During the Battle of Okinawa, Miyako Island experienc ed no ground fighting but was exposed to continuous heavy aerial bombing. After the food supply from outside was cut off, people there were faced with serious food shortage without any practical measures to produce food. There are witnesses that both the civilians and militaries ate horse meat under this circumstance, even though Miyako was traditionally an area of horse breeding and the islanders treated horses with great care. “Eating horse meat” caused changes in restrictions and cultural norms with regard to horses both among the military and local community, triggering various frictions and confusions accordingly. What were these hanges brought about to the civil-military relationship, and the relationship among the islanders, as a result of the horse meat consumption? What was the dominant power there? This article presents an overview of the situation of food supply and horses in Miyako Island during the Battle of Okinawa, and based on it, sheds light on the situation where several politics intersected with the intention to consume horses as food, transforming the relationship among people in the process.

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Taiwan’s three gender equality laws (the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act, the Gender Equality in Employment Act, and the Gender Equality in Education Act) are based on the principle of “gender equality” and regulate sexual harassment in three areas: the workplace, schools, and other settings. The term “gender” here does is not based on he traditional binary framework of male and female based on physical characteristics, but rather is defined as a concept that encompasses the multi-layered nature of individual sexuality, including gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual characteristics, and gender expression. The three gender equality laws aim to establish a system that ensures effectiveness of victim support by involving experts throughout the entire process—from prevention to post-incident response and recurrence prevention—and by constructing operational frameworks under their advisory guidance.

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In Japan, the response to perpetrators of domestic violence (DV) is considerably delayed relative to Taiwan. In Taiwan, government-led programs for perpetrators are already being implemented based on legal frameworks. This study draws on the 2016 Handbook for Administrative Practitioners on the Treatment of Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Sexual Crimes, published by Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare, and includes interviews with private organizations commissioned by local governments to implement perpetrator programs in Taiwan. The findings offer institutional and practical insights for the implementation of analogous programs in Japan. In the future, the findings from Taiwan’s domestic violence perpetrator programs are expected to serve as a valuable reference for dealing with perpetrators of harassment in the workplace and beyond.

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the institutional challenges surrounding respect for gender diversity in Japanese education law through a comparison with Taiwan. Using a functional comparative approach, the Basic Act on Education and related legal frameworks in both Japan and Taiwan are examined to analyze the current state of institutional responses. The analysis indicates that Japan lacks a dedicated law like Taiwan’s Gender Equality Education Act, and responses in the educational field remain passive and limited. Moreover, human rights education largely depends on the initiative of individual teachers, while sexual minorities remain marginalized within the system. To address these issues, this paper concludes that a reconstruction of the existing legal framework is necessary from the perspective of a human rights model, including the establishment of legally binding specific legislation and the enactment of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.

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In Brisbane Australia, there are approximately 300 residents who have migrated from Nauru Island. They speak English fluently like when they’re speaking Nauruan language. This article reports on a preliminary study of how Nauruan descent Australian maintain the Nauruan language in Brisbane Australia particularly focusing on three informants. The author refers to whether or not the Nauruan language is spoken on continents or islands, and how much the Australian English affects the Nauruan language in a community. Also, the author demonstrates what I advanced in previous studies. A selected number of words and terms in Brisbane Australia can be examined in order to know the frequencies of each words and terms among Nauruan descent Australians. Sociohistorical information shows that these Englishes have come into contact in Brisbane Australia and the data suggests that language mixing, a form of koineization, has occurred. The data also supports observations about the issues of language and identity. What kind of factors are accelerating the decline for the Nauruan language in Australia? The author shows implicational hierarchy (Political factors>Economic factors>Institutional factors>Living environment>Language as a core value) for declining the Nauruan language.

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This study aims to reveal the structure of people's attachment to Shuri Castle and Okinawa by analyzing comments left by donors in crowdfunding efforts for reconstruction following the 2019 Shuri Castle fire. Text mining analysis revealed that donors from within the prefecture frequently expressed regional identity and cultural ownership, while donors from outside the prefecture characteristically expressed sentiments connected to personal tourist experiences such as school trips and family vacations, as well as straightforward expressions like “I love Okinawa.” This suggests that Shuri Castle, as a cultural heritage site, contributes to both identity formation among residents and emotional place attachment among visitors.

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