Rethinking the Growth Strategy: Competition is the Way toward Strengthening Agriculture

Japan’s dairy industry is under heavy governmental regulation. This has serious consequences; for instance, controls on the imports of butter leads to periodic butter shortages. The collection of raw milk from farmers is monopolized by agricultural cooperatives in the region, which blend the raw milk from many farmers and sell it to dairy processing firms. Therefore, there is no opportunity for farmers to save money, increase quality and reap the benefits of a higher quality product. Regarding pork, Japan’s tariffs are highly irregular. Japan imposes a specific tariff of ¥482 per kilogram on inexpensive pork parts imported at a CIF price less than ¥64.53 per kg. For imported pork at the CIF import price, which is between ¥64.53 and ¥524 per kg, Japan uses a “gate price system” in which the tariff equals the difference between the benchmark price of ¥546.53 and the CIF import price. Imported pork products that are more expensive than the ¥524 per kg (expensive pork parts) are subject to a conventional ad valorem tariff of 4.3%. This system maintains a domestic price of at least ¥524/kg regardless of quality. It also produces a huge incentive to lie about the true import price. Another incentive is to mix expensive and cheap pork parts to reduce the average import price to ¥524 per kg in order to minimize tariffs to be paid. This system discourages Japanese farmers from producing high quality pork, since expensive imports may be sold cheaper as part of the mixed pork shipment. Agricultural reform should be fundamental, not cosmetic, since the whole system needs to be overhauled. The realization of “Strengthening Agriculture” through Abenomics depends on the success or failure of these reforms

WTC rat has unique characteristics such as resistant to streptozotocin

AbstractBecause we found that WTC rats might be resistant to streptozotocin (STZ), we have elucidated the mechanisms of resistant to the diabetogenic effects of STZ in the WTC rats. Dose response to STZ was evaluated with glucose levels. No significant changes in glucose level to STZ administration were observed in WTC rats. Insulin secretion by suppling glucose was preserved in WTC rats even after STZ administration. Although there was no significant difference in gene expression of both GLUT2 and Kir6.2, which were involved in STZ resistance, between WTC rats and Wistar rats, the expression of metallothionein 2a in pancreas and liver to STZ administration of WTC rats was significantly higher than that of Wistar rats. Moreover, alloxan did not induce diabetes in WTC rats as same as STZ. These results suggest that WTC rats might have powerful antioxidant property to protect β cells in pancreas. Because the STZ-resistant property is very close characteristics to human beings, WTC rats will become a useful animal model in diabetic researches

Is the Japanese Distribution System Really Inefficient?

This paper investigates the efficiency of the Japanese distribution system, measured by the distribution margin. Most of the discussions on the Japanese distribution system have so far relied on institutional descriptions and anecdotal evidence, failing to substantiate the case. The present paper will show that the Japanese and U.S. distribution sectors are about the same in terms of value added and distribution margins. Therefore, it is not true that the distribution sector adds up unnecessary distribution costs or earns monopolistic operating profits. This paper will not address a question whether the distribution system is acting as a non-tariff barrier. Thus, even if the distribution sector in Japan is judged to be "efficient," it leaves open a possibility that the distribution system works as a barrier to potential new entrants from both home and foreign manufacturers.

IMPACT OF CORONARY ATHEROSCLEROSIS IN JAPANESE WOMEN WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

How do our brains transform the "blooming buzzing confusion" of daily experience into a coherent sense of self that can learn and selectively attend to important information? How do local signals at multiple processing stages, none of which has a global view of brain dynamics or behavioral outcomes, trigger learning at multiple synaptic sites when appropriate, and prevent learning when inappropriate, to achieve useful behavioral goals in a continually changing world? How does the brain allow synaptic plasticity at a remarkably rapid rate, as anyone who has gone to an exciting movie is readily aware, yet also protect useful memories from catastrophic forgetting? A neural model provides a unified answer by explaining and quantitatively simulating data about single cell biophysics and neurophysiology, laminar neuroanatomy, aggregate cell recordings (current-source densities, local field potentials), large-scale oscillations (beta, gamma), and spike-timing dependent plasticity, and functionally linking them all to cognitive information processing requirements.Air Force Office of Scientific Research (F49620-01-1-0397); National Science Foundation (SBE-0354378); Office of Naval Research (N00014-01-1-0624

幹細胞の系譜から見たショウジョウバエの脳構造と神経ネットワークの体系的解析

学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学

Admissible Sectional Dimensions of R/C Floor Elements to be Designed without Deflection Check Part 2: Floor Slabs

We review the adequacy of the slab thickness equation in the r/c design code by the Architectural Institute of Japan, in comparison with the related data obtained by our recently renovated method which employs the known effective stiffness and an experimentally estimated time-dependent reduced elastic modules and whose practical accuracy to tolerable degrees has been observed in our earlier reports. Using this method we try series of deflection estimate for slab models of graduated dimensions in a practically chosen wide range, for the purpose of examining the subject matter of defined possibility for rational slab sections to be designed without deflection check