Asia Institute - Research Publications

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    Chronomobility of international students under COVID-19 Australia
    Dhanji, SD ; Ohashi, J ; Song, J (FRONTIERS MEDIA SA, 2023-12-08)
    This article investigates the chronomobility of international students in Australia going through COVID-19. Existing literature on international students approaches them largely in two manners: a market or victims. Using Shanti Robertson's chronomobility, the study focuses on international students' coping mechanisms and strategies for their next moves. Drawing from 15 in-depth interviews with international students formally enrolled in Australian institutions in Melbourne, the longest lockdown city during the pandemic, the authors find various ways of short-term coping mechanisms through meditation, physical exercises, virtual escapism and counselling. Furthermore, despite pandemic immobility, students presented a high level of resilience in making future decisions for post-pandemic mobilities. We conclude that family support and social networks are key to realise full potentials of international students as skilled migrants and valued members of society. Our manuscript contributes to the field of migration and mobility by enriching Robertson's concept of chrono-mobility and adding the empirical case study from international students in Australia during the latest pandemic in 2020-2021.
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    What motivates Japanese language learners in Australia and beyond?
    Ohashi, H ; Ohashi, J (Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, 2023)
    Language is an interactive, social, and relational tool that is constantly evolving; reflecting the history, values, and socio-cultural context of the place in which it is spoken. Thus, each individual language provides learners with opportunities to interact with other users of the language and to access different perspectives. We question the common promotional discourses of ‘employability’ and ‘international trade’ used to characterise the value given to Asian languages by policymakers and universities in Australia. We argue that such discourses do not reflect learners’ motivations, ultimately undermining the potential educational values of language learning.
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    Why did Australia lose international students to Canada?: Trends in Chinese students explained by numbers and their real voices
    Ohashi, J (Society for Oceanian Education Studies, 2022-11-01)
    This paper attends to the voices of individual students, not the numerical "Chinese students" spoken of in statistics and other media, i.e., not the main source of income for the Australian higher education export industry, but as voices of students as individuals with their own personalities. While there are many studies and reports that quantify the impact of the pandemic on Australia's education export industry, few focus on the voices of actual international students. This paper presents the actual voices of Chinese international students, including what they have experienced, the choices they have had to make, and the emotions they have felt as a result of the pandemic. While the number of international students in countries such as Canada and the UK has been on the rise since late 2020, the number of students coming to Australia remains stagnant. The paper explores the reasons for this through the voices of Chinese students, which reveal a fundamental problem that Australia needs to face. It revisits what international students mean to Australia and re-examines the role of higher education institutions.
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    Dire straits: Chinese students in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic
    Ohashi, J (Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, 2022)
    This article examines the experiences of Chinese students after Australia closed its national border on March 20, 2020 in an attempt to stop COVID-19 entering.
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    Learning Asian languages is about much more than trade and employability and universities should convey this
    Ohashi, J ; Ohashi, H (Asia Institute, University of Melbourne, 2021-08-16)
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    Genome-wide association study identifies CDH13 as a susceptibility gene for rhododendrol-induced leukoderma.
    Okamura, K ; Abe, Y ; Naka, I ; Ohashi, J ; Yagami, A ; Matsunaga, K ; Kobayashi, Y ; Fukai, K ; Tanemura, A ; Katayama, I ; Masui, Y ; Ito, A ; Yamashita, T ; Nagai, H ; Nishigori, C ; Oiso, N ; Aoyama, Y ; Araki, Y ; Saito, T ; Hayashi, M ; Hozumi, Y ; Suzuki, T (Wiley, 2020-11)
    Racemic RS-4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-butanol (rhododendrol; trade name: Rhododenol [RD]), which is used in topical skin-lightening cosmetics, was unexpectedly reported in Japan to induce leukoderma or vitiligo called RD-induced leukoderma (RIL) after repeated application. To our knowledge, no studies have investigated chemical-induced vitiligo pathogenesis on a genome-wide scale. Here, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for 147 cases and 112 controls. CDH13, encoding a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein called T-cadherin (T-cad), was identified as the strongest RIL susceptibility gene. RD sensitivity was remarkably increased by T-cad knockdown in cultured normal human melanocytes. Furthermore, we confirmed tyrosinase upregulation and downregulation of the anti-apoptotic molecules (BCL-2 and BCL-XL), suggesting that T-cad is associated with RD via tyrosinase or apoptotic pathway regulation. Finally, monobenzyl ether of hydroquinone sensitivity also tended to increase with T-cad knockdown, suggesting that the T-cad could be a candidate susceptibility gene for RIL and other chemical-induced vitiligo forms. This is the first GWAS for chemical-induced vitiligo, and it could be a useful model for studying the disease's genetic aspects.
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    雑談に表出する依頼と承諾 ―「です・ます」体の使い分けと, 自然会話を素材とする教材への応用の観点から― An adjacency pair, 'Request - acceptance' and multiple functions of the desu/masu forms emerging in small talk: Using natural conversational data in Japanese language teaching.
    Ohashi, J ; Ohashi, H ; Usami, M (Kuroshio, 2020-10-16)
    The chapter demonstrates how natural conversational data can be integrated into Japanese language teaching and their benefits. The BTSJ Natural Conversation Corpus was released in 2017 (Usami 2017) which provides a large volume of natural conversational data. The chapter analyses a long stretch of small talk from the corpus and reveals multiple functions of desu/masu forms and how an adjacency pair ‘request – acceptance’ is, in fact, stretched over many conversational turns. It also demonstrates how natural conversational data can be converted to meaningful teaching and learning materials. Natural Conversation Reconstruction Tasks (NCRT) are introduced and their intended learning outcomes are demonstrated together with their benefits.
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    Japanese language education and Japanese Studies as intercultural learning
    Ohashi, J ; Ohashi, H ; Ogawa, A ; Seaton, P (Routledge, 2020)
    The paper illuminates similarities between what Australian universities wish to see in the attributes of university graduates and those of Japanese counterparts. The term, graduate attributes is used in Australia and guroubaru jinzai (globally competent human resources) is used in Japan.