In order to explore further Japan's Ainu policy, this reply firstly outlines the differences in opinions that between Dr. Nakamura and myself, and secondly addresses some of the main points of my paper published in this journal. Dr. Nakamura takes into consideration domestic circumstances instead of international human rights law, while I emphasise that Japan's international obligations lies in its adherence to international human rights law and that domestic law must conform to international obligations for the Ainu. My paper chronologically summarises Japan's post-war Ainu policy and investigates who and what has influenced this policy and the law.

In 1946, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido was established by the Ainu to reclaim their lands. The 1970s and 80s saw that the association successfully put pressure on the Hokkaido Prefectural Government to take social welfare measures for the improvement of their life and make a new law counter to the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. In 1997 the Japanese Government enacted the so-called New Ainu Law. However, it is totally different from the original draft made by the Ainu. The law does not designate the Ainu as indigenous people. Further, it is outstripped by the decision of Nibutani Dam Case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognised Ainu right to culture and indigenousness in Japanese territory. In 2008 the Japanese Government finally recognised the Ainu as indigenous people in the wake of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the Ainu do not yet have any indigenous rights. This note chronologically outlines Japan's post-war Ainu policy, and moreover explores who and what has influenced Ainu policy and the law.

In order to study magnetic states in Fe-hydride under pressure, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) at the Fe K-edge has been measured up to 27.5 GPa. As a result, hydrogenation from bcc-Fe to dhcp-FeH occurs within a narrow region of 3.2-3.8 GPa, which is clearly observed by the dichroic profile in dhcp-FeH differing from that in bcc-Fe. Influence of H atoms on Fe 3d and 4p electronic states is discussed using the pressure-dependent XMCD and the first-principles calculation.

Metal-ferroelectric-insulator-Si (MFIS) structures using HfSiON as buffer layers were fabricated, and the impact of buffer layer thickness on the electrical properties of the MFIS devices was investigated. HfSiON films with thickness ranging from 1 to 4 nm were deposited by electron beam evaporation, which exhibited much reduced leakage current when compared to that of SiO2 with the same equivalent oxide thickness. From the viewpoint of polarization and charge injection, the flatband voltage and memory window width dependent on the sweeping voltages were discussed for the MFIS diodes with 1-, 2-, and 4-nm-thick HfSiON buffer layers. Small leakage current as well as excellent long-term data retention characteristics were found for all of these samples. It was also found that MFIS diodes with 2-nm-thick HfSiON buffer layer have the largest memory window width. Ferroelectric-gate transistors fabricated with a Pt/SBT(300nm)/HfSiON (2 nm)/Si gate structure showed a memory window of 0.8 V and a high drain current on/off ratio of 108 for the gate voltage sweep between +4 and −4 V. All of these excellent electrical properties proved that HfSiON acts as an excellent barrier for suppressing both leakage current and atomic interdiffusion.

In order to achieve the widespread use of HIT (Hetero-junction with I etero-Intrinsic T ntrinsic Thin-layer) solar cells, it is important to reduce the power generating cost. There are three main approaches for reducing this cost: raising the conversion efficiency of the HIT cell, using a thinner wafer to reduce the wafer cost, and raising the open circuit voltage to obtain a better temperature coefficient. With the first approach, we have achieved the highest conversion efficiency values of 22.3%, confirmed by AIST, in a HIT solar cell. This cell has an open circuit voltage of 0.725 V, a short circuit current density of 38.9 mA/cm2 and a fill factor of 0.791, with a cell size of 100.5 cm2. The second approach is to use thinner Si wafers. The shortage of Si feedstock and the strong requirement of a lower sales price make it necessary for solar cell manufacturers to reduce their production cost. The wafer cost is an especially dominant factor in the production cost. In order to provide low-priced, high-quality solar cells, we are trying to use thinner wafers. We obtained a conversion efficiency of 21.4% (measured by Sanyo) for a HIT solar cell with a thickness of 85μm. Even better, there was absolutely no sagging in our HIT solar cell because of its symmetrical structure. The third approach is to raise the open circuit voltage. We obtained a remarkably higher Voc of 0.739 V with the thinner cell mentioned above because of its low surface recombination velocity. The high Voc results in good temperature properties, which allow it to generate a large amount of electricity at high temperatures.

We have carried out multi-epoch VLBI observations of the H2O maser sources associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) in nearby molecular clouds with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry), which is a newly constructed VLBI network in Japan (Kobayashi et al. 2003). The main goal of our study is to measure the absolute proper motions and distances to nearby molecular clouds within 1 kpc from the Sun, to reveal their 3-dimensional structures and dynamical properties. Using the VERA dual-beam receiving system (Honma et al. 2003), we have carried out phase-referencing VLBI observations and measured annual parallaxes and absolute proper motions of the H2O maser features with respect to the extragalactic radio sources. We have successfully detected the annual parallax of one of the H2O maser features in Orion KL to be 2.29±0.10 mas, corresponding to the distance of 437±19 pc from the Sun (Hirota et al. 2007). In addition, the annual parallax of SVS13 in NGC 1333 is also determined to be4.10±0.17 mas, corresponding to the distance of 244±10 pc from the Sun, although the life time of the maser features are only 6 months. The absolute proper motions of the H2O maser features associated with Orion KL and NGC 1333 are derived, possibly indicating the outflow motions from the YSOs as well as the systemic motions of the powering sources.

The incidence and circumstances of colonization by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were prospectively investigated. Among 404 patients, 15 (3.7%) were carriers on admission, and 43 (10.6%) became colonized, mainly after surgical operation. A different mode of transmission was suggested in each ward.

Creep characteristics of polycrystalline single-phase intermetallics, α2-Ti3AI and γ-TiAl, at 1100 K have been summarized to evaluate their relative strength at elevated temperature at three strain-rate levels, 10-1 10−4 and 10−8s−1, and are compared with those of α Ti-Al terminal solid solution alloys. The strength of these intermetallics is obviously higher than that of α, random solid solutions, especially at low strain-rates. However, the difference in high-temperature long-term strength among intermetallic alloys is not significant at any strain-rate level.

Antiphase domain (APD) structures have been discovered in CdTe layers grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by MOCVD. To explain APD formation, an obstruction model based on a surface-reaction mechanism has been proposed. The proportion of one-phase domains to the total area varies with the [DETe]/[DMCd] ratio (VI/II ratio). A single-domain CdTe layer can be obtained at a VI/II ratio of 5. The APD structure shows a strong correlation with the crystallinity measured by X-ray. For a single-domain CdTe epilayer, theFWHM of the X-ray rocking curve shows 114 arc seconds and the EPD is 6×10 cm−2