地域文化研究特殊研究V

Eleven sessions, all on Tuesdays. Sessions 1-8 take place in 2026; Sessions 9-11 take place in 2027. Session 1 | 13 October Course Introduction: Well-being as the Ultimate Purpose of Prevention Introduce the course questions, six intellectual foundations, learning activities, and assessment. Examine how prevention supports dignity, everyday life, and future possibilities, establishing well-being as the ultimate purpose against which its value should be considered. Session 2 | 20 October Reflections on the Kuching Meeting I: The Social Value of Prevention Review discussions at the Kuching meeting and identify shared concerns and differences in perspective. Compare the values recognised by governments, businesses, researchers, and civil society, and consider opportunities for mutual learning across Asia. Session 3 | 27 October Reflections on the Kuching Meeting II: Assessing and Translating the Value of Prevention Identify the values protected by prevention in the discussions and cases considered at the meeting. Explore how health, employment, family life, and security can be expressed in forms relevant to policy and investment decisions. Distinguish values amenable to monetary assessment from those requiring other forms of representation. Session 4 | 17 November Food, Prevention, and Well-being Examine food in relation to nutrition, culture, family and community relationships, and the enjoyment of everyday life. Consider how income, time, availability, and conditions at home and work shape food choices and the support needed to begin and sustain preventive practices. Session 5 | 24 November Physical Activity and Well-being Consider the value of physical activity for physical function, independence, self-efficacy, and social participation. Examine the environments and relationships that support initial participation and continuity, and discuss how individuals, businesses, and communities can help integrate activity into everyday life. Session 6 | 1 December Methods for Assessing Social Value and Informing Decisions Examine approaches to assessing prevention through economic evaluation, well-being indicators, and qualitative accounts of lived experience. Consider who bears the costs, who receives the benefits, and the time horizons over which value is assessed. Clarify the possibilities and limits of comparison and measurement. Session 7 | 8 December Dialogue with Business I: What Should Count as a Return on Prevention? Focus on the critical examination of measurement. In light of WEIRD bias and diverse lived experiences across Asia, discuss how the outcomes of business investment can be related to the well-being of employees, families, and communities. Examine what proposed indicators reveal and what they leave unrecognised. Session 8 | 15 December Dialogue with Business II: Implementing Prevention through Relationships of Trust Examine workplaces, households, and communities as settings for prevention. Trace pathways from information to consultation, service use, and continuing support, identifying where these pathways break down. Discuss the conditions under which investment supports everyday action, including trust, accountability, and data governance in public-private collaboration. Session 9 | 12 January Dialogue with Business III: Diverse Asian Pathways to Investment in Prevention Compare how institutions, employment structures, cultures, and local resources shape investment and implementation, principally in Japan and Malaysia. Distinguish principles that can inform mutual learning from conditions requiring local redesign, and consider their implications for business initiatives and collaboration. Session 10 | 19 January Dialogue with Business IV: Translating Investment in Prevention into Policy and Institutions Examine how vision, translation, and trust can connect investment in prevention to budgets, institutions, and organisational decisions. Consider business sustainability alongside social value, and discuss policy proposals that specify responsible actors, financing, implementation pathways, and methods of evaluation. Session 11 | 26 January Final Session: Diplomacy in Asia and the Social Value of Prevention A dialogue with the Ambassador of Malaysia to Japan is planned. Consider prevention and well-being within diplomacy in Asia, with attention to Japan-Malaysia cooperation, relations between public and private actors, and mutual learning grounded in trust. Bring together the semester's discussions to consider how investment in prevention can support cooperation across borders.

The course combines lectures, reflection on the Kuching meeting, case analysis, dialogue with business practitioners, and discussion directed towards policy proposals. The four sessions in the latter part of the semester provide a sustained examination of investment in prevention, bringing practical business questions into dialogue with academic analysis. Some guest sessions may be delivered online to enable participation by practitioners and specialists based abroad. Short reports and classroom discussion will support the progressive development of a final policy brief in English. Students will consider the value to be protected, methods for making it visible and assessing it, what indicators leave unmeasured, the conditions that support implementation, and the policy or institutional decisions the analysis can inform. Peer discussion will help students refine their proposals. The course is taught in English and welcomes students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Particular emphasis is placed on relating individual sessions to the questions that run through the semester.

1. Attendance and submission of a short report after each session: 40%. 2. Final report in the form of a policy brief in English: 60%. Short reports respond to a question posed by the lecturer and may take a format of the student's choosing. They provide an opportunity to consolidate understanding and consider connections between sessions. Their content is not graded; assessment is based on submission. They also serve as a record of thinking in preparation for the final report. The final report will be assessed on problem formulation, understanding of evidence and the limitations of measurement, integration of the six perspectives, coherence of the argument, and feasibility of the proposal. Students should explain what forms of value prevention protects, for whom, and under what conditions.

Students may retake this course. No specialist knowledge of medicine or clinical practice is required. Before each session, students should read the assigned materials and prepare questions or points for discussion. After class, they should use their short reports to reflect on the lecture and discussion, relating them to the six intellectual foundations and to other sessions. Students will select a prevention issue for their final report and develop their analysis throughout the semester.