Japan Graduate School of Education University

People desire friends who have qualities such as similarity, the ability to provide support, opportunities for socialisation, assistance in achieving self-serving goals and access to potential mates. In the current study, we aimed to examine the degree of overlap between the friends people consider ideal and those they actually have. Using a sample of 6224 participants from 12 countries, we found that, across five dimensions of friendship, ideal and actual friendships considerably overlapped and ideal preferences were significant and strong predictors of actual friendships. Still, the overlap between ideal and actual friendships was not complete; rather, a small deficit emerged, with participants getting less of what they wanted. These results were consistent across the 12 countries in our sample. We also found significant effects of the Dark Triad personality traits on several dimensions of friendship.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the differences in career trajectories between Chinese PhDs who obtained their doctorates in the U.S. and Japan, as well as the varying predictors of these trajectories for U.S.-trained and Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs. Utilizing two original datasets that include demographic information, educational background, academic output, and employment status of Chinese doctoral graduates in engineering, this study reveals significant differences between U.S.-trained and Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs regarding their likelihood of pursuing academic careers and securing positions at top-ranked universities. The predictors of career trajectories are found to vary based on the country where the PhDs received their doctoral education. The findings suggest that the value of doctoral education provided by the U.S. and Japan is perceived differently in the labour market for international students. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of national and institutional contexts in shaping the professional career paths of international PhD graduates.

ABSTRACT Background: The Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) of 2011, compounded by the ensuing tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, had profound impacts on the affected populations. While the immediate psychological consequences of the disaster have been well-documented, less is known about the long-term mental health trajectories of survivors. Objective: This systematic review aims to synthesize existing longitudinal studies to provide a comprehensive overview of long-term mental health outcomes following the GEJE. Methods: This review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Using predefined inclusion criteria, a comprehensive search across PubMed, Web of Science, APA PsycINFO, and Ichushi was performed from July 2024 to May 2025. We examined studies assessing post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depression, and psychological distress among GEJE survivors with multi-wave follow-up data where at least one assessment took place 1 year or longer after the disaster. Results: We screened 1,719 references and identified 30 reports of 27 longitudinal studies encompassing over 197,351 participants. The included studies varied in sample characteristics, measurement tools, cut-off criteria, and follow-up time points, making direct comparisons challenging. Across most studies, outcomes for PTSS, depression, and psychological distress showed an initial peak in symptoms following the disaster, which gradually declined over time. In some studies, PTSS appeared to show a sharper decline compared to depression or psychological distress. Variations were observed among different subgroups, including long-term evacuees, women, and older individuals, who tended to exhibit higher or more sustained levels of symptoms. Conclusions: This systematic review highlights that the GEJE has had enduring impacts on survivors’ mental health. While PTSS tends to decline substantially over time, psychological distress and depression also decrease, albeit in a slower manner. Long-term mental health care should be provided, especially for vulnerable subgroups, to mitigate the disaster’s lasting psychological impacts.

Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals can utilize the wisdom of crowds, known as ‘the wisdom of the inner crowd’. This requires answering the same question multiple times and averaging the estimates. Although several methods have been proposed to achieve more accurate estimates, its efficacy remains relatively low. Therefore, this study proposes a method that assembles multiple independent methods to simulate the wisdom of the inner crowd effect. Particularly, our method instructs participants to provide estimates five times. Through a behavioural experiment, we confirmed that our method can produce the wisdom-of-innercrowd effect. Moreover, we found that our method produced more accurate estimates than a method that required participants to estimate five times without specific instructions. Furthermore, mathematical modelling demonstrated that the effectiveness of our method was greater than that of 1.5 persons. In sum, this study proposes a method to improve daily estimates.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-025-14740-3.

The performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) depends on the quality of the perovskite absorber layer. In this study, oleic acid (OA) and oleylamine (OAm) ligand-capped formamidinium lead iodide (FAPbI3) nanoparticles (NPs) were incorporated into the formamidinium iodide (FAI) solution, which is one of the precursors for the sequential deposition of the FAPbI3 layer. The synergistic effect of the FAPbI3-NPs and the capped ligand substantially improves the crystallinity, uniformity, and morphology of the bulk FAPbI3 perovskite films. The enhancements lead to a reduction in charge recombination and a boost in charge transfer efficiency, enabling the optimized PSCs to achieve a remarkable peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.68 %. Moreover, these PSCs show good stability, with unencapsulated devices maintaining 93 % of the peak performance under ambient air (RH 50 %) for 1000 hours.

Self-regulated learning-a cyclical process in which a learner sets a goal, monitors, and self-reflects on one's learning to set the next goal-is vital in instrumental learning. However, many conservatory students fail to initiate self-regulated learning; they take lessons passively, practice ineffectively, and fail to give satisfactory performance. These learning experiences could harm students' well-being, and physical and mental health problems are widespread among students. Nevertheless, factors contributing to self-regulated learning remain unknown. We hypothesized that musicians' autonomy in musical interpretation, which we refer to as interpretive autonomy, plays a pivotal role in self-regulated learning. Without developing interpretation, musicians fail to set personal goals, monitor, and self-evaluate their performances in terms of musicality. Although previous studies imply that interpretation plays a significant role in self-regulated learning, this has not been clearly demonstrated. Studies on interpretive autonomy are scarce due to a complicated discourse surrounding performers' freedom in interpretation. The ideology of Werktreue underpins the classical music field, and classical music performances are evaluated based on how faithfully a performer interpreted the composer's intention. Yet musicians hold various beliefs regarding the meaning of faithful interpretation, thus the degree of interpretive autonomy cannot be assessed unless its clear definition is provided. In addition, the mechanisms that promote or hinder interpretive autonomy in learning remain unexplained. To address these issues, we proposed a model of Werktreue internalization by applying self-determination theory. The model defines interpretive autonomy based on internalization types, identifies its effects on musicians' learning behavior and well-being, and reveals the mechanisms that promote or hinder interpretive autonomy in learning experiences. This model allows researchers and educators to assess the degree of interpretive autonomy, attribute impaired learning behavior and well-being to a lack of interpretive autonomy, and promote interpretive autonomy by supporting students' psychological needs in interpretation.

BackgroundSleep disturbance is a major contributor to future health and occupational issues. Mobile health can provide interventions that address adverse health behaviors for individuals in a vulnerable health state in real-world settings (just-in-time adaptive intervention).ObjectiveThis study aims to identify a subpopulation with vulnerable sleep state in daily life (study 1) and, immediately afterward, to test whether providing mobile health intervention improved habitual sleep behaviors and psychological wellness in real-world settings by conducting a microrandomized trial (study 2).MethodsJapanese workers (n=182) were instructed to collect data on their habitual sleep behaviors and momentary symptoms (including depressive mood, anxiety, and subjective sleep quality) using digital devices in a real-world setting. In study 1, we calculated intraindividual mean and variability of sleep hours, midpoint of sleep, and sleep efficiency to characterize their habitual sleep behaviors. In study 2, we designed and conducted a sleep just-in-time adaptive intervention, which delivered objective push-type sleep feedback messages to improve their sleep hours for a subset of participants in study 1 (n=81). The feedback messages were generated based on their sleep data measured on previous nights and were randomly sent to participants with a 50% chance for each day (microrandomization).ResultsIn study 1, we applied hierarchical clustering to dichotomize the population into 2 clusters (group A and group B) and found that group B was characterized by unstable habitual sleep behaviors (large intraindividual variabilities). In addition, linear mixed-effect models showed that the interindividual variability of sleep hours was significantly associated with depressive mood (β=3.83; P=.004), anxiety (β=5.70; P=.03), and subjective sleep quality (β=−3.37; P=.03). In study 2, we found that providing sleep feedback prolonged subsequent sleep hours (increasing up to 40 min; P=.01), and this effect lasted for up to 7 days. Overall, the stability of sleep hours in study 2 was significantly improved among participants in group B compared with the participants in study 1 (P=.001).ConclusionsThis is the first study to demonstrate that providing sleep feedback can benefit the modification of habitual sleep behaviors in a microrandomized trial. The findings of this study encourage the use of digitalized health intervention that uses real-time health monitoring and personalized feedback.

Parents and guardians (hereafter caregivers) of teenagers need high levels of mental health literacy (MHL) to manage mental health problems arising in teenagers in their care. Previous studies assessing MHL levels in caregivers of teenagers have reported mixed results, making it difficult to clearly estimate caregiver MHL levels. This study aimed to investigate MHL levels in Japanese caregivers of regular teenagers. Responses from caregivers (n = 1,397) of students entering junior and senior high schools to a self-administered online questionnaire were analyzed. The questionnaire assessed (a) knowledge about mental health/illnesses and (b) attitudes towards mental health problems in teens in their care (e.g., recognition of depression as a medical illness and intention to engage in helping behaviors). The average proportion of correct answers to the knowledge questions (n = 7) was 55.4%; about one tenth (9.2%) of caregivers correctly answered only one or none of the questions. Few caregivers correctly answered about the life-time prevalence of any mental illnesses (46.1%) and appropriate sleep duration for teenagers' health (16.5%). The proportions of caregivers who had the intention to listen to the teen in their care, consult another person, and seek professional medical help if the teen suffered from depression were 99.5%, 91.5% and 72.7%, respectively. Many teenagers' caregivers appeared to be willing to help the teens in their care if they were suffering from mental health problems. However, there was much room for improvement in knowledge on mental health/illnesses and intention to seek help from medical professionals. Efforts toward better education should be made.

ABSTRACT The present study investigated 1) the changes in positive and negative event impacts and residents’ eudaimonic well-being before and after Tokyo 2020 and 2) how the social impacts are related to eudaimonic well-being. Three-wave panel data were collected from 1692 Japanese residents before and after the event. We performed linear mixed modeling (LMM) and a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to investigate the within-person fluctuations in the event impacts and eudaimonic well-being and the within-person relationships. The LMMs showed that only negative event impacts significantly changed after the event. The RI-CLPM revealed that positive event impacts before the event were significantly related to eudaimonic well-being right after the event, and eudaimonic well-being right after the event was significantly associated with positive event impacts two months after the event. The findings indicate that the influence of positive event impacts on residents’ eudaimonic well-being might be only temporal, but also eudaimonic well-being right after the event may have a significant role in positive evaluations of the event two months later. The results illustrated that the government and sport organizations need to pay more attention to contemplate the strategies to increase the eudaimonic well-being of residents through the power of sport to make “sport as an enabler of sustainable development”.

IntroductionThe main objective of this study is to evaluate working memory and determine EEG biomarkers that can assist in the field of health neuroscience. Our ultimate goal is to utilize this approach to predict the early signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in healthy elderly individuals, which could potentially lead to dementia. The advancements in health neuroscience research have revealed that affective reminiscence stimulation is an effective method for developing EEG-based neuro-biomarkers that can detect the signs of MCI.MethodsWe use topological data analysis (TDA) on multivariate EEG data to extract features that can be used for unsupervised clustering, subsequent machine learning-based classification, and cognitive score regression. We perform EEG experiments to evaluate conscious awareness in affective reminiscent photography settings.ResultsWe use EEG and interior photography to distinguish between healthy cognitive aging and MCI. Our clustering UMAP and random forest application accurately predict MCI stage and MoCA scores.DiscussionOur team has successfully implemented TDA feature extraction, MCI classification, and an initial regression of MoCA scores. However, our study has certain limitations due to a small sample size of only 23 participants and an unbalanced class distribution. To enhance the accuracy and validity of our results, future research should focus on expanding the sample size, ensuring gender balance, and extending the study to a cross-cultural context.