“Last weekend [April 2007] the Japanese Ministry of Education instructed publishers of school textbooks to alter descriptions of the mass suicide of Okinawa civilians during the battle. The order included eliminating all references to the Japanese military’s direct role in the tragedies, erasing accounts in earlier texts that claimed the Read more…
“A Japanese monk is suing his temple, claiming he was forced to work non-stop catering to visiting tourists and that the heavy workload gave him depression, his lawyer said on Thursday. The monk in his forties is seeking 8.6 million yen ($78,000) from his temple on Mount Koya, a World Read more…
“Rote memorization has displaced critical thinking and driven young Japanese students away from the study of history, argues the author, who blames the universities’ own fact-driven entrance examinations for the crisis facing the humanities and social sciences in higher education.” https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a05103/exam-hell-and-the-crisis-in-history-education.html This RLE looks at different ways of studying history Read more…
“Frequent viewing of selfies through social network sites like Facebook is linked to a decrease in self-esteem and life satisfaction, according to Penn State researchers in mass communications.” links found between selfie viewing and decreased self-esteem” People who grew up with selfies / smartphones may be more likely to view Read more…
“The Shibuya ward in Tokyo has become the first place in Japan to recognise same-sex partnerships.It passed an ordinance allowing officials to issue certificates to same-sex couples this summer. The documents are not legally binding but the ward is calling on businesses to recognise the certificates and accord equal treatment. Read more…
“Her name is Lam Thi Dep (Dep means beautiful in Vietnamese), the picture was taken in 1972 at Soc Trang Province by Vietnamese journalist Minh Truong. “You could find women like her almost everywhere during the war”, said the photographer. “She was only 24 years old but had been widowed Read more…
“Conventional medical wisdom has long held that placebo effects depend on patients’ belief they are getting pharmacologically active medication. A paper published in the journal Pain is the first to demonstrate that patients who knowingly took a placebo in conjunction with traditional treatment for lower back pain saw more improvement than those Read more…
Fritz Fischer was a German historian who focused on WWI. He argued that Germany was completely responsible for WWI. Fischer’s arguments were in almost complete contrast to those of earlier German historians who placed a significant amount of blame on the other major powers involved in the war. There was Read more…
Marketers / advertisers / psychologist have found ways to manipulate consumer behavior. Given the superficial way that knowledge is used in the ad above, it would be difficult to categorize the knowledge gained as “significant.” However, looking at the ad through the lens of gender might lead to some “significant Read more…
“A couple from Kingston adopted the twin girls from Vietnam when they were 18 months old. Both have Alagille syndrome, a disorder that affects internal organs. The girls’ father, Michael, was a genetic match — but he could only donate part of his liver to one of his then-three-year-old daughters. Doctors decided which of the twins would receive Read more…