Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan

The bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s shook the very foundation of the post-war economic 'miracle' and marked the beginning of a gradual shift in the environmental consciousness of the Japanese. Yet, it by no means removed consumption from the pivotal position it occupied within Japanese society. Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan argues that consumption in Japan today is no longer simply a component of everyday economic activities, but rather a reflection of a society guided by the 'logic of late capitalism'. The volume pins down the contradictory nature of the setting in which consuming occurs in Japan today: the veneration of material comfort and convenience on the one hand, and the new rhetoric of recycling and energy conservation on the other. Theoretical insights developed as part of an art-historical enquiry, such as notions of socially engaged art and its critique, offer a new paradigm for investigating this dilemma. By combining case studies analysing the production and consumption of contemporary art with ethnographic material related to ordinary commodities and shopping, this volume provides a novel, transdisciplinary approach to exploring how a 'society of consumers' operates in post-bubble Japan and how contemporary life is a 'consuming project'

The TAO Project: Intelligent wheelchairs for the handicapped

Abstract An R&D project to build a series of intelligent autonomous wheelchairs is discussed. A standardized autonomy management system that can be installed on commercially available well-engineered power chairs has been developed and tested. A behavior-based approach was used to establish sufficient on-board autonomy at minimal cost and material usage, while achieving high efficiency, maximum safety, Iransparency in appearance, and extendability. So far, the add-on system has been installed and tried on two power wheelchair models. Initial results are highly encouraging. Introduction In recent years, with the concept of applying robots to service tasks [Gomi, 92] and with the accelerated rate of aging of the population being reported in many post-industrial countries, demand for more robotic assistive systems for people with physical ailments or loss of mental control is expected to increase. This is a seemingly major application area of service robots in the near future. For the past five years, we have been developing a range of autonomous mobile robots and their software using the behavior-based approach [Brooks, 86] [Gomi, 96a]. In Cartesian robotics, on which most conventional intelligent robotics approaches are based, planning for the generation of motion sequence and calculation of kinematics and dynamics for each planned motion occupy the center of both theoretical interest and practice. By adopting a behavior-based approach, I felt, wheelchairs which can operate daily in complex real-world environments with increased performance in efficiency, safety, and flexibility, and greatly reduced computational requirements can be built at less cost. In addition, improvements in the robustness and graceful degradation characteristics were expected. In the summer of 1995, an autonomy management system for a commercially available Canadian-made power wheelchair was successfully designed and implemented. The system looks after both longitudinal (forward and backward) and angular (left and right) movements of the chair as well limited vocal interactions with the user. The results were exhibited in August 1995 at the Intelligent Wheelchair Even

International experience of techno-parks in the Russian context

The relevance of this study is determined by the problem of a technological gap between the Russian Federation and developed and rapidly developing countries, as well by insufficient effectiveness of the activities of technology parks in modern Russian science-based economy. Even though many techno-parks are functioning in the Russian Federation today, their performance indicators are not always satisfactory, which reduces the pace of innovative development of the state. Therefore, the work of modern Russian technology parks needs to be optimized, especially from the viewpoint of stimulating the development of science-intensive technologies. The purpose of this study is to identify the ways to improve the performance of the modern Russian techno-parks in creating and developing knowledge-intensive and innovative technologies. International experience in this field has been studied to achieve the objective of the study. Next, the authors conducted a comparative analysis (quantitative and qualitative) of documents (open sources, reporting and analytical documents, etc.), describing the experience of 12 overseas technology parks, showing strong economic performance. Additionally, an in-depth analysis was performed regarding four techno-parks, which have significant indicators of scientific and innovative activity, and leitmotif non-formalized expert interviews were held with employees of the Tomsk techno-park (a special economic zone, Tomsk, West Siberia) in July 2017. Based on the analysis recommendations were made for improving the Russian techno-parks management system that enhance the effectiveness of research and innovation activities, as well as the commercialization of the obtained results, which is highly significant for the development of Russia’s science-based economy.peer-reviewe

Evaluating remediation of radionuclide contaminated forest near Iwaki, Japan, using radiometric methods

Radiometric surveys have been conducted in support of a project investigating the potential of biofuel power generation coupled with remediation of forests contaminated with radionuclides following the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Surveys conducted in 2013 and 2014 were used to determine the distribution and time dependence of radionuclides in a cedar plantation and adjacent deciduous forestry subject to downslope radionuclide migration, and a test area where litter removal was conducted. The radiocaesium results confirmed enhanced deposition levels in the evergreen areas compared with adjacent areas of deciduous forestry, implying significant differences in depositional processes during the initial interception period in 2011. Surveys were conducted both with and without a collimator on both occasions, which modified the angular response of the detector to separate radiation signals from above and below the detector. The combined data have been used to define the influence of radionuclides in the forest canopy on dose rate at 1 m, indicating that, in evergreen areas, the activity retained within the canopy even by 2013 contributed less than 5% of ground level dose rate. The time dependent changes observed allow the effect of remediation by litter removal in reducing radionuclide inventories and dose rates to be appraised relative natural redistribution processes on adjacent control areas. A 15x45 m area of cedar forest was remediated in September 2013. The work involved five people in a total of 160 person hours. It incurred a total dose of 40-50 µSv, and generated 2.1 t of waste comprising forest litter and understory. Average dose rates were reduced from 0.31 µSv h-1 to 0.22 µSv h-1, with nuclide specific analyses indicating removal of 30 ± 3% of the local radiocaesium inventory. This compares with annual removal rates of 10-15% where radionuclide migration down-slope over ranges of 10-50 m could be observed within adjacent areas. Local increases were also observed in areas identified as sinks. The results confirm the utility of time-series, collimated, radiometric survey methods to account for the distribution and changes in radionuclide inventory within contaminated forests. The data on litter removal imply that significant activity transfer from canopy to soil had taken place, and provide benchmark results against which such remediation actions can be appraised

Designing Social Robots for Early Detection of Mental Heath Conditions

Globally, mental health is a growing socio-economic burden and leads to negative ramifications including mortality and poor quality of life. Successful early detection of mental illness will make a significant, positive economic and societal impact. Social robots show potential to be integrated as tools for psychological therapy and early detection. This thesis seeks to design and develop social robots for early detection of mental illness. I explore how multi-modal inputs can be used to infer user's mental state and to direct appropriate robot behavior. I have employed an iterative design process for the design of robot morphology, personality, and behavior. Design 1 is a social robot with 6 DOF and exhibits non-verbal behaviors. In this design, I explore audio, video, and haptic inputs to detect user's emotional state. Design 2 is an interactive device that aims to collect audio data for the detection of early signs of depression. In this design, acoustic features are explored for depression detection, and the device uses audio and LEDs to communicate it's internal state. Finally, I have conducted a pilot experiment to investigate how the users interact with the robot. This thesis informs the design of future robots that aim to support early detection of mental illnesses

Rebuilding Nara’s Tōdaiji on the Foundations of the Chinese Pure Land: A Campaign for Buddhist Social Development

This dissertation considers how Chinese models of Buddhist social organization and Pure Land thought undergirded the Japanese monk Chōgen’s campaign to restore the Great Buddha of Tōdaiji, destroyed in the Gempei civil war at the end of the 12th century. While Chōgen’s activities as chief solicitor of the campaign partially owed to his network of social connections earned through a selective Buddhist education, Chōgen’s three pilgrimages to China were crucial for providing much of the knowledge, methods, and technologies that made possible the largest religious and civil engineering project attempted in Japan to that time. Though nominally a Buddhist monk, Chōgen embodied the ideal of a polymath. In order to recreate Japan’s foremost Buddhist symbol, he was compelled to assume a wide range of responsibilities: fundraising among aristocrats and warriors; forming a network of lieutenants, donors, and common devotees; managing temple estates that provided revenues; developing transportation infrastructure to carry materials and supplies; casting the Great Buddha statue; overseeing religious rites; and finally, rebuilding Tōdaiji’s halls. These diverse activities required creative forms of religio-social networking and technologies not extant in Japan. During his travels to the Chinese port city of Ningbo, as well as the religious mountains of Tiantaishan and Ayuwangshan, Chōgen learned of Pure Land halls built by lay confraternities, and adopted them as models for the later sanctuaries he constructed around Japan for proselytization and fundraising purposes. He also borrowed organizational principles from Chinese Pure Land societies from the urban centers of Ningbo and Hangzhou in order to create a massive Pure Land network in his homeland that embraced former militants from the civil war, the imperial family, monastics from a wide range of institutions, and even the common populace – all of whom contributed to the Tōdaiji rebuilding effort. Ultimately, the fields of religion and technology that Chōgen imported from China not only enabled the reconstruction of Japan’s most important Buddhist temple, but also brought Japan into the fold of an emerging East China Sea religious macroculture of the late 12th and early 13th centuries that expanded with the activities of traders and later Japanese pilgrims who would emulate Chōgen’s voyages.East Asian Languages and Civilization

Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement

What motivates people to become involved in issues and struggles beyond their own borders? How are activists changed and movements transformed when they reach out to others a world away? This adept study addresses these questions by tying together local, national, regional, and global historical narratives surrounding the contemporary Japanese environmental movement. Spanning the era of Japanese industrial pollution in the 1960s and the more recent rise of movements addressing global environmental problems, it shows how Japanese activists influenced approaches to environmentalism and industrial pollution in the Asia-Pacific region, North America, and Europe, as well as landmark United Nations conferences in 1972 and 1992. Japan’s experiences with diseases caused by industrial pollution produced a potent “environmental injustice paradigm” that fueled domestic protest and became the motivation for Japanese groups’ activism abroad. From the late 1960s onward Japanese activists organized transnational movements addressing mercury contamination in Europe and North America, industrial pollution throughout East Asia, radioactive waste disposal in the Pacific, and global climate change. In all cases, they advocated strongly for the rights of pollution victims and people living in marginalized communities and nations—a position that often put them at odds with those advocating for the global environment over local or national rights. Transnational involvement profoundly challenged Japanese groups’ understanding of and approach to activism. Numerous case studies demonstrate how border-crossing efforts undermined deeply engrained notions of victimhood in the domestic movement and nurtured a more self-reflexive and multidimensional approach to environmental problems and social activism. Transnational Japan in the Global Environmental Movement will appeal to scholars and students interested in the development of civil society, social movements, and environmentalism in contemporary Japan; grassroots inter-Asian connections in the postwar period; and the ways Asian countries and their citizens have shaped and been influenced by global issues like environmentalism.Knowledge Unlatche