Nagata Tetsuzan is known as one of the leading figures of the Imperial Army after the Manchurian incident. However, the full- scale research on him has not been done yet. This paper, therefore, as part of the research on the relations between Nagata and the Imperial Army, explores Nagata's action based on his vision and policies during the Manchurian incident. In 1929, just before the incident, Nagata gathered elite army officers and organized a group called "Isseki-kai." With the power of the group, Nagata influenced the central headquarters to cause Manchurian incident. Furthermore, he drove for the national reconstruction led by the Army. The background to his action was his own perspective on "total war."

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The youth labor problem is very serious in modern Japan. This paper examines the youth employment and unemployment policy of the Japanese government during the Heisei Recession. During the Heisei Recession, the youth unemployment rate rose heavily and the presence of young people called "freeters" (people who prefer not to take regular jobs) and NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) increased. This paper's purpose is to show the characteristics of the policies during this time and to discover the frontier of employment policy. This paper uses empirical evidences from the documents of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW), the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, and the Strategy Council to Foster a Spirit of Independence and Challenge in Youth. First, this paper explores the implications of the Human Capability Strategy (Ningenryoku Senryaku), which the government believes empowers young people. The government, which depends on the Human Capability Strategy, executes policies to improve individual vocational views and capabilities and to dissolve mismatches in labor markets. However, this paper shows an alternative strategy to match young people and employers through various social networks. Theoretically, these two strategies are not contradictory to each other. Second, this paper uses the MHLW documents to analyze the youth employment and unemployment policies during the Heisei Recession. Three characteristic concerns on policies are revealed by this analysis: (1) Prior to fiscal year 2002, the government prepared policies to foster the vocational views of students and provide a placement service for students and "freeters." (2) Since fiscal year 2003, when the Human Capability Strategy appeared in the documents of the Japanese government, the policy to cultivate vocational views was adopted for both students and "freeters." (3) However, youth employment and unemployment policies lack in matching young people and employers through social networks. Finally, this paper insists that the frontier of the youth policy is to make use of social networks.

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The present study examined how people explain actions performed by groups and individual members. The study specifically tested whether the presence of an executive function in groups to make decisions would affect the contents of behavior explanations. Undergraduate students (n = 70) read a scenario which described a wrong-doing either by a group member or by the entire group. We hypothesized that an undesirable act by a group with an executive function would be likely to elicit explanations based on "reasons" (e.g, intentions, beliefs and desires), whereas an act by a group without such a function would be explained by background factors called "causal history of reason" (e.g., group traits, situational factors). To analyze open-ended "why" explanations for the incident, we developed a coding scheme, which was the first attempt to be used for responses in Japanese. The results demonstrated the construct validity of the coding system. More important, content analyses indicated that our predictions were supported concerning types of explanations for acts by a group. As for explanations for individuals' acts, however, an unexpected pattern was found. Even an act by an individual member was more likely to generate reason-based explanations as long as the group was equipped with an executive function. Characteristics of behavioral explanations that are potentially unique to group actors and potential influence of cultural bases for group perception are discussed.

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This essay is to interpret and to add some comments for the Legal Case of Repeal Request (Judgment of the Supreme Court on Oct. 09. 2007). On this case, Plaintiff, the students over 20years old, who go disabled persons, insisted that the National Pension Law was illegal and claimed that Disability Pension Incompetent Ruling for them should be repealed. First, the HIROSHIMA District Court judged the National Pension law was unconstitutional legislation and accepted a part of asserting plaintiffs' rights to receive state compensation (on Mar. 3rd. 2005). Later, the HIROSHIMA High Court rejected the former judgment and give decision that the National Pension Law was not necessarily unconstitutional legislation and state compensation does not needed (on Feb. 22. 2006). Finally the Supreme Court upheld the High Court judgment (on Oct. 09. 2007). I compared this Repeal Request judgment to other judgments and stated that the judge should be accepted a part of plaintiffs' claim because of the National Pension Law's unconstitutional.

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[in Japanese]

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Lead-acid batteries for SLI (engine starting, lighting, ignition) uses have an average life of 3-4 years. The ITE Yeager Battery Research Institute (Japan) has developed a new chemical (organic polymer) which prevents sulfation of new batteries and recovers deteriorated batteries from sulfation. By using this new ITE Kozawa Activator (an organic polymer is the main chemical), the service life can be extended into 5-10 years and also the lead plate can be reduced by 25-50 %. This means the current SLI batteries can be made smaller and lighter.

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This interview surveys on "Subjective age" of dankai-generation were done to improve the quality of their welfare services, and the subjective age formation in an individual living environment was considered. The transition patterns of the subjective age were graphed case by case, and classified into seven types in total. From talking about their life history, the subjective age formation resulted from "change in the living environment" such as significant change in their life events and relationships. Through all interview results, "Temporal Landmark" theory by Shum (1998) was used to specify the regulated factors which caused "Self-youth" phenomenon that the subjective age was younger than the calendar age, and to examine how these factors influenced the subjective age formation. In addition, a self-youth mechanism was derived that the dankai- generation was youthful and energetic forever as if a lot of experiences of latter middle-aged people were activated as a landmark, and as if self-youth by landmark formation of the dankai-generation was caught affirmatively. Such a youthful dankai-generation was viewed as "Active senior" with discussion about a self youth mechanism, and a desirable transition model of subjective age to have time by youthful feelings as much as possible was presented at the end.

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This research aimed to examine reuse policy of both Japan and Korea based on the investigation of waste management policies and the result of investigation carried out by the Institution of Environment Lifestyle and culture in 2007 to examine reuse policy. According to the investigation, most of the people "Dispose their old clothes" or "Keep them at home". There are about 647 recycle-shops in Japan and we could take questionnaire survey randomly. But, there are not such recycle- shops in Korea. However, according to previous investigations, a stock of un-disposed or the old clothes kept at home are growing in Japan. It is doubtful that the management of waste recycling could solve the waste problem. However, the result of the current study suggests that the reusing old clothes that are in a big stock within the region would have benefit to local economy, and this method of reusing resources could contribute in building cycle-oriented society in both countries.

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[in Japanese]

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