Since prior to the so-called “large-scale municipal mergers of the Heisei Era,” it was possible for the utilization of “business bonds as a measure against depopulation,” to have an inclusion rate of 70%, which is higher than for other business bonds, for tax allocated to local governments for repayment of principal and interest by municipalities designated as depopulating areas. However, when a municipality merges with another municipality, the issuance of “special merger bonds,” which have the same inclusion rate of 70% for tax allocated to local governments for repayment of principal and interest, was approved in addition to business bonds as a measure against depopulation. While there have been studies carried out previously concerning the impact that designation as a depopulating area and merger have on the financial condition of municipalities, we found few studies conducted concerning methods to perform analysis of impacts exerted to the financial condition and to make use of the analysis results for financial management in the event of merger of a depopulating municipality. Accordingly, this study firstly touches on the legislative facts and the like, of the “Act on Special Measures for Promotion for Independence for Underpopulated Areas” and the “former Special Mergers Law,” introduces previous studies on the relationship between inclusion in tax allocated to local governments for the repayment of principal and interest and reserved funds in the calculation of tax allocated to local governments and statistically analyzes the impact that the two factors of designation as a depopulating area and merger have on the financial situation of municipalities. The results have shown a tendency for depopulating municipalities to reduce their local bond balance irrespective of whether the depopulating municipality has merged and to increase fund balances, while merged municipalities of non-depopulating areas have tended to increase their local bond balance. However, there are municipalities even among the depopulating municipalities that are increasing their local bond balance and since such municipalities have little capacity to be able to absorb the costs of public debt that are not included in the amount of standard fiscal demand, the results confirmed the necessity to establish fiscal rules equal to or above the standard stipulated by the government. Accordingly, this study estimates the real debt service ratio corresponding to the financial strength, with reference to previous studies and presents this as a model of fiscal rules that are of practical use in making policies and creating fiscal plans related to investments in depopulating municipalities.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the circumstances of health management and lifestyle habits of nursing students and to obtain suggestions for student support aimed at changing behavior in order to protect health. We conducted a web questionnaire created with Google Forms for nursing students and received responses from 242 people. Regarding health management, interest in food was low and respondents skipped breakfast; overall, the situation was not desirable. Regarding lifestyle habits, respondents had not established regular exercise habits and approximately one in five students went to bed at 2 AM or later, showing the need for improvement in this area. For student support, we will ascertain each student’s health status and lifestyle background and continue to review eating habits, especially regarding breakfast, while raising students’ health consciousness. In addition, early intervention is necessary to establish exercise habits and secure sleep at night from the perspective of preventing lifestyle-related diseases. Our results suggested that these adjustments will lead to achieving better quality of life and protecting health for university students.

We aimed to reveal the factors that contributed to the reduction in caries risk in caries-free individuals at full eruption of the permanent dentition. The subjects were individuals under a long-term periodical oral health management plan at a general dentist. We investigated 6 patients’ clinical records from the deciduous dentition period through to the mixed dentition period and the permanent dentition period and examined the factors that contributed to the achievement of caries-free permanent teeth. The results suggested that if the caries risk was high in early childhood, appropriate management both at the dental clinic and in the home will lead to a reduction in the caries risk during the permanent dentition period. However, even with a low caries risk in early childhood, the oral environment can deteriorate and the caries risk may increase when the patient reaches an age at which dental care is out of the parents’ control. These findings suggest that starting regular dental check-ups and applications of fluoride before the eruption of the permanent teeth, as well as implementing health guidance by dental hygienists to raise the awareness of the child and their parents, could be an effective means of achieving caries-free status in the permanent dentition period.

Although academic research on the pachinko industry has recently increased, but few studies have investigated the actual situation of pachinko in prewar and mid-war Japan. In a previously published paper, I focused on pachinko, which was one of the entertainments that appeared from the end of the Taisho era to the early Showa era. I then clarified the background of the birth of pachinko in Japanese society, and the arrival and stagnation of the pachinko boom in the prewar period. This article is a sequel to a previous article. The objective of this treatise is to consider the background and influence of the spread of pachinko in the prewar and mid-war periods and the significance of the emergence of pachinko. Through the discussions in the previous and current article, the foundations of pachinko’s huge industrialization and mass leisure which had already been cultivated in Japanese society in both the prewar and mid-war periods will be clarified.

[Objective] This study aimed to examine life and dietary style with a worth utilization of 100-yen breakfast meals in university students.[Methods] Using questionnaires, we surveyed students at Tokushima Bunri University on their current life style, dietary habits and frequency of eating 100-yen breakfast meals served in the cafeteria. [Results] Of all students, 60.0% had breakfast almost every day, whereas 22.0% did not. The reasons for skipping breakfast were as follows: The percentage of students who wanted to sleep longer was 65.6%. 47.0% were busy dressing or putting on makeup. Those who were troublesome were 32.2%. Among the students living alone, a major portion of them skipped breakfast. Further, 42.4% of students ate the 100-yen breakfast one or two times a week and 36.4% ate the 100-yen breakfast three to five times. Utilizing the 100-yen breakfast brought about sensible changes in lifestyle in 38.6% and increased the frequency of breakfast consumption by 35.3%. [Conclusion] Students living at home with parents or even those living alone, were likely to make breakfast themselves, purchase a packed meal at the grocery store or utilize the 100-yen breakfast served at the university cafeteria. A 100-yen breakfast was eaten at the university cafeteria at least once a week by many students, which was expected to raise their standard of living and improve their dietary state.

A lot of videos of play songs by moving hands are distributed on the internet, and many of them differ from original songs. As a result of researching these songs, I found that the pitch extent had been shortened to make flat melody and the beats had been simplificated. Additionally, we also confirmed that these changes made the variant pattern easier to sing and remember. Based on these results, I expressed the view that it is natural that play songs by moving hands changes through “play” and pointed a problem that they have been changed by not the communication with children but the spread of the videos on the internet. Furthermore, I stated that it is important to keep an attitude of researching play songs by moving hands as nursing materials, have a viewpoint to find relationships with children’s development, and learn about internet literacy in order to make play songs by moving hands valuable nursing materials for children.

Why do people gather in museums? What is the attraction of appreciating arts and crafts? Tokushima Prefecture has the Otsuka Museum of Art, which has the largest permanent exhibition space in Japan and exhibits many of the representative masterpieces of Western art history on full-scale Porcelain panel painting. Many viewers are coming to visit from inside and outside the prefecture. What is the power of such works and what are the psychological effects of seeing paintings? Since ancient times, the arts and public entertainment weaved by people, such as music, paintings and dancing, have not only been appreciated and enjoyed, but also functioned to liberate the spirit or save the soul. Even in modern times, it can be said that art therapy occupies an important position in the framework of psychotherapy. In this study, after overviewing of the relationship between art and psychotherapy, I conducted a survey to verify the effect of painting appreciation on human thinking. As a result, it was suggested that the image of the thought content was expanded and the episodic memory of the past became clearer by using the painting as a medium.

The importance of active learning has long been emphasized in Japanese university education, and Tokushima Bunri University is no exception. The “President’s School (Shacho-Juku)” is one of the practical classes that has been offered by the Faculty of Policy Management at Tokushima Bunri University since FY2018 to foster active learning. In this paper, we report on the practice of “Tokushima Bunri University President’s School Phase Ⅲ,” which was offered in 2020. In Chapter 1, the framework of the “President’s School Phase Ⅲ”is explained. Chapter 2 outlines the preparations made for the opening of the president’s school, while Chapter 3 describes the flow of preparation, curriculum and post-processing for each class. In Chapter 4, the points of the content of 15 lessons from the President’s School in FY2020 are delineated. Finally in Chapter 5, the results and issues of PhaseⅢare shown with reference to the “Final Draft Questionnaire” after current issues that should be considered in the future from a management perspective (author).

This article is a practical report aimed at improving communication competencies for university students who want to get occupations that require human involvement. Communication competencies consist of assertion skills and listening skills; therefore, in order to acquire both skills the students exchanged through speech-performance and exchanged through presentations and discussions, which is based on the idea of Psychoeducation that each student goes to development. Through such exchanges, the communication competencies of the students are evaluated by formative assessment. Then, it is discussed where communication competencies are positioned in relation to “knowledge” and “understanding” from the viewpoint of Educational Taxonomy.