On Effects of the Hyogo Earthquake on Household Consumption : A Note

Consumption Insurance, Japanese Households, Earthquake Shocks

On the Consumption Insurance Effects of Long-term Care Insurance in Japan: Evidence from Micro-level Household Data

Using micro-level household data in the 2001 Comprehensive Survey of the Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, this paper examines how having a household member in need of long-term nursing care can result in welfare losses measured in terms of consumption. In so doing, this study evaluates the role of the public long-term care insurance scheme implemented in Japan in April 2000. The results indicate that when households include a disabled family member, household consumption net of long-term care costs do not decrease as much as before the introduction of long-term care insurance. Further, when compared with the surveys conducted in 1998, theadverse effects on consumption net of long-term care costs have become much weaker. These findings suggest that the introduction of social insurance in 2000 helped Japanese households to reduce the welfare losses associated with a disabled family member.social insurance, consumption insurance, long-term care insurance

"On the Consumption Insurance Effects of Long-term Care Insurance In Japan: Evidence from Micro Household Data"

Using micro-level household data in the 2001 Comprehensive Survey of the Living Conditions of the People on Health and Welfare as compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, this paper examines how having a household member in need of long-term nursing care can result in welfare losses measured in terms of consumption. In doing so, the study evaluates the role of the public long-term care insurance scheme implemented in Japan in April 2000. The results indicate that when households included a disabled family member, household consumption net of long-term care costs did not decrease as much as before the introduction of long-term care insurance. When compared with the surveys conducted in 1995 and 1998, the adverse effects on consumption net of long-term care costs have became much weaker. These findings suggest that the introduction of social insurance in 2000 helped to reduce the welfare loss associated with having a disabled family member.

Endoscopic Ultrasonic Aspiration of Superficial Bladder Tumors

The gold standard of surgical treatment for superficial bladder tumor is transurethral resection (TUR). However, the procedure has drawbacks: it needs skill to avoid perforation of the bladder wall, while burns on the resected tissue are disadvantageous for histological examination. We developed an endoscopic ultrasonic aspiration system which is easy to manipulate and makes no burns on aspirated tissue. Furthermore, the equipment includes a coagulating system

A Test of the Full Insurance Hypothesis: The Case of Japan

Exploiting the panel data structure of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, compiled from 1989 to 1997 by the Japanese Bureau of Statistics, this paper explores how effectively idiosyncratic shocks are shared among consumers in Japan. Tests are conducted for the total consumption, together with each category of consumption expenditures. In addition, the empirical analysis of the paper accounts for the disaster shock caused by the Hyogo Earthquake that took place in January 1995. While the overall empirical results indicate that the full insurance hypothesis is strongly rejected, they suggest that idiosyncratic shocks are insured at least partially. With respect to the effect of the earthquake shock, the residents in the earthquake area indeed bore more shocks than those in other regions. The paper also points out that the extent of risk-sharing among households in Japan is fairly similar to that in the US.

Thermal processes of miniature thermomagnetic generators in resonant self-actuation mode

This paper presents an investigation of the heat transfer processes in miniature thermomagnetic generators (TMGs) that are based on the recently developed concept of resonant self-actuation of a cantilever enabling efficient conversion of thermal into electrical energy. A lumped element model (LEM) is introduced to describe the dynamics of heat intake during mechanical contact between a thermomagnetic (TM) film and heat source, and of heat dissipation. The key parameters governing heat intake and dissipation are the heat transfer coefficient at contact and the thermal resistance R(b) of the bonding layer between TM film and cantilever, respectively. The effects of these parameters on the performance metrics are investigated for different heat source temperatures above the Curie temperature of the TM film. LEM simulations reveal critical values of κ and R(b), above which stable performance of energy generation occurs characterized by large stroke and frequency resulting in large power

Lumped Element Model for Thermomagnetic Generators Based on Magnetic SMA Films

This paper presents a lumped element model (LEM) to describe the coupled dynamic properties of thermomagnetic generators (TMGs) based on magnetic shape memory alloy (MSMA) films. The TMG generators make use of the concept of resonant self-actuation of a freely movable cantilever, caused by a large abrupt temperature-dependent change of magnetization and rapid heat transfer inherent to the MSMA films. The LEM is validated for the case of a Ni-Mn-Ga film with Curie temperature TC of 375 K. For a heat source temperature of 443 K, the maximum power generated is 3.1 µW corresponding to a power density with respect to the active material’s volume of 80 mW/cm3. Corresponding LEM simulations allow for a detailed study of the time-resolved temperature change of the MSMA film, the change of magnetic field at the position of the film and of the corresponding film magnetization. Resonant self-actuation is observed at 114 Hz, while rapid temperature changes of about 10 K occur within 1 ms during mechanical contact between heat source and Ni-Mn-Ga film. The LEM is used to estimate the effect of decreasing TC on the lower limit of heat source temperature in order to predict possible routes towards waste heat recovery near room temperature

High Speed Turn-on Gate Driving for 4.5kV IEGT without Increase in PiN Diode Recovery Current

4.5 kV IEGT turn-on loss reduction is experimentally and numerically achieved by employing the proposed simple two step gate drive method without affecting PiN diode reverse recovery performance. It was found that 14% of turn-on loss is reduced only by the simple method. This study determines, for the first time, the optimum gate driving in the two step gate drive which can reduce IEGT turn-on loss maximally without affecting PiN diode reverse recovery performance by TCAD simulation. The method is simple yet effective for reducing switching loss of high voltage IEGT.2013 25th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC\u27s (ISPSD), May 26-30, 2013, Ishikawa Ongakudo, Kanazawa. Japan

High Speed Turn-on Gate Driving for 4.5kV IEGT without Increase in PiN Diode Recovery Current

2013 25th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC's (ISPSD), May 26-30, 2013, Ishikawa Ongakudo, Kanazawa. Japan.4.5 kV IEGT turn-on loss reduction is experimentally and numerically achieved by employing the proposed simple two step gate drive method without affecting PiN diode reverse recovery performance. It was found that 14% of turn-on loss is reduced only by the simple method. This study determines, for the first time, the optimum gate driving in the two step gate drive which can reduce IEGT turn-on loss maximally without affecting PiN diode reverse recovery performance by TCAD simulation. The method is simple yet effective for reducing switching loss of high voltage IEGT