National cultural distance is considered to be a strong predictor of language learners' pragmatic competence. To test the actual effect of national cultural distance on pragmatic competence holistically and comprehension and production aspects of pragmatic competence discretely, the current study was conducted on two groups of undergraduate…

This paper examines people's attitudes toward public spending on education in Japan. It is well known that Japan has the smallest public education expenditure relative to GDP among the OECD countries, and this may yield unequal opportunities in education. The tax burden in Japan is small compared to those in OECD countries, and there may be no…

As the life expectancy of people with intellectual disability (ID) increases, it is becoming necessary to understand factors affecting survival. However, predictors that are typically assessed among healthy people have not been examined. Predictors of all-cause mortality, including blood, urine, anthropometry, and nutritional indices, were…

The degree of equality in the delivery of education is an important dimension of variation. Some nations believe that the provision of a highly stratified system enhances quality, at least for the minority who are able to gain entry to the elite academic stream. In contrast, other nations prefer a more egalitarian approach to education where all…

Previous studies mainly examined individual and family factors affecting Japanese fathers' involvement in child care. Along with these factors, we examine how work-related factors such as father-friendly environment at work, workplace's accommodation of parental needs, job stress, and autonomy are associated with Japanese men's participation in…

This study investigated children's motivation for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and intrinsic motivation for learning in general. The participants were 268 third-sixth graders in a public school in Japan. Data were collected using two questionnaires, one measuring motivation for learning EFL and the other investigating intrinsic…