This study, based on a case study on peripheral local governments, and examined the ideal state of community life support by shedding light on the formation and method of consultation and support systems. It also investigated new possibilities of support. The study included an observation of initiatives undertaken by two towns in Kumamoto Prefecture and Miyazaki Prefecture. The observation was conducted between August 2009 and June 2012.
  The survey results revealed the existence of complex problems with regard to community life and that the problems surface as monetary issues. Town hall workers were often the first to identify problems. First, in order to tackle multiple debt problems, the surveyed communities established independent support systems that share a common consumer administration perspective; they were working toward a cooperative, continuous sustainable life support system. Establishing cooperative support systems in difficult circumstances could be achieved through the construction of a cooperative system by the administration itself. To aid this task, external cooperation was strengthened. Moreover, it was found that project management is crucial to strengthen the administration’s support systems. The study results suggested that the development of sustainable community life support is possible if the abovementioned methods are followed.

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  The purpose of this study is to clarify systematically the pathways for achieving “Clean-up” activities of preschoolers during three years of kindergarten. The subjects were 28 three-year old, 26 four-year old and 25 five-year old preschoolers. They were observed for one semester, from April to July. The teachers involved with these classes were interviewed about clean-up activities and preschoolers.
  As the preschoolers grew older, they were more involved in cleaning up and did it in cooperation with their more classmates. And in addition, they volunteered to clean up more. They moved more easily from playing to clean up activities, and kept the place tidy for longer periods of time.
  These results showed that the daily work in the kindergarten was achieved when preschoolers were able to come to terms with their feelings about wanting to play.

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  The purpose of this article is to examine how childcare workers reflect on their childcare actions and the actions of children. The results are as follows:
  Childcare workers can be aware of their actions as professionals acts by reflecting on their childcare actions. And childcare workers can expand their own framework by reflecting on their childcare actions.
  Childcare workers can interpret what the actions of children mean by reflecting on these actions. Hearing a number of different interpretations helps childcare workers with these reflections.
  Reflecting on their childcare actions and reflecting on the actions of children are important. I think that professional childcare workers ought to take time for these two kinds of reflection.

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  We investigated the effect of boiling on the anthocyanin content and the antioxidative activity of Shogatsu-mame beans in compariosn with black soybeans. The anthocyanin content of Shogatsu-mame beans was significantly lower than that of black soybeans. The boiling procedure led to a reduction in the anthocyanin content of boiled Shogatsu-mame beans to 11.3%, while a much greater reduction was apparent with black soybeans, and only 4.9% of anthocyanin remained, probably due to a longer boiling time. The antioxidative activity of raw Shogatsu-mame beans was significantly lower than that of raw black soybeans. However, after boiling Shogatsu-mame beans, the antioxidative activity had decreased to 63.2%, while that of black soybeans had decreased to 54.3%. As the result, no significant difference in the antioxidative activity after boiling was observed between boiled Shogatsu-mame beans and black soybeans.

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  A quantitative comparison of the decomposition rate of L-dehydroascorbic acid (DAsA) among vegetables was evaluated by measuring the amount of DAsA as a function of time by the HPLC method. Six vegetables were measured at various temperatures after almost thoroughly oxidizing L-ascorbic acid (AsA) to DAsA in the sample under ambient conditions. The rate constants (k) for the hydrolytic decomposition of DAsA were obtained by assuming that the reaction follows a 1storder rate law. The decomposition of the DAsA reagent in buffer solutions of various pH values was also examined for comparison among the vegetables. The activation energy of the reaction in six vegetables was obtained from the temperature dependence of k, and was found to be close to the value obtained for the DAsA reagent. The relationship between log k and pH for each vegetable was almost the same as that for the DAsA reagent in buffer solutions of different pH values. These results indicate that the pH value intrinsic to a vegetable governed the rate of hydrolytic decomposition at a given temperature.

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