The radius of Earth is 6371 km, whereas the deepest borehole ever drilled reached only 12 km (0.2% of Earth radius) into Earth. It can be said that Earth’s deep interior is the place further than the universe. We analyze the seismic wave and explore the deep interior of the earth which can’t be seen directly. By analyzing propagation of the seismic wave, we investigate the temperature and the existence of magma and/or fluid, and we consider the dynamics of the Earth.

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.

The world is home to an estimated 11.1 million game developers, and this number continues to grow annually. The skills demanded of these professionals are constantly evolving due to the emergence of new platforms, the diversification of game genres, and the rapid advancement of technology. While some areas require highly specialized knowledge that drives the IT industry, the advent of sophisticated development tools has made it possible for even complete novices to create popular games, and those who utilize these tools can also thrive as accomplished developers. Our laboratory analyzes these shifts in the skills required of video game developers and their future prospects by investigating and analyzing global video game market trends and the progress of digital technology.

Simultaneously, by surveying the current situations and challenges faced by developers both in Japan and abroad, we delve into strategies for sustainable corporate growth in the rapidly changing game industry and the ideal approaches to human resource development within this context.

One of my research interests is the visual representation of relationships between observed variables. Graph modeling based on graph theory is used for this purpose. I and my collaborators have proposed a method of statistical computation using graph structures.

The other interest is the statistical analysis with missing data. In particular, my work is to develop statistical computation methods using the EM algorithm and Markov chain Monte Carlo. I am studying the acceleration of convergence of the EM algorithm and its application to statistical models.

CRM was developed by the laboratory of Yamaguchi is integrated in one database each company on another system decentralized information systems. Here, provides accurate customer information gathering, analysis and sharing. In addition, employees are working, you can take advantage of the system are. Plays the role of generating added value as a result, information infrastructure.

From this company is important, rather than in a specific department or human resources to implement CRM, employees share information, leverage and produce value added customer in problem-solving, while proposals to. It is a new concept of companies that cannot deliver value, judging by the value proposed by the companies using customer.

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.

In Japan, Eigyo is often confused with sales and treated as a subordinate concept of marketing. However, in reality, Eigyo in a company plays a broad role in “connecting” the company with its customers, each department within the company, each department within the customer’s company, partner companies, domestic and overseas, and even society. Our research focuses on Eigyo as a process of business transformation and social problem solving, rather than simply selling products and services, and as a value-creating entity.

Novel technologies to efficiently and safely disinfect agricultural products have been studied. We aim to contribute to food safety and security by developing innovative disinfection methods..

In addition, we have studied the effect of disinfectants against a range of pathogens on different materials, including influenza virus and feline calicivirus (a surrogate of human norovirus) as well as prions (most resistant pathogen). We also analyzed the likely mechanism of pathogen inactivation. Given our focus of research, we would like to collaborate with companies to assist in evaluating products as well as developing new technologies.

We study on the biological characteristics of fish parasites with the aim of disease control. Also, many fish parasites in seafoods have been subject to complaints by comsumers. However, fish parasites normally live in wild environments, and it is crucial to discriminate between harmful and harmless for humans.
To improve the quality of farmed fishes, we try to feed grape pomace, effluent from winemaking, on the immunity and health condition in cultured fishes.

Smooth muscle cells are major components of the organ walls of organs, such as artery, gastrointestinal tract, bladder and trachea. Smooth muscle cell motility is highly regulated by nerve and hormonal stimuli. Accumulating lines of evidence suggest that impaired smooth muscle motility is involved in a variety of diseases, such as hypertension, digestive dysfunction, asthma, and dysuria. To elucidate the molecular basis of smooth muscle diseases, and to develop their effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, we have been studying the mechanisms that regulate smooth muscle motor function. Meanwhile, we have discovered a protein that regulates smooth muscle contractile function and have elucidated the underlying mechanism by which the protein mediates regulation of smooth muscle motility. We now study the signals in smooth muscle disease.
In parallel with our research on smooth muscle disease, we are assisting in the development of devices and products to improve the quality of life of animals, including pets, and their owners through collaborative research.

I am working for epidemiological research on infectious diseases in animals, especially dirofilariasis and ectoparasite infections in dogs and cats, to aim at contribution to prevention. Furthermore, I am working for development of new drugs for animals. And I am also expanding the appropriate use of drugs in animals through pharmacoepidemiological research on usage survey, re-examination of efficacy and incidence of side effects of already-existing drugs.
Photos are a cat flea and a tick. Cat fleas are mundanely detected on dogs as well as cats, and also on humans in recent years in Japan. Ticks have gotten a lot of attention recently as vectors of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS). I am working for development of ectoparasiticides.

Our laboratory has established a technique to examine the composition of the mammary flora by comprehensively analyzing the bacterial DNA (16S rRNA gene) contained in milk. Using this technology, we clarified that the relationship between SCC and mammary flora composition of healty cows (left figure). It has also become clear that there is a possible relationship between the composition of the mammary flora and the amount of the immune substance (lactoferrin) contained in milk (right figure). We are conducting research not only for the development of new treatments for bovine mastitis, but also for the application of new mastitis prevention methods using intramammary innate immunity.　　

For neruvous system to function properly, each component cell must be produced in adequate numbers, placed in the correct position, and correctly networked with each other. Any failure in any of these processes can impair neurological function and cause neurological and psychiatric disorders. Through the generation and analysis of animal models of neurological and psychiatric disorders, I am working to elucidate the pathogenesis of these diseases and to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying the development of neural tissue, especially the process of neural network formation.

There are many types of chemical compounds in our environment, and some of them have negative effects on our bodies. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for various diseases such as atherosclerosis, hypertention, COPD, and cancer. However, there are no clear information which chemical compounds in the cigarette smoke have negative effects on our bodies and cause these diseases. I have previously identified unsaturated carbonyl compounds as stable cytotoxic factors in the gas phase of cigarette smoke. The unsaturated carbonyl compounds are also contained in the smoke from combustion of organic materials such as woods, oil, coal. Thus, the unsaturated carbonyl compounds are regarded as environmental pollutants. The purpose of my study is elucidation of the molecular mechanisms for cytotoxicity of environmental pollutants including unsaturated carbonyl compounds.

Tumors in companion animals (e.g., dogs and cats) have been increased with the advances in veterinary medicine, reaching to the top cause of death. To overcome it, we need to understand their pathology, i.e., why they occur and how they progress. Currently, I am studying the mechanisms of tumor progression in various companion animal cancers, mainly focusing on canine mammary gland tumors or urothelial cancers, with molecular biological methods as well as state-of-art technology like comprehensive genetic analysis (e.g., microarray, RNA-seq, exome analysis, whole genome analysis), single-cell RNA-seq, or spatial transcriptomics. Also, I am working on the development of deep-learning-based artifical intelligence models with my expertise on bioinformatics to help diagnostic radiology.

Chronic exposure to psychological stress leads to increased levels of hormones and cytokines, including glucocorticoids, in the blood or brain tissue. These substances may be involved in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders such as depression. To study the chronic effects of glucocorticoids on the nervous system, we are creating animal models of depression to identify useful targets for the treatment of depression. Steroid hormones are also known to protect nerve cells (neuroprotection) and I am investigating how this action is altered in the pathogenesis of depression and whether it can be used to develop treatments.

Liife expectancy is getting longer in developed countries, which result in progressive increase in the number of elderly individuals. In parallel, the number of patients with neurodegenerative diseases that cannot yet be cured or significantly slowed, such as frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is increasing. The cytoplasmic aggregation and accumulation of the nuclear protein TAR DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43) is a hallmark of FTD and ALS. TDP-43 action in the nucleus is essential for cellular homeostasis, and TDP-43 aggregation in the cytoplasm is toxic to cells. These findings indicate that TDP-43 accumulation in the cytoplasm mediates development of FTD and ALS. Notably, TDP-43 pathology in the affected region spread over brain and spinal cord simlar to prion diseases. However, the mechanism for cell-to-cell spreading of TDP-43 pathology has been unknown. We previously showed that macroautophagy, a cellular degradation system, suppress aggregate-prone TDP-43 accumulation. Thus, we examine whether dysregulation of macroautophagy develops TDP-43 pathology. For cure of neurodegenerative diseases such as FTD and ALS through suppression of TDP-43 pathology, we are working on fundamental reserach.

Typical gallbladder diseases in dogs include biliary sludge, gallbladder mucocele, and cholelithiasis, but the pathophysiology remains unclear. I am investigating safer treatment methods by clarifying the detailed pathophysiology of canine gallbladder disease.
In addition, the progress of diagnostic imaging technology in veterinary medicine is remarkable, and I am also working on the application of these data to surgical anatomy (vascular anatomy, etc.), and using these, considering a more safer surgical methods.