of the type of enterprise, to which the provisions regarding working hours, rest periods and days off set forth in this Chapter, Chapter VI and Chapter VI-II do not apply. In contrast, in the United States "Manager" is defined under Sec.13 (a) (1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act. In court cases between McDonald's Corporation in America and Japan, the courts settled questions concerning the definition of "Retail Store Manager". Through a comparison of the. American and Japanese McDonald's Corporation court decisions, I analyzed trends in judicial precedents concerning the concept of "Manager" following the revision of the American Code of Federal Regulations in 2004. Furthermore, by highlighting the differences between the American and Japanese concepts of "Manager", I examined what constitutes a "Manager" in Japan.

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The "55-year system" (55-nen taisei) under the LDP-led government contributed to the institutionalization of policy making in Japan after 1955. In this regard, the prevalence of a strong tripartite relationship between the LDP agricultural politicians (Norin-Zoku), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) in policy-making protected the agricultural sector in Japan. However, the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi from 2001 to 2006 saw the emergence of a top-down approach in policy formulation in Japan. Analyzing recent policy initiatives in the agricultural sector, I found that the top-down approach in policy-making under the Koizumi leadership contributed to the successful removal of trade barriers on some agricultural products in FTA negotiations. However, changes in leadership style and in the policy-making process were insufficient to fully liberalize Japan's highly sensitive agricultural sector, especially with respect to the imports of rice due to strong opposition from the LDP agricultural politicians. In this paper, I examine how the change from the "55-year system" to Koizumi's top-down management style has influenced the pace of agricultural liberalization in Japan and why, despite the new policy-making approach, a complete liberalization of sensitive agricultural products, especially rice, did not take place. In particular, I examine how each actor pursued the protection of sensitive agricultural products.

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Structural reform between FY2001 and FY2006 by the Koizumi Cabinet achieved a reduction in state subsidies, and local allocation tax and the transfer of tax revenue sources from the central government to local governments. Structural reform attempted to change the provision of standardized public service and promote fiscal management within independent fiscal resources and local government responsibility. This paper estimates the regional incidence of cost and benefits and determines whether or not structural reform achieved its objective in terms of cost and benefits. The estimation found that the amount of benefits per person was small in large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka and large in provincial prefectures such as Shimane. In Tokyo in particular, the excess burden outweighed the amount of pure benefits. This shows that structural reform has not achieved its objective and further decentralization is needed.

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Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957) was one of the most influential journalists of modern Japan. The purpose of this paper is to show how Soho's views of Britain changed from the 1880s to the 1940s. Young Soho reacted strongly against British colonialism in Asia. However, facing the more critical situation of Russian expansion in East Asia, he became a passionate advocate for an Anglo-Japanese Alliance. To this end, Soho cooperated with Prime Minister Katsura, and the First Alliance was concluded in 1902. When the treaty of the Second Alliance was concluded in 1905, Soho was one of Japan's representative Anglophiles. Nevertheless, the Third Alliance of 1911 made him distrustful of British and American attitudes toward Japan. Soho became anti-British after the termination of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1923. After that Soho leaned towards Eurasian countries, especially Germany, and became an advocate for the Tripartite Pact of 1940. In the same year, the U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Japan because of the Japan-China War. As a result, Soho insisted that Japan should have advance southward for natural resources, after which he began to suggest that Japan should declare war against Britain, and stated this definitely on January 1941. In conclusion, I should note that Soho was an Anglophobe from 1911 to 1923. Consequently, it is important to consider his thoughts and actions for this period of twelve years.

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Rawls is currently a very popular research topic. Although this is a desirable situation, studies on Rawls are full of inaccurate discourses. In Japan, too, studies especially on reflective equilibrium-are full of errors. In this paper I will demonstrate this, especially in the case of Japanese research.

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The primary concern of this paper is to clarify the approach of the Syoukouji Temple to the authority of the Tenno and his court. This paper is based on a study on the "Kizokuka" of the Hongwanji Temple that was suggested by TSUJI Zennosuke and WAKITA Haruko. I use two research methods. Firstly, I examin the incident in which the Nishi Hongwanji Temple seized the land of the Syoukouji Temple. Secondly, I consider the economic foundation of the Syoukouji Temple from the perspective of spreading the sect's teachings. This article is for people who are interested in Shin Buddhism and early modern Japanese history The main findings of this paper are as follows. 1. The Syoukouji Temple built up a relationship with Tenno and his court by maintaining a religious relationship with Kujoke and Chitokuin. 2. The sect's believers in Satsuma and Ryukyu supported the "Kizokuka" of the Syoukouji Temple. 3. Belief was orientated towards the Tenno and his court in early modern times.

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Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges for us. According to the 4th Report of the IPCC, the earth has warmed 0.74 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the 20^<th> century. To prevent serious global warming and climate change, strong measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions are essential. Internationally the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed by 154 nations in 1992. Agreed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that sets legally binding emissions cuts for developed nations. The purpose of this paper is to review the UK's climate policy. The reasons for this theme are as follows: The UK signed both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, and is on course to keep its Kyoto promise (12.5% reduction in GHG emissions between 2008 and 2012). The UK is one of the few countries in the world to address the climate change issue in a systematic way, with the UK Climate Change Programme being the Government's core mechanism for addressing this issue. In 2006 the Stern Report, which analyzed the economic impact of climate change, was published by HM Treasury. In November 2008, the UK Government passed the Climate Change Act, which sets legally binding targets for reducing emissions by 80% on 1990 levels by 2050 and it also established a system of "carbon budgets". It is the author's belief that the UK provides excellent policy examples for other developed countries. The politicization of global warming began when Mrs. Thatcher made a speech concerning environmental problems to the Royal Society in 1988. Developments in the early 1990s were marked by environmental events such as the White Paper This Common Inheritance (1990), the Environmental Protection Act (1990), and Sustainable Development - the UK Strategy (1994). The Blair Government (May 1997) completed the climate change policy in the form of the Climate Change Programme (2000). For these reasons, this paper focuses on the development of the UK's Climate Change Programme from the Thatcher Government to the Brown Government. As the UK Government has already set the country on the path to a low-carbon economy, we can expect further climate change or energy policies to be formulated in the future.

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Recently, social/public concern has increased with regard to problems involving traffic crime. It can be said that drunken driving is very dangerous and vicious. First of all, operating a car in itself holds the danger of causing serious injury or death to people. It is thought that one factor in this is that there are problems with applying charges of dangerous driving resulting in death or injury and with Road Traffic Law regulations. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to solve the problems concerning penal regulations for drunken driving. The study also aims to examine the state of political issues and the legislative system in Japan using as a case example a drunken-driving accident which occurred in Fukuoka in 2006.

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This paper attempts to analyze the influence of the House of Councillors on the legislative process from the viewpoint of the government. Specifically, it examines how the government's legislative action changed when the divided Diet occurred in 2007. This examination identified two clear changes: first, the government put off presenting many bills in their selection of bills to submit; and second, the government presented many bills to the Diet at an early stage. These findings suggests that the government's strategic lawmaking led to a high bill approval rate in the divided Diet, and that the influence of the House of Councillors on the legislative process cannot be correctly understood without consideration of the government's strategic lawmaking.

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This paper attempts to analyze the influence of the House of Councillors on the legislative process from the viewpoint of the government. Specifically, it examines how the government's legislative action changed when the divided Diet occurred in 2007. This examination identified two clear changes: first, the government put off presenting many bills in their selection of bills to submit; and second, the government presented many bills to the Diet at an early stage. These findings suggests that the government's strategic lawmaking led to a high bill approval rate in the divided Diet, and that the influence of the House of Councillors on the legislative process cannot be correctly understood without consideration of the government's strategic lawmaking.

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In May 2009, Japan introduced the Saiban-in system (lay judge system), in which ordinary citizens take part in criminal proceedings as judges to help decide the outcomes of trials. A symposium on this system was held as a special program at the 112^<th> Academic conference of the JALPS on June 12, 2010, and 5 panelists presented study reports.

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