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Japanese animation, video games, and manga have attracted fans around the world. The characters, the stories, and the sensibilities that come out of these cultural products are together called Japan Cool. This is not a sudden fad, but is rooted in manga—Japanese comics—which since the mid-1940s have developed in an exponential way. In spite of a gradual decline in readership, manga still commands over a third of the publishing output. The volume of manga works that is being produced and has been through history is enormous. There are manga publications that attract readers of all ages and genders. The diversity in content attracts readers well into adulthood. Surveys on reading practices have found that almost all Japanese people read manga or have done so at some point in their lives. The skills of reading manga are learned by readers themselves, but learned in the context of other readers and in tandem with school learning. Manga reading practices are sustained by the practices of other readers, and manga content therefore serves as a topic of conversation for both families and friends. Moreover, manga is one of the largest sources of content for media production in film, television, and video games. Manga literacy, the practices of the readers, the diversity of titles, and the sheer number of works provide the basis for the movement recognized as Japan Cool. Reading Japan Cool is directed at an audience of students of Japanese studies, discourse analysts, educators, parents, and manga readers.

Previous studies have revealed that reading fiction is associated with dispositional empathy and theory-of-mind abilities. Earlier studies established a correlation between fiction reading habits and the two measures of social cognition: trait fantasy (i.e., the tendency to transpose oneself into fictitious characters) and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; a test of the ability to identify others’ mental states based on their eyes). Recently, experimental studies have shown that brief exposure to fiction enhances RMET performance. Nevertheless, these studies have been conducted only in Western countries, and few published studies have investigated these relationships in Asian countries. This research aims to address this gap. Study 1, which involved 338 Japanese undergraduates, conceptually replicated the previously reported correlations between fiction reading and fantasy and RMET scores (after statistically controlling for the effect of outliers). However, Study 2, which involved 304 Japanese undergraduates, failed to replicate the causal relationship. Participants read an excerpt either from literary fiction or from nonfiction, or engaged in a calculation task, before completing the RMET. Brief exposure to literary fiction did not increase the RMET score. In sum, this study replicated the associations of fiction reading with fantasy and RMET scores in Japan, but failed to replicate the causal relationship.

Via an autoethnography of internationalisation, the article highlights the ethical dilemmas transnational scholars face when universities fail to denationalise their organisational culture. Section one explains the pertinence and pitfalls of autoethnography - writing oneself into existence over against a context experienced as domination - for grasping the ethical quandaries of transnational scholars in a Japanese national university (JNU). As section two shows, the persistence of ethno-national working practices in JNUs precludes both the equal treatment of transnational scholars and the recognition of their difference. Specifically, the discussion documents two mechanisms of marginalisation at the JNU in question, Todai (University of Tokyo): section three links the rejection of ethno-national diversity to absolutisation, viz. the generalisation of prejudice by gatekeepers in order to stigmatise transnational scholars as unfit for organisational life; and section four contends gatekeepers defend their territorialised academic culture through normalisation, which is underpinned by academic inbreeding that produces a hermitic community of sameness blind to its ethno-national prejudices. The article concludes with the ethical gymnastics of transnational scholars situated in universities that solicit their multiplicity without renovating their ethno-national culture. It also reflects upon the limited leverage of autoethnography beyond the Anglosphere, notably in a JNU organisational environment that does not recognise the strop of agency with structure. Finally, the article suggests Japan would be better off promoting a cultural form of internationalisation rather than following a commercial iteration with neo-colonial costs. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Background Major disruptions and changes in education have occurred worldwide as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the ensuing shift from in-person to online education. However, the effect of such changes on medical education, its magnitude, and the learning domains impacted by such rapid changes have not been adequately addressed, particularly with regard to objective assessment approaches. Methods Second-year medical students enrolled in our Medical English Course between 2019 and 2021 were recruited from Hokkaido University, Japan ( N  = 321) to participate in this study. We evaluated the potential impact of teaching styles on the academic performance of students before (2019; face-to-face) and during (2020; online; 2021; in-person and online) the pandemic. We examined the potential effect of three teaching styles––in-person (2019), online (2020), and a combination of these (2021) on the academic performance of medical students using: (i) subjective assessment of self-reported general English skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking; and (ii) objective assessment of medical terminology scores, evidence-based medicine (EBM) skills, and final written exam scores. Results In-person education significantly improved listening and speaking skills in 2019 ( p  < 0.001). This trend was observed for writing skills in an online course in 2020 ( p  = 0.001). With the combined teaching method, students reported significant improvements in all four English skills. In our objective assessments, medical terminology improved significantly post-test versus pre-test for all three teaching styles, and we found that the online course did not adversely affect the gain in medical terminology knowledge during the course. Additionally, we did not find any significant differences across the three applied teaching styles regarding EBM skill levels. It is noteworthy that the students taking online courses had a significantly higher final exam score (mean ± SD; 82.8 ± 8.2) than in in-person (78.6 ± 8.8) and combined (79.7 ± 12.1) teaching styles. Conclusions In our study, the online/combined courses showed better academic outcomes compared to the face-to-face course in the preclinical clerkship. Although the current results need to be replicated on a larger scale, online/combined courses can continue and evolve in the post-pandemic education of medical students. Medical schools and institutions should consider incorporating such courses, especially combined courses, into their curricula in the future to improve the effectiveness, accessibility, and flexibility of medical education.

This study investigates the influence of family background on the academic performance of Chinese international students by following twenty-one students over two years and employing a case study approach that integrates interviews and observations. This research develops an analytical framework for understanding academic success abroad, drawing on the concepts of cultural capital and academic engagement. Using constructive grounded theory and thematic analysis, the study examines students’ performance in three key areas: their ability to achieve high grades, their strategies for solving academic problems, and their classroom participation. The findings reveal that students from affluent families are more likely to draw on economic capital to address academic challenges and tend to express greater confidence in their views in class. However, students from working-class backgrounds rely more on independent reading to address academic questions and are more likely to remain passive in class rather than actively participating in discussions.

Objectives To conduct empirical research on Japanese names, actual name data including both writings and readings are necessary. However, there was no database available that met these conditions. Therefore, in the present article, I provided raw data of approximately 8000 names of Japanese babies born between 2004 and 2018. Data description The data include common writings of baby names and their readings generated from annual surveys on baby names conducted by a Japanese private company. The data have advantages: (1) they include both writings and readings of baby names, (2) they were collected under the same conditions over 15 years, (3) their sample sizes are relatively large, and (4) they are open to the public. In contrast, the data have limitations: their samples are neither highly representative nor very large. Overall, this article will be useful for empirical research on Japanese names and people in general (especially for medical and educational service workers).

Statistical literacy, encompassing the interpretation and evaluation of statistical reports, is a skill developed in schools. However, the pedagogical approaches to statistical literacy skills have not been sufficiently investigated. This study investigated whether statistical literacy skills could be demonstrated through high school lessons. These lessons include a statistical literacy process, grounded in critical thinking principles, to facilitate students’ interpretation and evaluation of statistical reports. Additionally, a corresponding worksheet, aligning with this process, is included in the lessons to help students comprehend statistical reports. Seven 50-min lessons were conducted with 34 high school students, aged between 17 and 18 years, using this worksheet. Additionally, a statistical literacy skills test, designed to assess various statistical literacy skills within a short timeframe, was developed and administered at the beginning of the first lesson and at the end of the last lesson. The outcomes revealed that students were able to demonstrate some skills and effectively evaluate statistical reports. This study makes notable contributions by introducing a structured statistical literacy process and an associated skills assessment test. These tools can serve as valuable resources for students seeking to critically evaluate statistical reports and enable educators to gauge the extent of students’ acquisition. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.

Visual stimuli, such as stripes and texts, can induce \"visual discomfort\" including perceptual and somatic symptoms. Individuals reporting high levels of visual discomfort might experience migraine headache and may have reduced reading efficiency due to visual perceptual difficulties. This study aimed to develop and validate the Japanese version of the Visual Discomfort Scale, which measures proneness to visual discomfort. In Survey 1, 428 adults completed the Japanese version and a questionnaire assessing migraine morbidity. Rasch analysis revealed that the Japanese version is a unidimensional scale with a high amount of unexplained variance due to random noise rather than another dimension, and has high person and item reliabilities. Participants with migraine exhibited high scores in the Japanese version, indicating the construct validity of the scale. Survey 2 with 118 adults revealed a strong test-retest correlation for the Japanese version, indicating the stability of the scale. The Japanese version of the Visual Discomfort Scale is a sufficiently reliable and valid scale for assessing visual discomfort, although its unidimensionality leaves room for further improvements.

For more than two decades, in such landmark studies asThe Second SelfandLife on the Screen, Sherry Turkle has challenged our collective imagination with her insights about how technology enters our private worlds. InThe Inner History of Devices, she describes her process, an approach that reveals how what we make is woven into our ways of seeing ourselves. She brings together three traditions of listening -- that of the memoirist, the clinician, and the ethnographer. Each informs the others to compose an inner history of devices. We read about objects ranging from cell phones and video poker to prosthetic eyes, from Web sites and television to dialysis machines. In an introductory essay, Turkle makes the case for an \"intimate ethnography\" that challenges conventional wisdom. One personal computer owner tells Turkle: \"This computer means everything to me. It's where I put my hope.\" Turkle explains that she began that conversation thinking she would learn how people put computers to work. By its end, her question has changed: \"What was there about personal computers that offered such deep connection? What did a computer have that offered hope?\"The Inner History of Devicesteaches us to listen for the answer. In the memoirs, ethnographies, and clinical cases collected in this volume, we read about an American student who comes to terms with her conflicting identities as she contemplates a cell phone she used in Japan (\"Tokyo sat trapped inside it\"); a troubled patient who uses email both to criticize her therapist and to be reassured by her; a compulsive gambler who does not want to win steadily at video poker because a pattern of losing and winning keeps her more connected to the body of the machine. In these writings, we hear untold stories. We learn that received wisdom never goes far enough.

Website analysis is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that focuses on both digital literacy and language competence (Brugger, 2009). Website analysis in an EFL learning context has the potential to facilitate logical thinking and in the process develop functional language proficiency. This study reported on an English language website (http://www.travelbelize.org/) analysis experiment carried out for three weeks as an in-class and homework activity in a third year (junior) level English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course at a Japanese technical university. The purpose was to explore EFL learners’ ability to analyze an English language website and produce concrete design responses in English. During the first week of the analysis (involving sixteen students selected due to performing the best during earlier in-class website analysis activities on the course), participants produced their own responses to eight open-ended design questions about the website. The second week of the analysis (involving all 59 students on the course) tested the students’ ability to search for information from the website, and recorded their impressions about the website design based on standard usability questionnaires (CSUQ, QUIS, and MPRC). The third week of the analysis had the 59 students self-report on their use of meta-cognitive reading strategies (MARSI 1.0 Questionnaire) during the website analysis. The results of the questionnaires showed that, overall, the EFL students had a basic understanding of major design questions related to information organization, screen interface design, audience, technology used, etc. However, there was statistically significant variability between responses in different groups (comprehensive evaluation, webpage design, terminology and website information and website capabilities) and the respondents were not unanimous in their impressions about the website. The result of the student self-reports on metacognitive reading strategies showed wide acceptability and use of problem-solving strategies.