The broadcast of the Japanese programs to Japan by Moscow Radio, which started in April 1942 during World War II, had various defects. However, the broadcast itself continued without any improvement. Then, in the postwar Cold War period, the Japanese programs of Moscow Radio became a part of communist propaganda to the “West”. What points have come to be emphasized in the radio broadcast to Japan by Moscow Radio during the postwar Cold War period? In addition, have the various shortcomings of Japanese programs that have been overlooked so far been overcome? How has postwar Japanese broadcast changed compared to broadcast during WWII?

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role played by the Japanese programs by Moscow Radio during the postwar Cold War period and the points to be improved in the broadcast programs in line with them, and to consider their meanings. How was the Cold War trying to change Japanese broadcasting?

This paper consists of six sections: first, summary of study of the Radio Moscow and broadcast programs in Japanese from WWII to period of Cold War; second, criticisms and improvements of defects in the Cold War; third, persons involved in the improvement; fourth, frequencies and broadcast times of Japanese programs; fifth, relation of Japanese programs to Cold War; sixth, generalization of radio broadcast of Japanese programs to Japan in 1950.

In the early years of the People’s Republic of China (RPC), to strengthen the thought reform of the entire population, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursued a literary and artistic policy that emphasized politics but ignored the objective law of artistic creation, leading to an unprecedented decline in literary and artistic creation. Nevertheless, this policy was strongly supported by many literary and artistic cadres back then, including Cai Chusheng, the subject examined in this article.

Before 1949, Cai Chusheng had already been a well-known director who produced many excellent films and owned unique insights and high attainments in artistic creation. As a matter of common sense, an artist like him should not easily recognized the then literary and artistic policy, but the reality is opposite.

Cai Chusheng’s recognition of the literary and artistic policy can also be regarded as his recognition of and adaption to the thought reform as an artist. What factors, then, affected Cai Chusheng’s thought and motivated him to recognize and support the literary and artistic policy? Answering this question is significant for understanding and exploring the transformation of intellectual thinking during the early years of the PRC from multiple perspectives. This article examines each of the five aspects of values, work experience, information environment, living condition, and family relations to analyze how they affected the formation and solidification of Tai Chusheng’s thought.

Regarding the thought reform in the early years of the PRC, many studies focus on the persecution of and crackdown on intellectuals. They regard that the reason why intellectuals lost the ability of independent and critical thinking was mainly due to political oppression and the enclosed social environment brought about by the thought reform. Therefore, many intellectuals’ recognition and acceptance of socialist thought is a passive result. While recognizing this view, the author argues that there were many types of intellectuals back then, and due to their divergent values, work environments, and life situations, except for political repression mentioned above, many other factors play a role in the process of their thought transformation.

For the past few decades, Japanese food has been a popular choice for the Thai people when they eat out. Today in Thailand, on the streets, in the shopping malls, or elsewhere, there are many Japanese restaurants. For most Thai people, Japanese food means more than just the traditional Japanese dishes such as sushi and tempura; it includes ramen, soba, udon, tonkatsu, curry and rice, gyudon, takoyaki, etc., which are the types of food eaten in present-day Japan. Since the popularization of Japanese food in Thailand started in the 1980s, Japanese food has increasingly gained popularity there. Japanese food has predominantly been “gaishoku (eating out)” for Thai people, which means that people have tended to eat Japanese food outside their homes. In recent years, however, some Thai people in Bangkok started to eat sushi and various kinds of Japanese dishes which are “souzai (ready-made meals)” at home, which they buy in supermarkets or stores. The take-out food or the ready-made meals are labeled “naka-shoku”, while meals prepared and eaten at home are called “nai-shoku” or “uchi-shoku”. In this article, the dissemination of Japanese food in Thailand after the World War II will be summarized briefly, as the history of “gaishoku” Japanese food and the newly-emerging phenomenon of “naka-shoku” Japanese food is discussed. The article also foresees the possibility of “uchi-shoku” Japanese food in Thailand for future research.

This article infers the causes which led to youth activism in 2020. When the Future Forward Party, which opposed the junta government and aimed at reforming the military, was ordered to dissolve the party by the Constitutional Court on February 21, 2020, the anti-government movement of young people such as university and high school students spread nationwide. When the infection of COVID-19 spread and the state of emergency was declared on March 26, the street movement began to operate online. Once the infection subsided, the movement gradually returned to the streets, demanding a stop to the intimidation of activists, draft a new constitution, and dissolve parliament. They finally advocated royal reform including the abolition of the lese-majeste law, budget cuts, bans on political intervention and coup approval. It is no exaggeration to say that young people have become the centre of social movements for the first time since student activism in the 1970s. Why did young people, who had kept their silence, decide to raise their voices and take action? This question can also be replaced with the question of why young people had distanced themselves from social movements. Young people were less noticeable in the Red Shirt Movement against the dictatorship. This article first considered why young people were not noticeable in the Red Shirt Movement. Second, I describe student activism since the 2014 coup until February 2020. Finally, I infer the factors of the youth initiative in the movement after 2020.

The paper investigates the adaptations of Marie Corelli’s Vendetta in a comparative setting of Japan and Thailand, under the framework of adaptation studies, which is a relatively new area of study in Thai literature. The study points out the misleading use of the terms “translate” or “translate and arrange” for Maewan’s Khwamphayabat, which is, in fact, an adaptation, while referring to how Japan interprets the idea of adaptation in Edogawa Ranpo’s The White-haired Demon. The examination of the story’s important events also reveals how the details have been altered in the target languages. In the case of Japan, there is no doubt that The White-haired Demon is a remake, as Ranpo has stated. Modern readers are well aware of this and can appreciate it as a separate piece of literary work without questioning whether or not the translation is accurate; in other words, the author is loyal to the readers. Khwampha­yabat, on the other hand, is frequently misinterpreted as a translation, despite the fact that some scenes and expressions are entirely Thai, leading current readers to question the quality of the translation. Instead of using the term “translation,” the study advises that the Thai literary community use the term “adapted novel” or “adaptation” to describe the exact nature.

This paper focuses on the new development of innovation policy in Thailand, focusing on the policy making process and the scope of jurisdiction of MDES and MHESI which are reorganized in the late 2010’s. The significance of the development of related administrative systems is discussed from the perspective of future-oriented vision and gradual institutional reform since 2000’s.

This paper concluded that the Thai government’s continuous efforts in related policies such as innovation policy, administrative organization reform, legal system development, and human resource development have promoted Thailand’s shift to a digital economy and society, and have positively affected the country’s international competitiveness.

“Authentic” relics of the Buddha have the potentiality to become a common object of worship and symbol of all Buddhists regardless of Theravada, Mahayana or Tibetan Buddhism.

The Buddha relics excavated in Piprahwa in India in January 1898 were offered by the British India Government to King Chulalongkorn, the sole existing Buddhist monarch. He did not accept them immediately, doing so only after careful consideration.

The King distributed a portion of the relics to Russian Buddhists in August 1899, and then to Burmese and Ceylonese monks on 9 January 1900.

Inagaki Manjiro, a devout Zen Buddhist and the first Japanese Minister in Siam, fully understood the importance of the relics for forming a unity of the different Buddhists both in Japan and Asia. Without any instructions from Foreign Minister Aoki Shuzo in Tokyo, Inagaki petitioned the King requesting a portion of the relics for the Japanese. Ishikawa Shuntai, the top administrator of the Otani sect of Shin Buddhism, responded favorably to Inagaki’s proposal. Ishikawa envisioned including the relics in his own magnificent plan to build a world Buddhist center in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

A Japanese Buddhist mission (chief representative: Otani Koen of the Otani sect) had an audience with King Chulalongkorn on 14 June 1900 and received the relics the next day from Chaophraya Pasakorawong, Minister of Public Instruction.

Ishikawa asked the Thai government to send some Thai monks for the ceremony to lay the cornerstone of his world Buddhist center in Tokyo. However the Thai government did not cooperate because they were not so enthusiastic about Buddhist unity as were Ishikawa and Inagaki.