KEIO SFC JOURNAL Vol.26 No.1

Tracing back 20 years of my career as a faculty member of Environment and Information Studies, one of the most outstanding characteristics of SFC is the original style of research laboratories, “Kenkyu-kai” which creates a unique culture of its own. We have seldom introduced and discussed its uniqueness and the sustainability of Kenkyu-kai culture even after the retirement of faculty members. My goal is that this opportunity will become a trigger to discuss the very essence and the value of “SFC Kenkyu-kai”.

For forty years, I have striven to understand South Korea deeply, covering the latter half of the post-Japanese rule era. Today’s developed nation was actually built upon foundations laid during the first forty years (1945–1985). Two key figures of this period, Lee Byung-chul and Park Chung-hee, shared a profound dedication to the nation that transcended individual interests. Their common ideal was to lead the times and create new trends. This vision remains relevant today and must be realized at an even higher level.

This study outlines a new framework for theorizing fashion, which I call ‘an anthropology of fashion’. Grounded in the ‘practices of making’ and informed by a ‘flat relational ontology’, this framework reconsiders how people work with things beyond the numerous dissociations and dualisms—including those of meaning and matter—found in conventional fashion theory. It reveals a field of ‘plural entanglements’ where the material and immaterial; human and nonhuman; and temporal dimensions—past, present, and future—are inseparably interwoven, allowing fashion’s reconfiguration as a dynamic entity making realities.

This article examines Japan’s foreign policy decision-making under multiple external pressures by proposing the “Third-Country Perception Model of Two-Level Games.” It conceptualizes third-country effects as mediated through domestic perceptions and distinguishes between two analytical functions: boundary-setting, which redefines the feasible range of policy options, and focal guidance, which directs actors toward specific points of agreement. Through the cases of the 1973 oil crisis and the Iran hostage crisis, the article shows how changing perceptions of third countries reshaped Japan’s win-set and offers a new perspective on contemporary economic security policy.

This study examined seasonal variation in diet and microhabitat-specific prey use of the Japanese fire-bellied newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster) in a terraced paddy landscape in central Japan during the breeding season. Stomach contents were collected from individuals captured in rice paddies and spring-fed irrigation channels and analyzed using the Index of Relative Importance (IRI). Asellus spp. and Chironomid larvae consistently constituted the dominant prey items, whereas Tipulid larvae and newt eggs exhibited short-term increases in relative importance. Diet composition differed markedly between adjacent microhabitats, suggesting flexible foraging behavior in response to spatial and temporal variation in prey availability.

Blocking as a measure to block the access to information in cyberspace can be constitutional depending on how it is implemented. The main reasons for this are as follows. First, while it places certain restrictions on freedom of expression since it limits access to the target website, it does not directly impede the freedom of expression of the expresser themselves. Second, given that the second part of Article 21, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution of Japan provides for the maintenance of a sound institutional environment for the use of communications, even if it results in the “stealing” of confidential information in communications, it does not constitute a violation of the secrecy of communications as long as it is implemented for the purpose of ensuring the “public welfare,” which includes maintaining law and order in cyberspace.

This study explores the ethical and emotional implications of AI-based emotional support systems in elderly care. Based on fieldwork in Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa Prefectures, it focuses on the “camera dilemma”—the tension between safety monitoring and human dignity. Findings reveal that while AI-based emotional support systems can foster comfort and social connection, they may also generate anxiety and stress linked to surveillance. The study proposes “seeing without watching,” an empathic-sensing framework that balances protection with dignity and redefines humane technological care in Japan’s super-aged society.