This research is about collaborative practice between foreign citizens and support groups in Handa City, Aichi Prefecture. Although both the clients and their outside supporters confirmed the “initial needs” of the clients, in collaborative practice the content of the support provided sometimes deviated from these initial needs (“other support”). We regard the “deviation” between needs and support as a situation in which the relationship between clients and their outside supporters becomes a discussion. The aim of this paper was to determine how this “deviation” should be interpreted. The results showed that in collaborative practice the “deviation” between “initial needs” and “other support” should not necessarily be eliminated, but rather, it was perceived as connecting the clients and their outside supporters. Such “deviation” can be significant in an interactive relationship between clients and their outside supporters.

In this study, we aimed to provide a long-term, holistic view of disaster damage reduction research, which has been lacking, and offer a new perspective on questionnaire methods, based on a meta-level perspective on existing research. In particular, we pointed out that new insights may be gained not only from the results obtained from a single questionnaire, but also from a comprehensive view of the methods and results of multiple pieces of research. Specifically, we first discussed the importance of “benchmarking” and “baselines” for interpreting data obtained from questionnaires, focusing on the specific topic of household disaster preparedness in Japanese society. Secondly, taking up the phrase “self-help, mutual help, and public help”, we argued that in order to fully grasp the conflicts and contradictions surrounding this phrase, one needs to focus on the format of a questionnaire (the way the questions are asked) rather than the results it produces. It is also important to link questionnaire findings obtained through “averaging”, with those obtained through “limiting”, in order to comprehensively understand questionnaire results.

Recently, the introduction of a “rape shield law”, which prohibits evidence that is related to the victim’s privacy or irrelevant from being revealed to the court, is being discussed in Japan. This study aimed to primarily examine the impact of victim-related information (sexual history and occupation) on the defendant’s sentence. A Bayesian approach was used for the analysis. The findings revealed that the main effects of victim-related information on sentencing included 0 in their credible intervals, indicating that there were no main effects. However, the analysis of interaction effects indicated that when the victim was described as having more records of sexual history and to be working in the sex industry, the defendant was recommended to serve a longer sentence than when no description of the victim’s sexual history and occupation was provided and when the victim was described as working in the sex industry. The policy implications of the above results were discussed.