ABSTRACT Title: the Power distance star ? A study on how cultural power distance affects the business relation between Japanese and multinational companiesLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Therese Elofsson and Anna NyströmSupervisor: Jens Eklinder Frick and Jonas MolinDate: 2015 - JanuaryAim: The purpose of this study is to compile available research regarding the cultural aspect power distance, as it is being displayed and handled in business-relations between Japanese and multicultural business contacts. The culture in Japan differs from the culture in the western world and several companies testify that the Japanese market is difficult to act and expand upon. This study aims to provide explanations to these difficulties from a power distance perspective.Method: This study has compiled the theoretical knowledge and research in a model called ?the Power distance Star? (Figure 1), which is created and designed for this purpose.

Technological advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) have resulted ina need to use ICT in schools. Sweden has actively promoted ICT in schools since the early 1980's.In Japan, 1994 saw the government's first step towards active promotion of ICT in education. In thisstudy, we have compared the strategies used to promote the use of ICT in elementary and secondaryschools in Sweden and Japan. Our findings suggest that a similar 3-step approach was used in bothcountries: 1, infrastructure; 2, effective use of ICT; 3, implementation of ICT. A significantdifference was found in the way the two countries planned their strategies.

This study aims to analyse how sex and sexuality are presented in the Buddhism and Hinduism chapters of religious studies textbooks for upper secondary school. The chosen textbooks are all linked to the new curriculum Lgr 11 which was implemented in the Swedish school system in the spring of 2012. The textbooks were analysed by using two methods; content analysis and discourse analysis. Content analysis was used to examine with which frequency sexes and sexualities appear in the textbooks, while discourse analysis was used to find what discourses surround the two concepts. The discourse analysis used two theories in order to contextualize the several discourses about sex and sexuality.

Qigong was initiated by the Chinese government in the 1950´s as a domestic medical tradition to be included within a modern scientific framework. During the first decades it became popular among the élite. During the 70´s and 80´s scientific confirmation of the existence of qi contributed to its immense popularity among the population. Charismatic leaders with a traditional background were leading their groups in parks and the movement was booming. In 1992 Falun Gong was established by Li Hongzhi as qigong taken to a higher level.

The purpose of this essay was to compare the Swedish and the Japanese pension system and see if there were any big differences or similarities. I was looking for answers to such questions as if the systems were modelled with the problematic demographic situation in mind and also how these two countries had tried to manage the problems. Path dependency was also a central conception when I studied the reforms of the two pension systems. I mainly used literature and Internet sources in my study. There were many books on the Swedish pension system and the debates that had been going on since the 80's.

This thesis endavours to examine whether differences between original and translation in literary translation are systematic and predictable by studying a Swedish detective novel and its Japanese translation. The domain of the novel chosen for analysis is the reported speech (i.e. dialog).Translation Studies suggests that knowledge of the literary norms of the Target Language of the translation and of the status of translations in the Target Language's literary system, enables one to predict if and what differences between original and translation will appear.A survey of the scholarly literature concerning literary norms in the Japanese system and the status of translation within said system was performed and the following hypotheses were postulated: 1. Given sufficient knowledge of the norms of the Target Language's literary system and the status of translations within said system, the nature of differences between original and translation can be predicted. 2.

The aim of this thesis has been to analyze and interpret several different discourses in Japan and from the findings see how the Ainu people and their existence in Japan have been defined in today's Japan and in who's interest it is to keep it this way. My findings was that the Japanese nation in all channels of society are reinforcing and perpetuating the belief that it constitutes an ethnically homogenous nation and that there exists no ethnic problems in the country. I found that schoolbooks don?t give adequate information about the Ainu people and its history, and the Japanese press is reinforcing the status quo by their selective silence and limited coverage on issues concerning the Ainu. The government has defined and legitimized the problem of Ainu within the framework of culture and tradition.

This work examines how the aesthetics of Japanese actor and playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1346-1443) offers insight into the value of the unseen elements in art, specifically in the art of acting. What acting makes appear is likened to a vessel, which creates an empty space of what doesn?t appear. This non-appearing element is at the same time what gives the vessel its function. N? theater is described as an art of suggesting, giving a background to Zeami?s theories.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att försöka förstå vad mindfulness är, vad det kommer ifrån och vart det är på väg. Det kan finnas ett behov av att förstå mer om mindfulness, dels för de som arbetar med det, dels för de som i framtiden kommer att stöta på mindfulness, då inte minst socionomer. Uppsatsen frågar vad som ligger bakom mindfulness, hur en viss aspekt av buddhistisk meditation nu i vår tid har fått ett sådant genomslag? Vad det är rent konkret, går det att definiera? Vilka människor kan ha behov av mindfulness, förutom de som redan är behjälpta? Vad blir de nya riktningarna för mindfulness, kanske mer in i socialt arbete?Texterna om mindfulness som är analyserade är hämtade ifrån olika källor för att få en bred överblick av fenomenet. Förutom ren mindfulnesslitteratur även litteratur om buddhistisk meditation med mindfulness som fokus.

I Den onde, den gode och den fule. Jakten på den goda läroboken i Religionskunskap A ämnar vi att undersöka hur religionerna hinduism och buddhism presenteras i tre läromedelsböcker i Religionskunskap A för gymnasiet, samt hur väl Skolverkets styrdokument och en skola för alla förankras i dessa framställningar. Vi har använt oss av en komparativ analysmetod där vi har jämfört och ställt de tre läromedelsböckerna i relation till varandra för att kunna belysa deras likheter och skillnader. De teorier vi har använt oss av är: analytisk/positivistisk och hermeneutisk/dialektisk kunskapssyn, induktion, deduktion och abduktion samt ett etnocentriskt och genusrelaterat perspektiv. Teorierna bidrar till ett djup och en bredd i vår analys och belyser den mångfald som de tre läromedelsböckerna visar.

This paper discusses some concerns about Japanese gender identity as a construct and the subversive means to overthrow it. In my paper I claim that the eastern influences on Japan has created a gap between old and new gender- traditions and norms. This interspace is what the philosopher Judith Butler claims as the site for a possible gender transformation. As Butler claims gender identity to be a construct, I use her methods of understanding and subsequently queertheory, to investigate the construct of Japanese gender identity and also the norms that constitute a national identity. As I elaborate on this theory I use specific artworks from Morimura Yasumasa, Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine and also the all-male theatre kabuki vs.

This graduation paper is based on my interest for wood and its different tonal quality?s.After some time of thinking I decided to write my paper on the tonal difference between two of the most common woods in guitars, East Indian Rosewood and European Maple. I had built two identical guitars before my graduation paper in which the difference was the wood the back and sides were made of. One was being made of East Indian Rosewood and the other being made of European Maple.I chose to speak with a number of people with different angle of approach to the two kinds of wood and its tonal difference and quality?s.

The storm Gudrun January 8-9 2005 felled about 70 millions cubic metres forest in southern Sweden. The majority of the wind damaged forest was spruce (Picea abies). In order to decrease the risk of wind damages in the future other trees species are of interest for forestry in southern Sweden. The purpose of this master thesis was to study if larch were more wind tolerant than spruce. The method was to compare larch, Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi Lamb.), European larch (L.

This thesis examines and attempts to develop the theory of yakuwarigo as introduced by Kinsui (2003) by integrating both the visual and linguistic aspects of characters found in manga. We seek answers to what extent Japanese native speakers are capable of matching linguistic and visual characteristics of characters in manga. As well as whether they are consciously aware of how yakuwarigo affects their choices. Furthermore, it aims to present a framework capable of classifying, and categorizing different types of characters by their language use. This is accomplished by analyzing the motivation behind choices, by natives, whom were asked in a survey to match lines and artwork of characters in manga to form pairs.

The kimono is a simply cut costume with a very advanced tradition of the wearer, which Ihope to communicate through this essay. The long historical bakground of the kimono cangive a better understanding of its construction and its contexts as well as its individualconditions, all is to be taken in consideration before exhibiting the kimono. Relevantstudies in litterature has been applyed within these subjects, which are accounted forprimarily in the second and third chapter of this essay. The essay contains a study of thekimono with a strict delimitation towards four symbolic wearers, the subject is thenfurther discussed in relation to the different kind of installations at exhibits. In the fourthpart of the essay two educational study visits will function as a supplementary study forthe litterature studies meantioned earlier.