Yumiko Nara

Exploring Collaboration Topics from Documented Foresights of Experts

Given a data of questionnaire about future technologies, including perspective opinions from experts of considerable scientific and business domains, a scenario-drawing communication between two collaborators was executed the following process of chance discovery. These collaborators have been working on discovering new research clues from social survey results, relevant to their implicit common interests. The present process realized topic exploration leading the pair to externalizing their interest in knowledge integration from different view points.

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON RISK, UNCERTAINTY, AND INFORMATION

In this paper, the author aims to examine the differences in perception concerning the anxiety toward the risk among three countries — Japan, the United States of America and China. The anxiety, in this case, is triggered by uncertainty. This paper also intends to clarify the effect of information to improve peoples risk management targeted on the respondents of the Chinese population focusing on earthquake disasters. The social survey using questionnaire has been carried out in order to obtain the needed quantitative data for my research project. It is interesting to conclude that both respondents in China and in the United States tend to accept the impact of uncertainty better. They have shown somewhat lower level of anxiety toward nineteen items of the risks as compared with that of the Japanese respondents. The significant effects on information designed as a part of the risk management action plan as well as the living sufficiency safeguard are clearly observed.

A Cross-Cultural Study on Attitudes toward Risk, Safety and Security

In this paper, the author aims to examine the status quo of peoples attitude toward risk and safety as well as the differences between risk attitudes in Japan, USA and China. The social survey was carried out in February and March of 2008. It used questionnaires to obtain data of people: male and female, 20-69 years, in each country, using random sampling. The survey has clarified the status quo and differences about perception toward 19 items of risk, effects of safety perception and risk image based on peoples anxiety. It has been found that Japanese people fear most strongly the bad influence of life risks. The effect of risk image on anxiety was relatively strong in China and Japan, the effect of safety perception was stronger in the US.

Action research for improving the risk literacy of university students: Focusing on the effectiveness of risk communication using Crossroad game

Abstract In risk society, the necessity for each person to improve risk literacy has been increasing. This paper aims to introduce the outline of action research to improve the risk literacy of university students while collaborating with various stakeholders; university students, university co-operative association staffs, university staff, think-tank researchers, university faculty, lawyers, food company staffs, insurance company staffs, etc. since June 2015. Furthermore, the author presents the practical case of risk communication using a game called Crossroad, and considers significance and effect of this activity. Crossroad is one of the risk communication tools, used in the fields such as disaster prevention, food safety, medical safety and so on. In the game, a scenario on the trade-off state is presented, and each player selects one of the two options, and tells the other players why he/she chose it. At the workshop of this activity, hazard was set as a natural disaster. The exchange of views during this game and becoming aware of different opinions were achieved, university students realized that there are diverse ideas and values. In addition, adults were able to notice the “important things” of university students by allowing them to create their own unique crossroad scenarios.

Feedback of the knowledge obtained through the analysis of learning needs for risk literacy education

Abstract In a risk society, the necessity of risk literacy education has been pointed out. Learning programs that reflect appropriately the leaners’ needs must be introduced into such education. Therefore, the authors conducted lectures on risk literacy at the Open University of Japan, whose students are adult and full-fledged member of society. The purposes of this research were as follows: (1) to evaluate the risk literacy programs by corresponding between students’ learning needs and a lecturer’s teaching contents in the class; (2) to ascertain the learning needs of the students concerning risk literacy; and (3) to clarify the points of promoting the effectiveness of the lecture programs. The research data were analyzed by text mining method using KeyGraph. The main results of the study are as follows. (1) Students learned to examine many aspects of their daily lives from the point of view of risk studies, and the effectiveness of risk literacy education was revealed. (2) Within risk literacy, the students had high learning needs for risk communication in future education programs. The term “risk communication” was often used in relation to the students’ works. (3) Based on the two previous findings, we could improve the programs by the following three points: (i) by teaching the aspects of risk, risk perception, and coping with risk in relation to [safety] and [security] of [life]; (ii) by showing the multifaceted framework, including the use of matters of risks, in addition to the points of attention on risks; and (iii) by including specific contents, such as concrete examples in the programs, namely, categorizing the occupations or hazards, and showing the characteristics of risk communication of each category.

The Function of Facilitator in Risk/Chance Management: Action Research in the Stricken Area of the Great East Japan Earthquake☆

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the function of the facilitator in extracting and coordinating the needs-seeds of both victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and their supporters. The subject-matter of the research is a group of strawberry farmers of Watari-town who are victims of the earthquake. The town is situated in the damaged stricken area of that disaster. The author has been conducting participant observation and action research between April, 2011, and May, 2013, to promote the interaction of the needs-seeds with victims and supporters. The main needs of strawberry farmers were recovering the harvest to its former level, obtaining the alternative delivery channel, and letting many people know about the real condition of the stricken area. According to the needs and seeds of farmers, a Consumers’ Co-operative Union Club has become a core supporter. A “Strawberry-stock model” has been suggested in which victims and supporters participate together; this model was put into practical use in October 2012. This case study describes how a researcher became a facilitator of contributing to “the better state” in a disaster-stricken area.

Risk experience, information, and chance discovery: focusing on earthquakes in China

This paper aims to examine the status quo of peoples perception for coping with earthquakes, and the effects of risk experience and risk information to promote risk management in China. Questionnaire surveys were carried out before and after the Sichuan earthquake in China, and the same surveys were also conducted in Japan and the USA. The survey results clarified that the respondents in China showed lower levels of anxiety and higher self-evaluation of risk coping than did the Japanese respondents. The effect of risk experience was observed as the awareness and counter-measures with respect to earthquakes improved, especially among Chengdus residents after the Sichuan earthquake. Significant effect from obtaining information on actual risk management action was also observed.

Communication between Living and Scientific Knowledge as Chance Discovery

Knowledge of living means information that people have obtained from their daily lives, and skills and wisdom that they have acquired through everyday experience or tradition. This paper aims to clarify three issues: (1) the uniqueness of living and scientific knowledge, (2) the significance of communication in these two kinds of knowledge, (3) the potentiality of a double helix structure for the two types knowledge in chance discovery, i.e. collaboration between lay subjects and specialists. These tasks were approached through theoretical and empirical research using concrete data obtained from a questionnaire and a case study. As a result, specialists and lay subjects were found to have outstanding knowledge in mutually different contexts even though they had limitations; solutions to problems were obtained through collaboration using mutual knowledge that was obtained on an equal footing.

Information Literacy and Everyday Life Risks

Living is inevitably accompanied by risks, and the environment surrounding the life system in present day society is constantly changing. The facts that risks are becoming further diversified and are keeping pace with the increase in hazards, there is a pressing need to acquire techniques to counter risks. This study aims to examine the significance and contents of information literacy to perceive risks and cope with them.

Trust, ethics and social capital on the internet: an empirical study between japan, USA and singapore

Social capital is becoming increasingly important in the knowledge society. Most studies of the phenomena that are considered as social capital have, in the tradition of Robert Putnams writings mainly focused on what can be called social capital in civil society in the real world – outside the virtual world, i.e. the Internet community. This paper tries to clarify the significance of trust as the element of social capital that relates ethics of the Internet community to theoretical and empirical approaches. Results indicate that studies on trust related to the Internet can be positioned in two dimensions – “studies on the system trust (especially, trust in the system infrastructure) – studies on the personality trust” and “studies with risk management approach – studies with trust management approach.” Generalized trust has significant relationships with reciprocity, human interaction and cooperation on the Internet. However ethics does not simply correlate with trust.