Japan: Shadow WTO Agricultural Domestic Support Notifications

"The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of Japan's agricultural domestic policy since 1995 in the context of the current international negotiations in the WTO Doha Round, which has as one aim further reductions of trade-distorting support among member countries. An overwhelming majority of farmers in Japan own small plots of rice paddy fields and earn their living mainly on their off-farm income. They go out into rice paddy fields in their spare time as a subsidiary business. Traditional small farming communities are powerful voting groups that seek to maintain their political power. By exerting political pressures on the authorities, farmers can obtain large returns through the manipulation of farmland use regulations, even though such manipulation causes social harm by preventing efficient land use. These inefficiencies in land use are a major reason why Japan is the only country whose food self-sufficiency rate keeps declining in spite of its heavy agricultural protection. In this sense, Japan is in sharp contrast to European and North American countries, where heavy agricultural domestic supports have resulted in an increased output of agricultural commodities and subsequent distortions in international markets. Apparently, Japan's attitude towards agricultural domestic policy reform is one of compliance with the WTO, which requests member countries to reduce their Aggregate Measure of Support (AMS) through trimming trade-distorting (amber box) support and/or transforming traditional-type agricultural subsidies to decoupled-type ones. Japan reduced its amber box support by nearly 80 percent between 1995 and 2000. This drastic reduction is mainly attributable to Japan's removal of rice from the amber box in 1998. In addition, following the WTO's principle of decoupling, Japan launched an extensive agricultural subsidy reform in 2007. This paper, however, shows the ironical realities of Japanese agricultural policy. Neither a sharp reduction of amber box support nor Japan's 2007 reform necessarily mean there will be a reduction of trade-distorting effects. On the contrary, the 2007 reform may in fact stimulate domestic rice production. In 2007, Japan's AMS is as little as 18 percent of its commitment level from the Uruguay Round WTO agreements. In addition, this paper projects that Japan's overall trade-distorting support (OTDS) for 2013 will be 469 billion yen, which is much less than the limit of 1,635 billion yen that is proposed in the modalities under discussion in July 2008 for the WTO Doha Round. Thus, the WTO Doha Round negotiations on domestic support policy are unlikely to restrict Japan's domestic agricultural support policy." from authors' abstractJapan's agricultural support, WTO Doha Round, WTO compliance, Notification of domestic support, trade,

Analyzing the Relationship Between the Function of a Hero as a Social Reinforcer and the Effectiveness of aVideo Intervention Using the Hero as a Model

　本研究では，知的障害特別支援学校中学部に在籍する２名の生徒を対象として，ヒーロー（特別な興味の対象）の社会的好子としての効力とビデオヒーローモデリング（VHM）の効果との関連性について検討した。まず，担任教師への面接および質問紙調査によってそれぞれの生徒のヒーローを特定した。次に，任意の課題場面においてヒーローによる称賛を非随伴的に提示し，課題遂行率の変化を測定することでヒーローの社会的好子としての機能を確かめた。その後，日常生活場面から選定された標的行動に対してVHMを実施した。その結果，どちらの生徒についてもヒーローの社会的好子としての効力が確かめられたにもかかわらず，１名の生徒にはVHMによる行動改善が観察された一方で，もう１名の生徒の行動改善は限定的であった。ヒーローからの称賛が好子として機能するとしても，そのことが必ずしもVHMによる介入効果を予想するものではないことが示唆された

Pancreatic Perfusion CT in Early Stage of Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Early intensive care for severe acute pancreatitis is essential for improving SAP mortality rates. However, intensive therapies for SAP are often delayed because there is no ideal way to accurately evaluate severity in the early stages. Currently, perfusion CT has been shown useful to predict prognosis of SAP in the early stage. In this presented paper, we would like to review the clinical usefulness and limitations of perfusion CT for evaluation of local and systemic complications in early stage of SAP

Immobility-reducing Effects of Ketamine during the Forced Swim Test on 5-HT1A Receptor Activity in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in an Intractable Depression Model

Ketamine has been clinically proven to ameliorate depression, including treatment-resistant depression. The detailed mechanism of action of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression remains unclear. We examined the effects of ketamine on the immobility times of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-treated rats during the forced swim test, and we explored the mechanism by which ketamine acts in this model. We investigated the neuroanatomical site of action by microinjecting ketamine into the medial prefrontal cortex of rats. A significant reduction of the rats’ immobility during the forced swim test was observed after the intraperitoneal injection of ketamine in both saline- and ACTH-treated rats. The microinjection of ketamine into the medial prefrontal cortex also decreased immobility during the forced swim test in both saline- and ACTH-treated rats. The immobility-decreasing effect of intraperitoneally injected ketamine was blocked by administering WAY100635, a 5-HT1A receptor antagonist, into the medial prefrontal cortex. These findings contribute to the evidence that ketamine can be useful against treatment-resistant depressive conditions. The immobility-reducing effects of ketamine might be mediated by 5-HT1A receptor activity in the medial prefrontal cortex

Phylogenetic Origin of Cryptomeria japonica on Kinkasan Island in Japan

departmental bulletin pape

Development of Plant Environmental DNA Analysis Method for Forest Soil

departmental bulletin pape

Effects of Video-Self Modeling with Hero-Instruction: A Case Analysis of Hand-Drying Behavior of an Elementary-Aged Student with Autism Spectrum Disorder

本研究では，知的障害特別支援学校小学部に在籍する１名の自閉症スペクトラム障害児を対象として，対象児にとってのヒーローが標的行動を解説するビデオセルフモデリング（VSM）を用いた介入の効果を検討した。標的行動は「トイレで手を洗った後に自発的にポケットからハンカチを出し，手を拭く行動」であり，対象児はトイレに行く直前にビデオを視聴した。その結果，ビデオ単体での効果は現れず，ハンカチの所在を可視化する透明なウエストポーチや視覚的リマインダーを併用することによって行動が若干改善された。ヒーローを活用したVSMの効果に関与する要因として，言語能力，ヒーローと自身の同一行動に対する内在的な強化力の有無を取り上げ，考察を試みた