• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.3-40
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• 2018

Conventionally, there were few cases in which a medical accident became a criminal case in Japan. However, after the serious malpractice such as the Yokohama City University Hospital case, prosecutors came to be less hesitant to prosecute a malpractice. In a medical accident, the attribution of the responsibilities among medical personnel becomes one important element of the proof of negligence. The Supreme Court concluded that, when the attribution of the responsibilities is not established among medical personnel to confirm the identity of the patient like the Yokohama City University Hospital case, all the personnel who were involved bear the responsibilities to identify the patient. For serious cases which requireut most carefulness fortreatment such as the Saitama Medical University Hospital case, not only the chief physician in charge of the case concerned but also the director of the branch at the university hospital bear the responsibilities to confirm the treatment policy of the case. After the acquittal of the Ohno Hospital case, the voice demanding more prudent prosecution of malpractices has become stronger than before. Meanwhile, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare introduced Medical Accidents Investigation System for the prevention of medical accident and, has reinforced the third party inspection of medical accidents.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.141-164
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• 2002

The present study examined the variations in personality variables according to different types for the Korean view of the afterlife, including 'extinction type', 'the other world-oriented transmigration type', 'heaven/hell type' and 'obscurity type'. The results may be summarized as follows: (1) 'the other world-oriented transmigration type' and 'heaven/hell type' showed significantly stronger belief in a just world than 'extinction type', (2) 'extinction type' and 'obscurity type' showed more external attribution for accidents than 'heaven/hell type', (3) there was no difference in unrealistic optimism levels, (4) depending upon the types for the view of the afterlife, not only preferred self-enhancing biases but also positive illusions which related to life satisfaction were different, (5) 'extinction type' showed stronger risk-taking tendency than 'heaven/hell type'. These results were explained in terms of features that belong to each afterlife view. Finally, we discussed the limitation of this study and the directions for future study.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.41-59
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• 2002

The present study explored the major behavior patterns of drivers and the environmental settings having an effect on traffic accident using the data collected from drivers and traffic police. Drivers and traffic police read questionnaire which contain the passible causes of traffic accident and selected the major causes on the basis of their latest accidents. Unexperienced drivers were forced to answer the questionnaire by referring to their friends and neighborhoods. The results showed that the major causes of traffic accident were connected with the driver's factors. The most important cause of traffic accidents was inattention/incautiousness. The next were lack of competence, skill, and experience. One interesting fact was that drivers and traffic police attributed differently. Drivers pointed out the lack of ability coping with an emergency and the insufficient skill of defensive driving as causes of the traffic accident. On the other hand, traffic polices indicated the intentional violations such as the disregard for traffic rules, trespassing on the central line of the roadway, speed limit violation, and breaking into the vehicle's line. The implications for appling the this results to driver education institutions were discussed.