This study investigated how Japanese cancer survivors adapt to their bodies and jobs and find meaning in their work while dealing with various mental distresses after a cancer diagnosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 working cancer survivors. The analysis of the interviews using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach generated 38 concepts, 12 subcategories, and 3 categories. The process by which cancer survivors found meaning in their work included three stages: “questioning the self,” “restarting life,” and “integration of work and life.” They embarked on a new life journey, determined to live as cancer survivors. Their journey can be described as a process in which cancer survivors seek the meaning of life and work through their cancer experience and foster their life careers while gradually acquiring these meanings.

This study investigated the validity of the Japanese Remote Associates Test (RAT) as an insight problem task. In Experiment 1, participants completed 25 RAT problems as well as insight, creativity, and vocabulary tasks. Controlling for participants’ vocabulary, RAT performance was not associated with the insight and creativity tasks. In Experiment 2, using the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), we focused on the ability to inhibit biased responses when an individual faces new insight problems. Each CRT problem has a common incorrect answer, which has to be eliminated to reach the right solution. Correlation analyses revealed a negative association between the RAT performance and the number of typical errors made in the CRT, even after controlling for participants’ vocabulary. As a result, this study unexpectedly revealed the limitations of examining a task’s validity as an insight problem based on the correlation between performances of the task and other insight tasks. The study showed that the RAT could measure a solver’s inhibition function from their typical errors and that RAT performance strongly depended on their vocabulary.

Previous research has found that, in successful situations, East Asians tend to feel less pride and greater embarrassment than Westerners. From a socio-ecological perspective, we propose that these cultural differences in self-conscious emotions after success could be due to cross-societal differences in the expected reward or punishment that others would assign to the actor for high achievement, which in turn stems from different levels of relational mobility. Supporting our theory, a vignette study with American and Japanese participants showed that (a) Japanese felt more embarrassment and less pride in successful situations than Americans; (b) the cultural differences in embarrassment were mediated by relational mobility and the expected punishment for high achievers; (c) the indirect effect of relational mobility and the expected reward for high achievers on pride was in the predicted direction but was not significant.

In Study 1, a web survey (n = 719) was conducted to develop the Afterlife Belief Scale (second person version). Factor analysis revealed that the scale had a five-factor structure: coexistence with the soul, heaven, reincarnation, integration into the Great Being, and memory/recording. All factors were related to the bereaved family’s sense of loss and other factors. In Study 2, a web survey was again conducted with Study 1 participants (n = 332) to examine the reliability of the scale and to further investigate its relationship to the bereaved family’s attitude toward autopsy and organ donation. Among the afterlife beliefs, coexistence with the soul was confirmed to be related to refusal of an autopsy and organ donation, and integration into the Great Being was related to acceptance of an organ donation. It was discussed that the Japanese emphasis on preserving the body of the deceased is related to their images of the afterlife.

Previous studies have revealed that the differences in individuals’ beliefs about the extent to which mind wandering is controllable—termed the implicit theories of mind wandering—affect the frequencies of and responses to mind wandering. The Theories of Mind Wandering Scale (TOMW) assesses the implicit theories of mind wandering. This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the TOMW and test its reliability and validity. We found that the Japanese version of the TOMW had a one-factor structure similar to that in the literature. Furthermore, the TOMW score was correlated with established measures of mind wandering in everyday life (Studies 1-4), thought control ability (Study 2), thought control strategies and dysfunctional responses to mind wandering (Study 3), and the frequencies of mind wandering during the Sustained Attention to Response Task (Study 4). Moreover, the scale had high internal consistency and test-retest reliability (Studies 1 & 2). These results suggest that the Japanese version of the TOMW has adequate reliability and validity.

The present study sought to develop a Japanese version of the Peer Conflict Scale for high school students and to examine its reliability and validity. According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, the Japanese version of the Peer Conflict Scale, unlike the original version, had a three-factor structure, with sufficient internal consistency and strong measurement invariance across genders. Furthermore, this study examined the validity of the scale based on correlations with variables associated with the forms and functional aspects of aggressive behavior and anxiety. Findings showed that the Japanese version of the Peer Conflict Scale had good validity and may be administered to high school students.