KEIO SFC JOURNAL Vol.8 No.1 Special Issue on Policy Management

"Policy Innovation Initiative: Human Security Research in Japan and Asia" that started in 2003 as part of "21st Century Center of Excellence Program (COE Program)", sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology" ended in 2008. In addition to such visible output as development of 29 Ph.D. students and 38 books published, the initiative produced such important outputs as: recognition of policy innovation studies as a clinical endeavor, research methodology to support such studies, and thesis assessment guidelines. The notion of human security proved to be a very effective concept to learn from practice. Young scholars that the initiative developed are expected to build upon the foundations to develop the field in the future.

In this paper, we summarized the activities and outcomes of the research group for "Community Governance through Empowerment of Persons Concerned". Through the activities for five years, we have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to establish the "weak expert system" in order to sustain the livelihood of the aged especially in the suburbs of metropolitan areas. The family of the first generation that stated to live in the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s has been changing since 1990's with leaving home of children. Those at the forefront of the generation born in the 1930s are currently entering the latter stage of old age and a part of them are transitioning to living alone with the death of spouses. Only strong expert system like administrative system or market mechanism that supply specialized services cannot substitute for mutual support within family. In the situation that community network doesn't have the function to produce services, it is critically important to develop the "weak expert system" that empowers persons concerned to solve the problems through mutual independent support in community.

The purpose of this essay is to examine human security as a framework to capture policy issues in East Asia, and not as a policy goal. Through the close examinations of 1994 Human Development Report (United Nations Development Program), 2003 Human Security Now (Human Security Commission) and other documents and developments, the essay argues for the need for a micro perspective that can develop a contextual capturing of the policy issues; for a liberation of human life from the dominant mode of thinking that it is always in 'transitional' phases; and for a liberation of individuals from the status of 'beneficiaries' of a given policy.

This paper presents research activities by the three teams in the "Network Technology as Context of Society and as Methodology of Social Science" group, which are "Construction and Management of Information Platforms" Team, "Language Policy as a 'Basis of Human Security'" Team, and "Web Social Research Methodology Development: Socio-Semantics" Team. All teams share the "language space" concept, which is a place of message exchange and network creation by¡¡language. Discussions on transmission of information refer to both face-to-face communication and IT facilitated communication where sender and receiver are separated. Based on the idea that "networks involving people, language, and IT contribute to human security development," we address the policy management studies theme of context formation for practical knowledge cultivation.

The purpose of this study was to research the target market for mass customized fashion products in Korea. This study proposed two models for mass customized fashion design processes and compared their efficiencies and appropriateness with those of the existing fashion design process. A survey was conducted with a sample of 150 females in their twenties and thirties living in Korea. The collected data were analyzed using a range of statistical methods. This study classified target consumers according to the levels of customization (low customization, medium customization, high customization), identified their characteristics, and analyzed the relationship between satisfaction and design elements. In sum, guidelines to develop the target market for mass customized fashion products in Korea were suggested.