To examine the significance of 'deadlines' in contemporary society, this paper explores a sociological framework for discussing 'deadlines,' by employing Niklas Luhmann’s theory of time based on his social systems theory and analyzing his work titled 'The Scarcity of Time and Urgency of Time Limits'. Luhmann's sociological theory of time suggests the distinction between 'before/after' a certain event is the most elementary framework common to various schemes for observing time in society. According to Luhmann, the significance of distinctions such as 'before/after' and 'past/future' lies in their differences from and relationships to other dimensions of meaning, such as the material and social ones. Applying this framework to the argument of 'The Scarcity of Time and the Urgency of Time Limits,' we can think of 'deadlines' as a scheme to observe time, namely, a temporal form, that distinguishes 'before/after' fixed-'deadlines.' From the perspective of such a temporal form, the relationship between the temporal, material, and social dimensions of meaning in matters with fixed deadlines appears to be a part of complicated problematics. Setting deadlines and prioritizing matters with deadlines increases the possibility of continuing communication despite differences between their contents and between people participating in them, while they have various consequential problems.

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In pre-modern Japan, a variety of calendar notes were written on calendars and had an influence on people's lives. In the early modern period in particular, numerous guidebooks of calendar notes were published. They formed the basis of people's knowledge of the calendar. It is important to clarify the development of the publication of guidebooks of calendar notes in order to consider the evolution of people's perception of the calendar in the early modern period. This paper provides its overview and points to two turning points. First, the Jokyo Calendar Reform of 1685, when Buddhists, who had led publishing guidebooks of calendar notes in the first half of the 17th century, gradually lost their presence. They were replaced by a diverse group of people. Second, around 1800. The publication of guidebooks of calendar notes reached its height in the 18th century, but the number of new openings declined in the 19th century. This paper takes up Tousho Chōreki (1688) and Koyomi Shinan (1800) as representative guidebooks from both periods, and reveals the following: (1) With the Jokyo Calendar Reform, the greatest criterion of value in guidebooks of calendar notes became whether or not they were in agreement with the actual calendar. (2) As a result, the presence of Buddhists in the publication of guidebooks waned. (3) In the 19th century, the decline in the influence of calendar divination and the saturation of guidebooks led to a decline in the number of new guidebooks. (4) In this context, some guidebooks that responded to social demand by including information on weather forecasts based on the calendar and how to avoid bad events were able to maintain their popularity.

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This paper attempts to connect the 'sociology of time' with work-life balance research, which mainly deals with the work and childcare balance. Social time, which has been dealt with in the 'sociology of time', posits time in the interaction between adults. At work, they synchronise each other through certainty and planning, based on the assumption that they have a socially ' 'organised' time-consciousness' (Hassard 1991) . On the other hand, child-rearing time is a mutual act between adults and children, where the former have a socially organised time-consciousness, while the latter live time based on their individual biological rhythms. In other words, child-rearing is a mutual act between those with different time-consciousnesses and it is an uncertain and inflexible time, as it depends on the biological rhythms of the child. This child-rearing time has been overlooked in the 'sociology of time'. In order to situate this child-rearing time and the balance between work and childcare in the 'sociology of time', it is important to focus on 'institution-specific time'. Work is conducted in the institution of the market and childcare is conducted in the institution of the family, and both institutions have different time characteristics. Work-life balance research that includes multiple institutions in its perspective contributes to a clearer picture of 'institution-specific time' and depicts the contradictions between institutions. By connecting 'sociology of time' with work-life balance research, this research shows the possibility of capturing the 'social construction of time' (Iida 2024).

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We investigated the applicability of records of the first date of snow cap on Mt. Iwaki in Aomori Prefecture to the reconstruction of autumn temperatures. 179 years of dates on the first snow cap on Mt. Iwaki until the 1860s were collected from the diaries of the Hirosaki Domain Office and other historical documents. Since the date on observations with the first snow-cap depends on the viewing location, we selected observed data from Hirosaki City for modern and contemporary periods, and calibrated the relationship with temperature. After analyzing the relationship with upper layer meteorological observations was obtained between the October mean temperature on 850 hPa of geopotential height, corresponding to almost the summit altitude of Mt. Iwaki, and the first date of snow capping on the top of it. Since our target was to reconstruct temperatures in the early modern period when solar activity was weak, we decided to determine the relationship between temperature and the date of first snow cap in years when solar activity was relatively weak. We found that the highest correlation was obtained when the analysis was limited to years with the Wolf sunspot number less than 190, or the sunspot group number less than 9. Smoothing procedures using the 11-year moving median resulted in a reconstruction error of less than 1°C in RMSE. The obtained reconstructions show that temperatures were about 1°C lower than in modern times, during the two grand solar minima in the 17th-19th centuries. There are several issues that remain to be addressed by this study, including how to determine the conditions of independent peaks suitable for temperature reconstructions and how to evaluate the effect of the solar cycle on the temperature-first snowfall date relationship.

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In this paper, we discuss the temporal evolution of candle combustion and flame from the perspective of the history of candle science, focusing on contemporary science (nonlinear science). In particular, based on observations of the growth process of candle flame oscillations as nonlinear oscillators, we examine the process linking the generation and descent of vortices in the flame overhead to flame oscillations. We also discuss the similarity with meteorological phenomena such as tornadoes, fire whirls, and downbursts associated with cumulonimbus clouds.

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From early morning to early afternoon on July 10, 2023, the activity of the Baiu-front became active and a linear precipitation zone developed, resulting in record heavy rainfall, with special heavy rainfall warnings issued for Fukuoka and Oita Prefectures. In the Hokushinkita Rainfall Observatory of the Mino Mountains, at around 9:30 a.m., when the accumulated precipitation since 0:00 a.m. on July 9 reached approximately 500 mm, a mudslide occurred in the Chinoo River flowing through the Takeno district of Tanushimaru-machi, Kurume City, located 2 km to the northwest, killing one person, seriously injuring one person, and damaging nearly 50 buildings. In the urban area of Tanushimaru-machi, the external flooding of the Kose River, a branch of the Chikugo River, and the internal flooding caused by rainwater runoff from the Mino Mountains caused damage to the Tanushimaru-machi General Branch Office, public facilities, medical institutions, stores, and homes that were flooded above and below floor level, the flooding occurred within an area designated as a flood inundation zone (Assumed Maximum Scale).

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