This paper overviews a series of social phenomena related to the HIV-tainted-blood scandal in Japan from the perspective of the victims who received HIV-tainted blood products, and discusses the diversity within the phenomena. The victims hope to help society learn a lesson from their tragedy, not only in terms of institutional issues, but also in terms of their lived experiences, and to take action based on these.

This article uses mixed methodology to analyze factors affecting stigma-derived negative feelings of mothers of children with ASD toward disclosure of their children’s disability. Qualitative analyses were used to derive three factors hypothesized to affect mothers’ negative feelings. These factors were subsequently quantitatively analyzed; the results indicated that mothers whose children had been diagnosed with ASD longer ago, and mothers whose children belonged as disabled person, had less negative feelings. Results of additional analyses examining children’s belongingness indicated that mothers of children who belonged as disabled person had less negative feelings with greater elapsed time since ASD diagnosis. In short, this analyses found that negative feelings of mothers were influenced by times and children’s belongingness.

The Late-Stage Medical Care System whose members are over 75 years old began at 2008. This system is financially supported by the main other 3 insurers. The problem is the distributive equity among the insurers. I try to see it with referring to game theory based on the profit from insurance system in this paper. The result is the Late-Stage Medical Care System is not in distributive inequity.

Conversations including questions between testers and participants in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were investigated in elderly people and their handling of problems was examined. Situations of inquiry about temporal orientation and place orientation were studied using the conversation analysis method, especially in relation to the object of focus and how problems were managed. The results indicated (1) that the correctness of an answer was focused during a conversation in two ways, and (2) participants initiated repairs and postponed the relevant timing in responding, if they did not understand the meaning of a question. (3) Both testers and participants gave definitions of situations that were distant from symptoms of dementia when they did not know the answers.

Previous studies on healthcare provision and utilization focused on state-controlled medical systems. Some recent research has looked at actual treatment practices in various regions including rural areas; however, few studies have focused on cities where fewer residents receive treatment from more readily available healthcare systems. This study investigated primary sources such as hospital records and statistics regarding the healthcare insurance system in the 1950s in Nishijin, Kyoto City. The results indicate that very few residents of Nishijin could obtain health insurance for treatment. Thus, the residents and doctors led a movement to enhance and promote the use of medical assistance as part of the welfare system to ensure that patients receive medical treatment. The residents also financed the establishment of a medical institution where they were also involved in its operation, thereby developing a unique system with access to advanced medical equipment and provision of home visits by doctors. This case suggests that local and professional initiatives and facilitative medical assistance are important for bridging the gap between healthcare provision and its actual utilization.

Diagnosis is a topic of discussion in recent studies on contested illnesses. Without an accurate medical diagnosis, sufferers face the risk that people may think they are malingering or faking. Therefore, receiving a diagnosis can be a critical event for sufferers because it legitimizes their illness. This paper explores how diagnosis impacts the illness experience of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) or fibromyalgia (FM) sufferers. The findings can be divided into the positive effects and limitations of diagnosis. Positive effects of diagnosis include achieving relief because of the legitimation of suffering and liberation from guilt; however, diagnosis posits several shortcomings. Often, despite being diagnosed, others fail to recognize the sufferers’ condition as a serious disease or as a disease at all. This paradox of diagnosis highlights the significance of delegitimizing sufferers’ experiences and the vulnerability of legitimate diagnosis.