has been promoting a research project known as Kami Studies (kamigaku ).This initiative seeks to revisit the history of phenomena associated with these deities of Japan by incorporating perspectives from cognitive science and cultural evolution.Sas's article presents this approach through a concrete case study.Future issues will likely continue to feature research emerging from this project.Against this backdrop, the present issue adopts the theme "Thinking Through / From Concepts" and includes two related articles.Anzai's article focuses on the work of Tawada Yko , an author highly acclaimed both within and beyond Japan.It examines the short story "The Woman Who Doesn't Throw Things Away" (Sutenai onna ), widely included in Japanese high school textbooks, and develops an analysis from its depiction of garbage to consider Japanese society at the time of the work's composition (1999) and how that society grappled with waste.In this sense, the article thinks through/from the concept of garbage.Higuchi's article examines the Human Rights Protection Law (Jinken hoshh ) enacted in Manchukuo to investigate the meaning assigned to the concept of freedom within the state's structure in Manchuria.Focusing on the historical setting of Manchukuo-long the subject of diverse scholarly debates-the article considers concepts such as "human rights," "state," and "freedom" by thinking through/from them.Building on these contributions, this issue also adopts the theme "Reflecting on the Past."This theme is intended to signify more than simply taking up past events; it also raises the question of consciously reexamining past modes of perception and how the past itself has been viewed.
KJS Editorial Committee (Sun,) studied this question.