Published papers

 As ageing of the population progresses, long-term care becomes a more pressing health issue. In Japan, the gap between healthy life expectancy and average life span is expected to grow; therefore, it is necessary to extend healthy life expectancy while minimising the need for long-term care. The effect of indoor air temperature on the health of the elderly has recently attracted attention. Thus, in this study, we clarify the relationship between the indoor thermal environment and the care requirements of the elderly.  This research was conducted as a field study comprising actual measurements of indoor thermal environment, questionnaire surveys, and data collection from face sheets in 2014. The study area was Senri New Town, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Participants were elderly residents (65-91 years) who were using a day service facility. The indoor air temperature 1.1 m above the floor was measured over approximately 2 weeks in the living room, bedroom, corridor, and dressing room at 5-min intervals. Relative humidity was also measured in the living room and bedroom concurrently. Questionnaire surveys regarding personal factors and housing were distributed. Data about health conditions and diseases requiring care were also collected. Data about care level, date of care certification, and care certification period were collected from long-term care insurance cards.  Regarding the frequency of feeling cold in each of the rooms, participants who answered “1) Frequently” and “2) Sometimes” were assigned to the high-frequency group, whereas those who answered “3) Seldom” and “4) Never” were assigned to the low-frequency group. Mean living room and dressing room temperatures were significantly lower in the high-frequency group than in the low-frequency group (p < 0.01). Mean room temperatures were also compared between houses with different insulation performance. The mean room temperatures in the corridors and dressing rooms were lowest for “Pre-1980 standards” households, and highest for “Over 1992 standards”.  The results describe the differences in room temperature between the frequency of feeling cold in dressing rooms, which is affected by low insulation performance, and verifies the association between indoor thermal environment and long-term care through subjective evaluation. The Kaplan-Meier (KM) method was used to analyse the speed of certification for the participants' long-term care needs. The age at which half of the group was certificated was 76 years in the high-frequency group and 80 years in the low-frequency group (p < 0.05). The chi-square test showed that there were no significant differences in personal factors between the two groups, confirming that the result in KM method could be explained by the difference in the thermal environment in the dressing rooms.  Our results suggest that it is necessary to maintain an appropriate indoor thermal environment to prevent the need for long-term care, especially the indoor thermal environment in rooms other than the living room, such as the dressing room. The results of this study are expected to promote improvements in the indoor thermal environment, thereby contributing to care prevention among frail elderly people.

© 2020 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. This study attempts a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, within the context of annual operations by type of business in each division of Japanese municipality, based on the LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) method. LIME2 (Life-Cycle Impact Assessment Method Based on Endpoint Modeling 2) is an example of an endpoint-type LCIA method developed in Japan. Annual environmental impacts of municipalities nationwide are assessed by LIME2 from the perspective of environmental damage, indexed to the Japanese yen. Here, this index is referred to as the "Eco-index Yen". The availability of necessary inventory data in each category is surveyed from statistical information published by governments. From the assessment results based on these conditions, the annual damage amount of all Japanese municipalities taken together is 4.63 trillion yen. The assessment result of each municipality is converted into indicators per capita and per GRP (Gross Regional Product). These results are displayed on a map of Japan to visualize regional characteristics nationwide by type of business, across different types of industries, including the residential and transportation sectors. As described in this study, these results provide a first step toward constructing a new methodology for comprehensive environmental impact assessment of administrative units.

This paper describes the results of a literature survey and comparative analysis of unit energy consumption data in the commercial sector. First, we collected 59 documents, including survey reports by administrative agencies, research papers by individual researchers, estimates based on existing surveys, and energy supply statistics. Then, we compared the data and clarified the consistency and variation. To determine the factors causing the variation, we used a dataset on completed buildings, compiled by the Japan Building Mechanical and Electrical Engineers Association.

We conducted a survey on economic impact of CASBEE score and intellectual productivity. We found some effective correlation between CASBEE scores and rents. For example, rents of CASBEE building have possibility to be 3.6% higher rents compared to those of non-CASBEE buildings. We also observed correlation between intellectual productivity score and rents. We will disseminate such findings to market players in Japan in order to promote green properties.

Using material flowcharts on wood and carbon, the study was made as follows: 1) With flowcharts developed on building-related woody waste and forest, wood residues, the current status was analyzed. 2) Through field survey, regional supply-demand imbalance was revealed as a major obstacle to of wood residue utilization 3) Subsequently, carbon flow analyses resulted in different carbon evaluations depending on whether fixed carbon was considered or not. but either case showed utilization of wood residues has substantial effects on fixed-carbon increase. 4) The study concludes that utilization of wood residues can help bring about a lower carbon society.

 A cardiac disease is the second most common cause of death and a cerebrovascular disease is the fourth, a major cause of which is hypertension. Hypertension is an asymptomatic disease, which is called “silent killer”, affecting one-third of the population. Therefore, it is essential not only “high risk approaches” which are measures for hypertensive individuals such as treatment with an antihypertensive drug but also “population approaches” which are measures to reduce blood pressure (BP) of entire nation toward prevention of Hypertension.  Against this background, the effects of the indoor thermal environment on BP have attracted attention because it affects asymptomatic individuals. Now some studies on the relationship between BP and indoor thermal environment are accumulated. But most of the studies are cross-sectional studies, so there is a real need for follow-up studies and actual proof of causal correlation between BP and indoor thermal environment. This study aimed to demonstrate antihypertensive effects by moving to high thermal insulation performance houses.  Follow-up studies on home BP and indoor temperature was conducted before and after moving in winter 2014 and 2015. Home BP was measured by participants twice daily: before getting into bed in the evening and after getting out of bed in the morning for two weeks. Indoor temperature at 1.1 m above the floor was measured in the living room, bedroom, bathroom, and dressing room at 10-min intervals. During the survey periods, participants recorded the wake time and bedtime each day in a diary. Questionnaire surveys on personal factors and housing were also carried out. Besides, questionnaire surveys on housing were distributed to building contractor to get a reliable answer.  Thermal insulation performance of houses before moving was either “pre-1980 standards” or “1980 standards.” While thermal insulation performance of houses after moving satisfied “1999 standards”: heat loss coefficient (Q value) of houses after moving was 1.9 W/m2K, corresponding gap area (C value) was 0.4 cm2/m2 on average. Average daily outdoor temperature of before moving survey periods (5.7 °C) was nearly equal to average daily outdoor temperature of after moving survey periods (5.1 °C). The living room temperature gap between before and after moving was the largest at a wake-up time. At 6 o'clock, living room temperature after moving was higher by 2.0 °C than living room temperature before moving. In addition, the lowest temperature had increased and the highest temperature had decreased in each room. So, stabilizing effects of indoor temperature by moving were recognized.  Systolic BP (SBP) decreased by 1.5 mmHg per 1 °C increase in indoor air temperature and standard deviation (SD) of SBP improved by 2.3 mmHg per 1 °C improvement in SD of indoor air temperature in a group over 125 mmHg. Therefore, stabilization of indoor temperature has stabilizing effects on BP. However, there were several participants whose houses got colder and more unstable after moving. To examine factors related to indoor temperature changes, a comparison of indoor temperature between before and after moving by patterns of moving was carried out. As a result, moving from a single-family house to a single-family house and from a wooden house to a wooden house became warmer and improved SD of indoor temperature. On the other hand, moving from a condominium to a single-family house and from a reinforced concrete house to a wooden house became colder. Moreover, not heating a room after moving caused a sharp decrease in indoor temperature. So, it is not satisfied only by moving to high thermal insulation performance houses but paying attention to house form and structure and adequately heating a room to improve BP value and stability of BP.

1. This study has carried out a cost benefits analysis for each stakeholder in an attempt to develop low-carbon communities and cities by implementing regional cogeneration systems and leasing photovoltaic systems to commercial buildings. 2. As a result, the economic benefits for energy service provider acting as an investor have been proved when non-energy benefits (NEBs) are accounted. In addition, numerous benefits to stakeholders other than investor have been proved. Also, subsidies by public sector (National, Local Government) will increase the economic efficiency for energy service provider (investor). 3. Since building owners and building users will gain NEBs such as of increase in real estate value, risk reduction (contribution of business and living continuity plan (BLCP), regulatory compliance etc) and maintenance cost reduction, possibility for redistribution of NEBs to the energy service provider (investor) in the form of service charge (rent, energy expense etc) have also been considered.

Wood is well-recognized as a renewable resource that can contribute to the reduction of environmental load and it has long been used as a material in the building sector. The LCA database for buildings (established by the Architectural Institute of Japan) has been developed and utilized to evaluate the reduction of environmental load through the use of wood materials. However, this method does not evaluate the environmental load incurred through the production and transportation of imported wood materials, although wood materials are imported into Japan in large volumes. Therefore, this study aims to develop a database which includes the environmental load of imported wood materials from several countries and regions.

There are so many chemical substances around us today. On the other hand, new houses are significantly air tight by standards of energy saving policy and it is very difficult to exchange between indoor air and fresh outdoor air. As a result, indoor air quality becomes worse, and health concerns have been an increasing social problem. The studies for these problems have been developed in the several fields, such as Building Environmental Engineering, Medical Science and in other areas so on. However, to solve this problem fundamentally, the comprehensive and quantitative assessments from the generation of chemical substances to onset of symptoms are needed. In this study, the health damages by indoor air pollutants are evaluated comprehensively following the environmental assessment tool, LIME (Life-cycle Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modeling) developed by Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Theoretically it is very difficult to evaluate sick-building syndromes, because these symptoms are extremely variable from person to person, and there has been no research in the world in these areas. Therefore, the data offered by a special hospital for sick-building syndromes are used with medical specialists in this study. A new assessment tools for indoor air pollutants is developed for the first time.

These years residential energy consumption has been increasing sharply in China along with the high economic growth. Thus people pay much more attention to the issues of reducing the energy consumption and CO 2 emission. This study chose Shanghai, a big city of China as a subject, and developed a Macro-model to forecast the CO 2 emission of residential buildings up to 2050. By combining such Global warming count measures into the Macro-model it was able to forecast the CO 2 emission of Shanghai's residential buildings in several energy-efficient scenarios.

Objective: This study examined the association between use of heating and sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) at home among Japanese adults in winter. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from November to April from 2014 to 2017. Participants (N=3,874) who intended to conduct insulation retrofitting were recruited by construction companies from 46 prefectures excluding Okinawa Prefecture and wore an accelerometer on their waist for 2 weeks. The association between heating use and log-transformed SB and PA at home was analyzed using a sex-stratified multilevel model (random-intercept model) with 3 levels; day-level variables (e.g., indoor temperature and log-transformed accelerometer wear time as an offset), nested within individual-level (e.g., age and body mass index), and nested within household-level (e.g., household income, number of housemates). The degree of association with the dependent variable was given by exponential transforming the unstandardized regression coefficient. Results: Data from 3,482 participants were analyzed. In the multilevel model, not using a kotatsu was associated with about 2% shorter SB time [men: exp(B)=0.98, p=0.022; women: exp(B)=0.98, p=0.020], an about 10% greater number of breaks in SB time [men: exp(B)=1.10, p=0.001; women: exp(B)=1.11, p<0.001], and 5-7% greater PA [men: exp(B)=1.07, p=0.005; women: exp(B)=1.05, p=0.012] than using a kotatsu. Heating the changing room was also related to shorter SB time, a greater number of breaks in SB time and greater PA in men and women. Conclusions: Not using a kotatsu and heating the changing room were associated with shorter SB and greater PA at home. Warming by heating the entire home, rather than partially heating just the living room, may decrease SB and increase PA in winter.

In recent years, along with the residence, the efforts toward health promotion by improving the social environments, including the working and regional environments, have attracted considerable attention. Owing to the significant amount of time spend by office workers in the workplace, the ideal modification of their working environment and work habits could potentially improve their intellectual productivity and physical health. However, to the best of our knowledge, the optimal environmental improvements have not yet been identified. Therefore, we developed CASBEE-OHC, an objective workplace evaluation tool. To verify the effectiveness of the revised CASBEE-OHC, we conducted a WEB questionnaire regarding the health and psychological status of workers in addition to their general environment. First, the relationship between the degree of dysfunction in labor and the environments (working environment, residence, and community) in which the office workers stay was analyzed. Next, the influence of the confounding factors were examined via multiple regression analysis on the subjective work efficiency and logistic regression analysis on the degree of dysfunction in labor. The following results were obtained; 1) The correlation analysis results stated that the degree of dysfunction in labor and work efficiency of workers are influenced by both the work environment and their general environment, such as residences and communities. Additionally, the health status was found to be signficantly affected by the residential environments. Furthermore, a high CASBEE-OHC score (better office environment) indicated a lower WFun score (i.e., the degree of dysfunction in labor), thereby implying higher subjective work efficiency. 2) Based on multiple regression analysis, it was confirmed that the working environment and age of workers, influenced the work efficiency. The results of logistic regression analysis suggested that the risk of high degree of labor impairment increased when the surrounding environment, including the office space, was bad. Furthermore, regarding the WFun and Pittsburgh scores, the AOR comparison between models suggested that the residential environments mildly affect labor dysfunction, while the office environments have a significant impact at higher altitudes. Thus, the importance of the maintenance of other surrounding environments was demonstrated.

In recent years, along with the residence, the efforts toward health promotion by improving the social environments, including the working and regional environments, have attracted considerable attention. Owing to the significant amount of time spend by office workers in the workplace, the ideal modification of their working environment and work habits could potentially improve their intellectual productivity and physical health. However, to the best of our knowledge, the optimal environmental improvements have not yet been identified. Therefore, we developed CASBEE-OHC, an objective workplace evaluation tool. To verify the effectiveness of the revised CASBEE-OHC, we conducted a WEB questionnaire regarding the health and psychological status of workers in addition to their general environment. First, the relationship between the degree of dysfunction in labor and the environments (working environment, residence, and community) in which the office workers stay was analyzed. Next, the influence of the confounding factors were examined via multiple regression analysis on the subjective work efficiency and logistic regression analysis on the degree of dysfunction in labor. The following results were obtained; 1) The correlation analysis results stated that the degree of dysfunction in labor and work efficiency of workers are influenced by both the work environment and their general environment, such as residences and communities. Additionally, the health status was found to be signficantly affected by the residential environments. Furthermore, a high CASBEE-OHC score (better office environment) indicated a lower WFun score (i.e., the degree of dysfunction in labor), thereby implying higher subjective work efficiency. 2) Based on multiple regression analysis, it was confirmed that the working environment and age of workers, influenced the work efficiency. The results of logistic regression analysis suggested that the risk of high degree of labor impairment increased when the surrounding environment, including the office space, was bad. Furthermore, regarding the WFun and Pittsburgh scores, the AOR comparison between models suggested that the residential environments mildly affect labor dysfunction, while the office environments have a significant impact at higher altitudes. Thus, the importance of the maintenance of other surrounding environments was demonstrated.

In Japan, healthcare and nursing care expenses for the elderly are increasing year by year, and extending healthy life expectancy is therefore desirable. Social capital (SC) is a measure of the degree of social interaction and has been gaining attention as a health-related Previous studies have shown that few people have poor subjective health in areas with good SC scores. Thus, a living environment that fosters SC might facilitate the improvement and maintenance of health status. The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of living environment, such as facilities and community outreach efforts, on nursing care risk as mediated by SC. A questionnaire survey was carried out for 3 weeks from September to October 2018.Participants were adults in three elementary school districts in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Japan Survey contents included SC, neighborhood environment, residential environment, and health status. A total of 7,220 questionnaires were distributed, and 2,693 were correctly completed (valid response rate = 37.3%) The number of samples used for analysis was 2,053.Of respondents over 65 years of age, 26.8% were at high risk of needing long-term care. Mann-Whitney U test was performed to verify the impact of SC on risk of needing long-term care. Logistic regression analysis was performed using participant attributes such as sex and household composition as moderator effects. The aim was to clarify the effects of living environment such as facilities and community outreach on the risk of needing long-term care via SC.The analysis model considered factors including age, sex, educational attainment, and length of residence in the area.The odds ratio (OR) of requiring long-term care for low SC compared with high SC was 1.91 (p <0.01). Next, I examined the relationship between SC and the living environment based on the "Facilities" and "Activity participation," or "Communication" items of living environment. The OR of SC for neighborhood environment factors ranged from 1.3 to 2.4 (p <0.05), and the OR of SC for housing environment factors ranged from 1.3 to 3.0 (p <0.05).Finally, path analysis was performed. An index for the housing and neighborhood environments was determined as the total score of the items that showed the relationships between SC and the housing and neighborhood environments, as analyzed previously. The determination coefficient for the risk of needing long-term care was 0.19.In summary, the facilities of the living environment affected SC directly or via the community items and finally affected the risk of needing long-term care. A study limitation is that the results were based solely on data that covered one target area. In the future, we plan to conduct questionnaire surveys in other regions using statistical data and to analyze responses considering regional characteristics.

In Japan, where the population is aging, it is necessary to maintain mental and physical health over the long term in order to solve social problems such as increasing medical expenses. It has been suggested that exposure to cold adversely affects brain health. Thus, we hypothesized that the brain health of residents in cold houses would be worse than that of residents in warm houses. In the winter season from 2016 to 2017, we measured indoor temperature, conducted brain health tests using MRI examination, and administered questionnaire surveys for 59 residents of a town in northern Japan. The results of multiple regression analysis show that residents who had a cold living room had lower indexes representing the quality of cranial nerve fibers than residents who had a warm living room in winter.

執務者が長い時間を過ごす執務環境が心身の健康に影響を及ぼす可能性が既往研究により報告されているが、執務者の生活に大きく関わっている住環境や、メンテナンス・企業経営等の管理方法を考慮した包括的な検証は不十分である。そこで、執務環境と住環境が心身の健康と知的生産性に与える影響の包括的な検証を目的とした実態調査を実施した。結果として、良質な執務環境と住環境が心身の健康改善と知的生産性向上に寄与する可能性が示された。

© 2019 IEEE. In this paper, we used Brain Healthcare Quotient (BHQ) to analyze the influence of lung function on brain function. A large-scale survey was conducted for the purpose. In the measurement survey, magnetic resonance images were acquired, and BHQ was calculated and used as brain function. As lung function, we measured forced vital capacity (FVC) and calculated forced expiratory volume 1.0 sec (FEV1.0%). As a result of analysis, it became clear that the decrease in FEV1.0% affects GM BHQ and that the decrease in lung function also affects brain function by using BHQ.