Our laboratory conducts petrological research on granites widely distributed in southwestern Japan, using fieldwork as the main means of study. In addition to granite, we also reserch to tuffs and basic igneous rocks. Informatics technics, such as GIS are used in study. In addition, granite weathering, landform formation, stone material utilization, etc. are being studied.

How can the population ｓustain in wetlands where the environment spatially and temporally fluctuates? We study the ecology of amphibians and reptiles in wetlands as target areas. Also, we study the anthropogenic impacts, such as paddy improvement and abandonment, on those populations from the viewpoint of conservation biology as well as ecology and evolution.

Based on fieldwork in flood zones from the Himalayan highlands above 4,000 meters to the zero-meter flood zones, we are trying to elucidate the actual disaster conditions and land development processes in each region. In contrasting between regions, we emphasize primary data and attempt to relativize the issues.

“Home economics” in school education aims to improve the skill of homemaking through the velationships between oneself and their family, their consumption habit, their eating habit, their dwelling life, their clothing life and so on.
“Home economics” is concerned with not only our claily life but some subjects life social studies and science. Moreover it’s very important to reflect on your home life so far.
I investigate how “Home economics” should be and I design exciting, satisfactory and practical classes.

In recent marketing research, the concept of value co-creation, in which different actors such as companies and customers collaborate to create value, has become mainstream. From the perspective of value co-creation, this laboratory studies how customers’ perceived experiences influence their well-being and how the experiences of frontline employees, who are service providers, influence customer experiences.
Recently, we have also been working on the interaction between service robots and customer experience, considering that service robots, such as catering robots, have been becoming an indispensable part of our lives and workplaces.

To survive, the firm needs to construct the new environment where it can achieve competitive advantage. To do so, it first redefines the meanings of the existing resources. After the meaning of a resource changes, the meaning of its resource dependence may also change. The firm makes sense of the context of resource and resource dependence to stakeholders. It then creates its own business model. I research on such firm that changes its project purpose, its strategy and its organizational structure flexibly, and the ecosystem where firms don’t possess exclusively any resource but try to coexist with the others.

Now that Covid19 has settled down, the diversification of inbound customers will progress. Japan’s tourist areas will be required to be tourist areas that respond to diverse values such as religious diversity such as Halal, veganism, and LGBTQ. It means that each tourist area is required to select the value that is sought and to work on regional development that makes use of the strengths of the area.
Tourism has a broad base and a huge and growing market all over the world. In addition, it is an attractive industry that can realize tourism that benefits all people involved in tourism, including the industry, the business operators, and tourists.
I am interested in researching ways to help realize such a tourist area.

In today’s highly complex society, it is difficult to realize the value that each seeks without transcending the traditional boundaries between the public and private sectors, or between providers and consumers, and integrating each other’s resources. In this laboratory, we are conducting research on the ideas and methods of service design that enable to cross boundaries from conventional standpoints, and on the possibility of co-creating new value through their utilization. We are aiming for practical research that overcomes barriers that hinder the revitalization of organizations and regions, such as diffused hotels that renovate vacant houses and stores into lodging facilities and transform entire town into hotels.

Let me introduce the second topic of my research interests:
Consider a situation in which we wish to select items or variables so as to delete the redundant variables or to make a small dimensional rating scale to measure latent traits, variable selection in principal component analysis (PCA) is necessary to identify a subset of variables that represents all variables as much as possible.
In the figure below, the left-hand plot is a scatter plot of the 1st and 2nd principal components (PCs) obtained based on all 19 original variables, and the right-hand plot is based on seven selected variables. Little difference exists between the two configurations of PCs. This illustrates the meaningfulness of variable selection in PCA since selected variables can provide almost the same result as the original variables if the goal of the analysis is to observe the configuration of the PCs.

We can perform the variable selection in PCA as a prior analysis in big data analysis, and apply the proposed selection procedures to other multivariate methods such as factor analysis and correspondence analysis.In this topic, we also study on how to deal with categorical/qualitative data (for the first topic), and how to improve the computation effectively (for the third topic).

In response to the crisis of social, cultural, and economic sustainability in rural areas caused by declining birthrates and aging populations, the regional management movement, in which industry, academia, government, and the private sector collaborate to solve problems, has attracted attention.
In this laboratory, we support the construction of marketing databases for tourism marketing organizations that practice regional management, while analyzing the information obtained from these databases and examining effective regional management strategies.
There are two topics in this laboratory,
(1) Research on the relationships and roles among entities in effectively functioning regional management,
(2) Research on the construction of a marketing database that contributes to the formulation of regional management strategies and on evaluation indices for regional management.

I collect various data on people’s behavior, attitudes, and psychological states, and conduct research to explore relationships among variables. I focus on social science research methods such as questionnaires and online experiments, but I also aim to conduct research in collaboration with adjacent fields such as humanities and engineering.
In particular, I am interested in understanding mechanisms by which people in a position to evaluate and make choices, such as consumers and users of services, compare objects and make decisions. I am currently focusing on the following research topics. (1) Research on mechanisms by which consumers compare and select products and services bearing brand names or proper nouns such as names of places or people. (2) Research on mechanisms by which tourists, current residents, and prospective residents evaluate attractiveness of regions such as prefectures and municipalities. (3) Research on mechanisms by which users evaluate satisfaction with SNS, the Internet, and services using 5G technology.

[Health promotion and lifelong sports]
The important thing is to keep exercising. Sports are also important from the perspective of release stress and mental health. Wearable devices have made it possible to measure heart rate and walking distance during exercise. I promote research that contributes to health promotion and lifelong sports.
[Choice reaction time and performance]
The study of choice tasks leads to improved sports performance. The study of reaction time improved prevent accidents. I am studying reaction time and selection tasks.
[Environmental temperature and physiological stress]
Physiological stress during exercise in a hot or cold environment is evaluated using indices such as heart rate and body temperature. I am studying against heatstroke and prevention of hypothermia.

Despite being primarily developed for industrial purposes and not intended for direct human consumption, many chemical substances still come into contact with the human body and organisms in the environment through various pathways, such as water, air, and other environmental factors. Ensuring a safe and secure society requires a thorough evaluation of the toxicity of pharmaceuticals and chemical substances.
In our laboratory, we conduct research on the toxicity of chemical substances through comprehensive gene expression analysis and obtain omics data to elucidate the molecular-level mechanisms, a field known as toxicogenomics. In addition to utilizing omics technology for understanding the inter-organ coordination of energy metabolism in vivo, our research also focuses on elucidating pathological processes in both humans and dogs.

Veterinary pathology is the study of the causes of animal diseases and the study of their mechanisms. The results revealed by veterinary pathology are returned to clinical practice to help diagnose and treat animal diseases. Although our research targets all kinds of animals other than humans, we also contribute to the human medicine through basic research using laboratory animals.
I have experience in pathological diagnosis in a variety of animals, including companion animals, industrial animals, laboratory animals, wild animals, exotic animals, zoo and aquarium animals, fish, and invertebrates. I aim to identify issues from spontaneous diseases seen in various animals and to conduct research that can be fed back to clinical practice. At the same time, I will develop basic research using experimental pathological methods.

Quantitative analysis of histopathological changes and brain atrophy using volumetric MRI in BSE prions to cynomolgus macaques. Our results point out that C-BSE and L-BSE infected monkeys could be compatible models of vCJD and sCJD of human.
Administration of the compound in macaques infected with BSE slowed down the development of neurological and psychological symptoms. The de novo rational design of chaperone compounds could lead to therapeutics that can bind to different prion protein strains to ameliorate the pathology of Prion disease.

We are conducting research to return the relationship between both animals and humans to a more natural state by using low and high frequencies to deter roadkill and railkill as well as beast damage control. The low-frequency “InoDon kumaDon” uses sensors to drive away wild boars, bears, etc. trapped there, and the high-frequency “Hyper Deer Sonic” uses a timer to run for a certain time and is used on deer, birds, etc., with great results. There is no effect on other animals or humans. The high-frequency type is available in vehicle-mounted and installed types, while the low-frequency type is only available in the installed type due to the large diameter of the speaker. However, a portable type, Hyper Deer Sonic, is currently under development and is highly anticipated by people in the forestry and mountaineering industries.

We are concerned with biomimetic microstructure formed by self-spreading behavior of phospholipid molecular assembly in nanotechnology fields. Especially, a pollen like structure formed by egg-yolk phosphatidylcholine myelin figures has been studied by use of an optical microscopy. Budding of giant liposomes (GUV ~ 50µm) from the tip of spore like structure were observed. The size of GUV and the forming behavior were discussed using a geometric packing shape and a phase separation phenomenon of phospholipid molecules.

The difficult past was a catastrophic event that led to “mass death,” and the damage was felt not only by the dead but also by the survivors. This applies to wars, pollution damage, isolation policies for Hansen’s disease, pollution damage, etc. Furthermore, because such damage involves a complex relationship between perpetrators and victims, the “interpretation = meaning” of the event is likely to be divided depending on one’s position, making it difficult to pass on experiences. Based on the concepts of collaboration and ESD, I create spaces for dialogue, practice public history, and deepen my research on the inheritance of difficult past experiences.

In these days of drastic social change, it is difficult to predict how the future will unfold. Crime is also facing an endless number of unique crimes of lone offenders, as seen in the murder of former Prime Minister Abe, the extended suicide case in Kyoto Animation, and the murders that occur in closed rooms on trains. Such crimes cause anxiety among the public and have a significant impact on safety and security, which is the foundation of society. Given the limitations of the limited human resources of the police, we are researching efficient police activities and new investigation methods utilizing ICT, as well as crime prediction through crime occurrence analysis.
In addition, in order to protect the lives of citizens who are extremely difficult to rescue by self-help and mutual aid in the event of a disaster such as a torrential downpour or a massive earthquake caused by global climate change, we are conducting research on how local governments, self-defense forces, fire departments, and police can act to protect citizens by utilizing ICT technology to gather information on their daily living conditions. We are also conducting research on how local governments, the Self-Defense Forces, fire departments, and police can act to protect the public.

In metal complexes, the metal ion and ligands bind together in specific arrangements or shapes, forming a stable structure as a unified compound. Through these interactions, metal complexes can exhibit new functional properties that were not observed in the individual metal ions.