Based on the view that the environmental crisis originates from a crisis of imagination, this research unit examines relationships with the "other," which includes not only humans but also non-humans. More than human More Than Human The unit members, who specialize in ecocriticism, soundscape, Japanese literature, American literature, British literature, and language philosophy, have been realigning their respective areas of expertise in order to establish a research and education network for environmental humanities at our university.
In 2023, we deepened mutual understanding among members and the consideration of research topics through research meetings, and also supported preparations to establish the Environmental Humanities Program in the Master's Program Department of English and American Literature Graduate School of Literature. This program is jointly run by Rikkyo University's Graduate School of Intercultural Communication, Meiji University's Graduate Graduate School of Science and Engineering Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, and the above-mentioned graduate school at our university (see diagram), and will start in 2024. It is a groundbreaking program that will be a pioneer in Japanese higher education.

Making exercise a habit contributes to the prevention and improvement of lifestyle-related diseases, sarcopenia, and frailty. However, there are various barriers to making exercise a habit, and only about 25% of adults in the world exercise enough. Therefore, in this study, we have developed a method that combines electrical stimulation with completely passive isokinetic cycling exercise that anyone can do without effort or difficulty. As a result, it was shown that this exercise requires no effort, improves muscle strength with short-term training, makes various movements in daily life feel easier, and continues to reduce stress, blood glucose levels, and blood lactate levels. These facts suggest that this exercise may be very beneficial for maintaining and improving physical strength and health, especially for people who dislike or are not good at exercise and have low physical strength. However, it was also shown that muscle strength did not improve with a once-a-week intervention, and it was considered necessary to create conditions that allow it to be performed at home in areas with poor transportation access. Some of these findings will be presented in international academic journals, international conferences, and domestic conferences, and will be published as new academic papers and books in 2024.

The purpose of this research is to clarify the mechanisms of change in the international order using the perspective and methods of network analysis, which has been spreading across the social sciences in recent years. Specifically, we aim to "visualize" the structures of inter-state cooperation that have been formed in different regions and policy areas, and to elucidate the factors and mechanisms that are bringing about these changes. In doing so, our research unit shares the understanding that theories and data analysis methods of network science provide effective and innovative analytical tools to achieve these goals.
One of the advantages of analyzing international relations with network science is that it enables a deep and systematic understanding of the connections between the micro (the actions of individual actors, including nations) and the macro (the structure and order of inter-state relations). Although past analyses of international order have also placed emphasis on "microfoundations," this alone is not enough to capture changes at the macro level. In network science, the micro actors are the individual nodes (points), and these nodes create various interactions through the link structure, making it possible to capture the connections between the micro and macro in a way that affects the entire network.
With these issues in mind, each member of this research project is deepening their understanding of the potential applications of network science to international relations, while also conducting exploratory research into changes in inter-national ties based on data that they have access to and can use.

Oxygen in living cells is essential for maintaining vital activities and exhibits various functions within the cells. On the other hand, it is known that a lack of oxygen occurs in serious diseases such as cancer, and knowing the oxygen concentration within cells is extremely important as it can lead to the detection of the occurrence and malignancy of cancer. Our research unit "Oxygen Probe" was established to develop a method to easily measure the oxygen concentration within cells and biological tissues. In 2023, we focused on the fact that the quenching azide group is reduced in cells with low oxygen concentrations (hypoxic cells), and succeeded in developing a functional molecule (molecular probe) that emits light in the cell nucleus and mitochondria of hypoxic cells. This molecule can also track the history of changes in oxygen concentration, so it is expected to become a new cancer diagnostic drug that uses oxygen concentration as an indicator.

Each participant conducted research in line with the theme of this project: "Is housing a social entity, and how is it related to community formation?"
Continuing from last year, Nagayama used the Hallschlag district of Stuttgart, Germany, as an example to analyze the degree of mobility of residents in the public housing on Dessauer Strasse, which was built in 1955 in response to the influx of East German refugees, as well as the actual movement of residents and changes in the occupational distribution of residents. Comparing 1955 with 1969, he found that the public housing on this street was dominated by people working in the city's main industries and related industries, something that is common to other districts. However, their mobility and the increasing proportion of widows are distinctive features of this district, and it can be said that they influenced the way the community was formed.
Continuing from last year, Kinoshita explored how housing security in Japanese society from the 17th to 20th centuries was determined by "market principles and personal responsibility." He clarified the meaning of guaranteeing "dignified" housing through "market principles and personal responsibility" for villagers in early modern Japan. Furthermore, a survey of tenant farming practices in the 1920s revealed that there was not a single prefecture in which it was common practice for landlords to provide or rent their main houses to tenant farmers. Even in the landlord system that developed in modern times, tenant farmers still had to make an effort to maintain and manage their homes at their own "personal responsibility."
Kuroishi has conducted research into the relationship between housing and communities from three angles. 1) Regarding the housing plans developed by Nishiyama Uzo and others by the Japan Housing Corporation during the war and the Japan Housing Corporation after the war, he has not only focused on the conventional methodology but also examined the ideas and concerns behind the paternalistic characteristics of the plans using archival materials. 2) Using the archives of the Rockefeller Foundation, he investigated the perspective and direction of cultural policy during the postwar US occupation. 3) He has been researching how plans for apartment complexes, the main form of postwar public housing in Japan, were positioned in urban planning, their development after the Great Kanto Earthquake, and their relationship to the accelerated suburban development and community formation after the war.
Cedar conducted research on company housing in Omuta coal mines, focusing on gender, labor movements, and memory. The housing, which was provided in the hope of attracting workers and ensuring their obedient work, became a place for housewives' lifestyle movements, such as the "Housewife Association," after the war, and also a site of strikes, including conflicts within the housing. Furthermore, after the company housing was demolished, the memories and records of the community were more clearly recognized and maintained based on the fact that the housing had existed.
Three members of the unit gave presentations at the international conference EAJS on a panel on an international comparison of housing policies and the development of well-being. They incorporated some of the knowledge they gained at this research seminar into their presentations. As with last year, we also held online lectures, with Reinhilde Kreis giving a lecture titled "A hands on approach. Squatting, DIY and city planning in Germany since the 1970s" and Jan Logemann giving a lecture titled "Consumption (and Housing) in Postwar (West) Germany". It was a year in which we were able to advance international academic exchange.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000, advocated "Women, Peace, and Security" and recommended the deployment of female personnel to UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs), but the impact of female personnel on PKO performance is still unclear. Therefore, this research unit is trying to clarify what effect increasing the number of female personnel has on reducing violence against civilians in conflict areas by analyzing data on the number of victims of violent incidents and interviewing people involved in research and practice of PKO cases such as South Sudan. By empirically evaluating the effects of gender diversity in PKOs, we hope to also link this to policy recommendations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have switched from on-site surveys to agent-based methods, but our analysis so far has shown that female personnel in the police department may have a greater impact on suppressing violence in conflict areas than the military department. In the future, we plan to further verify the policy effects and also conduct case studies, including online ones.

The issues of a declining birthrate and aging population, and energy issues, are perhaps the most frequently seen news these days. Japan's population, which reached 128.07 million in 2010, has since begun to decline, and is predicted to fall below 90 million by 2065. Meanwhile, the Japanese government, which had long been reluctant to take measures against global warming, has begun to accelerate its efforts since declaring itself to be carbon neutral.
Now, one might think simply that "if the population decreases due to a declining birthrate and aging population, energy consumption will naturally decrease as well," but things are not that simple. This is because as the population ages and the birthrate declines, the standard lifestyle of households also changes, and social structure also changes. In this project, we conducted international joint research with the Autonomous University of Barcelona to investigate the impact of demographic changes on energy consumption.
So far, we have published papers on our findings in specialist journals such as Int. J. Econ. Policy Stud. and Popul. Environ., and we plan to publish the final results as a book through Routledge in February 2025.

In this research unit, we have been exploring the contemporary significance of the biblical concept of "reconciliation" in a modern world where division and conflict are becoming more severe. In particular, we have been conducting biblical research with the aim of making religious contributions to the post-COVID era and to the world facing the crises in Ukraine and Gaza.
The Babylonian Captivity, which had a decisive influence on the creation of the Old Testament, was an event that completely overturned the existing values, systems, and religious views of the ancient Israelite community, which had succumbed to the overwhelming power of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This historical watershed event was also an opportunity to develop the idea of reconciliation and coexistence with different others, after the loss of their homeland and dispersion.
Based on philological, literary, and influence-historical research of the Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek texts that serve as the basis for this study, the project will also examine how "reconciliation" is related to other concepts, such as "forgiveness," "redemption," "justice," and "compromise." The project aims to publish the results of its research in 2024.

Electrons have an elementary charge and spin on their own axis like a top (electron spin), and spin devices are attracting attention as the ultimate next-generation ultra-low power consumption element that generates no heat or loses energy. Among these, there are mysterious substances called "topological materials" whose spin does not stop even if they hit any obstacle, and they are attracting great expectations. We are researching this topological spin element by creating semiconductors that are only a few atomic layers thick by mechanically peeling off crystals with cellophane tape.
This year, they discovered that attaching this topological atomic layer to a special substrate (STO) with a high dielectric constant gives rise to a new quantum phase called the "Quantum Hall Topological Insulator (QHTI)." This discovery was published in the German journal Advanced Materials, which boasts an impact factor of 32, and has become a hot topic.

It is said that international students who wish to find employment in Japan account for approximately 65% of the total number of international students. The government is also promoting the acceptance of foreign students as part of its measures to combat the declining birthrate and aging population, and the acceptance of highly specialized foreign talent, such as international students from our university, into Japanese companies and society is considered essential for Japan's sustainable development. In recent years, support has been provided by government agencies and educational institutions, but the actual employment rate of international students remains at around 40%. There are various reasons for this, but from the perspective of Japanese communication, one of the biggest barriers is a lack of business Japanese communication skills, which vary depending on the industry and business sector. Therefore, in this study, we worked on a system using ICT that would allow international students from our university and international students from domestic universities to gradually acquire advanced business Japanese communication skills throughout their time at the university. Specifically, we worked on (1) building a corpus by investigating the actual language situation in the business world, and (2) developing on-demand learning materials based on the corpus. In the second year, 2023, we considered the LMS system that would serve as the basis for on-demand learning materials. In relation to the research, we planned and supervised the video production project "Planning and Production of Publicity for the New Residence Status "Specified Skills"" (produced by NTV AXON) commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and worked to understand the actual situation of foreign residents working in various regions of Japan and to disseminate information about that situation. As for the LMS, we are also working on creating videos and quizzes to improve the learning effect. Our goal is to provide high-quality education to people in Japan and overseas who need to learn business Japanese, and in the future we would like to implement and operate the system, create usable content and conduct trial research, and expand the system and make it public.