This is a study which has been conducted over the past 50 years; unlike other surveys, it has been carried out by consumers affiliated with the Zenkoku-Tomo-no-kai themselves and not by experts or researchers.　The study has the following characteristics: ① An objective survey to discover problems and encourage changes in various lifestyles; ② Although it was shown that household work took an extremely long time and that sleeping hours were short, compared with the NHK survey, there seemed to be little concern on the part of the Tomo-no-kai participants; ③ The ideal that the Tomo-no-kai has held, that is, to retain a “standard time schedule”. In surveying “time usage”, society has been viewed from the point of the “high household-oriented consumer-housewife”, pointing out problems and suggesting solutions.　Moreover, in the lifestyle index, it was revealed that there were two different types, one dependent on an ideal and unified index presented by some authority, and the other an average dependent on having realized an ideal. The latter showed that it would lead to more self-controlled improvement oriented results.

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　We measured under various conditions the amount of total arsenic in cooked kombu and its soup for preparing kombu-tsukudani. We also examined the anti- oxidative capacity by using the peroxyl radical scavenging activity as its index. We found that the arsenic species eluted from kombu depended on the heating time and that its effect was strongly influenced by the seasoning added. The amount of total arsenic in kombu-tsukudani was less when it was cooked after replacing the soaking water with fresh water than with no replacement. However, the peroxyl radical scavenging activity in the water extract was maintained in the kombu-tsukudani when the soaking water was replaced with fresh water. The addition of vinegar and replacing the soaking water with fresh water reduced the total arsenic and retained unchanged the anti-oxidative capacity. This addition and replacement was clearly a good way of making kombu-tsukudani. The anti-oxidative capacity was also greatly increased when we added soy sauce and mirin, a type of seasoning, and condensed the boiled soup when making kombu-tsukudani.

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　It is likely that returnee high school girls adopted different habits of personal adornment such as hair coloring and pierced ears from ordinary high school girls, due to their experience of living in a foreign culture. In this report, the author tried to clarify the differences based on the results of a questionnaire and factor analysis. In July 2008, 74 returnee high school girls and 328 ordinary high school girls in the Tokyo area were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The results led to the following conclusions:1. Ordinary high school girls have a more positive view of hair coloring compared to returnees (61.5% compared to 46.6%) and think of it as a kind of fashion statement;2. Returnee high school girls have a more positive impression of pierced ears than ordinary high school girls (43.1% compared to 32.7%) and think of it as a kind of fashion statement;3. The result of factor analysis suggests that 1) ordinary high school girls want to change their appearance when they dye their hair and be more noticeable; and 2) ordinary high school girls wear pierce earrings in order to make themselves more noticeable.

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We investigated dietary life from the standpoint of living conditions and dwelling space in the suburban residential area of Gakuenmae in Nara Prefecture. The issues dealt with in this study include actual situations and patterns of eating at home or dining out in other places, such as at restaurants or in children’s house, etc. According to our survey, we found that family members of multi generational household tend to eat at different hours due to difference in the use of time frame, and that parents and children have their own eating spaces. On the other hand, suburban residents living in Gakuenmae tend to eat with their children, either married or single, who live next door. Men are increasingly eating outside the home in the neighborhood after retiring, and this is also likely to be the case for working women in the future. Therefore, there will be a need for more restaurants in residential areas within easy walking distance from residences that customers will be willing to frequent alone. It is necessary to consider dining spaces inside and outside the home in residential areas both in terms of dining with family and friends and dining alone.

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　In1989, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan made home economics a compulsory subject for boys as well as girls. In the 1990s, boys’ junior and senior high schools adhered to this policy. Although some researchers presented the positive results of child development education with regard to home economics for boys in co-educational schools, there is no research which examined whether the curriculum of child development education in boys’ schools would be as effective as that in co-educational schools.　This study aimed to investigate boys’ junior and senior high school students’ perceptions which were related to child development education and to compare them with those of co-educational school students.　The participants comprised193 junior high school boys, 525 high school boys, 251 (126 boys: 125 girls) co- educational junior high school students and 290 (139 boys: 151 girls) co-educational high school students. Specific scales were developed to measure “Experience in Early Childhood Education and Care,” “Interest in Children,” “Self-Efficacy for social interaction with children,” “Images of Children,” (of?) “Acceptance of becoming a parent” and “Gender equality orientation.”　The results showed that boys’ high school students’ perceptions were at a lower level of development in “Interest in Children,” “Self-Efficacy for social interaction with children” and “Acceptance of becoming a parent” than those of co-educational high school students. Furthermore, boys at junior high school and high school were found not to have fully developed “Images of Children” such as brightness and toughness.　This present study suggested that more researches will be needed to develop an appropriate curriculum of child development education for junior high school and high school boys.

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　The temperature control of meals is most importance thing in cook/hot-hold and cook/chill systems. We indicated here moisture contents and fatty acid contents of fish and chicken with these systems. The preference for fish and chicken with these systems was also investigated by a sensory evaluation. Hot-holding or reheating samples, Salmon, Mackerel and Chicken, were not preferred to conventional cooking samples due to a decrease in soft and juiciness. The moisture content of samples with hot-holding or reheating process ware significantly decreased. The decrease in fatty acid content was not observed. These results suggest that moisture loss by hot-holding or reheating procedure was decrease the preference of many samples.

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