Gender Inclusion in Climate Change Adaptation

There is increasing evidence that climate change has an impact on natural disasters, such as flooding, and on agricultural production, both of which have implications for gender issues. In this paper the authors briefly review issues related to gender and poverty and examine the relationships between gender and various indices. They then look at systems of land ownership and inheritance, and discuss an example of job recovery after a disaster through interviews with three female agricultural workers in Japan. The results of the interviews demonstrate the recent empowerment of women in agricultural production and that these women have strong adaptive abilities.climate change; natural disasters; gender issues; agricultural production

Abstract: Pricing of Accounting Accruals Information and the Revision of Analyst Earnings Forecasts: Evidence from Tokyo Stock Exchange Firms †

This paper investigates how the information contained in the accounting accruals and their components gets impounded into stock prices and provides evidence on the relationship between the pricing of accounting accruals and the revision of analyst earnings forecasts. First, we research the value relevance of accounting accruals in Japanese stock markets. The results from our regression analyses with pooled observations and the results from Fama and MacBeth regression tests simultaneously indicate that accounting accruals and their components, especially the abnormal accruals, possess strong explanatory power with respect to the future stock returns, even after adjusting for the risks of stocks. As a further robustness test we employ a hedging portfolio test and find that the investors can earn the abnormal returns by utilizing the information from the components of the accounting accruals. Second, we investigate the relationship between the abnormal accruals and the revision of analyst earnings forecasts and present evidence that the larger are the abnormal accruals, higher is the subsequent revisions of the analyst forecasts. It suggests that the analysts fail to incorporate the full implications of the accruals information, even if such an overestimation or underestimation gets eventually corrected as the next year’s accounting period proceeds. JEL Classification: M41,G14, G1

Baseline Profile of Participants in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS)

Background: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), known as Ecochil-Chosa in Japan, is a nationwide birth cohort study investigating the environmental factors that might affect children’s health and development. We report the baseline profiles of the participating mothers, fathers, and their children. Methods: Fifteen Regional Centres located throughout Japan were responsible for recruiting women in early pregnancy living in their respective recruitment areas. Self-administered questionnaires and medical records were used to obtain such information as demographic factors, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, environmental exposure, medical history, and delivery information. In the period up to delivery, we collected bio-specimens, including blood, urine, hair, and umbilical cord blood. Fathers were also recruited, when accessible, and asked to fill in a questionnaire and to provide blood samples. Results: The total number of pregnancies resulting in delivery was 100,778, of which 51,402 (51.0%) involved program participation by male partners. Discounting pregnancies by the same woman, the study included 95,248 unique mothers and 49,189 unique fathers. The 100,778 pregnancies involved a total of 101,779 fetuses and resulted in 100,148 live births. The coverage of children in 2013 (the number of live births registered in JECS divided by the number of all live births within the study areas) was approximately 45%. Nevertheless, the data on the characteristics of the mothers and children we studied showed marked similarity to those obtained from Japan’s 2013 Vital Statistics Survey. Conclusions: Between 2011 and 2014, we established one of the largest birth cohorts in the world

Questionnaire results on exposure characteristics of pregnant women participating in the Japan Environment and Children Study (JECS)

Abstract Background The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a nation-wide birth cohort study investigating environmental effects on children’s health and development. In this study, the exposure characteristics of the JECS participating mothers were summarized using two questionnaires administered during pregnancy. Methods Women were recruited during the early period of their pregnancy. We intended to administer the questionnaire during the first trimester (MT1) and the second/third trimester (MT2). The total number of registered pregnancies was 103,099. Results The response rates of the MT1 and MT2 questionnaires were 96.8% and 95.1%, respectively. The mean gestational ages (SDs) at the time of the MT1 and MT2 questionnaire responses were 16.4 (8.0) and 27.9 (6.5) weeks, respectively. The frequency of participants who reported “lifting something weighing more than 20 kg” during pregnancy was 5.3% for MT1 and 3.9% for MT2. The Cohen kappa scores ranged from 0.07 to 0.54 (median 0.31) about the occupational chemical use between MT1 and MT2 questionnaires. Most of the participants (80%) lived in either wooden detached houses or steel-frame collective housing. More than half of the questionnaire respondents answered that they had “mold growing somewhere in the house”. Insect repellents and insecticides were used widely in households: about 60% used “moth repellent for clothes in the closet,” whereas 32% applied “spray insecticide indoors” or “mosquito coil or an electric mosquito repellent mat.” Conclusions We summarized the exposure characteristics of the JECS participants using two maternal questionnaires during pregnancy