The influence of dietary environment and school lunch service on the nutritional awareness, eating habits, appreciation of the school lunch service and health were studied by a questionnaire survey conducted on 1,378 students in the first to third grades of six junior high schools in Yamanashi Prefecture. Significant differences were found by a factor analysis among the students from the six schools between the response rate to the questionnaire and the standard scores. The students from two schools who were served lunches prepared in their school kitchens had a desirable dietary environment and were in excellent health. The students from two other schools were catered for by an outside food contractor and showed the lowest standard scores for their appreciation of the school lunch service. A path analysis showed that a desirable dietary environment was significantly correlated with healthy nutritional awareness and eating habits. Such awareness and habits were strongly correlated with the students' dietary education and social contact during school lunches.

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Forecast colors provide information about colors and greatly influence color plans in fashion-related industries. Forecast colors are proposed and selected 18 to 24 months ahead of commercial needs by overseas and domestic public agencies and various intelligent agencies. However, until now scarce research has been done to determine how much forecast colors are actually reflected in the market. This paper attempts to predict which colors will be chosen to be the next forecast colors. To find out the answer to this question, we examined how much forecast colors were reflected in women's wear for the 12-year period between 1994 and 2006. First, we found a correlation coefficient between forecast colors and women's wear colors. The forecast colors which manufacturers used to make women's wear closely reflected the forecast colors that were proposed 18 months earlier. Second, we examined forecast colors and the time of their appearance in women's wear. Light pink and dark brown showed a positive correlation as the appearance and frequency of use of these two colors in women's wear corresponded well to the forecast colors. In contrast, however, some colors did not show a positive correlation. For example, the appearance and frequency of use of dark blue and black for women's wear exceeded those predicted by forecast colors, and other colors such as dark red had already been reflected in women's wear six months after the proposal of forecast colors. Third, we discussed the features of each color according to the average appearance rate and variant coefficient. As for women's wear colors, they were largely consistent with the distribution of forecast colors, with the exception of white and black. However, focusing on both variant coefficients, we found that the variant coefficient of women's wear colors exceeded that of forecast colors and the proposals of forecast colors were well reflected in women's wear colors.

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After the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law in Japan, an increasing number of women have been working after marriage and childbirth. The lower their husbands' income, the more married women did enter the labor force as if to prove the legitimacy of Douglas-Arisawa's law, a classical framework for explaining married women's allocation of labor and housework. This law, however, could not explain the married women's behavior of today. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how own /husbands' gender role attitudes affect the married women's decisions through probit / multinominal logit analysis. Micro-data from a couple-survey which was conducted by Rengo Soken in 1998 was used for this research. The major findings are as follows; 1) There were significant negative relations between women's gender role and their decisions on whether or not to enter the labor market, but there were only insignificant relations acknowledged on the part of their husbands. 2) The results of the probit analysis show that the potential of the married women for entering the labor market was decreased by about 5% of the mean figure where they stood against the ideas of “husband doing washings.”

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The efficacy of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in classes of Home Economics was examined. Specifically, three courses in our department were the subject of study, i.e., (1) Principles of Home Economics, (2) Exercises in Color Science, and (3) Experiment in laundering and finishing. More specifically, the aim of our research was respectively (1) To enforce preparation and review lessons for student-centered class activities, (2) To exchange opinions by sharing their works of color patterns (similarity, sameness, contrast) through the use of the color expression function of computer, and (3) To deepen understanding by sharing the results that each student had obtained from the washing experiment. As a result of class activity and evaluation, we found that ICT enabled us (1) To show a clear flow of preparation-lecture-review in class, (2) To share data and opinions more easily, and (3) To promote a self-directed learning and nurture the ability to learn and think independently.

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