Kazunori Hanyu

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Autobiographical Memory On the Universality and Cultural Variation of the Reminiscence Bump

Groups from Japan, China, Bangladesh, England, and the United States recalled, described, and dated specific autobiographical memories. When memories were plotted in terms of age-at-encoding highly similar life-span memory retrieval curves were observed: the periods of childhood amnesia and the reminiscence bump were the same across cultures. However, content analysis of memory descriptions of the U.S. and Chinese groups found that memories from the Chinese group had interdependent self-focus (i.e., were of events with a group or social orientation), whereas the memory content of the U.S. group showed an independent self-focus (i.e., were of events oriented to the individual). These findings suggest that there are culturally invariant features of autobiographical memory that yield structurally similar memories across cultures, yet the content of memories is sensitive to cultural influences related to the nature of the self. Findings are discussed in light of similarities and diversity between selves with different self/other orientations.

Using Pre-construction Validation to Regulate Urban Skylines

Abstract This article describes best practices from contemporary scientific protocols that can be used to perform pre-construction validation of urban design guidelines. Because of the prominence of skylines in the urban landscape, their regulation represents a prime candidate for applying design guidelines. We tested guidelines for three prospective skyline factors: overall skyline shape (convex, concave, or flat), number of turns in the roofline of individual buildings (4, 8, or 12), and level of variance in four attributes of individual buildings: height, width, depth, and setback (low, medium, or high). Level of variance in building attributes had the strongest effect on judged pleasantness. The respondents preferred rugged skylines over simple ones, whatever their overall shape. These findings suggest that regulations for skyline appearance should focus on variances in the four building attributes.

Linkage between recycling and consumption: a case of toilet paper in Japan

This study examines consumer factors of paper recycling in Japan. The study specifically focuses on toilet paper as a paper product and attempts to reveal how individuals evaluate recycled toilet paper, how the evaluation relates to toilet paper consumption, and why people use or do not use recycled toilet paper. The study also examines what factors influence collection recycling behavior, and what people believe as necessary to achieve a society with better recycling. Responses were obtained from 1242 respondents in Japan. Four results were found. (1) People cannot judge the raw material of virgin toilet papers correctly, while people can correctly judge the raw material of recycled toilet paper. The quality and appearance of recycled toilet paper was not high enough to compete with virgin toilet paper. Furthermore, the image of recycled toilet paper also had negative impact on the willingness to use recycled toilet paper. (2) The primary criterion for purchasing recycled toilet paper was pro-environmental attitude. For the virgin toilet paper, it was brand. As expected, recycled toilet paper users had a positive evaluation and image of recycled toilet paper, while virgin toilet paper users had a negative evaluation and image of it. (3) Actual recycling behavior might not relate directly to consumption behavior of recycled paper. Rather, it was determined by the knowledge of waste collection system and payment system. (4) Most people have not realized that without the consumption of recycled products, the recycling system is not completed.

Cognitive Distance of Stairways Distance, Traversal Time, and Mental Walking Time Estimations

This study examined the effect of stairways on different modes of distance estimation. Forty-two undergraduate students at Nihon University took part in the study. Two target sites, a stairway and a flat path, were selected in a university building. The students were asked to complete three tasks: a distance estimation, a traversed time estimation, and a mental walking time estimation. Afterward, the actual walking times were obtained. The results show that (a) estimated distances and times for the stairway tended to be overestimated while those for the flat path were close to actual distances and times, (b) mental walking times for the stairway approximated actual times whereas those for the flat path tended to be underestimated, and (c) individuals did not differ in their tendency to estimate high or low across the path conditions.

Circulation indices: new tools for analyzing the structure of material cascades

Abstract An improved understanding of the cascading structure of recycling is important for increasing resource productivity. The cascading theory, developed to analyze resource cascading, has two major dimensions; resource quality and resource lifetime. The latter is the only dimension for which a quantitative evaluation has been carried out in the previous research. In this study, we propose new tools to quantify both dimensions. These tools enable statistical estimation of the times of utilization of the material cascaded. The pre-circulation index (pre-CI) counts how many times the material has been utilized before consumption. For material in which quality deterioration is measurable largely on the basis of the number of utilization times, pre-CI can be an index of resource quality. The post-circulation index (post-CI) counts how many times the material will be utilized after consumption. The higher the number of utilization times, the longer the lifetime of the material. Thus, post-CI can be an index of resource lifetime. Total-circulation index (TCI) is the sum of pre- and post-CIs. This can be an overall index of resource productivity. We apply the method presented herein to an analysis of the paper recycling system in Japan. Some important features of the CIs are demonstrated by the results; certain potential remains for further improvements in paper recycling in Japan. In the case that two products have the same utilization rates, their pre-CIs can still differ according to the positions they occupy in the cascade. In the case that two recycling policies achieve the same size of primary raw material reduction, they can still differ in their impact to the whole cascade. By the method described herein, the CIs can represent the structure of a material cascade quantitatively and offer important knowledge by which to increase resource productivity.

Recycling and consumption in Germany and Japan: a case of toilet paper

Abstract This paper compares the recycling attitudes of consumers in Germany and Japan, based on our nationwide questionnaires. We analyzed consumption behavior as well as recycling behavior in narrow sense, because it is important to study the former to see how the supply of recycled materials is balanced with the demand, particularly in Japan which exports little recycled materials. Toilet paper was adopted as a specific good for study, because consumers have options of buying virgin products and recycled products. It was found that German households pay for waste collection specifically and have higher recycling rates than Japanese households. On the other hand, similar figures in German and Japanese consumers were observed with regard to consumption of recycled products. Their purchasing criteria and preference on virgin and recycled products of toilet paper were examined by self-report and blind test with 2×2 experimental design for toilet paper (German versus Japanese, virgin versus recycled). Blind test showed that people prefer domestic and virgin products in both countries. Half of respondents rating virgin products guessed that the products contained recycled material. For Japanese, the material of the sample toilet paper, made from virgin pulp, seems to be a more determining factor than the nationality of products, i.e. made in Japan. On the other hand, for Germans, the domestic nature seems to be a more dominant factor than the material, i.e. made from virgin material. Canonical discriminant analysis in conjunction with logistic regression based on self-reporting data detected the characters ‘multiplied’, ‘appearance’ and ‘brand’ as major factors making the difference in preference between the two countries. The possible reasons causing the similarity and dissimilarity between the two countries are discussed with reference to the background history.

Cognitive Distance of Stairways: A Multi‐stairway Investigation

The present study had two major purposes. First it sought to determine to what extent in an earlier study of distance estimation in stairways (Hanyu & Itsukushima, 1995) would generalize to other types of stairway. Second, it sought to examine which hypothesis, information storage or effort, better explain the earlier results, in which people overestimated distance and traversed time estimates. We obtained four distance and time measures: distance estimate, traversal time estimate, mental walking time and actual traversal time. To measure information, we had participants rate each stairway for complexity (simple-complex) and effort (effortless-effortful) before and after the distance and time measurement tasks. The results revealed that the earlier findings (Hanyu & Itsukushima, 1995) did not fully generalize. The results also did not support either the information storage or the effort hypothesis.

Perception of Disorder and Crime, and Responses to Them in Japanese ‘Mega’ Railway Stations

The crime rate in Japan is far lower that the crime rates of other industrialized countries. However, the severely high fear of crime among Japanese citizens has been considered a priority political issue for the last few decades. Thus, the fear of crime rather than crime itself can be considered as a more important issue to be examined in Japan. There seem to be certain places in which the fear of crime is high in Japan, and one type of these felt unsafe places is the mega railway station/terminal (Funyu and Hanyu, 2003).