The 1945 Kyushu Imperial University human vivisections are among the most infamous of medical atrocities involving Japanese doctors. The Japanese novelist, Shusaku Endo published The Sea and Poison, a fiction novel based on the incident in 1958. His story features young doctors, Suguro and Toda, and depicts their motivations to join the killing, as well as their regrets or the lack thereof. Endo forces us to ponder why they involved themselves in the human vivisections and what might have dissuaded them from doing so. Even today we lack clear answers to these questions. This paper will present our deliberations on the contemporary implications of Endo’s questions and positions set forth in The Sea and Poison. We suggest that Suguro failed to refuse participation in the vivisection because of his emotional exhaustion and emptiness, which could have been caused by war, the doctors’ true colors, or the dark side of medicine. It is argued that Suguro is no different from many of us, and that Toda’s claim that we are, deep down, unmoved by the suffering and death of others describes part of our minds. The meaning of strong conscience and compassion is also discussed.

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This study explored regional variations in the refusal speech act between Malaysian Chinese and Taiwan Chinese. The results showed that more similarities were found than differences between the two groups. Overall, Taiwan Chinese employed a higher rate of refusal strategies than did Malaysian Chinese. Both groups employed more indirect refusal strategies to higher-status listeners, whereas direct refusal strategies were used more frequently in refusing listeners of equal-status, indicating that both groups were sensitive to the social status of their interlocutors. With respect to individual strategies used, giving a reason and a statement of regret were the first two preferred strategies, followed by a direct refusal strategy and the suggestion of an alternative, across situations and groups. Moreover, that the great majority of the participants addressed a person of higher-status with an honorific title indicated that they conformed to the maxim-of-address of Chinese social norms. Finally, the pedagogical implication of these findings has implications for the field of teaching Chinese as a second language.

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Japanese firms that aim for long-term stable growth and allocate their resource for that seem to be unsuitable to the environment of recent society with its invisible needs. This study reviews previous studies about new product development of Japanese firms to reveal those features. Additionally, management characteristics of Japanese firms have become clear through the comparison of previous literature with American management. Furthermore, the introduction of American management systems by Japanese firms is likely very dangerous for them. Finally, a hypothesis is suggested that the fundamental concept is based on long-term accumulation.

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Addressing environmental concerns requires transforming norms into desired behaviors. A dynamic and interactive medium such as community media was found to be a potent tool to realize such change. The Philippines, a vulnerable country to climate change, ventured into using community radio stations towards strengthening climate change among Filipinos. Using the case study research design, five community radio stations (CRS) managers in the Philippines, a municipal mayor, the head of the Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters, and the president of a community radio-contracting firm were interviewed to determine what makes a CRS sustainable. Sustainability indicators included organizational structure, influential factors, and operational mechanisms that led towards the development of a CRS model. Results showed that CRS played facilitative and catalytic roles in these social transformation processes. CRS sets social agenda, facilitates governance communication, enables changes in norms, and moves people to action. The synergistic action of Local Government Units, academe, civil society, and relevant national agencies through block time and community programs with guidance from the Community Radio Councils led to systematic programming, and strengthened people’s capacities in addressing global issues like climate change.

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Democratization theory suggests that “fair and free” elections tend to decrease government control and strengthen civil society. In Indonesia elections held in 1999, 2004 and 2009 were widely believed to be fair and free, but the effect was to enhance the power of government and weaken the position of donor agencies and civil society. An international context on a new discourse on aid (Paris Declaration) that strengthens the position of recipient governments in relation to donors also contributed to that situation. In particular, governmental control of international assistance has restricted the activities of Indonesian Domestic Election Monitoring Organizations (DEMOs). By enhancing government legitimacy, the elections allowed it to alter its relations with donor agencies and with Indonesian DEMOs. It shows that although theoretically the process of democratization through “fair and free” election is believed will bring positive impacts to a democratic agenda including the decreasing of government control, this study argues that in the case of Indonesia the impact was different. At the same time, DEMOs have found a new method of monitoring through social media and technological means. The method differs from the old way of monitoring by offering cost efficiency, higher participation, and sustainability. In addition, the practice of this kind of monitoring has a flexibility of ways, means, time and people to participate in observing the election, without restrictions from government.

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