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Japan, America, and Identity: A Culinary Triangle
Get PDFJapanese cuisine has gained more attention and popularity than ever before. But one has to ask, What images come to mind when the suggestion to eat Japanese is made? Japanese food is representative of a traditional but hyper-modern culture containing a great deal of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1978, 1991). This paper discusses qualitative findings related to the construction of identity through language use in Japanese restaurants. Questions the paper addresses are: (1) How is English used to make global Japanese food local?; (2) What Japanese text is used to allow Japanese cuisine to remain a distinct, ethnic eating experience?; (3) How does a Japanese restaurant fit into social relations between Japanese/Japanese, Japanese/non-Japanese, and non-Japanese/non-Japanese. The paper discusses findings from two different locations: the Lower East Side (Little Tokyo) of New York City and the Azabudistrict of Tokyo.departmental bulletin pape
Structural Changes and Regional Income Inequality in Indonesia: A Bi-dimensional Decomposition Analysis
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the changes in determinants of inter-provincial income inequality in Indonesia from 1983 to 2004 associated with structural changes using the bi-dimensional decomposition method of a population-weighted coefficient of variation. The method unifies two inequality decompositions by regional groups and GRP components (industrial sectors) and thus enables us to assess the contributions of GRP components to within-region and between-region inequalities, as well as to overall inequality. As the share of mining has decreased, the spatial distribution of manufacturing has played a more important role in the inequality of Sumatra and Kalimantan, while the primacy of Jakarta, with strong urbanization economies, facilitated by globalization and trade and financial liberalization, has determined much of Java-Bali's inequality and, therefore, overall inequality in Indonesia.departmental bulletin pape
The Reform of the Public Health Insurance and Economic Growth of Japan
Get PDFThis paper evaluates one of the most drastic reforms of the Japanese public health insurance started in year 2006, by numerically examining the reform in an aging Japan in a dynamic context with overlapping generations within a computable general equilibrium framework. Our simulation results are as follows. First of all, an increase in the co-payment rate, which is one of the most prominent changes in the reform, would result in higher economic growth as well as higher welfare since it stimulates private savings. Secondly, an increasing trend of the future national medical expenditure can mainly be explained by an aging population, and an increase in the co-payment rate has little effect to squeeze the national medical expenditure in the future. Thirdly, the effect of a decrease in the national medical expenditure, which can possibly be induced by the improvement in efficiency in the public provision of medical services, the promotion of preventative medical services, or technological progress in the medical field, on the future burdens of medical expenditures is very small. Finally, if the government implements a policy to keep the ratio of the national medical expenditure to GDP constant, then the government has to keep reducing the national medical expenditure over time, and the reduction rate should be 45 percent in year 2050. Such a policy also eventuates in lower economic growth until around year 2035. Our simulation results thus indicate that the reform is not so effective to reduce the future national medical expenditure, but it can achieve higher economic growth by stimulating private savings.departmental bulletin pape
Spousal Tax Deduction, Social Security System and the Labor Supply of Japanese Married Women
Get PDFJapanese spousal tax deduction and social security system cause a piecewise linear and discontinuous budget constraint for a married woman. Using a sample from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers, we estimate a labor supply model that simultaneously controls for wage endogeneity, sample selection into labor force as well as the possibly endogenous selection between different segments of the non-linear budget constraint. The effects of tax and social security system on the labor supply behavior of married women are more complex than the previous literature has pointed out. In particular, there are notable differences in the labor supply behavior of women who choose different segments of the budget constraint. The wage elasticity of women in the budget segment I (annual income less than the "1.03 million yen ceiling") is twice more negative (-1.28) than women in the budget segment III (annual income greater than the "1.41 million yen ceiling") (-0.60). The wage elasticity smaller than -1 for the budget segment I suggests that these women may be adjusting their hours of work so as to contain their income within the 1.03 million yen ceiling. Education has a positive effect on the hours of work for the budget segment III, but has no effect for the segment I. Unlike the budget segment III, the positive effect of education on wage is non-existent for the women in the budget segment I, indicating an under-utilization of the human capital of women who have chosen to be dependent on the husbands' income on the tax and social security purposes.departmental bulletin pape
Asian Managers' Ways of Learning : A Comparative Study of Japan, China, and Malaysia
Get PDFThis study attempted to explore how Asian managers learn differently in accordance with their cultures. For this purpose, a total of 600 managers from Japan, China, and Malaysia were selected, who work for AEON Co. Ltd., a leading Japanese retail firm strategically expanding over Asian countries. Results illustrate that their ways of learning varied with each three countries. Japanese managers showed their preferred ways of learning more towards feeling and reflecting; Chinese managers tended to use thinking and reflecting ways of learning; and Malaysian managers were inclined to thinking and acting modes of learning. Furthermore, in the learning dimension between integration and specialization, Chinese managers were the most balanced learners, Malaysian managers were comparatively placed in the middle, and Japanese managers exhibited the most specialization of their learning orientation. In addition to the investigation about cross-cultural differences in learning styles, this study also examined a change of learning styles in management positions of organizational hierarchy. Results indicate that Japanese and Malaysian managers became more active in learning situations to the extent that their management positions shifted to higher hierarchical ranks, whereas the learning ways of Chinese managers remained stable regardless of their management position.departmental bulletin pape
Scaffolding Reading Skills Using Authentic Texts: Suggestions for IUJ's Intensive English Program
Get PDFThis paper offers suggestions for improving the reading skills aspect of the Text Skills component of International University of Japan's Intensive English Program. In order to prepare students for graduate studies, proper scaffolding of authentic texts is necessary for short-term and long-term goals. Text Skills course designers should consider including key strategies for reading comprehension that students use, perhaps unconsciously in their first language (L1), but don't immediately know how to transfer into their second language (L2).departmental bulletin pape
Optimal Escapement Levels on Renewable Resource Management under Process Uncertainty : Some Implications of Convex Unit Harvest Cost
Get PDFThe terminology of renewable resource management becomes to span not only prototype harvesting problems but also various new types such as invasive species one. In all of these problems, process uncertainty of stock growth associated with environmental variability is one of the critical factors that significantly affects the management efficiency. While it may seem that a series of past researches fully examine optimal policy under process uncertainty, the case of convex unit harvest costs has not been fully characterized yet. Focusing on such a case, this paper addresses how the degree of process uncertainty affects optimal escapement level. The result suggests that optimal escapement level does not monotonically vary with process uncertainty. In many plausible cases, it should be adapted in a U-shaped manner, which is in contrast with the conventional wisdom.departmental bulletin pape
FDI in China : Facts and Impacts on China and the World Economy
Get PDFThis paper provides a comprehensive review on foreign direct investment in China in the last three decades. It reviews the growth, the sources and the distribution of FDI in China and analyzes the major determinants of FDI into China. Moreover, the paper summarizes the major contributions of FDI to Chinese economy in terms of economic growth, total factor productivity, exports and technology progress. Finally, the paper discusses the potential impacts of FDI in China to the rest of the world: the countries competing for FDI with China and the ones as the source of FDI in China.departmental bulletin pape
Intrinsic Motivation of Physicians
Get PDFBy incorporating the concept of intrinsic motivation of physicians into a theoretical framework, this paper examines the possible existence of multiple equilibria in which hospitals differ only in terms of the work attitude of physicians, who are homogenous in all other aspects, including benevolence in their concern for their patients. Our results offer a theoretical understanding of a phenomenon observed frequently in any society, namely that of the existence of hospitals with more or less similar management environment, but with significant differences in the work attitude of physicians and therefore medical treatments provided to patients.departmental bulletin pape