Experiencing ostracism in the workplace can significantly affect both employees’ behavior and mental well-being. This study develops a Japanese version of the Workplace Ostracism Scale (WOS-J) to measure instances of workplace ostracism among Japanese employees. Factor analyses indicated that the WOS-J retained a single-factor structure consistent with the original scale and demonstrated high reliability. The findings from three surveys revealed that the WOS-J was significantly correlated with social undermining, affective commitment, leader-member exchange, depression, interpersonal justice, in-role behavior, and self-esteem, which is consistent with the results of the original version. However, in contrast to the previous study, the WOS-J did not exhibit significant correlations with job satisfaction or perceived organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) norms. This discrepancy suggests that job satisfaction may not always reflect satisfaction with workplace relationships and that cultural differences may exist in relation to OCB.

A web-based survey was conducted among the bereaved families of Japanese generals, soldiers, and civilian employees of the military who died in wars since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937. The study aimed to assess the status of the return of the war dead’s remains and to explore why bereaved families have continued to hope for their return. Among the 241 participants analyzed, only 35 (14.52％) had received the remains of their deceased loved ones. The nonreturn rate was notably higher for those who passed away abroad and for individuals who served in the Navy. To explore the reasons noted above, the bereaved families were divided into three groups: those who had received the remains, those who had not but visited the place of death, and those who had neither received the remains nor visited the site. Among the latter two groups, there was a common perception that the souls of the deceased remained at the place of death. This finding indicates that the remains left at the place of death are perceived by many families as embodying the souls of the war dead, underscoring the deep spiritual importance attached to their recovery.

Self-distancing refers to the process of stepping back from one’s experiences to gain psychological distance. Previous research has suggested that self-distancing is associated with adaptive reflection on negative experiences and serves as an effective emotion regulation strategy. This study explores the relationship between self-distancing and reflection on negative experiences among Japanese individuals, including holistic thought and interpersonal relationship adjustments, such as forgiveness. The findings indicated that, regardless of self-distancing manipulation, individuals who reported engaging in higher levels of self-distancing were more likely to reflect adaptively and experienced reduced anger-related emotions following their reflection. However, self-reported self-distancing was not significantly associated with maladaptive reflection, holistic thought (specifically, as measured by a bird’s-eye perspective drawing), or the degree of forgiveness toward others.

Controversial statements posted on social media often appear to elicit disproportionately severe punitive responses. However, research suggests that such reactions may be driven by a small subset of users, indicating a possible gap between perceived and actual norms regarding punishment severity. This study investigated whether pluralistic ignorance exists concerning meta-norms, and shared beliefs about what is considered an appropriate level of punishment. We conducted two surveys through a crowdsourcing platform: Study 1 included 404 participants, and Study 2 involved 280 participants, all of whom maintained active X (formerly Twitter) accounts. Participants viewed posts that featured instances of excessive punishment and were asked to evaluate both their own attitudes and their perceptions of others’ attitudes toward these responses. Results showed that while pluralistic ignorance was not observed, participants consistently overestimated others’ endorsement of excessive punishment. These findings highlight the role of social media’s structural and communicative features in fostering misperceptions of meta-norms.