A friend group formed by parents is said to have merits for members to obtain advisers and support of child care each other. And the group seems to function as a basis of exchange and circulation of information which matches the residence area.

Previous studies about the formulation and the activities of parental friendships have focused on mothers. In reality, however, it is expected that there are influences such as social attributes, kin relationships, and geographical ties that are not necessarily directly related to the mother role (or the father role). In addition, in view of the fact that the number of double-income families is increasing, it seems necessary to establish a common viewpoint for both men and women considering the effects of employment patterns and economic power. In this paper, we propose a quantitative analysis of married men and women with children based on the knowledge of support networks and social capital, and clarify the determinants of the participation of parents in a friend group. In particular, we focus on the influence of socio-economic status and support networks such as family and relatives.

From the analysis, while we found gender-different tendencies in the effects of detailed educational background, household income, types of support sources and satisfaction for sharing housework and childcare, as a whole we clarified the common regulatory structure in fathers and mothers. There was a situation that parents who already have a good living environment are acquiring a new relationship, rather than a situation that parents with insufficient status and support supplement each other by participating in a friend group.

The purpose of this study is to explore how community broadcasters are aware of passing on memories of disaster and how they practice this through broadcasting in a society where disasters repeatedly occur. Also, it reconsiders the role of community broadcasting by adding new post-disaster and inter-disaster perspective to way of understanding disaster that focuses on the series of events from the disaster's occurrence to the affected area's recovery. Twenty-four community broadcasters were interviewed in seven major disaster-affected areas over a 23-year period from 1995. The results indicated that the community broadcasters were consciously passing on memories of disasters starting from the time these disasters occurred and have been engaged in this passing-on through their broadcasting activities. On the other hand, the way broadcasters perceive these memories has changed over time. It was concluded that broadcasters communicated with the community who experienced the disaster by constructing and reconstructing memories through their programs and activities. The study also revealed that the practices of community broadcasters pass on the culture of disaster by (1) passing down stories, (2) serving as a way to pass on messages to the next generation, and (3) updating the memories of disasters. From the perspective of the post-disaster and inter-disaster periods, this study makes visible the fact that the broadcasters are transmitting the changing memories of disaster and suggests that, after a disaster occurs, it is important to position community broadcasting as post-disaster broadcasting rather than as normal broadcasting.

The present study examines the relation between the accelerated timing of annual earnings announcements and the corporate stance toward financial reporting. Identifying firm-specific characteristics that improve the timeliness of these announcements is a significant research question. This study focuses on the corporate stance concerning financial reporting, which researchers cannot directly observe, as one such characteristic.

This study quantitatively analyzes the corporate stance by examining the content of their disclosure regarding their basic policy on the development of internal control systems in compliance with the Japanese Companies Act. Furthermore, this study examines whether the corporate stance contributes to advancing the timing of annual earnings announcements after the fiscal year end, focusing only on each companies that were unable to make the announcements within 45 days (if the 45th day is a holiday, then within the succeeding business day) of the previous year's end, considered an appropriate period, and within 30 days (if the closing day is end of the month, then within the following month) of the previous year's end, considered a more desirable period.

The study provides robust evidence that companies attaching greater importance to financial reporting, in terms of the development of internal control systems, can release the announcements within the appropriate period in the current business year, even if they were unable to do so within such a period in the previous business year. The study also indicates similar but comparatively weak support for companies that were unable to release these announcements within the more desirable period in the previous business year.

This paper is an attempt to critically examine Z. Bauman's description of today's society as “confessional society”. He viewed our everyday uploading to SNS (Social Networking Service) or the Internet as a “confession”.

First of all, referring to M. Foucault's discussion, we summarized the characteristics of exagoreusis , which was performed in monasteries in the 4th to 5th centuries, and “confession”, which was performed in Christianity since the Middle Ages. In consequence, it became clear that religious (Christian) “confession” has four characteristics: “power relations”, “speech acts”, “contextual dependence”, and “secrecy”.

Next, in order to explore non-religious (non-Christian) confession, we mentioned it which has been drawn in Japanese modern literature. And, we are able to find “power relations” and “speech acts” there.

On the other hand, in today's society that rely on the Internet as a technical infrastructure of communication, confession's characteristics are nullified. Because the features of “network” is “flattening”, “datafication”, “de-contextualization”, and “transparentize”. These features conflict with the characteristics of confession, so we can argue that “confession” on SNS or the Internet is become an impossible activity in today's network society.

The features of the network suggests that all of information about us is “exposed” on the Internet. We do not confess anything to the Internet, but the “movement” of network is exposing our activity. Therefore, unlike what Bauman pointed out, we should say that today's society is not “confessional society” but “exposure society”.