This part discusses the change of the subject extending mutual assistance and support in terms of labour during and after the market economic system reform in China. Our questionnaire research was made in 1998 in an effort to portray the difference before and after the reform. Our analytical conclusions are described below : 1) The reality is that the former mutual assistance centering around the human relations, excepting those involving children, shows a slight decline. The general tendency is that it is shifting from kin to market and community services. Noteworthy is the trend that the parentis changing its nature from the centralized and absolute existence to a relative subject. 2) Classified by occupation, the household care and labour support from brothers and relatives remain high or rather higher after the reform in the private and independent setcor. High percentage is marked in the household labour support extended from the community in the joint venture as well as in the unemployed sectors, while, on the other hand, the change is noticeably great in the government enterprise sector. 3) Classified by sex, labour support needed by each female subject is statistically more significant after the reform; the needs of female population are much higher in all items, while it is to be noted that the change is greater for male population. 4) Classified by social positions, no noticeable change is noted in comparison before and after the reform; in higher levels, assistance in household care comes mainly from relatives, while the lower levels depend on the market and community services for assistance in household care and moving. 5) Classified by economic positions, the tendency is more or less the same with that of the social classification described above. However, dependence increased in the higher levels after the reform, while, in the lower levels, a rarefying tendency is noted in human relations while, on the other hand, dependence on parents is becoming more conspicuous.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the educational significance of the communication the pre-school children maintain with elder citizens. The study was conducted at the nursing care centers for the elderly that also provide day care survice for pre-school children. Chosen were the centers that maintained constant contacts between the elderlies and the pre-school children, and the situations involving communication between the two parties were observed, while the staff at the centers were interviewd. The data gathered were qualitatively analyzed. The results describe four aspects of the pre-school children's experiences : verification of one's own value, acceptance by elders, recognition of one's own self through communication with adults, and cultural education. The elderlies played a role similar to that of their grandparents, suggesting that the children felt at ease with them. In addition, children seemed to have mini-experience of the real world by communicating with the elderlies. Furthermore, the results of our interview suggest that the environment in which the children's activities are taking place in the presence of elderlies with disability may very well provide them with a basic understanding of normalization on a daily basis. In other words, exposure to such an environment may help the pre-school children to be easily accepting people with disability while preparing them to be adaptable to society.

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Effects of various proportions of sugar, sago starch, soybean protein isolate, and soybean oil, which were used as the raw materials for blanc mange and were used to determine 10 lattice points for Scheffe's simple lattice design, on the physicochemical, sensory and electron microscopic properties of the gels formed by heating the raw materials were determined. The relationship between each characteristic value of the textural properties or of the sensory evaluation and the ingredient ratio was used to deduce a secondary equation from which estimated curves were drawn. The gels with a higher ratio of starch showed higher values of firmness and springiness. In contrast, the gels with a higher ratio of oil showed lower values for these two parameters. An increase in the ratio of protein in the mixture increased the mold-shape retention and stickiness. Observation by electron microscopy showed the gels with a higher ratio of starch to have a finer network structure. Blanc mange prepared from 9% of starch, 3% of soybean protein isolate, and 4% of soybean oil was the most favored from the results of the sensory evaluation.

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The objective of this research is to investigate upon the ethnic identity of the Korean Residents in Osaka City through the food culture and their adaptability towards the Japanese culture by taking concrete examples from their food culture, especially the festive food culture. I made a questionnaire-based survey as well as an oral-survey in the Korean-populated areas of Osaka. The purpose of this survey is to examine the festive food preparations, the changes of food patterns that have taken place as a result of living in Japan. The results of this survey showed that there was a correlation between the ethnic identity of the Korean Residents in Osaka City and their festive food preparations. The stronger was the feelings of ethnic identity, the stronger was the ethnic influence on the traditional festivities and the closer was the food preparations to the traditional Korean style. Regarding the dishes used, they were mostly made-in-Korea and were bought directly from Korea or at the Korean shops. Moreover, on the viewpoint of the mutual relation between ethnic identity and the representative festive food, i.e. the New Years festive food, the survey revealed that the amount of traditional Korean festive food prepared during New Years was proportional to the strength of feelings of ethnic identity of each family. However, there was no difference in the amounts of traditional Japanese festive food that the families prepare for the New Years and, moreover, no relation with the extent of the family's ethnic identity feelings.

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In order to clarify the effects of the shape characteristics and material properties of shoes on the ease of walking, we used various types of shoes for a walking-test on a treadmill and stairs. For this study, we used 26 types of shoes, each having different characteristics regarding the bending properties of the sole, the angle of the sole and the shape of the toe-sole. Some relationships between the characteristics of shoes and the ease of walking are clarified through these experiments. In addition, we found out that the ease of walking using various shoes depends upon what type of shoes each subject usually wears.

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Various presentation methods, including illustrations and actual clothing, are used to present styles of garments and evaluate their impression. Recent advances in IT technology in the fashion industry have added new presentation methods such as computerized, three-dimensional imaging of the human body and garments by representing them numerically. This study analyses the differences between 3-D imaging and traditional garment presentation methods. The samples analyzed in this study are sleeveless, knee-long dresses of four different colors and a long white dress. The presentation methods used are : 1. actual garments; 2. illustration and sample fabrics; 3. images presented on a cathode ray tube (CRT); 4. hard copies of the design; and 5. 3-D computer imaging. Additional methods used for the long dress are CRT images showing the appearance of the garment in movement and showing a walking person wearing the dress. The various methods were analyzed using the Semantic Differential Method (SDM) and compared with analysis of variance. Results indicate illustrations used with sample fabrics and CRT images were judged closest to the actual image, with significant differences seen in 3-D images, particularly in the words used to describe the texture of the garment and the sense of perspective. Moving 3-D images were judged as giving a more accurate representation of the actual appearance of the garment on a walking person than still 3-D images.

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The purpose of this study is to propose the way to maintain and manage imported houses. The damage on imported houses was examined and we also studied to what extent the inhabitants paid attention to their houses with respect to maintenance and management while examining the relation between the owner and the supplier in that respect. Our investigation is based on the questionnaire survey on the inhabitants of seven complexes of imported houses in Kinki area. The results are as follows : 1) The greater part of the damage on the imported houses less than eleven years after construction is related to the imported wooden parts such as doors, windows and flooring as well as the painted interior decoration. 2) Most respondents state that they are usually careful of ventilating their house, and that the parts they find hard to clean daily are the skylight, stairwell and carpeted floor. 3) The respondents find quite useful the information from the supplier as regards the maintenance and management. 4) The inhabitants should be aware of the quality of the natural materials used as well as of the fact that the natural materials, which should prove excellent in quality in the place of origin, may not always prove good in foreign surroundings. In other words, they should be careful of maintenance and management, and they should enjoy retouching and repairing their fine houses in case they find any damage or inconvenience.

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This study was conducted to investigate the relationship among dwelling environment evaluation, mothers' feelings toward childrearing (in this study, mothers' feeling that childrearing is restricting their other activities), and childrearing attitude. The questionnaire regarding dwelling environment and childrearing were distributed in Tokyo and Chiba district to mothers with young children. The completed answers from 841 mothers were used for the analysis. Through factor analysis, four factors were extracted from items representing dwelling environment evaluation, namely “space within the house, ” “room environment, ” “structure of the house” and “neighborhood environment.” By using multiple regression analysis, the paths were drawn from factors such as “space within the house” and “structure of the house, ” which are considered the factors to induce feeling of one's activities being restricted due to childrearing and eventually to affect the caring attitude toward childrearing. This result indicates that acquiring satisfying environment for mothers eases the mothers' negative feeling toward childrearing and eventually develops caring relationship with their children.

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The purpose of this study was to examine a young child's developmental change of utterances about causality concerning others, analyzing data videotaped at home in unstructured observations of relationship between a boy and his younger brother. At 30 months, the boy was able to talk about causality concerning his younger brother's behavior/action and physical reality. At 31 months, the boy was able to talk about causality concerning his younger brother's internal states, social practices, and abilities/capabilities. Through the observation period, the boy talked most frequently about his younger brother, and most of his talk was addressed to his younger brother. The data suggested that the boy's talk varied by the partners and by the contexts and that especially in the situations, his talk varied by time period and by his parents' existence or interventions. The findings suggested that the boy would talk about causality when he felt his younger brother's behavior was strange and immature.

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