The rapid aging of the population observed in Japan cannot be compared with that in the U.S. and Europe.In Japan there is no precedent for redesigning life after retirement in a highly industrialized society. 2007 in Japan saw the retirement of many baby boomers. This exposed the problem of retirees to the whole nation.Countless, aging retirees now have to find new models to live by. Under the Japanese lifetime employment system retired people have developed a strong career identity through their working lives. As a result, switching identities has become a challenge for retired people. The fixed-age retirement issue, on which this paper is themed, is a highly socially demanding topic in this regard. The purpose of this study is to make clear how retired ‘company warriors’ are struggling to construct new relationships with others and rebuild their self-identity.

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The ultimate objective of this research is to construct a storage style for modern housing. The first step of this research intends to clarify the problems concerning storage space and lifestyle from the perspective of management of household goods by evaluating how household supplies are consumed and replenished. An investigation was conducted on housing and the lifestyles of individuals living in detached houses located on the outskirts of Kyoto city, the results of which are summarized as follows.1. The ownership ratio of household goods that are purchased and stored selectively was high, and an extensive number of goods are taken in and out of storage both regularly and sporadically throughout the year. On the other hand, several items were kept in storage without being used for a long time.Nando, or closets, were the most popular means of storage for all types of goods.2. Families without a habit of reviewing their possessions or rules concerning the management of goods often had a serious problem in tidying up the house, and they earned a low rating in terms of storage.3. Considering household management behaviors concerning goods and the availability of closets as main storage spaces will be key in establishing storage style.

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The purposes of this study are to confirm the odor concentration in living-dining rooms with adjacent kitchens (LDKs) and to examine the impact of housing environment on odor concentration. Odors were measured during summer, autumn, and winter in LDKs of 20 apartments and 20 houses. Odor samples for olfactory measurements were collected three times: before cooking, immediately after cooking, and one hour after cooking. Odor concentration of the collected samples was measured using the triangle odor bag method. In addition, odor intensity, odor hedonics, and odor quality were evaluated by six olfactory panels.The odor concentration before cooking was about 100 on average. The odor concentration immediately after cooking and one hour after cooking was about 400 and 200, respectively, on average. The kitchen shape, area of LDKs, ventilation equipment and housing layout influenced the odor concentration immediately after cooking. The ventilation equipment had the greatest effect on odor concentration of the LDKs among the factors considered for housing environment.

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The problem of food waste was studied in order to improve our school curriculum. We reviewed all the material relating to food waste in the textbooks used for teaching the compulsory curriculum in Japan, and introduced the programmes developed by Waste Watch, a British organization for food waste education, and the environmental education system by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVDR). We found that the descriptions of food waste in the Japanese textbooks were not sufficient for children to acquire a thorough knowledge of the subject.The curriculum for domestic science teaching needs to be improved and extended.

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We examined the effects of egg on the dynamic viscoelasticity of doughnut dough and the lipid content of doughnuts after deep-frying. Dough containing whole egg or egg white absorbed more frying oil during the the deep-frying than dough containing egg yolk or without egg. The temperature-dependent behavior of the storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G”) showed that the starch gelatinization temperature of the dough was highest when containing egg yolk. The G’ and G” values at 100℃ were both increased by the addition of egg white. The frequency-dependent behavior of the dough containing egg yolk indicated smaller changes in the G’ and G” values with increasing temperature than the other dough samples. These results imply that egg white suppressed oil absorption during frying due to hardening of the dough and that egg yolk maintained the　viscoelasticity of the dough during the heating process.

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The number of one-parent families has been growing in Japan. One-parent families occur for different reasons. Some people are unmarried and are raising a family on their own, or they are separated or widowed.Many of these people suffer from social prejudice. The purpose of this research was focused on what variables are affecting university students’ opinions of one-parent families and to find out what their image is of single, separated or widowed　parents with children.There are a number of variables: society’s opinion of single-parents; opinions on people with children who remarry; opinions on gender roles; experience of taking classes on gender studies; one-parent families as reflected by the mass media; opinions on the students’ future with regard to marriage and having children and how these affected students’ opinions of single-parents and opinions on gender roles.There are four images of single parents with children. They are as follows: that children in one –parent families might be more independent; that the parents and children might be less dependent on each other; that there might be less communication between parents and children; that parents and children might be more co-dependent. In Japan, the most positive image is represented by the latter.

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