Is Japan Ready to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage?

Marriage is one of the most significant stages in one’s life. For many decades, gays and lesbians have been excluded from the legal institution of marriage solely because of their sexual orientation. However, the situation concerning same-sex marriage has drastically changed in many societies including the U.S. in the past several years. This recent wave of the opening of same-sex marriage has yet to reach my home country, Japan. In Japanese society where no religion opposing to same-sex activity is influential, gays and lesbians have not been persecuted criminally or religiously, which caused the absence of gay and lesbian rights movements and public unawareness. In Japan, same-sex activity was common in pre-modern times. Today, however, homophobia, a social stigma against gays and lesbians, exists. In discussing how the pre-modern same-sex activity differs from the concept of gay and lesbian rights today and how same-sex couples are treated both socially and legally in today’s society, this paper seeks the possibility for Japan to legalize same-sex marriage in the near future. It also discuss the social meaning of marriage, the understanding of which is essential to same-sex marriage. Furthermore, in order to suggest an ideal process of the legalization, the paper considers the “step-by-step” approach taken by the Netherlands and England (referring to England and Wales), which legalized same-sex marriage in 2001 and 2013 respectively. Part I introduces the history concerning gays and lesbians in Japan. It discusses the pre-modern same-sex activity, the emergence of homophobia and the treatment of sexual orientation in postwar Japanese society, and the social meaning of marriage. Part II describes the situation surrounding same-sex couples in the present Japanese legal system. Possible bases of legal challenges asking for marriage equality under the Japanese Constitution are also discussed. Part III studies the “step-by-step” approach taken by the Netherlands and England. Part IV considers the possibility for Japan to open marriage to same-sex couples in comparing the two countries with Japan. This paper concludes that Japan should also legalize same-sex marriage step by step, which is to make small legal and social changes by introducing a registered partnership system designed for same-sex couples as an interim measure. In Japan, however, the opening of same-sex marriage after the introduction of a registered partnership system will be more difficult than in the Netherlands and England because the meaning of marriage differs significantly. In Japan, marriage is not just a matter of individual life choice, but it is deeply connected to the concept of ie or family lineage. Therefore, to open marriage to gays and lesbians, who do not fall within in this traditional idea of marriage, will likely take time. Nonetheless, meanwhile reconsidering the current meaning of marriage, the introduction of a registered partnership system would be a significant step to resolve the current situation wherein same-sex couples have no means to recognize their relationships

Fibroblast heterogeneity and tertiary lymphoid tissues in the kidney

Fibroblasts reside in various organs and support tissue structure and homeostasis under physiological conditions. Phenotypic alterations of fibroblasts underlie the development of diverse pathological conditions, including organ fibrosis. Recent advances in single-cell biology have revealed that fibroblasts comprise heterogeneous subpopulations with distinct phenotypes, which exert both beneficial and detrimental effects on the host organs in a context-dependent manner. In the kidney, phenotypic alterations of resident fibroblasts provoke common pathological conditions of chronic kidney disease (CKD), such as renal anemia and peritubular capillary loss. Additionally, in aged injured kidneys, fibroblasts provide functional and structural supports for tertiary lymphoid tissues (TLTs), which serve as the ectopic site of acquired immune reactions in various clinical contexts. TLTs are closely associated with aging and CKD progression, and the developmental stages of TLTs reflect the severity of renal injury. In this review, we describe the current understanding of fibroblast heterogeneity both under physiological and pathological conditions, with special emphasis on fibroblast contribution to TLT formation in the kidney. Dissecting the heterogeneous characteristics of fibroblasts will provide a promising therapeutic option for fibroblast-related pathological conditions, including TLT formation

Communication—Alkyl-Chain-Length Dependence of Quaternary Ammonium Cation on Zn Deposition Morphology in Alkaline-Based Electrolytes

ArticleJournal of The Electrochemical Society. 166(10): A2242 (2019)journal articl

On-chip Magnetic 3D Soft Microactuators Made by Gray-scale Lithography

2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Acropolis Convention Center, Nice, France, Sept, 22-26, 200

How Consumer's Demographics and Characteristics Influence Lunchtime Eating Behavior? (Case of Undergraduate Students in Bandung City)

Abstract.  The current paper examined the level of food or store priorities of undergraduate students in Bandung City to promote better understanding of young generation in Bandung City. Based on two authors' theoretical foundation and Health Promotion Model, student's demographics, characteristics, food choice determinants, and store choice determinants are used as dimension that may consist of eating behavior. The questionnaire's survey of lunchtime eating behavior to the two universities, i.e., Institute Technology Bandung (ITB) and Parahyangan Catholic University (UNPAR) in Bandung City. The Selection of respondents took simple random sampling. Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test and ANOVA were used to examine the effect of consumer demographics and consumer characteristics for food and store choice determinants. A total of 251 undergraduate students participated; 54.6% were Males (n=137) and 45.4% were Females (n=114). Most of respondents were Moslem (48.4%) or Christian (40.6%). “Calorieâ€, “Degree of Congestionâ€, and Atmosphere (interior and exterior) were less important when they choose food or store. Moslem respondents tend to care food nutrient compared to the other religions. The result of this study is the priority of choosing food and store by respondents and showed national difference by using previous related research. Keywords: Eating Behavior, Food Choice Determinants, Store Choice Determinants, Bandung City, Undergraduate Students.Abstrak. Penelitian ini ditujukan untuk menganalisis perilaku konsumsi makanan khususnya generasi muda di Kota Bandung secara komprehensif. Melalui penelitian ini dihitung prioritas pilihan makanan dan tempat berbelanja makanan bagi mahasiswa. Demografi mahasiswa, karakteristik, determinan pilihan makanan, dan pilihan tempat berbelanja makanan menjadi dimensi yang akan menjelaskan tingkah laku untuk mengkonsumsi makanan pada para mahasiswa ini. Perilaku konsumsi makanan pada saat makan siang dilakukan dengan menyebarkan kuesioner  melalui survei ke dua kampus di Bandung, yaitu Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) dan Universitas Katolik Parahyangan (UNPAR). Sedangkan untuk Statistika yang digunakan adalah Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test, dan ANOVA untuk menganalisis efek demografis konsumen dan karakteristik makanan yang dibeli, serta tempat berbelanja makanan yang dipilih. Survey dilakukan kepada 251 responden dengan proporsi 54.6% (n=137) laki-laki dan 45.4% (n=114) perempuan. Mayoritas responden adalah muslim (48.4%) dan Kristen (40.6%). Jumlah kalori, tingkat keramaian, dan suasana (interior dan eksterior) tidak terlalu diperhitungkan dalam memilih tempat berbelanja makanan. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah prioritas memilih makanan dan tempat belanja oleh responden serta perbedaan secara nasionalis dengan menggunakan penelitian terdahulu yang berkaitan.Kata kunci: Perilaku konsumsi makanan, Determinan pilihan makanan, Determinan tempat berbelanja makanan, Indonesia, Mahasisw

Challenges in conserving forest ecosystems through coffee certification: a case study from southwestern Ethiopia

Certification schemes, aimed at simultaneously promoting ecologically sustainable agriculture and improving livelihood, are being utilized at a global scale. Among such certification schemes, the Rainforest Alliance is known as one of the most widely used environmental certification programs throughout the world. Previous studies have compared the ecological impacts of certified and non-certified farmlands, or evaluated the economic outcomes of certification. However, few studies have assessed the long-term impacts of the certification scheme. This paper attempts to analyze the long-term outcomes of the Rainforest Alliance certification program through a case study of coffee farming practices in southwestern Ethiopia. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with key informants who were deeply involved in the certification program, together with field observations and secondary data collection. The results of the assessment indicated that some areas of the certified coffee forests have been deforested or ecologically degraded and that the Rainforest Alliance program requirements were not uniformly applied. The possible causes include rapid population increase, government policies promoting intensive coffee production, presence of members who did not participate in the certification program, a lack of conservation incentives, and loopholes in the auditing process. To determine the overall success of the Rainforest Alliance certification program would require: monitoring of population growth rates and providing alternative livelihood opportunities, promoting collaboration between environmental and agricultural government authorities, conducting a more stringent on-site inspection, and to provide direct incentives for environmental conservation to all farmers living in or near the certified areas

Photopolarimetric Monitoring of Blazars in the Optical and Near-Infrared Bands with the Kanata Telescope. I. Correlations between Flux, Color, and Polarization

We report on the correlation between the flux, color and polarization variations on time scales of days--months in blazars, and discuss their universal aspects. We performed monitoring of 42 blazars in the optical and near-infrared bands from 2008 to 2010 using TRISPEC attached to the "Kanata" 1.5-m telescope. We found that 28 blazars exhibited "bluer-when-brighter" trends in their whole or a part of time-series data sets. This corresponds to 88% of objects that were observed for >10 days. Thus, our observation unambiguously confirmed that the "bluer-when-brighter" trend is common in the emission from blazar jets. This trend was apparently generated by a variation component with a constant and relatively blue color and an underlying red component. Prominent short-term flares on time scales of days--weeks tended to exhibit a spectral hysteresis; their rising phases were bluer than their decay phases around the flare maxima. In contrast to the strong flux--color correlation, the correlation of the flux and polarization degree was relatively weak; only 10 objects showed significant positive correlations. Rotations of polarization were detected only in three objects: PKS 1510-089, 3C 454.3, and PKS 1749+096, and possibly in S5 0716+714. We also investigated the dependence of the degree of variability on the luminosity and the synchrotron peak frequency, \nu_peak. As a result, we found that lower luminosity and higher \nu_peak objects had smaller variations in their amplitudes both in the flux, color, and polarization degree. Our observation suggests the presence of several distinct emitting sources, which have different variation time-scales, colors, and polarizations. We propose that the energy injection by, for example, internal shocks in relativistic shells is a major factor for blazar variations on time scales of both days and months.Comment: 39 pages, accepted for publication in PAS