In recent years, interest in Zen meditation has been growing. The number of people seeking to receive instruction in Zen meditation has also increased. However, it is relatively difficult to find suitable instructors for learning Zen meditation. In the current situation, the potential demand for meditation instruction from people interested in experiencing Zen meditation has been left unaddressed. In order to resolve this issue, we investigated whether it is possible to teach Zen meditation remotely using ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We compared the traditional face-to-face method of meditation instruction with a remote method of instruction which uses a video communication system. During the experiment, we recorded the experimental subject’s biological responses using wirelessly connected portable devices. We analyzed the data using the heart rate variability (HRV) and electroencephalogram (EEG) as metrics. The results show that there is no significant difference between the face-toface method and remote method for meditation instruction. This demonstrates that it is possible to teach Zen meditation remotely. In addition, we also investigated the correlation between the heart rate variability and electroencephalogram of expert meditators. The results of the analysis of the heart rate variability and electroencephalogram data show that although expert meditators are physically and mentally relaxed during meditation, their brains are active.

The purpose of this study is to explore nurses' attitude to patients suffering from intractable neurological diseases, based on nurses' experiences. The unstructured interview data with ten nurses were analyzed through Benner's interpretive phenomenology, and five themes of "helpful", "administrative", "rational", "emotional" and "receptive" were derived as nurses’ attitude. These five attitudes often appeared when the nurses felt "strange" and "conflict" in caring the patients. From a nurse's experience with a patient of an intractable neurological disease who intended to stop enteral nutrition, it is shown that understanding patients can be achieved by perceiving the difference from the patient, not by conforming emotions and intentions of the patient.

In Japan, the term "prenatal memory" ("tainai kioku" in Japanese), originally referring to memories acquired in mothers' wombs, has come to cover past-life memories, life-between life memories, fetal memories, and birth memories. The publications, lectures, and public appearances of Dr. IKEGAWA Akira not only popularized but raised controversy over the validity of the concept. This article critically examines "expert" criticisms of prenatal memory, and proposes possible solutions to some inherent issues. First, overemphasis on the practical applicability of "prenatal memory" engenders oversimplified remarks unsupported by the data, like "every child chooses his/her mother." Second, people claiming to have paranormal abilities to talk with fetuses (or mentally disabled patients) occasionally work with proponents of prenatal memory. The existence of the abilities, like prenatal memory, presupposes the non-reductionist nature of consciousness. However, their practices and abilities require more scrupulous clinical investigation.

What is his meaning of comparative thought? What does he intend to elucidate through the research on comparative thought? As we focus on the characteristics of Yuasa’s approach to the body-mind theory, we shall investigate his way to throw light upon the question on “transcendence” as a dimension of human life. The first characteristic in which he deals with comparative thought is to avoid any unilateral approach from only a particular point of view that may prevent us from focusing on the totality of the thinking process and its background. Yuasa also attempts to discover which kind of lived experience lies behind the different thoughts and concepts which prevail in any particular author and in its cultural background. With regard to the characteristics and the legacy of Yuasa’s method of comparative thought we have two concerns:firstly, we consider the interculturality of his philosophy, inherited from the tradition of Nishida and Watsuji. Secondly, we will compare the patterns of thought that we encounter within both western and eastern habits of thinking. Yuasa emphasizes the need to investigate the historical and cultural context and background of both traditions, as well as the contrasting method to find an openness toward the above mentioned “transcendence”. By doing so, he realizes both the differences and the common aspects of both cultures rooted in basically human experiences. Yuasa’s method of comparative thought will help to build an intercultural philosophy between eastern tradition and western tradition.

Many business people living in each business field have sought prescriptions for solving problems, such as methods for “practical” business administration. Especially in the field of Marketing, where I have been involved for many years, various researches have been conducted in the United States and many theoretical models have been created. However, in my practical experience, I feel that those theories rarely work in the real world of business, and conversely, Human science in a broad sense – which is conventionally treated as an opposite side of business administration -- is actually important. In this article, I would like to raise the importance of human science from a business person’s perspective.