In this study, I interviewed 30 women who experienced “private births” (a birth for which an environment without a medical practitioner is intentionally chosen in a planned fashion) and illuminated their points of contact with medical care until their births (such as antenatal check-ups) as well as how their births progressed. These women underwent antenatal check-ups while choosing the necessary medical care they would receive. The reactions of medical practitioners to those who conveyed their intention to have a private childbirth influenced their subsequent examination situations. Of the interviewees’ 55 “private births”, there were 50 normal births, no stillbirths, no maternal deaths, and 5 birth abnormalities. A woman who experienced one of these abnormalities had obtained enough information regarding emergency response during “the private birth” from a doctor at the time of her antenatal check-up, and was able to receive the appropriate medical treatment with confidence when the situation arose, resulting in a safe birth. This study makes clear the importance of mutual understanding through communication between the birthing side and medical practitioners in order to guarantee the right of women to choose how to give birth as well as ensure safe delivery.

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We live not only as independent individuals but also as members of various communities. We find people in our communities who face difficulties such as aging, sickness, physical handicaps and bereavement. These physical and mental hardships, as well as economic problems, are especially burdensome for elderly people who live alone. Anxiety is widespread in modern society. People feel anxiety about the possibility of terrible events occurring that could weaken their position in society. In the present study, I am concerned with the manners in which comfort can be provided for those in pain. Concerning the relationship between individuals and community, the views of two German phenomenology philosophers, Max Scheler and Edith Stein, are noteworthy. Both feel a sense of impending crisis toward the prospect of individualism being prioritized in the modern era, and explore what constitutes a desirable community. The philosophers seek to find a balance between individual independence and the importance of membership in a community. This study considers especially the views of Scheler on the self-relationships of people in a community and Stein's take on relationships with others.

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The Recreation Movement in Japan is an aspect of foreign culture arrived in 1938. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, elements of foreign culture were evaluated and adopted based on the logic of visible, outwardly apparent usefulness (modern rationalism), which was not in accordance with a fundamental grasp on reality. Furthermore, people of that time felt no sense of crisis when it came to choosing elements of foreign culture to adopt. What kind of influence has the way of thinking formed through this kind of historical process had on the question of how to live, faced by modern Japan? This paper investigates the historical and practical issues related to this topic. It seeks to examine, from the standpoint of the principle of life, the details of the Recreational Movement in Japan as promoted by Kenkichi Oshima.

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Aging and lifespan depend on a third factor, which is a stochastic one, as well as genetic and environmental factors. The author had investigated significance of the third factor. He proposed the lifespan equation involving an image so that an individual fluctuates between life and death. To demonstrate such a fluctuation theory of life and death, a model animal of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans was used in the previous work. However, according to Jungian psychology, life is thought to consist of psychic and biological life, that is, it is also to be a multidimensional existence. Thus, in this study, the author asked what exists at a point of contact between the both life in relation to aging and lifespan. Consequently, taking a level of consciousness into account, it is concluded that the individuation process may be based on aging through a body.

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