The disciplinary characteristics of physiological anthropology (PA) in Japan were reviewed in order to consider the questions "what is physiological anthropology in Japan?" and "where are we going?" This report is divided into two parts, with the first question addressed herein. The history of anthropology in Japan was helpful in shaping the academic stream of PA, which has occurred in four stages since the 1950s: 1) studies on human movement from the 1950s to late 1960s, 2) studies on adaptability to the physical environment and physical fitness from the late 1960s to late 1980s, 3) mission-oriented studies from the late 1980s to early 2000s, and 4) a new approach to physio-anthropological studies from the early 2000s to the present. The academic characteristics of PA in Japan were examined by comparing the contents of the Journal of Physiological Anthropology with those of the Annals of Human Biology as well as the American history of PA. The research themes common to all physio-anthropologists are adaptability to environments and clarification of the mechanisms behind individual and group differences. Studies in Japan generally concentrate on laboratory findings with physical environment-related factors as stressors, and evaluate individual differences or differences among small groups by intricately measuring physiological parameters in healthy subjects living in a modern society. In contrast, studies in European and American physiological anthropology mainly focus on biocultural models in field studies on the adaptation or maladaptation of people living in developing countries.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a continuous general upper-body strength training regime on athletic ability in 10-11 year-old elementary school children. During physical education class, the children performed push-ups, abdominal muscle training and flexibility training twice a week for seven months. Through the training regime, the boys improved their throwing distance, abdominal muscle strength, grip strength and running speed. However, the girls only showed an improvement in their grip strength. The training program produced no effect with regards to agility or jumping power in either sex. Moreover, there was no significant improvement in flexibility for either sex. This study indicates that although upper-body training during elementary school physical education classes is effective for improving physical fitness, the effects are different for boys and girls even with the same training.

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The objective of this study is to examine the influence of head cooling on human psychological and physiological responses during long-time bathing, and to evaluate whether fanning or a water pillow is more suitable for head cooling. In reference to the results, the scores of thermal comfort were improved by fanning at 20, 25, 30℃, and a significant difference was recognized in comparison with the control. In addition, head cooling maintained the thermal comfort for a longer time by inhibiting a rise of the oral temperature, skin temperature of the cooling parts and the non-immersed parts, and sweating. Therefore, we demonstrated that fanning to the face is the most suitable method to achieve head cooling while bathing.

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We evaluated the effects of eye-masks containing heat- and steam-generating (HSG) sheets application to the eyes during sleep on sleep quality. The former 3 days were used as a control period (control condition). On the latter 3 days, the subjects used eye-masks containing HSG sheets during sleep (HSG sheets condition). An actigraph was worn on the non-dominant wrist during sleep under each condition. As a result, the sleep latency slightly decreased under HSG sheets condition than under control condition, and the total awake period during sleep in the former half of sleep significantly decreased under HSG sheets condition. In addition, the self-evaluated sleep quality on waking up significantly improved. The application of HSG sheets at bedtime was useful for inducing sleep.

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Although it has been reported that there are changes in blood flow when swelling occurs due to long-term sitting, there has not been any evaluation of muscular contruction in the legs in the presence of fluid retention due standing for a prolonged period. This study investigated the heavy and tired sensation that occurs when the legs are swollen. The subjects maintained a standing position for 90 minutes to increase water accumulation in the legs, and then electromyography, mechanomyography, and muscle strength measurement were performed during tibial nerve stimulation in order to evaluate leg muscular contruction in the presence of swelling. Extra cellular water retention delayed and reduced the muscular response. This finding suggested these changes in muscular construction cause the heavy and tired sensation that occurs with leg swelling.

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Detecting natural selection would provide valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and advanced knowledge about the history of human adaptations to local environments. This study tried to detect natural selection in pigmentation candidate genes from haplotype structure as revealed by SNP analyses. We estimated the frequencies of diplotypes (combinations of the haplotypes) expected from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium to evaluate natural selection. We also tested for correlations between the haplotypes with a high frequency and melanin content. The results indicated the possible difference of the melanin contents among the haplotypes. We suggest the possibility of natural selection to a mutation linking to the SNPs in the haplotypes. This paper also discusses future approaches to detecting natural selection in pigmentation candidate genes from haplotype structure as revealed by SNP analyses.

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