• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.7-29
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• 2019

This study describes an approach for comparative bibliometric analysis of scientific publications related to (i) individual or several departments comprising a university, and (ii) broader integrated subject areas using multiple disciplinary schemes. It uses a custom dataset of scientific publications (ca. 15,000 articles and reviews, published during 2009-2013, and recorded in the Web of Science Core Collections) with author affiliations to the research departments, dedicated to science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM), of a comprehensive university. The dataset was subjected, at first, to the department level and discipline level analyses using the newly available KAKEN-L3 classification (based on MEXT/JSPS Grants-in-Aid system), hierarchical clustering, correspondence analysis to decipher the major departmental and disciplinary clusters, and visualization of the department-discipline relationships using two-dimensional stacked bar diagrams. The next step involved the creation of subsets covering integrated subject areas and a comparative analysis of departmental contributions to a specific area (medical, health and life science) using several disciplinary schemes: Essential Science Indicators (ESI) 22 research fields, SCOPUS 27 subject areas, OECD Frascati 38 subordinate research fields, and KAKEN-L3 66 subject categories. To illustrate the effective use of the science mapping techniques, the same subset for medical, health and life science area was subjected to network analyses for co-occurrences of keywords, bibliographic coupling of the publication sources, and co-citation of sources in the reference lists. The science mapping approach demonstrates the ways to extract information on the prolific research themes, the most frequently used journals for publishing research findings, and the knowledge base underlying the research activities covered by the publications concerned.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-69
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• 2019

Over the last couple of years, digital diplomacy has become a fascinating area of research among Mass Communication, Peace and Conflict Studies, and International Affairs scholars. Social media and new technology open up new avenues for governments, individuals, and organizations to engage with foreign audiences. However, developing countries' governments are still lacking in the realization of the potential of social media. This study aims to analyze the usage of social media (Facebook & Twitter) by the two biggest countries in South Asia (Pakistan and India). I selected 10 government officials' social media accounts including prime ministers', national press offices', military public relations offices', public diplomacy divisions', and ministries of foreign offices' profiles. The study relies on quantitative content analysis and a comparative research approach. The total number of analyzed Twitter tweets (n=1,015) and Facebook posts (n=1,005) include 10 accounts, five from each country. In light of Kent and Taylor's (1998) dialogic communication framework, the results indicate that no digital engagement and dialogue occurs between government departments and the public through social networking sites. Government departments do not engage with local or foreign audiences through digital media. When comparing both countries, results reveal that India has more institutionalized and organized digital diplomacy. In terms of departmental use of social media, the digital diplomacy division and foreign office of India is more active than other government departments in that nation. Meanwhile, Pakistan's military public relations office and press office is more active than its other government departments. In conclusion, both countries realize the potential of social media in digital diplomacy, but still lack engagement with foreign audiences.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.94-123
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• 2019

Over the past few decades, gender equality has been considered one of the fundamental principles and a significant crosscutting issue in international development. However, beyond applying 'gender equality' as a policy buzzword, there has been a lack of critical reviews on how generally 'gender equality in education' is understood and constructed in Korea's development programs and projects. In this regard, this paper explores the use of vocabularies and semantic meanings of gender equality in the Korean Government's Academic Cooperation Program and its 52 projects. By applying mixed contents analysis as a method, the research resulted in several findings: first, the policy papers recently highlighted Korea's directions on gender mainstreaming and gender-sensitive approaches in international development. Second, 'integrating women and girls' into education institutions was emphasized in various projects; third, the term women rather than gender were used in the texts, highlighting their position as a 'marginalized group.' Lastly, there was a lack of evidence of projects dealing with changing gender-based power relations. The constructed gendered relations and powers were identified throughout projects, usually acting as barriers to project activities. However, they were only identified, not challenged, by the program. In conclusion, whilst Korean international development and educational development discourse actively embrace Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) in their programs, it is time to consider the issue of gender equality from different standpoints, such as identity, rights, and capabilities and a more active engagement with Korea's domestic issues in gender discourse and practices is also needed.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.176-198
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• 2018

Environmental issues are among the most critical issues nowadays. These issues are no longer confined to individual countries, and international society has been progressing in building global dialogues since the early 1970s. Within these international efforts, Germany and Japan have played essential roles in global environmental governance. However, there are major differences in nation-level environmental policies in both countries. Governance based on network structure is more efficient than that based on hierarchy for solving complex problems. The network structure is formed through horizontal cooperation among various autonomous actors, and the relationship intensity among actors is one of the key concepts in the governance. Using social network analysis as a framework to explain complicated societal structures explains how interaction among actors creates networks, and these networks further affect their interactions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the structure of environmental policy governance as collaborative governance in Germany and Japan. To address this goal, this paper analyzes the relationship between the informational dimension of governance networks and its complement resource-sharing networks in both countries. The results show that the information-sharing networks have lower-level network influence on the resource-sharing networks as higher-level networks even if not all of the information factors have singular influences. The results suggest that the information-sharing networks may be one of the pieces of the puzzle for explaining this phenomenon in environmental governance in Germany and Japan.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2023

The focus of this research is the practice of journalism in relation to the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship (JFPP) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Journalists and curators who are participants in the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship received fundings from the state. The Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship is a unique model because it is the only one in the world in journalism practice that involves state's financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. These fundings from the state for the media lead to dilemmas and controversies. This research uses a qualitative approach and a single holistic case study method. The Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship was held from May to December 2021, involving 7,276 journalists from 857 media (print, television, radio, and online media) and 26 curators. This study found that during the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship, journalism experienced a crisis and lost its function as a control overpower. Giving cash to journalists and curators during the fellowship makes journalism lose its independence and objectivity. The Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship has degraded or eliminated the function of the press as a watchdog. Incentives for journalists while participating in the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship is a long-term investment by the government to co-opt Indonesian media and journalists in the future. On the other hand, the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship raises another aspect; the crisis of journalism. Journalism work produced in the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship does not reflect the values and principles of journalism. Journalism values, such as independence and impartiality, are absent from the Behavioural Change Journalism Fellowship product.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.18-34
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• 2024

In what was labeled the "nut rage" incident, the vice president of Korean Air, Hyun-Ah Cho (Heather Cho), demonstrated behavior that exemplifies corporate transgression and deviation from societal moral standards toward a flight attendant aboard a flight. Such behavior instigated the public to express negative sentiment on various social media platforms. This study investigates word-of-mouth network on YouTube in response to the crisis, patterns of co-commenting activities across selected YouTube videos, as well as public responses to the incident by employing social and semantic network analysis. A total of 512 YouTube videos featuring the crisis from December 8, 2014 through November 11, 2018, and 52,772 public comments to the videos were collected. The central videos in the network successfully attracted the public's attention and engagements. The results suggest that the video network was decentralized, with multiple videos acting as hubs in the network. The public commented on various videos instead of focusing on a few. The contents of influential videos uploaded by popular news organizations revealed not only Cho's behaviors related to the nut rage crisis but also unrelated illegal behaviors and the moral violations committed by the family members of Korean Air. The public attached derogatory remarks to Cho and her family, and the comments also addressed ethical concerns, management issues of the company, and boycott intentions. The results imply that adverse public reaction was related to the long-standing problem caused by family ownership and governance in large Korean corporations. This Korean Air scandal illustrates backlash toward a leadership breakdown by the family business conglomerate prevalent in the Korean society. This study provides insights for effective handling of similar crises.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-63
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• 2016

Energy policy is known to have higher path dependency among policy fields (Kuper and van Soest, 2003; OECD, 2012; Kikkawa, 2013) and is a critical component of the infrastructure development undertaken in the early stages of nation building. Actor roles, such as those played by interest groups, are firmly formed, making it unlikely that institutional change can be implemented. In resource-challenged Japan, energy policy is an especially critical policy area for the Japanese government. In comparing energy policy making in Japan and Germany, Japan’s policy community is relatively firm (Hartwig et al., 2015), and it is improbable that institutional change can occur. The Japanese government’s approach to energy policy has shifted incrementally in the past half century, with the most recent being the 2012 implementation of the “Feed-In Tariff Law” (Act on Special Measures Concerning Procurement of Renewable Electric Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities), which encourages new investment in renewable electricity generation and promotes the use of renewable energy. Yet, who were the actors involved and the factors that influenced the establishment of this new law? This study attempts to assess the factors associated with implementing the law as well as the roles of the relevant major actors. In answering this question, we focus on identifying the policy networks among government, political parties, and interest groups, which suggests that success in persuading key economic groups could be a factor in promoting the law. Our data is based on the “Global Environmental Policy Network Survey 2012-2013 (GEPON2)” which was conducted immediately after the March 11, 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake with respondents including political parties, the government, interest groups, and civil society organizations. Our results suggest that the Feed in Tariff (FIT) Law’s network structure is similar to the information network and support network, and that the actors at the center of the network support the FIT Law. The strength of our research lays in our focus on political networks and their contributing mechanism to the law’s implementation through analysis of the political process. From an academic perspective, identifying the key actors and factors may be significant in explaining institutional change in policy areas with high path dependency. Close examination of this issue also has implications for a society that can promote renewable and sustainable energy resources.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.632-645
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• 2014

This paper criticized the recent Korean 'creative economy policies' focused on regional developmental implications. Even though the policies targeted to promote ICT new startups and build virtuous circle of ICT industrial ecosystem in Korea as a whole, the outside regions of the Seoul-Busan industrial axis where the bases of ICT industries are very weak would suffer from systematic exclusion in ICT investments and deepening regional disparities. Second, ICT-centered policies would selectively affect or operate commensurate with the size of regions in this low-growth, after-financial crisis age. Third, the possibilities of regional insularity and lock-in in these low levels of 'related variety' regions would worsen the industrial competitiveness. Lastly, the policies should be reoriented to fortify region-based creative economic ecosystem based upon triple helix learning region.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.665-670
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• 2016

The objectives of this study were conducted to characterize pepsin-soluble collagen (PSC) extracted from bones (PSC-B), skins (PSC-S), and tendons (PSC-T) of duck feet and to determine their thermal and structural properties, for better practical application of each part of duck feet as a novel source for collagen. PSC was extracted from each part of duck feet by using 0.5 M acetic acid containing 5% (w/w) pepsin. Electrophoretic patterns showed that the ratio between α₁ and α₂ chains, which are subunit polypeptides forming collagen triple helix, was approximately 1:1 in all PSCs of duck feet. PSC-B had slightly higher molecular weights for α₁ and α₂ chains than PSC-S and PSC-T. From the results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), higher onset (beginning point of melting) and peak temperatures (maximum point of curve) were found at PSC-B compared to PSC-S and PSC-T (p<0.05). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) presented that PSC-S and PSC-T had similar intermolecular structures and chemical bonds, whereas PSC-B exhibited slight difference in amide A region. Irregular dense sheet-like films linked by random-coiled filaments were observed similarly. Our findings indicate that PSCs of duck feet might be characterized similarly as a mixture of collagen type I and II and suggest that duck feet could be used for collagen extraction without deboning and/or separation processes.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.4 s.71
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• pp.657-663
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• 2005

Collagenases are generally defined as enzymes that are capable of degrading the polypeptide backbone of native collagen under conditions that do not denature the protein. An extracellular collagenase-producing bacterial strain was isolated from kimchi and identified to be Bacillus subtilis JS-17 through morphological, cultural, biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence analysis. Optimum culture condition of Bacillus subtilis JS-17 for the production of collagenase was $1.5\%$ fructose, $1\%$ yeast extract, $0.5\%\;K_2HPO_4,\;0.4\%\;KH_2PO_4,\;0.01\%\;MgSO_4\cdot7H_2O,\;0.01\%\; MnSO_4\cdot4H_2O,\;,0.1\%$ citrate and $0.1\%\;CaCl_2$. The production of collagenase was optimal at $30^{\circ}C$ for 72 hr. A collagenase was isolated from the culture filtrate of Bacillus subtilis JS-17. The enzyme was purified using Amberlite IRA-900 column chromatography, Sephacryl S-300 HR column chromatography and DEAE-Sephadex A-50 column chromatography The purified collagenase has an specific activity 192.1 units/mg. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 28 kDa by SDS-PACE. The purified collagenase has $100\%$ activity up to $55^{\circ}C$.