Kitarō Nishida is the most important and representative philosopher in modern Japan, who now attracts increasing attention internationally. He endeavored to give a logical foundation to the Eastern way of thinking through his confrontation with Western philosophers. The aim of this paper is to recover the modern and intercultural significance of Plotinus’ philosophy in the light of Nishida’s philosophy. Nishida refers to Plotinus repeatedly, expressing his deep empathy, though his philosophy, which professes itself to be highly critical, is not mysticism. (...) When we compare him with Plotinus, we can find a great affinity in their fundamental structure. ‘Absolute nothingness (zettai mu)’, the basis of all reality in Nishida’s philosophy, is prior to both subjectivity and objectivity, and corresponds to the Plotinian One, which transcends both thinking and being. The correspondence between their logical structures consists in regarding subjectivity and objectivity as developments of an indefinite principle that transcends and precedes the discrimination of the two, and determination as determination of what is indeterminate. However, differing from Plotinus, Nishida lays stress on corporality, ordinariness and individuality. Though Plotinus was never pessimistic about this world, the experience emphasized in theEnneadswas not earthly, while Nishida’s ‘radical ordinariness’ was the standpoint to which we should attain in a mundane life. When we compare Plotinus with Nishida, we encounter the intersection of the West and the East, antiquity and modernity, and mysticity and ordinariness. (shrink)

The political scene behind Japan's legislation in 2000 was uneasy and flurried. The ascent to political power by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori following the sudden death of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, the shift in political framework caused by the separation of the Liberal Party from the coalition government, and the general election came one after the other in a series of restless succession.

We used a response competition paradigm to investigate whether a distractor is effectively rejected under conditions where it is projected to a highly-loaded hemisphere. In two experiments we asked right-handed participants to identify a target among five task-relevant letters while they ignored a distractor. We manipulated both the distractor visual-field and the compatibility of the target and the distractor. In the low-loaded visual-field, we presented a distractor with one task-relevant stimulus to one visual-field and the remaining task-relevant stimuli to the (...) opposite visual-field. In the high-loaded visual-field, we presented a distractor and task-relevant stimuli in reverse. In Experiment 1 , we found a compatibility effect for the low-loaded, but not for the high-loaded visual-field. In Experiment 2, this modulation of the compatibility effect did not appear when the upper/lower visual-field was manipulated. These findings demonstrate that a distractor is successfully ignored when it is presented to a highly-loaded hemisphere. (shrink)

Recent climate change statistics attribute over a quarter of carbon emissions to residential energy use in the United Kingdom. To address this, a building standard was introduced to aim to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption. This paper analyzes how such an environmental standard reconfigures the sociotechnological relations and practices of housing professionals that design, construct, and manage social housing. We focus on how actors engage with the standard’s recommendation for incorporating low and zero carbon technologies (...) into new buildings. We identify diverse practices that emerge from these engagements, which, we contend, have significant consequences for the working relationships of professional actors and for renewable energy provision. By being entwined in, and generative of actors’ practices, we argue that the Code becomes part of the sociotechnological relationships and infrastructures that shape energy provision. (shrink)

This paper examines the perspective of Shintoistic Christianity of Ebina Danjo, a Japanese theologian, during the Meiji period, and how his view influences Japanese churches today. Based on the review of literature, this paper investigates the historical background of Christianity in Japan during that period, followed by key issues of Ebina's thoughts on Christianity with respect to his Bible interpretation, nationalism, and view of the Logos. Through the analysis of his perspective of Shintoistic Christianity, this paper presents some missiological implications.

儒教・仏教という知的伝統と、西洋哲学という新たな知が出会った明治。近代化と伝統の間で花開く新たな知の深層を明らかにする!

Dr Caitríona L Cox’s recent article expounds the far-reaching implications of the ‘Healthcare Hero’ metaphor. She presents a detailed overview of heroism in the context of clinical care, revealing that healthcare workers, when portrayed as heroes, face challenges in reconciling unreasonable expectations of personal sacrifice without reciprocity or ample structural support from institutions and the general public. We use narrative medicine, a field primarily concerned with honouring the intersubjective narratives shared between patients and providers, in our attempt to deepen the (...) discussion about the ways Healthcare Heroes engenders military metaphor, antiscience discourse, and xenophobia in the USA. We argue that the militarised metaphor of Healthcare Heroes not only robs doctors and nurses of the ability to voice concerns for themselves and their patients, but effectively sacrifices them in a utilitarian bargain whereby human life is considered the expendable sacrifice necessary to ‘open the U.S. economy’. Militaristic metaphors in medicine can be dangerous to both doctors and patients, thus, teaching and advocating for the critical skills to analyse and alter this language prevents undue harm to providers and patients, as well as our national and global communities. (shrink)

Background: Dementia is one the major problems of aging societies, and, novel and effective non-drug therapies are required as interventions in the oldest-old to prevent cognitive decline.Objective: This study aims to examine the efficacy and safety of reminiscence using immersive virtual reality focusing on anxiety that often appears with cognitive decline. The secondary objective is to reveal the preference for VR image types for reminiscence: live-action or computer graphics.Methods: This was a pilot, open-label, and randomized crossover study which was conducted (...) on January 2020 at a single nursing home. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups in equal numbers, and they alternately viewed two types of VR images themed on the mid- to late Showa era in Japan. In group A, the CG images were viewed first, and then the LA images were viewed. In group B, the images were viewed in the opposite order. Before VR viewing, subjects responded to Mini-Mental State Examination Japanese version and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Japanese version. After viewing the first and second VR, subjects responded to STAI and the numerical rating scale for satisfaction and side effects.Results: Ten subjects participated in this study. The values of analyses are presented in the mean. The age was 87.1 years, and the MMSE was 28.5. The total STAI score before VR viewing was 36.1, but it significantly decreased to 26.8 after the first VR viewing, and further decreased to 23.4 after the second VR viewing. The NRS score for satisfaction tended to be higher after viewing LA in group A vs. 8.6, P = 0.0993), while in group B, the score after CG was slightly lower than that after LA. There were no serious side effects.Conclusions: This study suggests that iVR reminiscence can reduce anxiety in the oldest-old without causing serious side effects. Furthermore, the impacts might be better with LA images. (shrink)

Proceedings of the 11th Interdisciplinary Symmetry Congress-Festival of the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry. Special Theme: “Tradition and Innovation in Symmetry - Katachi”.

(2) Why is there the most deletion when the next word begins with a consonant? Why does “pause” have different effects on the frequency of deletion? The following table shows the rate of retained -t, -d for five groups of speakers: _##C _## _##V Philadelphians (Guy 1980) .00 .88 .62 New Yorkers (Guy 1980) .00 .17 .34 Sansei (Iwai 1993) .12 .48 .84 Nisei (Iwai 1993) .41 .36 .70 Chicanos (Santa Ana 1991) .39 .68 .67..