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This paper aims to examine a conflict between local élites and local forest workers in relation to the designation of Kumano Kodo in Japan as a World Heritage site. Aesthetics of landscapes are highly politicized, which creates conflicts for forest workers.

The study examines two concepts of “heritage” and “authenticity,” that World Heritage emphasizes. Types of authenticity are compared, and a post‐structuralist's model of authenticity is developed. The study uses empirical research data to show a process of authentication of tourist sites.

The value associated with World Heritage, while proclaimed as “universal value”, represents a Eurocentric hegemonic power that local élites use symbolically. The construction of Kumano Kodo as a World Heritage site entails masking local histories and memories.

Many scholars discuss heritage sites from the viewpoint of a conflict between nationalism and globalism. This paper, however, views heritage tourism from multiple perspectives, such as globalism, cosmopolitanism and localism.

Controversy occurs among professionals, such as veterinarians and zookeepers in Japan, as to whether a zoo should be educational or recreational. The purpose of this paper is to examine how a zoo's culturally crafted entertainment value conflicts with educational value. Using a front/back framework of the zoo, both entertainment and educational values are negotiated.

This paper conceptualizes differences between a zoo's front and back regions to examine operations and visitor behavior. Observing and interpreting visitor and zoo employee interactions provide rich data about the educational versus recreational dynamic. The author observes visitor behavior in both zoo regions and interprets their cognitive schema.

Animal representation in mass media reinforces the zoo animal's amusement value to visitors, leading to the construction of tourist texts. Tourist text images affect the viewer's perception of reality, sometimes conflicting with the animal's reality. The zoo's back region helps alleviate this paradox. In this process, tour guides play a mediatory role between entertainment and educational values.

The author argues about zoos and zoo animals from the Cartesian dualism view of “culture/nature”. A zoo represents culture's triumph over nature. This paper develops this idea and discusses how entertainment and educational values conflict, and are reconciled, from the perspective of symbolic and pragmatic dimensions.

The study aims to determine whether dislike of vegetables is associated with the presence of metabolic disorders.

Cross‐sectional analysis of the data of middle‐aged (range 51–59 years) male personnel of the Self‐Defense Forces.

Of subjects studied, 76.4 per cent answered they liked vegetables, 19.2 per cent were intermediate between liking and dislike and 4.4 per cent disliked vegetables. The odds ratio (95 per cent CI) of vegetable dislike to like was 2.22 (1.08–4.57) for the presence of diabetes, 2.46 (1.23–4.94) for hyper‐triglyceridemia and 2.54 (1.33–4.86) for high γ‐glutamyl transferase in a logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and lifestyle factors. Vegetable dislike did not correlate with hypertension, hypercholesterol‐emia or obesity. Vegetable consumption did not correlate with diabetes.

The results do not show a cause–result relationship. Observed findings may not be applied to age‐matched general population, or to older, younger, female or other ethnic persons.

Vegetable dislike may be regarded as a simple marker of metabolic status including type 2 diabetes.

The authors show the cross‐sectional association between dislike of vegetables and type 2 diabetes.

Non‐recovery of wool Futon padding was investigated by compression and creep tests. Simulation tests are also carried out to use the minuter model Futon. Fibre crimp was found to be an important parameter to be considered in the non‐recovery of Futon. Futon padding which consists of crimpy fibre has large apparent fibre density and shows less reduction of thickness compared with those made from uncrimpy fibres. The moisture inside and outside the Futon has a large influence on the recovery process.

Investigates the effects of moisture transfer on the compression properties and the volume change of wool, polyester and cotton futon padding by taking a series of creep measurements under three relative humidities and obtaining master creep curves from these curves at 20°C, 65 per cent RH. Discovers that the compression phenomena for wool, which absorbed the moisture from a drying state, were different from those obtained from desorption. Reveals that crimpy fibre assembly showed more volume change and better recovery than uncrimpy fibre assembly at high water content. Notes that the fibre crimp is also an important parameter for wool fibre assembly at high water content as well as standard condition.