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Back to campus : teachers returning with digital experience
Get PDFThis paper examines the effect of teachers who returned to face-to-face classes after experiencing fully online lessons for a full year in 2020. The research was conducted in the English department of a college in Tokyo which had not kept up with digitalization and previously utilised no ICT equipment in the classroom prior to the pandemic. The increasing use of technology in Japanese higher education before and during the pandemic is well established, but this case study presents an interesting comparison as a sudden shift. The research results revealed that for more than half of the classes, teachers continue to view face-to-face classes on campus as easier to manage in terms of student interaction. Moreover, the majority of teachers returned to the classroom with classes as ICT device users and online resources while they did not consider or require students to be ICT users. The implications for digitalization in a college without a special ICT team is also discussed
Sociocultural Responses to COVID-19 and the Theory of Hegemonic Stability
Get PDFThis study examines the international political impact of COVID-19 and looks into the relationship between hegemonic stability theory and pandemics. Focusing on the sociocultural response to COVID-19, a factor decomposition was carried out on the coronavirus disease 2019-20 infection rates and mortality rates in 44 countries. An international comparison excluding vaccination periods reveals sociocultural tendencies in infection rate and mortality mapping that can be called regimes in health care policy. Several Latin American and Middle Eastern middle-income countries record similarly high rates of mortality. In contrast, Western countries tend to show low mortality but high infection rates. With the notable examples of the United States and Belgium, most Western countries are mapped in this cluster. Several Asian countries are mapped in the cluster of low infection and low mortality rates. While the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) is considered an international public good, regulating people’s behavior is difficult and suppling vaccines in developing countries is likely to encounter difficulties. Vaccination is a supply of public goods, but the supply needs to be carried out by private companies for the construction of a vaccination supply chain. Though they are supporting WHO and encouraging vaccinations, the hegemonic powers are still likely to experience economic stagnation as an outcome of the pandemic
“The Indeterminate Nature of the Circulation Process” and Marxian Market Theory
Get PDFThis paper discusses the structure of Marxian market theory in the context of Japanese political economy. Focusing on what is called “the indeterminate nature of the circulation process (INCP),” it argues that a tripartite analysis offers a more comprehensive insight into this core tenet of Marxian economics. The main findings are as follows:1. “the INCP” is originally a by-product of characterizing the production process as technically determined;2. “the INCP” explains why the credit system is necessary for the capitalist market;3. “the INCP” is fundamentally caused by the existence of commodity value coupled with an essentially stochastic character in the sales process. This can be identified by drawing upon F. Knight’s concept of “risk” rather than“ uncertainty.”The concept of value in this sense needs not be equivalent to labour time objectified in the commodities, since the labour theory of value itself does not explain why the circulation process must be considered as stochastic. Hence Marxian political economy would be better served by adopting a tripartite structure that incorporates value, labour, and price instead of the traditional dual-layered approach that focuses upon labour-value and price
Co-operation and the Capitalistic Development of Productive Power
Get PDFIt is well known that Marx emphasized the importance of co-operation in capitalistic production. However, Marx’s understanding of co-operation has a seriously weak point. According to Marx’s understanding, co-operation should be defined as the form of labor in which numerous workers work together side by side in the same workplace. This is a typically one-sided view on the essence of co-operation. A more important condition for co-operation is that numerous workers work cooperatively in accordance with the same plan. From this point of view, it is clear that the capitalistic development of productive power is based upon two different systems of co-operation, in other words, the factory system and the putting-out system. The latter system is embodied in a heterogeneous manufacture instead of an organic one
The Medical Supply and Demand System under Japanese Capitalism : Focusing on the Medical Insurance System
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to reexamine the medical supply and demand system under Japanese capitalism since the Meiji era, focusing on the medical insurance system, and the problems facing Japan’s medical supply and demand system under the current globalization and neoliberal policies, with a view to classifying the points and issues involved. Specifically, I will focus on the characteristics of medical care under the capitalist system and consider that medical practices are commercialized, produced and consumed as medical services in the capitalist economy. In view of the fact that medical care in Japan is basically realized as insurance medical care, I first give an overview of the process of establishing the medical insurance system in Japan, which is the main point of insurance medical care. The current status of the medical insurance system and medical fee system is also examined. Furthermore, I will consider the current situation surrounding the universal health insurance system, the sustainability of which is being questioned