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Japanese firms have historically followed a country-specific model of corporate governance. Yet, Japan has had to adapt its corporate model over the last 30 years, along with the transformation of distinctive characteristics of Japanese capitalism in the same period. We review the historical evolution of Japanese corporate governance over the last three decades with a specific emphasis on the changes in the capital structure of major companies and the efforts to correct ineffective board of directors monitoring. By doing this, we investigate to what extent specific Japanese corporate governance features may explain the nation’s economic situation over this period. Thereby, we try to clarify the influences that have presided over recent corporate governance reforms in Japan despite the existence of managerial failures and corporate scandals. This paper places itself into the debate over the diversity of capitalism as it portrays the specificities, differences, and converging trends of Japanese corporate governance practices.

Abstract The iconography of the martyrs of Japan is often linked to that of the Twenty-Six Martyrs of Nagasaki. This group of mostly Franciscans was crucified in 1597 and beatified in 1627, and also included three Jesuits. The Society of Jesus, however, did not emphasize these martyrs in their engravings and representations of the victims of their Japanese mission especially before their beatification. The close study of two major works, Nicolas Trigault’s History of the Martyrs of Japan (Latin, 1623; French, 1624) and the famous Imago primi saeculi (1640), reveals how text and image combine to generate a different discourse of martyrdom that centered on sacrificial fire rather than death on the cross. Although the first three beatified martyrs were never forgotten, the Imago in particular foregrounds another Jesuit martyr, Carlo Spinola, whose prominent family had played an important role in that work’s creation.

Baptist historiography has generally assumed that the church at Bell’s Alley, London, led by Thomas Lambe, was a continuation of the first Baptist church, which returned to England from Amsterdam under the leadership of Thomas Helwys and was later led by John Murton. No evidence was adduced for this assumption, however, and it has recently been questioned on the basis that there is good evidence against it. I argue that the evidence against is less convincing than has been claimed, that at least one historical event strongly suggests continuity, and that there are in fact shared beliefs and practices that provide further evidence for continuity. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed

While there is strong evidence that maternal smallpox infection can cause foetal loss, it is not clear whether smallpox infections were a demographically important cause of stillbirths historically. In this paper, we use parish-level data from the Swedish Tabellverket data set for 1780–1839 to test the effect of smallpox on stillbirths quantitatively, analysing periods before and after the introduction of vaccination in 1802. We find that smallpox infection was not a major cause of stillbirths before 1820, because most women contracted smallpox as children and were therefore not susceptible during pregnancy. We do find a small, statistically significant effect of smallpox on stillbirths from 1820 to 1839, when waning immunity from vaccination put a greater share of pregnant women at risk of contracting smallpox. However, the reduced prevalence of smallpox in this period limited its impact on stillbirths. Thus, smallpox was not an important driver of historical stillbirth trends.

Acculturative stress can be a big problem for international students. Among the adaptation difficulties they may face, adjusting to new foods in a new environment is crucial to their well-being. Existing studies related to dietary acculturation point to gender differences, mostly on objective health impacts. Using the information processing approach, this study aims to examine the subjective perception of dietary acculturation difficulties, with a focus on the influence of social connectedness. Using the Bayesian inference approach with the Hamiltonian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique on a sample of 268 students from a Japanese international university, we found that female students are more likely to have perceived difficulties in the process of adjusting to new foods, but social connectedness lessens this effect. We also found no significant differences between domestic and international students regarding perceived difficulties of food adjustment in this study site, likely due to its highly multicultural environment. We suggest international universities provide better information about the food situations on campuses, especially for female students, and organize more cultural exchange events and food-related social activities to help students overcome barriers of food stress.