Japan\u27s Response to the Trade Conflict Between the United States and China

Abstract: Decoupling refers to the strategy of separating and disconnecting economies and markets between different nations. However, in the contest of the ongoing trade conflict between the United States and China, decoupling primarily refers to determining economic dependence on a specific nation as a national security risk, thereby reinforcing vulnerabilities in one’s supply chain. Japan views the United States as its primary partner in national security policy and China as a significant market because of its geographic proximity. As a result, ensuring economic security became a pressing concern for Japan. Japan refers to the United States’ idea of economic statecraft to shape its economic security policy. Since 2007, Japan strengthened foreign direct investment regulations by making amendments to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act. Some interpret these changes as an endorsement of the United States’ efforts to prevent technology leakage. One example of this technological policy is the Economic Security Promotion Act of 2022, which was enacted to ensure the stability of economic activity by establishing essential procedures and regulations. As no nation can independently complete the supply chain, it is necessary for Japan to foster collaboration among allies and to have the engagement of the United States. Whether or not the United States approves the acquisition of United States Steel Corporation by Nippon Steel may influence the future relationship between the two nations

Les maisons urbaines du Ier millénaire en Babylone d'après la documentation textuelle.

International audienceLes documents de l’époque néo-babylonienne, principalement les textes juridiques et économiques issus d ’archives privées, fournissent de nombreuses informations sur les maisons urbaines. H. D. Baker a publié plusieurs articles sur les questions de la dimension et de la structure des maisons urbaines, ainsi que du terrain non bâti dans les villes1. Nous nous concentrerons donc sur ce qu’ils révèlent, en nous restreignant aux questions des matériaux, de la construction, de l’organisation intérieure, des termes spécifiques qui désignent l’espace à l’intérieur de la maison, de l’environnement et de l’orientation

Japan’s incremental grand strategic shift in the 21st century : the cases of article 9 and ballistic missile defence through a neoclassical realist approach

This PhD thesis examines the development of Japan’s security policy between 2004 and 2018 using two cases relating to (1) the constitution and collective self-defence (CSD) and (2) Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD). This research aims to identify under what conditions Japan accelerates/decelerates its balancing behaviour and attempts to test a theory of neoclassical realism (NCR). The discrepancy between theoretical predictions and Japan’s actual behaviour is largely attributable to the dynamics of unit-level variables that are not yet captured theoretically in the constantly changing strategic environment. These unit-level variables include leaders, the constitution, bureaucrats, the public and socio-economic groups. This research also aims to pit these variables against each other to identify the relative weight of each with regard to respective explanatory powers. The current literature on realism and constructivism often fails to examine the issues regarding ‘to what extent Japan will remilitarise’, ‘what has accelerated/decelerated this process’ and ‘the relationship between external and internal political influence’. The two cases presented in this thesis help highlight two policy-making processes: legal security capacity and military capability. The often unparalleled development of these two security policy areas enables us to examine Japan’s shift in grand strategic adjustment. This thesis concludes that although Japan has not behaved as realists predicted, since the 2000s its behaviour has increasingly shifted from a defensive realist grand strategy to an offensive realist one. Japan has not just ‘remilitarised’ in an incremental, linear manner; its ‘velocity’ of upward trend has fluctuated constantly depending on the unit-level variables within the framework of NCR. In the early 2000s, Japan adopted a defensive realist type of behaviour that focused primarily on enhancing its defence capabilities. Due to an aggravating strategic environment with ambitious leaders and domestic political stability since the 2010s, Japan has sought to project its larger influence through an attempted constitutional revision for full degree CSD and the potential possession of offensive capabilities in BMD. This thesis employs NCR and pre-defined intervening variables to examine under what conditions, why and when Japan shifts its grand strategy, and what factors trigger the shift to provide a more nuanced yet accurate interpretation of Japan’s behaviour

In-situ measurement of the ozone concentration in the Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002(AAMP02)

From 5 to 14 March, 2002, the Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002(AAMP02) was conducted on a round-trip flight between Nagoya, Japan, and Longyearbyen, Svalbard, via Anchorage and Barrow, U.S.A. and the North Pole using a chartered twin-jet aircraft, the Gulfstream-II(G-II). On board the G-II, in-situ measurements of the ozone concentration were carried out every 12s in order to obtain information on air mass differences and advection. Vertical profiles of the ozone concentration observed over Longyearbyen agreed well with those observed by ozone sonde launched around the same time from Ny-Ålesund, about 100km north of Longyearbyen. The ozone variations observed in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere showed negative correlation with the CO_2 concentration, suggesting vertical displacements of air masses. However, it was also observed that the ozone concentration fluctuated considerably with little consistency with the meteorological field

Removal of NOx and NOy in Asian outflow plumes: Aircraft measurements over the western Pacific in Januray 2002

The Pacific Exploration of Asian Continental Emission Phase A (PEACE-A) aircraft measurement campaign was conducted over the western Pacific in January 2002. Correlations of carbon monoxide (CO) with carbon dioxide (CO2) and back trajectories are used to identify plumes strongly affected by Asian continental emissions. ΔCO/ΔCO2 ratios (i.e., linear regression slopes of CO-CO2) in the plumes generally fall within the variability range of the CO/CO2 emission ratios estimated from an emission inventory for east Asia, demonstrating the consistency between the aircraft measurements and the emission characterization. Removal rates of reactive nitrogen (NOx and NOy) for the study region (altitude <4 km, 124°-140°E, 25°-45°N) are estimated using the correlation with CO2, the photochemical age of the plumes, and the NOx/ CO2 emission ratio derived from the emission inventory. The plume age is estimated from the rates of hydrocarbon decay and hydroxyl radical (OH) concentration calculated using a constrained photochemical box model. The average lifetime of NOx is estimated to be 1.2 ± 0.4 days. Possible processes controlling the NOx lifetime are discussed in conjunction with results from earlier studies. The average lifetime of NOy is estimated to be 1.7 ± 0.5 days, which is comparable to the NOy lifetime of 1.7-1.8 days that has been previously reported for outflow from the United States. This similarity suggests the importance of chemical processing near the source regions in determining the NOy abundance. Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union

Prevalence of Viral Frequency-Dependent Infection in Coastal Marine Prokaryotes Revealed Using Monthly Time Series Virome Analysis

海洋微生物も”密”ならウイルスに感染する --頻度依存的なウイルス感染を大阪湾で実証--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-02-24.Viruses infecting marine prokaryotes have a large impact on the diversity and dynamics of their hosts. Model systems suggest that viral infection is frequency dependent and constrained by the virus-host encounter rate. However, it is unclear whether frequency-dependent infection is pervasive among the abundant prokaryotic populations with different temporal dynamics. To address this question, we performed a comparison of prokaryotic and viral communities using 16S rRNA amplicon and virome sequencing based on samples collected monthly for 2 years at a Japanese coastal site, Osaka Bay. Concurrent seasonal shifts observed in prokaryotic and viral community dynamics indicated that the abundance of viruses correlated with that of their predicted host phyla (or classes). Cooccurrence network analysis between abundant prokaryotes and viruses revealed 6, 423 cooccurring pairs, suggesting a tight coupling of host and viral abundances and their “one-to-many” correspondence. Although stable dominant species, such as SAR11, showed few cooccurring viruses, a fast succession of their viruses suggests that viruses infecting these populations changed continuously. Our results suggest that frequency-dependent viral infection prevails in coastal marine prokaryotes regardless of host taxa and temporal dynamics

Locality and diel cycling of viral production revealed by a 24 h time course cross-omics analysis in a coastal region of Japan

International audienceViruses infecting microorganisms are ubiquitous and abundant in the ocean. However, it is unclear when and where the numerous viral particles we observe in the sea are produced and whether they are active. To address these questions, we performed time-series analyses of viral metagenomes and microbial metatranscriptomes collected over a period of 24 h at a Japanese coastal site. Through mapping the metatranscriptomic reads on three sets of viral genomes ((i) 878 contigs of Osaka Bay viromes (OBV), (ii) 1766 environmental viral genomes from marine viromes, and (iii) 2429 reference viral genomes), we revealed that all the local OBV contigs were transcribed in the host fraction. This indicates that the majority of viral populations detected in viromes are active, and suggests that virions are rapidly diluted as a result of diffusion, currents, and mixing. Our data further revealed a peak of cyanophage gene expression in the afternoon/dusk followed by an increase of genomes from their virions at night and less-coherent infectious patterns for viruses putatively infecting various groups of heterotrophs. This suggests that cyanophages drive the diel release of cyanobacteria-derived organic matter into the environment and viruses of heterotrophic bacteria might have adapted to the population-specific life cycles of hosts

Workaholism, work engagement and child well-being: A test of the spillover-crossover model

This study examines how working parents’ work attitudes (i.e., workaholism and work engagement) are associated with their child’s psychological well-being. Based on the Spillover-Crossover model (SCM), we hypothesize that (a) work-to-family spillover (i.e., work-to-family conflict and facilitation) and (b) employee happiness will sequentially mediate the relationship between parents’ work attitudes and their child’s emotional and behavioral problems. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Japanese dual-earner couples with pre-school child(ren). On the basis of valid data from 208 families, the hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. For both fathers and mothers simultaneously, workaholism was positively related to work-to-family conflict, which, in turn, was negatively related to happiness. In contrast, work engagement was positively related to work-to-family facilitation, which, in turn, was positively related to happiness. Fathers’ and mothers’ happiness, in turn, were negatively related to their child’s emotional and behavioral problems. Results suggest that parents’ workaholism and work engagement are related to their child’s emotional and behavioral problems in opposite ways, whereby parents’ spillover and happiness mediate this relationship. These findin

Preliminary report of "Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002" (AAMP02)

The Arctic Airborne Measurement Program 2002(AAMP 02) campaign was carried out in March 2002 as one of the sub programs of the project Variations of atmospheric constituents and their climate impact in the Arctic". The main goal of the project was to investigate the transport, transformation and radiative effect of trace gases and aerosols, and their role in the global climate. An instrumented jet plane, Gulfstream II(G-II), was flown from Nagoya, Japan via Barrow, Alaska to Longyearbyen(78°N , 15°E ), Svalbard, crossing the Arctic Ocean in the lower stratospher. Three local flights were made over the Greenland Sea around Svalbard and two profile flights near Barrow. The plane was equipped with CO_2 and ozone analyzers, gas and aerosol sampling systems, aerosol particle counter, nephelometer, absorption photometer, PMS particle probes, sunphotometer, dew point hygrometer and dropsonde system. During the campaign, intensitive surface operations were also conducted at Ny-Ålesund(79°N , 12°E ), Svalbard. Vertical profiles of several trace gases gave information about transport, a new observation by sunphotometer derived an aerosol optical depth in the stratosphere, and another new observation by dropsonde gave information on the polar vortex