Voting rights of the "marginal": The Japanese conception of political membership in comparative perspective

The right to vote ultimately expresses political membership in democratic states. The logic behind franchise rules in a particular state tells us much about how that state conceives its polity. This becomes clear if we study voting rights of marginal groups, since these people often define boundaries of the polity in question. From this perspective, the present study investigates the logic of Japanese political membership by scrutinizing voting rights of overseas Japanese and non-citizen ethnic minorities inside Japan. Utilizing Elaine R. Thomas\u27 analytical framework, the study identifies competing conceptions of political belonging expressed in Japanese debates about voting rights of the two marginal groups. My finding is that the Japanese conception of political membership is more complex than one would expect from the strong ethnic homogeneity of the Japanese community. This study also clarifies where Japan stands in relation to other states

Acting like a state : the politics of foreign labor admission in Japan and Taiwan

This doctoral dissertation examines the contentious issue of international labor migration in an ever more competitive global environment. It seeks to explain why similarly advanced economies opt for different admission schemes for supplementary foreign manpower. Specifically, it examines why Japan and Taiwan – two cases that share many structural features – have adopted divergent admission mechanisms for foreign unskilled/low-skilled workers. Since the late 1980s, Japan has turned to thinly disguised labor importation channels, while Taiwan has relied on official guest-worker schemes. By examining the path of policy-making in these empirically neglected states, this study explains in theoretical terms the reasons behind adopting such divergent institutional arrangements for recruiting supplementary overseas labor. Injecting an explicit political science perspective into international migration research, it explores how preferences and autonomous interests of the state leave an imprint on the content of labor importation policy. The study argues that pressures to internationalize the Japanese and Taiwanese domestic labor markets were, at base, filtered by two interrelated factors: the state’s perception of security risks involved in admitting particular groups of migrants (be they co-ethnics or others) and inter-ministerial bargaining over authority in this policy area within the state apparatus, mediated by the state’s institutional structure. This state-centered perspective contributes to the understanding of the politics of labor importation in East Asia in particular, and to the comparative scholarship of immigration in general.Arts, Faculty ofPolitical Science, Department ofGraduat

Fearful States: The Migration-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia

10.1080/09512748.2020.1806914The Pacific Review35159-8

Irradiation Investigations for TESLA and X-FEL experiments at DESY

Electronic components during High Energy Physics experiments are exposed to high level of radiation. Radiation environment causes many problems to electronic devices

Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of 1283 Pediatric Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 during the First and Second Waves of the Pandemic—Results of the Pediatric Part of a Multicenter Polish Register SARSTer

This prospective multicenter cohort study aimed to analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children. The study, based on the pediatric part of the Polish SARSTer register, included 1283 children (0 to 18 years) who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2020. Household contact was reported in 56% of cases, more frequently in younger children. Fever was the most common symptom (46%). The youngest children (0–5 years) more frequently presented with fever, rhinitis and diarrhea. Teenagers more often complained of headache, sore throat, anosmia/ageusia and weakness. One fifth of patients were reported to be asymptomatic. Pneumonia was diagnosed in 12% of patients, more frequently in younger children. During the second wave patients were younger than during the first wave (median age 53 vs. 102 months, p < 0.0001) and required longer hospitalization (p < 0.0001). Significantly fewer asymptomatic patients were noted and pneumonia as well as gastrointestinal symptoms were more common. The epidemiological characteristics of pediatric patients and the clinical presentation of COVID-19 are age-related. Younger children were more frequently infected by close relatives, more often suffered from pneumonia and gastrointestinal symptoms and required hospitalization. Clinical courses differed significantly during the first two waves of the pandemic