SSISSN1341−2418
1341−2418
ISSN

OUTH PACIFICPACIFIC NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTER
OUTH

KAGOSHIMA UNIVERSITYRESEARCH
CENTERKAGOSHIMA
UNIVERSITYFOR THEINTERNATIONAL CENTER
FOR PACIFICISLAND ISLANDSSTUDIES
1-21-24, Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-8580 JAPAN ●T E L: +81-99-285-7394
FAX: +81-99-285-6197

⿅児島⼤学国際島嶼教育研究センター
郵便番号 890-8580
⿅児島市郡元１丁⽬21番24号
電 話 099-285-7394
ファクシミリ 099-285-6197

E-mail: shimaken@cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
Website:http://cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/index.html

MarchNo.32
March 2200 21 15 No.26

KAGOSHIMA UNIVERSITYKAGOSHIMA
INTERNATIONALCENTERUNIVERSITYFOR ISLAND STUDIESRESEARCH
CENTERFORFOR
THETHE
PACIFICISLANDS(formerlyRESEARCHCENTER
PACIFICISLANDS)

CONTENTS
Page
Introducing My Resarch
KAWAI, K.: Research in the Kagoshima and Pacific Islands···········································1

Research Seminars ······························································································4Recent Publications ·······················································································8Cover photo: Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle, Orkney Islands, Scotland, Novemver 2004 (by HirotoTAKAMIYA)INTRODUCING MY RESEARCH
Research in the Kagoshima and Pacific Islands
KAWAI KeiInternational Center for Islands Studies, Kagoshima University
The status of the Earth's environment and its future can be interpreted from different
perspectives. One of these posits that the Earth is home to different ecosystems, each ofwhich provides ecological services that are necessary for the survival of biota in theseecosystems. The importance of these services have been evaluated and categorized as
foundational, supply, adjustment, and cultural services. Moreover, sustainable development
goals (SDGs) announced by the United Nations in 2015 are important frameworks forpromoting sustainability. The SDGs include 17 goals that can help countries achieveenvironmental, economic, and social sustainability.
To achieve these objectives, research was conducted on coastal areas of the Kagoshimaand Pacific Islands. These islands have high biodiversity and many people living in theircoastal regions where mangrove forests, coral reefs, and tidal flats, among others, are found.
Therefore, the coastal region is a good model for studying the ecology of animals and therelationships between animals, nature, and humans. The three studies conducted aredescribed in the following sections.
1) Bivalve (Anadara spp.) Movement from the Fishing Grounds onto Land in the Fiji
Islands
Coastal fisheries are an important commercial industry for the local people in thePacific Islands and many studies have been conducted regarding the sustainable use of such
resources in relation to the SDGs. Previous studies have indicated that coastal fisheries play
an important role in the socioeconomic and ecological systems of coastal areas in the Pacific.
For example, the eastern coast of the Fijian island of Viti Levu is densely populated withfilter-feeding bivalves (Anadara spp.), which are an important food and income source for1
1the local people. Women collect the bivalves and sell them in local marketplaces. In addition,
the bivalves filter out particulate matter that is suspended in the water, thereby improving
water quality. Thus, the harvesting and sale of these bivalves can influence the physicalenvironment of both the coastal and inland regions. This process can be traced throughfishing activities that transfer materials from the fishing grounds onto land in a complex
overall system consisting of humans and nature in coastal regions.
The objective of the study was to investigate the structure and function of the systemwith regard to the movement of marine products from the fishing grounds onto land. We
focused on fishing activities involving bivalves. Surveys were conducted in two villages
from 2017 to 2019 to gain a better understanding of the onshore movement of bivalves ineastern Viti Levu. The onshore movement of marine products from the fishing grounds via
fishing activity was influenced by both natural and socioeconomic factors, including themarine resource ecology, the current market economy, family members, social structures,and waste management practices. The findings indicate that the ecosystem has been affectedby many factors, which suggests that the current structure may be unstable.
The guiding principles that should be enacted in order to maintain a sustainable,
functional relationship between the people and their environment from the perspective ofSDGs and bivalve fishing activity are currently under discussion. We may conclude that thisbivalve species is a good indicator for addressing SDGs in coastal regions of the PacificIslands.
2) Shell Color Polymorphism in Intertidal Gastropod Nerita plicata (L., 1758)
Populations in the Cook Islands
The gastropod Nerita plicata (Fig.1) is widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific
Ocean’s upper intertidal zone and exhibits shell color polymorphism. This study examined
the shell color diversity of Nerita plicata according to the substrate type (i.e., basalt or beachrock). This study was conducted on the islands of Rarotonga (August 2008 and August2018) and Aitutaki (September 2009) in the Cook Islands. Three different shell color morphs(fully black-banded, partially black-banded, and fully white) were observed on basalt andbeach rocks, with different distribution frequencies in each of the two habitats. The shellcolor distribution frequency of N. plicata was closely related to the habitat type, with whiteshells occurring more frequently on the light-colored beach rocks than on the dark-colored22basalt. The relationships between shell color polymorphism and environmental and genetic
factors are discussed in this study as well as the potential role of humans in habitat changes
that drive shell color polymorphism.

Fig.1. Nerita plicata showing color polymorphism
3) Biology and Ecology of Shellfish Inhabiting a Tidal Flat in Sumiyo,Amami Oshima Island, JapanOn Amami Oshima Island, in southern Japan, heavy rainfall on October 20, 2010
produced an influx of sand, which flowed into the sea near the tidal flat in Sumiyo andcaused major damage to the island’s fisheries. Effects of the flood damage on the organisms
and environment of a tidal flat were investigated by comparing the results of a survey on thebiology of infaunal shellfish, seawater, and soil properties in Sumiyo (December 2009) withsimilar data recorded after the sand influx (February 2011 and March 2016).
After the flood damage, many seashells were scattered across the tidal flat, and thedensity of living individuals decreased significantly from 1.50 (/250 cm2) prior to the flood
to 0.89 afterward. The average shell length was almost unchanged: 15.40 ± 1.03 mm prior to
the flood and 16.93 ± 1.11 mm afterward. This indicates that the shellfish died regardless of
their size, rather than in a size-related fashion. The flooding had a large impact on theinfaunal bivalves in the tidal flat. However, a certain number of individuals survived.
Subsequently, these individuals exhibited a recovery trend.
33

Research Seminars
No.203, 28 September 2020
“Ecology and Evolution of Flowers in the Intra- and Inter- Specific Context”
Shuntaro WATANABE (Faculty of Sciences, Kagoshima University)[ABSTRACT]
Flowers are the most diverse structures produced by angiosperms, and floral traits
provide some of the most compelling examples of evolution by natural selection. However, toelucidate how these diversities maintain trough natural selection is still a challenging issue
because natural selection often act as a limiting mechanism for genetic diversity. Recent
ecological theory suggests that frequency-dependent selection, which is an evolutionary
process by which the fitness of a phenotype or genotype depends on the phenotype orgenotype composition of a given population, is an important mechanism that determines themaintenance and loss of biodiversity such as maintenance of sex or interspecific competitiveexclusion. In this seminar, I will discuss how evolution can contribute to the maintenance offloral diversity from the perspective of intra- and inter-species interactions.
No.204, 19 October 2020
“Issues and Producers’ Behavior on Tankan Marketing in Amami Oshima”
Jaehyeon LEE (Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University)[ABSTRACT]This is a case study of producers and shippers relating to production and sale of Tankan
as fruit in Amami Oshima. A survey was carried out with the goal of revealing the features ofproducers’ behavior seen on the Tankan marketing and the difference of market performancein each shipper. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. Firstly, the wholesalemarket does not play a role of raising the level of quality and maintaining stable price due toloose marketing standard requirements and limited purchasers. Secondly, the large-scale
farms tend to be reluctant to joint sales of the Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) because
they have their own channels for sale. Thirdly, nevertheless the JA have been improving
quality, securing sales channels, and increasing added value, but the joint sales of the JA still
have decisive problems such as less and unstable volume of products under producers’
44

opportunistic behavior.
No.205, 16 November 2020
“An Introduction to the Activities of the 3710 Lab That Connects People and the Sea
through Learning”
Kouta KANNO (Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Kagoshima University/3710Lab)
Kodai TAGUCHI (Center for Ocean Literacy and Education, Graduate School of Education,
The University of Tokyo/ 3710Lab)[ABSTRACT]KANNO and TAGUCHI were high school classmates at Sendai―the high school in aneighborhood called Kawauchi in Sendai. Later, KANNO and TAGUCHI aspired to study
biology and educational philosophy, respectively. In addition to biological research, KANNO
studied science communication (SC), an activity that conveys science to non-specialists, as aminor. After that, KANNO has continued to work on several original SC projects.
TAGUCHI became involved in marine education as a philosopher of education, and started
a project called 3710Lab, which is introduced here. In the last few years, he has been working
with high school students in Miyagi Prefecture and on the islands of Kyushu. He has
conducted workshops to rediscover local culture, and a result of these workshop for classes atYoron High School in Kagoshima Prefecture has been published as a book, The Days ofYoron.
No.206, 7 December 2020
“Discovery of Indigenous Environmental Education in Amami”
Yuko OGURI (Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Kagoshima University)[ABSTRACT]The purpose of this presentation is to show the overview of the environmental education
study that the presenter is now working at Amami Oshima. The study trend of theenvironmental education during these approximately 60 years, expanded the subject of thestudy interest to 1) the transformation of the one’s behavior, 2) a modification of the socialstructure, and to 3) the ontology of the human being. In recent years study trend for acquisitionof the different view of the world among human and nature relationships is developing under55the name of “indigenous environmental education”. The studies aim to change the recognitionof human control over nature and considering nature as the source of the wealth.
The presenter aims to identify the “indigenous environmental education” in context ofJapan that originally was advocated by western society. Specifically, the presenter attempts toclarify both the knowledge system and the way of knowing that come from land of Amami
Oshima where traditional culture still remains in density in each community.
In the presentation, the presenter first briefly introduces the above-mentioned study trend,
and then, examines the contents of “100 interviews on the environmental culture of Amami”
that she worked on in 2019. By discussing the influences of life experience with nature toone’s recognition, the presenter will address the possibilities of indigenous environmental
education in Amami.
No.207, 18 January 2021
“Risk and Prevention of COVID-19”
Junichiro NISHI (Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medicine and Medical andDental Sciences)[ABSTRACT]In islands of Kagoshima Prefecture, several group infections including three COVID-19
big clusters in Yoron and Tokunoshima were observed since July 2020. A total of 205 persons
infected by SARS-CoV-2 were reported in the area of islands (as of Dec 26, 2020), accountingfor 21.7% of all persons with SARS-CoV-2 in Kagoshima Prefecture. The incidence ofCOVID-19 in the islands was 2.5 times higher than in the mainland of Kagoshima. The higher
incidence in the islands are ascribed to the import of SARS-CoV-2 by travelers and intimate
communication among island persons. There were many group infections in eating anddrinking establishments and subsequent household infections.
The main infection route of COVID-19 is droplet infection, in which aerosols carrying
virus are inhaled at close range. Loud conversation in confined spaces with poor ventilation ishigh-risk for COVID-19. However, COVID-19 is hardly spread in common social life. InKagoshima, the number of solitary cases infected by SARS-CoV-2 were 124, while that ofgroups with links to each other were 83, suggesting that major part of persons withSARS-CoV-2 did not infect any other persons.
Although a variant strain with stronger infectivity requires considerable attention,
66

excessive infection control is detrimental. It is important to develop a targeted infection
control measure, such as preventing convivial party in a confined space. In addition,
COVID-19 vaccines should be introduced after scientific validation of efficacy and safety inJapanese. To maintain favorable features of islands, feasible infection control with clemency
is needed.
No.208, 15 Feburary 2021
“Development for Cooperation and Education Models between University and Local
Community: Shimo-Koshiki Island Project”
Akihiro YOSHIDA (Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, Kagoshima University)[ABSTRACT]
During the university’s third medium-term goal period, the Faculty of Law, Economicsand Humanities worked on establishing a new educational program for humanities andsocial studies aimed at developing human resources in southern Kyushu and the Nansei
Islands over a four-year period from 2016 to 2019. The purpose of this project is to provide
students in the Department of Humanities with coordinated geography education by linking
lectures, tutorials, experiments, and fieldwork, and to construct an educational model aimed
at regional cooperation with merits for both the university and local communities. In theproject, problem setting for the students’ geography fieldwork was done on the basis of theneeds of the local government and local community, and students spent one week every year
in the village of Teuchi on Shimo-Koshiki Island, part of Satsumasendai-shi, Kagoshima-ken.
Each year the students gave the results of their fieldwork at a presentation session to which
the local people were invited. Carrying out this long-term project not only improved thestudents’ degree of mastery of knowledge and technology in the field of geography, but also
greatly affected their course after graduation having become more eligible manpower for theregion through finding the solutions to the area’s problems while engaging with members of
the local community. At the same, the students’ fieldwork became a good opportunity formembers of the local community to think about the different problems they face and to hear
the opinions of young people about them. This paper gives feedback on the results of theproject on Shimo-Koshiki Island over the four years.

77Recent Publications+++ Journal +++South Pacific Studies Vol.41, No1/2, 2021
Research Papers

TAKAMIYA, H. and NAKAMURA, N.: The Beginning of Agriculture in the Ryukyu
Archipelago+++ Kagoshima University Toushoken Booklet +++No. 12 SUZUKI H.: Crustacean decapods in Kagoshima (March 2020)
No. 13 YANAGAWA H.: Introduction to Amami Shimauta (March 2020)

Kagoshima University Toushoken Booklets No. 12 and No.1388

SSISSN1341−2418
1341−2418
ISSN

OUTH PACIFICPACIFIC NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTER
OUTH

KAGOSHIMA UNIVERSITYRESEARCH
CENTERKAGOSHIMA
UNIVERSITYFOR THEINTERNATIONAL CENTER
FOR PACIFICISLAND ISLANDSSTUDIES
1-21-24, Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-8580 JAPAN ●T E L: +81-99-285-7394
FAX: +81-99-285-6197

⿅児島⼤学国際島嶼教育研究センター
郵便番号 890-8580
⿅児島市郡元１丁⽬21番24号
電 話 099-285-7394
ファクシミリ 099-285-6197

E-mail: shimaken@cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp
Website:http://cpi.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/index.html

March
No.32
March 2200 21 15 No.26

KAGOSHIMA UNIVERSITYKAGOSHIMA
INTERNATIONALCENTERUNIVERSITYFOR ISLAND STUDIESRESEARCH
CENTERFORFOR
THETHE
PACIFICISLANDS(formerlyRESEARCHCENTER
PACIFICISLANDS)