Education reform and education politics in Japan

Since the 1980s, a new tide of education reform movements has emerged in many countries, including the United States and Japan, along with the rise of a consumer orientation and national concern over the quality of schooling. This has made parental choice into a major policy issue, along with accountability and independent control. Four forms of symbiosis are identified: embracive, segregated, civic and market-oriented. This article discusses the nature of current reforms, and argues that they place Japanese education at a threefold critical crossroads or in a state of crisis.     

液体的月光——中国古典诗歌中月光表达之管见

中国文学中液体月光意象的表达方式在盛唐以前已经出现,但其种类的增多和用词的丰富变化,却是出现在中晚唐,此后基本定型并被广泛接受,这与中国自古以来就有将月亮和水联系在一起的信仰有关.用来表达液体月光意象的文学词语从古到中晚唐主要有流、盈、满、金波、月波、如水、溢、湿、似水、浸、洗、濯、漉漉等,与月亮意象密切联系的其他意象主要有蟾蜍即是虾蟆、露和明水等.     

Oviposition site selection and avoidance of additional mating by females of the dragonfly,Cordulia aenea amurensis Selys (Corduliidae)

Summary Females of an odonate species in which oviposition sites overlap with mating sites may adopt one or more of the following strategies when they lay eggs except when they ‘trade’ mating for access to suitable oviposition sites or for services (guarding, etc.) provided by males: (1) ovipositing at hidden places; (2) ovipositing at a time when males are neither patrolling nor watching; (3) indicating non-receptivity by a behavioral display. The density of ovipositing females of the dragonfly,Cordulia aenea amurensis Selys which was studied between 1970 and 1983 at a pond (H?rai-numa, Sapporo, Hokkaido) had a high negative correlation with the distance from ‘entrance’ (a part of shore at which the arrival of most adults seems to have occurred). On the other hand, oviposition was rarely observed at a sector being distant from entrance in spite of the inference that larval survivorship was probably high at this sector. Most females oviposited among emergent vegetation in which approach of males to them was difficult, and they scarcely traveled across the open water in search of oviposition sites. Therefore, most females of the population studied were considered to adopt the first strategy. The second and third strategy were not adopted by the population studied. Finally, the influences of some environmental factors and traits possessed by a species on the adoption of these tactics or on the execution of the ‘trades’ were discussed. Ecological studies ofCordulia aenea amurensis Selys, VII. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Special Project Research on Biological Aspects of Optimal Strategy and Social Structure from the Japan Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.