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This book shows you how to create decorative works of floral art from the least expensive and most versatile craft material available-- colored paper! Japanese kirigami (cut paper) flowers are among the most delicate and beautiful examples of paper art in the world. This how-to guide showcases 31 gorgeous Japanese floral designs that can virtually pass for the real thing although they never wilt! Are you looking for a creative way to add a touch of beauty to your home or workplace, or to create low-cost decorations for a wedding or other special event? All of the most popular blossoms are represented here, including: 5 different romantic roses, frilly carnations, sensuous tulips, dramatic anemones, flashy dahlias, 3 types of cheerful daisies, 3 types of bold sunflowers, 3 types of graceful lilies. And many more! Simple instructions and colorful step-by-step photos show novice paper crafters how to make each flower, as well as how to gather them into jaw dropping bouquets. There are even instructions describing how the flowers can be used in 18 amazing ways for decorating, selling, gift giving and entertaining-- including: wreaths, ornaments, floral pens, photo frames, and bookmarks. Japanese Paper Flowers has all the information and all of the necessary patterns you need! Simply cut the papers into the appropriate shapes, curl and arrange the leaves and petals as indicated, and use a dot of craft glue to create realistic paper blossoms and bouquets.

Purpose Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Research suggests that by far, the greatest contributor to the overall economic impact of depression is loss in productivity; however, there is very little research on the costs of depression outside of Western high-income countries. Thus, this study examines the impact of depression on workplace productivity across eight diverse countries. Methods We estimated the extent and costs of depression-related absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace across eight countries: Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, South Africa, and the USA. We also examined the individual, workplace, and societal factors associated with lower productivity. Results To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of depression on workplace productivity across a diverse set of countries, in terms of both culture and GDP. Mean annual per person costs for absenteeism were lowest in South Korea at $181 and highest in Japan ($2674). Mean presenteeism costs per person were highest in the USA ($5524) and Brazil ($5788). Costs associated with presenteeism tended to be 5–10 times higher than those associated with absenteeism. Conclusions These findings suggest that the impact of depression in the workplace is considerable across all countries, both in absolute monetary terms and in relation to proportion of country GDP. Overall, depression is an issue deserving much greater attention, regardless of a country’s economic development, national income or culture.

[The artist] Cybèle Young invites readers to consider the inevitability of change and the power of the imagination. The sculptures in this book were made entirely from Japanese paper.

Based on an empirical illustration of Onta pottery and more broadly a discussion of the Japanese Mingei movement, we study the intimacy between craft work, ethics and time. We conceptualize craft work through the temporal structure of tradition, to which we find three aspects: generational rhythms of making; cycles of use and re-use amongst consumers and a commitment to historically and naturally attuned communities. We argue these temporal structures of tradition in craftwork are animated by two contrasting but co-existing ideas of the good: the moral and the ethical. By developing the work of Elizabeth Grosz, we conceptualize this distinction between moral and ethical as a temporal phenomenon, specifically in differing relations to ideas of the future. Moral aspects of craft work understand the future as a progression from past, whether in preserving practices and norms, or improving upon them in relation to ideals. Ethical aspects understand the future as inherently open to chance and divergence, valuing difference, accident and the possibilities for creativity these entail. Empirically, we show evidence of both aspects in the case of Mingei—a organized movement dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional Japanese craft work. We contribute to studies of craft work by revealing and classifying its temporal aspects. We contribute to studies in business ethics by conceptualising a generative distinction between morals and ethics configured through differing understandings of time.

To characterise different meal types by examining the contribution of specific meals to the total intakes and the nutritional quality of each meal. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted based on dietary data collected using 4-d dietary record. Diet quality was assessed by the Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Nutrient-Rich Food Index 9.3. Japan. Adults aged 20-81 years (n 639). Diet quality was, on average, highest for dinner, followed, in order, by lunch, breakfast and snacks. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, on average, accounted for 21 %, 32 %, 40 % and 11 % of total energy intake, respectively. For many nutrients, the percentage contribution to total intake did not vary within each meal, broadly in line with that for energy: 18-24 % for breakfast, 26-35 % for lunch, 35-49 % for dinner and 4-15 % for snacks. However, intakes of many foods largely depended on one meal type. The foods mainly eaten at dinner were potatoes, pulses, total vegetables, fish, meat and alcoholic beverages (52-70 %), in contrast to noodles (58 %) at lunch and bread (71 %) and dairy products (50 %) at breakfast. The foods mainly eaten at snacks were confectioneries (79 %) and sugar-sweetened beverages (52 %). Conversely, rice and eggs were more evenly distributed across three main meals (19-41 % and 30-38 %, respectively), while fruit and non-energetic beverages were more evenly distributed across all meal types (17-30 % and 19-35 %, respectively). These findings provide the background information on each meal type in Japanese and may help inform the development of meal-based guidelines and public health messages.

Mental health problems among workers are a significant global concern, leading to substantial economic losses, particularly due to presenteeism. While mindfulness and self-compassion practices have shown promise in improving psychological well-being and occupational outcomes, traditional interventions often require a high time commitment. Low-intensity digital interventions remain underexplored, especially in the context of occupational health. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a smartphone-based self-care app that enables independent practice of mindfulness and self-compassion without facilitator support. Specifically, it assessed the effects of self-compassion meditation (SCM) and mindfulness meditation (MM) on mental health and work-related outcomes among nonclinical Japanese workers. This open-label, 3-arm randomized controlled trial recruited 300 working adults in Japan, who were randomly assigned to SCM (n=101), MM (n=100), or a waitlist control group (n=99). Participants in the SCM and MM groups engaged in daily guided meditation via a custom-built smartphone app over 4 weeks. Primary outcomes included psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-6) and work performance (World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire and the Stanford Presenteeism Scale), while secondary outcomes encompassed cognitive flexibility, self-compassion, perceived stress, work engagement, psychological safety, and self-perceived creativity. Assessments were conducted at baseline, postintervention (4 wk), and 1-month follow-up (8 wk). Recruitment occurred in 2 waves (November 2022-December 2022 and June 2023), with follow-up assessments completed by September 2023. A total of 300 participants (mean age of 35.44, SD 9.14 y; n=180, 60% female) were randomized. Adherence was high in both intervention groups (mean completed days: SCM 23.30, SD 5.58; MM 22.95, SD 6.25), with an overall dropout rate of 21.4%. No significant group × time interactions were detected for most outcomes, although significant main effects of time were observed for several measures, including work performance and self-compassion, with small effect sizes. Within-group analyses suggested broader improvements in the SCM group, whereas changes in the MM group were more limited. In sensitivity analyses using linear mixed-effects models, a significant group × time interaction was detected for work performance, with a larger pre-post improvement in SCM. This low-intensity, fully self-guided, smartphone-based meditation program demonstrated good feasibility, as reflected by high adherence and relatively low attrition. Between-group effects were limited; therefore, the findings should be interpreted as preliminary and do not support strong causal claims of intervention superiority. Clinical significance remains unclear in this nonclinical sample and should be evaluated in future studies.

Purpose. To determine the effect of hospital work environments on hospital outcomes across multiple countries. Design. Primary survey data using a common instrument were collected from separate cross sections of 98 116 bedside care nurses practising in 1406 hospitals in 9 countries between 1999 and 2009. Main Outcome Measures. Nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction, patient readiness for hospital discharge and quality of patient care. Results. High nurse burnout was found in hospitals in all countries except Germany, and ranged from roughly a third of nurses to about 60% of nurses in South Korea and Japan. Job dissatisfaction among nurses was close to 20% in most countries and as high as 60% in Japan. Close to half or more of nurses in every country lacked confidence that patients could care for themselves following discharge. Quality-of-care rated as fair or poor varied from 11% in Canada to 68% in South Korea. Between one-quarter and one-third of hospitals in each country were judged to have poor work environments. Working in a hospital with a better work environment was associated with significantly lower odds of nurse burnout and job dissatisfaction and with better quality-of-care outcomes. Conclusions. Poor hospital work environments are common and are associated with negative outcomes for nurses and quality of care. Improving work environments holds promise for nurse retention and better quality of patient care.

Symbols can be used to mask or embellish firms’ exploitative labor practices. The present study defines exploitative firms’ abuse of symbolic management using legitimate symbolic terminologies to embellish their demanding working conditions as symbolic framing and examines it in the Japanese context. Because of strong social criticism for exploitative practices, firms are under pressure to avoid giving an exploitative impression to stakeholders, particularly job seekers in recruitment. This study argues that exploitative firms respond to these pressures by embellishing their descriptions of the hard-working conditions at the firm, using certain symbolic expressions. To test this argument, this study examined recruitment advertising of 1238 Japanese firms between 2006 and 2017 and analyzed their ideal candidate profile (ICP) statement—a description of personal attributes that align with the firms’ working conditions—based on topic modeling. The results showed that exploitative firms tend to frame their working conditions in the ICP statement as ‘challenging work,’ which acknowledges the demanding work environment but frames it positively. This tendency was strengthened for firms with younger employees. The results provide the current literature with new insights regarding the dark side of symbolic management.

In Japan, income, authority, and prestige are unequally distributed between men and women, even if they share the same occupational level. These inequalities are perceived as an ethical issue because they go against the principle of equal treatment at work. Nowadays, Japanese companies are under growing political and regulatory pressure to increase the hiring, promotion, and empowerment of female employees. In this context, the first equity index that tracks the financial performance of the best Japanese companies in terms of gender diversity performance—the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (hereafter WIN)—was launched in 2010. It aims to satisfy the growing demand of investors who want to reduce gender discrimination in Japanese workplaces. This paper compares the financial performance of the WIN stock index to the conventional parent index over the period 2010–2018, offering a unique setting to assess the effects of gender diversity screens on portfolio risk-adjusted performance. Our results are robust to a battery of risk-adjusted performance indicators and clearly indicate that investing in the WIN equity index does not come at a cost compared to investing in its conventional peer. This evidence is expected to reinforce confidence of investors who have an appetite for justice in increasing their investment in financial products that support the participation and the advancement of women in the Japanese workforce.

Several staffing models are used to determine the required medical physics staffing, including radiotherapy technologists, of radiation oncology departments. However, since Japanese facilities tend to be smaller in scale than foreign ones, those models might not apply to Japan. Therefore, in this study, we surveyed workloads in Japan to estimate the optimal medical physics staffing in external beam radiotherapy. A total of 837 facilities were surveyed to collect information regarding radiotherapy techniques and medical physics specialists (RTMPs). The survey covered facility information, staffing, patient volume, equipment volume, workload and quality assurance (QA) status. Full-time equivalent (FTE) factors were estimated from the workload and compared with several models. Responses were received from 579 facilities (69.2%). The median annual patient volume was 369 at designated cancer care hospitals (DCCHs) and 252 across all facilities. In addition, the median FTE of RTMPs was 4.6 at DCCHs and 3.0 at all sites, and the average QA implementation rate for radiotherapy equipment was 69.4%. Furthermore, advanced treatment technologies have increased workloads, particularly in computed tomography simulations and treatment planning tasks. Compared to published models, larger facilities (over 500 annual patients) had a shortage of medical physics staff. In very small facilities (about 140 annual patients), the medical physics staffing requirement was estimated to be 0.5 FTE, implying that employing a full-time medical physicist would be inefficient. However, ensuring the quality of radiotherapy is an important issue, given the limited number of RTMPs. Our study provides insights into optimizing staffing and resource allocation in radiotherapy departments.