The author has been tackling the research issue of transformations of modern medicine in the late-modern period in developed countries. In this article, three studies that have been working on the same topic, that is, the “medicalization” study, the “pharmaceuticalization” study, and the “biomedicalization” study, will be reviewed so that noticeable transformations the author has overlooked can be found, and crucial perspectives that lack of my research can be added.

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The purpose of this article is to establish a framework to evaluate the significance of the ethnomethodological studies that have been made in the field of health care. For this purpose, this article examines the discussions that have been exchanged between Michael Lynch and Ian Hacking, while taking the problem over medical diagnosis and its social implications into consideration. Through this examination, it will be suggested that elucidation of the embodied situation in which the diagnosis concept is used is necessary in order to think about the relation between the diagnosis and the sick.

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This research defined the concept of ‘end-of-life care’ which is still unfamiliar to Japan by comparing it with the terms ‘terminal care’ and ‘palliative care.’ In addition, it clarified some policy issues as seen from aging and securing places for deathwatch in Japan, comparing them with those of Europe and North America in terms of their policy trends. From these perspectives, I claim that it is necessary to develop end-of-life care in Japan not only through health-care providers' and medical professions' decision making on ethical, clinical care of patients but also through supports for people's decisions on their ways of life and attitudes towards them on which the comprehensive health-care system in the communities is based and through the transformation to the support-based medical care on the basis of people's livelihood culture. For this purpose, it is particularly important for respective persons to consider their respective own lives and deaths, to tackle the issue of what their own dignity means in terms of social relationships in which they are embedded and to establish ‘inclusions’ which construct social relationships for giving people opportunities and places of thinking about how they ought to live through their entire lives. In these ways, I pointed out that the approach of end-of-life care requires us to consider how to establish social relations and to suggest their models.

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The purpose of this paper is to organize and introduce the research trend on disability studies and disability movement activities in Japan over the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, especially since 2006. The research trend on disability studies has the following four aspects; (1) the theoretical fundamental approach to the “social model”; (2) the applied research to social sciences (e.g., economics and laws); (3) the welfare society proposition based on perspectives from persons with disabilities (hereafter PWD); (4) various research according to the types of disabilities. The research trend on disability movement activities has the following four aspects; (5) movements by PWD in Japan; (6) research on social work/assistance based on (5); (7) research on movements by PWD in local areas; (8) research for reconsidering the way of disability studies from movements by PWD. In the end, the author suggests two future research agendas concerning disability studies; (1) social process analysis to participation of PWD; (2) application to assistive technology.

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In this study, I aimed to identify the life experiences of patients hospitalized in a muscular dystrophy ward, with a focus on the relationships between adolescent patients and ward staff. I observed and conducted unstructured interviews and data were analyzed with a focus on time, employing Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. The results revealed that patients, despite receiving considerable care from ward staff, attempted to take care of themselves. In other words, patients cultivated a strong will while living in the ward, and attempted activities as much as possible on their own. Furthermore, as patients interacted with the staff in the ward, building a life for themselves, they realized that despite their gradually declining function, they could expand their worlds by other means.

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The aim of this study was to develop a Japanese version of the Family Routines Inventory (FRI). The web-based survey was conducted as a pilot study. Based on data from 520 mothers with children aged under 15 years, the scale was revised. In the main survey, 919 mothers of high school students completed a self-administered questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha of this scale was 0.81, and internal consistencies were confirmed by item–total correlation excluding 7 items. Exploratory factor analysis showed five factors: “routines in families with working parents,” “routines in interaction between parents and children,” “routines in families with well-regulated lives,” “routines in family interactions,” and “routines in kin relationships.” There was a significant relationship between the Japanese version of the FRI and the Family Relationships Index. This study showed the reliability, criterion-related validity, and factor structure of the Japanese version of the FRI. However, further modifications are required.

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