To address the question whether age-related decline is an independent phenomenon or an interrelated phenomenon between cognitive and motor functions, the behavioral test (Digit Cancellation Test: D-CAT) that addresses the frontal lobe function and mobility performance test (WS: walking speed and TUG: timed up and go) were administered to 240 (108 Men and 132 Women) healthy community dwelling upper-middle and elderly people, and the possible mutual relationship was examined. Participants were divided into two groups by median based on the results of motor function test and the results of cognitive function test were compared. The group with superior motor function in WS and TUG showed superior results in cognitive function test. These results suggest that the motor system loop and the cognitive system loop that compose the basal ganglia network may be interrelated in association with each other as they age. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for strategies that use vestibular function and basal ganglia network as a means to slow down the rate of age-related decline in cognitive function in elderly people.

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Concrete cultivated generic skills for student aiming to be a teacher or childcare worker are still unknown. The aim of this study was to find out the concrete one in generic skills. We asked one-hundred fifty nine undergraduate students, first to senior years, offered at education faculty to take Progress Report on Generic Skills Test, consisted of Literacy and Comptency Skills. Moreover, forty-four third year students of them were asked to check Vocational Readiness Test, related to vocational preference and self-confidence. As the results, we obtained the two main findings. First was that students in this study were lower than those offered at education faculty in private university and were unfilled an expected skills for working of teacher or childcare, which were (1) discovering the problem as a Literacy, and (2) cooperation, (3) continuing activities, (4) managing stress, (5) uniqueness, (6) motivation to learn, and (7) independence as a Competency. Second, high performance of the above skills as a Competency, but not as a Literacy could lead to the high score of preference and self-confidence in students. For future direction, it is necessary to create a program how to cultivate these skills during four-year university education.

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We examined the effect of taking teaching profession course of undergraduate students on the beliefs and on teaching activities on primary and secondary school students. Twenty-nine students studying at the University of Teacher Education, thirty-three students taking teaching profession course at another university which does not have a department of teacher education, thirty-nine students not taking teaching profession course participated in this study. All of them were asked to mark the circle in each item of the questionnaire about the beliefs (autonomy of primary and lower-secondary school students) and teaching behavior in 4 point likert-type scale. Results indicated the followings. First, students at the university of teacher education and those taking teaching profession course had tendency to make much of student-centred beliefs more in “the way of teaching” than those not taking teaching profession course. Second, the former two groups made much of student-centred point of view in “teaching behavior”. Based on these results, processes of developing characteristics of undergraduate students studying at the University of Teacher Education and those taking teaching profession course at another university were discussed.

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[in Japanese]

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Based upon 31 years of experience as a local government psychology profession in planning and progress management of psychological support and administrative measures at consulting institutions, facilities, and government agencies in the areas of child welfare, disability welfare, and elderly welfare, the author discussed the current state of psychological profession in local government agencies and future issues, taking into account the new stage of the establishment of the “certified psychologist system” which is a national qualification. As a measure to prevent child abuse, an increase of number of child psychologists at the child guidance center is expected in near future. The author examined possible effects and tasks on psychological profession with the rapid increase of psychological professions.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the historical transition of night childcare in Japan based on the literature review, and considering the environment, children, parents, and childcare workers, who need this type of childcare through the evaluation of previous research issues. The aim was to raise one main problem regarding the discussion of childcare environment. Articles collected by this study can be found in the CiNii and the report published by the National Night Childcare Federation. The studies were analyzed depending on their topic and keywords. Results indicated the presence of multi-domain tasks in night childcare from the perspective of the social environment. Many individuals had diverse thoughts and conflicts regarding night childcare based on their individual perspectives. These findings also indicate that there is insufficient support for families requiring night childcare. However, the accumulation of multi-domain tasks within the environment surrounding night childcare may be improved by investing resources to solve these issues. Because the night nursery is not a living facility but a day-care facility, it is a place where nursery teachers can build relationships with parents every day. Leveraging this opportunity, it is possible to build a trusting relationship between parents and nursery teachers which provides information on social resources that support parents’ growth as needed. Therefore, human resources and space should be allocated to night nursery schools to provide parents with sufficient psychological support in comparison to daytime nurseries. To realize a sustainable society, the whole society must recognize and develop the possibility of a night care facility that can provide parental daily life support that will protect the best interests of children.

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Although it is important to prepare for earthquakes to live in Japan where earthquakes happen more frequently than any other countries, many Japanese do not prepare against earthquakes in everyday life. Previous studies have revealed that the main effects of cognitive factors that determinate the precautionary behavior toward earthquake; the perceived severity of a threatening event, the perceived probability of the occurrence, the efficacy of the preventive behavior, the perceived self-efficacy, and perceived cost to response. However there are no studies that examine the mediating factors of them. Guided by theories of motivation (e.g., Higgins, 1997), we show that the responsibility drives the effects of cognitive factors to precautionary behavior toward earthquakes as a mediating factor. We test this hypothesis in 2 questionnaire-based surveys. In study 1, a questionnaire-based survey to residents (N = 101) living around Kansai area was administered, and in study 2 we confirmed the duplicability of results of study 1 by a secondary analysis of national census (N = 1,839), randomly sampled from a wide range of age group of population cost. Though the perceived cost had impact on precautious behavior negatively, the perceived responsibility mediated the negative effect of the perceived. Discussion considers a possibility that a perceived responsibility mediates effects of cognitive factors on prepared behavior toward earthquakes.

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The present study examined whether people's beliefs in free will affect their moral and judicial judgment. Specifically, using a survey method, we examined the mediation by moral judgment which has been theoretically discussed and illustrated in a previous research. In addition, this study focused on the role of explicit motives toward retribution and incapacitation and examined the hypothesis that people whose beliefs in free will were low would focus on incapacitation. An online survey was conducted, and 232 participants were analyzed (96 females, M age = 20.75, SD = 2.46). Participants answered their own free will belief and then read a fictitious scenario about manslaughter case. They answered to what extent they were motivated toward retribution and incapacitation and made moral judgment and judgment of sentencing. A mediational analysis revealed that the process was significant (β = .18, 95 % CI = [.11, .25]). However, no correlations between free will belief and explicit motives were observed (rs = –.11 and .01). Also, retributive motive had no correlation with moral judgment and sentencing (rs = –.08 and .01), while the motive toward incapacitation correlated with both (rs = .26 and .21). Two statistical models explaining how free will belief and the motive toward incapacitation affect sentencing were constructed. One supposed moral judgment mediated the effects of free will belief and incapacitation (i.e., full-mediation model). The other model supposed another direct path from incapacitation to sentencing (i.e., partial-mediation model). As a result, full-mediation model was adopted in terms of model fit (BIC = –10.91 vs. –8.52) and coefficients of determination (R2 = .20 vs .21). The importance of free will belief in people’s daily lives and future directions of researches were discussed.

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Modern companies excessively prioritize short-term profit-making and this causes a range of social and environmental problems. To correct this, companies need to adopt a new approach in order to integrate the creation of environmental, social and economic values by tackling global problems, especially those described in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as climate change. Japan used to have business leaders who understood and implemented this type of approach. We shall review the management styles of Teigo Iba and Masaya Suzuki, Sumitomo’s CEOs in the pre-war period. These men rejected short-termism, solved smoke pollution problems, and restored the natural environment. Their philosophy and actions were in advance of the SDG era. In this article, we will focus on Teigo Iba.

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