One language or two? : Real and perceived identification and differentiation of language

A separate language unique to an ethnonational group has significant role to play in an ethnonational movement and/or conflict. The language can be a symbol of the separate identity of the group. The language can be an important issue of the movement or conflict when it is excluded from the status of an official language. If there is a certain objective criterion by which the separateness of a language can be determined, then the task of those interested in the function of language in ethnonational conflicts will be to explore how the language is used for political purpose. There is, however, no such handy criterion. The identification and differentiation of languages are often made on non-linguistic, political grounds. The present paper attempts, as a first step, to clarify the ways or patterns of identification and differentiation of languages. It provides a basis for better understanding of how a “separate" language is produced and is exploited for political purposes, especially for ethnonational purposes

Some reflections on the assumptions of the mainstream international relations theory

The present paper first examines Stephen D. Krasner's analysis of state sovereignty and some criticisms raised against it. The examination shows that the issue of change versus continuity lies at the bottom of the opposition between Krasner and his critics. The opposition can be generalized into that between the mainstream international relations theorists and its critics, especially constructivism, because the former assumes that the international system is unchanged. The opposition boils down to the difference in the time span. The mainstream theory also assumes that state, the unit of the international system is unitary, thus excluding important actors and factors of domestic politics from international relations. This assumption is again severely criticized. Helen V. Milner proposes an extension of the mainstream theory to include domestic politics, on the basis of the criticism of the limit of the theory. This paper examines her proposal as an example of the criticism. It shows that the necessity of the inclusion or exclusion of domestic actors or domestic politics depends upon the particular research objective which a researcher pursues, and that the debates about the inclusion of domestic politics are reduced to the difference in the level of abstraction or aggregation which a theory aims at. Thus the differences between the mainstream theorists and their critics amount to those in the time frame and the scope of variables. In other words, the difference in the level of abstraction or aggregation lies at the root of their differences. To be sure, this paper ends up with a cliche, which tells us only that the appropriate level of abstraction or aggregation depends crucially on a particular theme or research agenda. But, it does tell us that, in an international relations theory, we must yet to decide which level of abstraction is suitable for what research purpose. A clear understanding of this will be much more fruitful than the mere exchange of criticisms and counter-criticisms

Whither Peace Studies? Fragmentation to a New Integration? 【Review】

In spite of the surface appearance of flourishing, peace studies now faces a crisis of dilution and frag-mentation though concerned voices have long warned against it. The root of the crisis is traced back tothe years around 1970, when Johan Galtung proposed the theory of structural violence. At that time,there were heated debates about whether to broaden the research agenda to include poverty and underde-velopment or not. It is shown that, though it was a great contribution to peace studies, the theory ofstructural violence also brought about the excessive expansion of the research agenda of the discipline,because, according to the theory, every important social problem could be a legitimate research subjectof peace studies. More than two decades after the debates, however, there have appeared several symp-toms which show the reorientation of the discipline toward the original narrower focus on war and con-flict. Since a simple return to the past is impossible, it is suggested that, by focusing on the issues of warand conflict, peace studies should try to eliminate one of the major obstacles to the final goal of peace inthe broadest sense of the word. To complicate the matter, however, there have recently been debatesbetween the narrower and wider agendas in security studies. The wider agenda in security studies tendsto broaden peace studies as well because an issue or problem like environmental degradation is claimedto be a peace studies issue on the ground that it is a security issue. Thus, peace studies will have to tack-le with the same problem for some time to come

A directory of electronic images of hand-written manuscripts of Sankichi Toge <Research Note>

Most of the known historical material of Sankichi Toge, the atomic bomb poet, is in the custody either of the Central Municipal Library of Hiroshima city or of Mr. Takashi Toge. When one tries to examine the material personally, however, the access to it is difficult, if not impossible. Electronic images of the material are one of the ways to make this access much easier. Fortunately, all the above material has already been microfilmed, and, for this purpose, we have converted most of the films into electronic images. In addition, we have also created electronic images of the material not microfilmed so far. At the same time, we have compiled and published a comprehensive directory of the Toge material. The present paper is a report of our attempt at linking the two data in the form of an electronic mage directory. At present, the electronic image directory contains only Toge's hand-written manuscripts of literary works and essays. This paper describes how the directory is prepared, which difficulties and problems are met, and sometimes solved, in the process of preparation, what are its nature and structure, and how the directory can be used. It also provides some examples of images in the directory as illustration. Though the directory described here is not a finished one, it is hoped that it can make the access to the original material much easier, and thus contribute to further understanding of Toge's works

Political outcomes of the slips of the tongue of Japanese ministers

Slips of the tongue' of Japanese cabinet ministers have attracted the attention of scholars. But, focusing mainly on the backgrounds of these slips, the scholars have not paid sufficient attention to the outcomes. The present paper is an attempt at empirical identification of the political outcomes of such slips of the tongue. We distinguishs two levels of outcomes: the personal level and the government or party level. At the personal level, acknowledgment of individual responsibility is the most important of the outcomes. The ministers in question have to bear responsibility for their verbal missteps in one of three ways: resignation, apology or explanation. If they have to resign from the ministerial posts, they will never be appointed again to the post of a minister. Nevertheless, most of them will be successful in holding their seats in the Diet even after the slips of the tongue. At the government or party level, there are three major outcomes, two or all of which frequently occur simultaneously. First, slips of the tongue may cause a split in the diplomatic relations of Japan with other countries. Secondly, they may threaten the stability of a coalition government. Thirdly, they may be used as a means of attack against the government or government party by the opposition parties. It seems that the main objective of such an attack against the government or ruling party is to achieve support expansion and vote acquisition for the opposition(s). But, the examination of the results of national elections does not give us any definitive conclusion about whether these objectives are attained or not

Language and self-name in Northeastern Thailand

The present paper is an attempt to empirically clarify certain aspects of the relationship between language and national or ethnic identity. We use the results of the sociolinguistic survey conducted in Northern Thailand in 2001. Two categories of variables are used: language variables represented by language ability and home language, and identity variables represented by self-name. The results of qualitative correlation/regression analyses in terms of phi coefficients and logistic regression show that; (1) language and self-name of a relative minority positively correlate with each other, as many previous studies argued, (2) a relative majority language, especially its use at home, negatively correlates mutually with the self-name of a relative minority. (3) the self-name of a relative majority is independent of, that is, neither positively nor negatively correlates with, the relative minority language

Language of Politics or Politics of Language? Toward an Integrated Perspective

The present paper is an attempt at the clarification of the relationship between language and politics. Previous studies involving both language and politics can be apparently divided into two major research fields: “language of politics" and “politics of language." However, a close examination of the differences between them will show that, in addition to the important and useful differences, these two fields have one critical underlying property in common, that is, they both involve a selection from linguistic alternatives. On the basis of the concept of the selection, we will propose an integrative model which enables us to understand the issue of “language and politics" in a unified way

セミパラチンスク核実験場近郊被曝証言の日本語版全文データベース化

The present paper is an initial report of the project for a full-text Japanese database of the testimonies of those exposed to radiation near the nuclear test site of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. 139 testimonies were gathered in four villages near Semipalatinsk in 2002. We translated them into Japanese from Russian and Kazakh, and created a full-text database by using a Japanese text retrieval program, KR. In this paper, we attempt to show how the database can be used to understand tragic realities of the effects of exposure to radiation from nuclear tests. In the attempt, we try to demonstrate that radiation exposed residents near the test site are affected physically and mentally, by citing retrieved testimonies complaining illness and bad health, environmental pollution, and mental disorder, resulting finally in suicide. We also try to clarify differences between experiences in Semipalatinsk, and those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Expression of caspase-3 and -9 relevant to cartilage destruction and chondrocyte apoptosis in human osteoarthritic cartilage.

To clarify the involvement of the caspase family in the pathway of NO-induced chondrocyte apoptosis, osteoarthritis (OA) cartilage obtained from 8 patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty were used for histopathological study. Cartilage samples taken from non-fibrillated areas of femoral head resected during surgery for femoral neck fracture were used for comparison. DNA fragmentation of chondrocytes was detected by the nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method. Apoptosis was further confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. The distributions of nitrotyrosine (NT), caspase-3, and -9 were examined immunohistochemically. The populations of apoptotic as well as NT-, caspase-3-, and -9-positive cells were quantified by counting the number of cells in the superficial, middle, and deep layers, respectively. The TUNEL-positive cells were observed primarily in superficial proliferating chondrocytes, clustering chondrocytes, and deep-layer chondrocytes of OA cartilage. Few positive cells were seen in the proliferating chondrocytes in the middle layer. Positive reactions for caspase-3 and -9 were observed in chondrocytes in similar areas. Histological OA grade showed significant correlations with the mean populations of apoptotic chondrocytes (% apoptosis) over the 3 areas. The populations of NT-positive cells (% NT) over the same areas also showed significant correlation with OA grade. Positivity for caspase-3 closely correlated with the OA grade, % apoptosis and %NT. It was concluded that caspase-3 and -9 could play a role in NO-induced chondrocyte apoptosis in OA cartilage.</p