The purpose of this study was to reassess the state of training programs for practitioners in ECEC (early childhood education and care). This study explored the learning process of practitioners who have participated in the “Personal-Research-Based Program(PRBP)”. PRBP is a training program that supports learners to conduct personal research based on their own experience in the ECEC field. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven program participants. The data was analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach. The results suggested that participants were not only trying to solve their own problems relating to their practice of ECEC, but that they also had a desire for learning in itself. This study highlights the value of professional development for practitioners in ECEC based on their own learning motives.

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  In this study, we distributed an attitude survey to 1,338 nursery teachers responsible for the childcare of children under 3 years of age nationwide, to clarify how they perceive childcare environments for this age group. Four factors were identified as a result of factor analysis for items endorsed and performed in practice: “Environment that reflects the breadth of vision of the nursery teacher”; “Adequate environment for daily care”; “Comfortable environment with a sense of security”; and “Environment that is friendly to the independence of children”.
  Furthermore, we investigated the connection between these factors and years of nursery career experience and the age of the nursery teachers.: the connection between years of career experience and the subscale scores for factors 1 (“Environment that reflects the breadth of vision of the nursery teacher”)and 3 (“Comfortable environment with a sense of security”) was confirmed to be statistically significant.

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  Our goal is to identify clothing designs and safer and easier movement patterns for self-dressing. Twenty-four young women were asked to put on and take off pants of 3 different styles (straight leg pants, wide leg pants, and slim leg pants) using the following four support postures: standing with no support, leaning against a wall, sitting on a chair such that the feet do not touch the floor, and sitting on a chair with the feet touching the floor. We examined differences in body sway movements.
  Putting on and taking off pants while standing forced the subject to stand on one leg while inserting the other leg into the pants and removing it, which caused the subject to lean considerably in the opposite direction to the leg being lifted. This step was considered to be the cause of swaying among elderly women when they put on and take off pants. This sideways swaying can be significantly decreased by having the subject sit during dressing, regardless of the height of the chair. In addition, swaying movements were greater for dressing in the standing position for slim leg pants than they were for the other styles due to the greater forward inclination that was required.

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  The food gifts presented by relatives and used as offerings for Confucian seasonal rites and occasional rites, which were mainly organized by Shunsui Rai (1746-1816), a Confucian of the Hiroshima feudal clan in the later Edo era, were investigated. The relatives consisted of Shunsui's two brothers, an uncle, a son, and five marriage-relatives. The two brothers, Shunpû and Kyôhei, presented the most, with tade-zushi (sushi prepared with water pepper) and yokan (azuki bean jelly) respectively being habitually presented. Kyôhei, his wife and children often helped arrange for the rites one day before. The subsequent generation of Shunpû and Kyôhei each presented the habitual food, and began to help in arrangements from childhood. Those who lived far from Hiroshima sent food offerings by sea that could be preserved for some time: the son of Shunsui, Sanyô, presented sake and sweets from Kyoto, and dried turnips were sent from the parents' house of Baishi, the wife of Shunsui, in Osaka. Hikosuke Shindô and Kazuma Komai, the respective husbands of Shunsui's daughter and niece, presented the most among the marriage-relatives and they continued to present food offerings even after the death of their wives.

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