This study investigated the relations between attachment, resilience, and earned security in Japanese university students. It was hypothesized that resilience would have a positive relationship with attachment and that people who had an insecure attachment style but high resilience would also have high earned security. An earned security scale was developed, based on the Naikan thought scale and attachment theory. The earned-security scales, a resilience scale, and an internal working model scale were administered to 343 university students. Three trends were apparent: (1) positive correlations between secure attachment scores and resilience scores; (2) negative correlations between insecure ambivalent attachment scores and resilience scores, but people classified in the ambivalent attachment cluster and high resilience group had higher earned security; and (3) avoidant attachment scores had negligible correlations with resilience and earned security.

Hakoniwa (hä ko ne wä), or Sandplay therapy, is an action-oriented and artistic psychotherapy practiced in Japan and the West. In contrast to most Western psychotherapies, which emphasize verbal and direct expression, linear and cause-effect thinking, and a distinction between physical and mental well-being, Hakoniwa makes significant use of nonverbal communication, concrete activity, and a holistic perspective. To increase understanding of international perspectives on psychotherapy, this article describes Hakoniwa, discusses its relationship to Jungian and Eastern philosophy, clarifies how Japanese values and perspectives on the self and mental health are consistent with the practice of Hakoniwa, and proposes research questions.

Understory vegetation may affect nitrate (NO 3 -) leaching, even in coniferous forests. Our objective was to estimate the contribution of understory vegetation to nutrient cycling, especially nitrogen, in a Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) stand. We therefore cut down and removed understory vegetation in one plot of the stand (the cutting plot) to compare nutrient budgets in the cutting plot with those in a control plot in which understory vegetation was allowed to grow. We also examined neutralization of the acid produced due to an increase in NO 3 -leaching. A monitoring study on precipitation and soil-percolated water was carried out in both plots. When the understory vegetation was cut down, NO 3 -flux at a soil depth of 10 cm increased remarkably in summer, with values significantly higher than those in the control plot. This resulted in an increase in proton load associated with N transformation ([H ? ]load). The increase in [H ? ]load enhanced mobilization of Ca 2? , Mg 2? , and SiO 2 ([SiO 2 ]mob). In addition, the correlations between [SiO 2 ]mob and mobilization of each base cation were distinct in the cutting plot. These results indicated that the acids produced because of N transformation were buffered not only by ion exchange but also by chemical weathering. The contribution of understory vegetation to minimizing NO 3 -leaching suggested that understory vegetation might reduce the risk of N saturation because of chronic atmospheric N inputs.

This study investigated the ability of non-Hispanic White U.S. counseling psychology trainees and Japanese clinical psychology trainees to recognize facially expressed emotions. Researchers proposed that an in-group advantage for emotion recognition would occur, women would have higher emotion-recognition accuracy than men, and participants would vary in their emotion-intensity ratings. Sixty White U.S. students and 60 Japanese students viewed photographs of non-Hispanic White U.S. and Japanese individuals expressing emotions and completed a survey assessing emotion-recognition ability and emotion-intensity ratings. Two four-way mixed-factor analyses of variance were performed, examining effects of participant nationality/race, participant gender, poser nationality/race, and poser gender on emotion-recognition accuracy scores and intensity ratings. Results did not support the in-group advantage hypothesis, rather, U.S. participants had higher accuracy rates than Japanese trainees overall. No gender differences in accuracy were found. However, respondents varied in their intensity ratings across gender and nationality. Implications for training applied psychology students and for future research are presented.

This study is a re-analysis of published data on psychological support for 609 junior high school students (317 boys, 292 girls, mean age = 14.1, SD = 0.8) based on the self-report, Psychological Support Scale, to evaluate sibling order as eldest or youngest and sex. In an earlier study, the questionnaire had been modified to be applicable to junior high school students. The study re-examined the data by extracting samples for categories of eldest and youngest siblings, for re-analysis of self-reported psychological support by sibling order and sex. Eldest children reported receiving more psychological support from both mother and father than youngest. Also, eldest boys received significantly greater psychological support from both the parents than the youngest boys or girls.