Bank of Japan

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems worldwide, particularly affecting hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) activities. Understanding the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on transplant practices, especially in Japan, where cord blood transplantation (CBT) is prevalent, is crucial. A total of 40,444 allogeneic HSCT cases in Japan between 2011 and 2021 were examined using an interrupted time series analysis to assess the impact of COVID-19 on CBT utilization. Following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, CBT cases demonstrated a significant increase (11.06 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.87 to 20.25] cases per month), whereas bone marrow transplantation cases decreased, by 10.74 cases per month (95% CI, −19.84 to −1.63 cases per month). Total HSCT cases remained stable with a level change of 5.47 cases per month (95% CI, −10.07 to 21.01 cases per month) and a trend change of −1.11 cases per month (95% CI, −2.22 to 0.004 cases per month). The interrupted time series analysis showed significantly increased CBT cases in Japan, highlighting its crucial role as an alternative transplant source during the pandemic. CBT offset the impact of the decrease in bone marrow transplantation and contributed to the maintenance of HSCT activity in Japan during the unprecedented crisis.

We estimate the long‐term impact of child poverty on adult labour market outcomes in Indonesia, a middle‐income country. Our instrumental variable estimation shows that a child who lived in a poor family when aged between eight and 17 years old suffers from an 87% earnings penalty as adults relative to a child who did not grow up in a poor family. The direct effect remains large after we account for a large set of mediators. Depending on the set of mediators that we use, we estimate an earnings penalty of between 85% and 90%. Similarly, we do not find any evidence that receiving various government transfer programs mediates the effect of growing up poor on earnings as adults.

Climate change presents a tough challenge to wildlife survival, disrupting ecosystems worldwide and pushing numerous species to the edge of existence. This chapter explores how climate change is endangering wildlife through habitat loss, altered behaviors, health risks, and extreme weather events. Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns disrupt ecosystems, forcing species to migrate and altering their breeding and feeding habits. Concurrently, changes in climate facilitate the spread of diseases among wildlife. Intensified extreme weather events exacerbate these challenges, destroying habitat and increasing mortality. As a result of such, human-wildlife interactions are also getting affected, resulting in crop damage, livestock depredation, life loss and injury to humans, retaliatory killings, and social disruption.

This chapter examines the impacts of environmental changes on wildlife and the livelihoods of forest villagers in the Buxa Tiger Reserve. Deforestation, climate change, and altered land use have reduced natural fodder, driving wild animals into human settlements and escalating conflicts. Monsoon floods further displace wildlife, exacerbating crop and livestock losses for villagers. The chapter also addresses the challenges of resource competition and disease transmission due to grazing practices, the villagers’ reliance on forest resources for fuelwood, and the economic impacts of crop raiding and livestock predation.

The Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal, India, has experienced significant ecological, social, and historical transformations during the colonial and post-independence periods. Originally under Bhutanese rule, the area gained strategic importance during the British colonial era. The establishment of the Buxa Fort as a detention camp for political prisoners marked its dark history. During the colonial period, exploitative policies led to deforestation, tea garden establishment, and commercial tree plantations. Infrastructure development, such as railways and roads, facilitated resource extraction, causing habitat fragmentation. The introduction of the “Taungya” system and game hunting further impacted biodiversity. In the post-colonial era, conservation efforts emerged, focusing on flagship species, forest protection committees, and community involvement. However, human-wildlife conflicts, illegal activities like poaching and logging, and infrastructure development persist, posing ongoing threats to the reserve’s biodiversity.

This chapter shows the geographical details of the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) in West Bengal, India. Spanning 760.87 km2, BTR encompasses a variety of ecosystems, including sal forests, evergreen forests, and hill forests. BTR experiences a tropical moist humid climate with significant rainfall during the monsoon season. Rivers like Sankosh, Rydak, Jayanti, and Kaljani intersect the reserve, contributing to its complex ecosystems. This reserve is rich in flora and fauna, such as leopards, elephants, and various bird species. Its varied topography and climate, shaped by its location in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, support high biodiversity. The reserve comprises 37 forest villages and 46 fringe villages, where residents are ethnically diverse and engage in agriculture, collecting forest products, and working in tea estates.

This chapter defines the multifaceted problem, encompassing historical exploitation, contemporary ecological threats, and the impacts of climate change on the biodiversity and local communities of the Buxa Tiger Reserve. The objectives of the study are also outlined, focusing on analyzing trends in temperature and precipitation, understanding their ecological impacts, assessing changes in wildlife behavior, evaluating effects on forest villagers’ livelihoods, and examining conflicting outcomes in human-wildlife interactions. Description of the mixed-method approach is also detailed, involving household surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), and geographic information system (GIS) analysis using satellite imagery.

This chapter examines approaches to reconciling conservation efforts with local livelihoods to promote human-wildlife coexistence. It suggests strategies such as habitat restoration and the introduction of Kunki elephants to alleviate conflicts. Additionally, community-based conservation initiatives aim to empower residents by providing alternative livelihoods, including handicrafts, beekeeping, sustainable agriculture, and access to clean cooking fuel, which reduces dependence on forest resources. The chapter also emphasizes the significance of relocation policies that prioritize community needs and cultural connections while offering sufficient support for displaced communities.

Food insecurity is a serious concern in many developing countries, especially for forest communities, who grapple with unique challenges stemming from their dependence on natural resources and limited access to vital livelihood capitals. Despite extensive research on food security, there still remains a gap in understanding the distinct factors affecting food security within forest communities in conservation zones of the fragile Eastern Himalayas. This study seeks to fill this gap by examining the factors determining household food security among forest villagers in the Buxa Tiger Reserve, located in the eastern sub‐Himalayan region of India, which is characterized by significant environmental and socio‐economic challenges. Households were evaluated using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) and grouped into four levels: food secure, mildly food insecure, moderately food insecure, and severely food insecure. The partial proportional odds model and marginal effects were estimated to analyze the effects of various explanatory variables on the severity of food insecurity. The results revealed that 28% of households were food secure, whereas 72% experienced varying degrees of food insecurity, with a majority falling into the mildly (37.33%) and severely (21.67%) food insecure categories. Key factors influencing food security include the age and education of the household head, landholding size, farming experience, dependency ratio, distance to the bank, and livestock loss due to leopard predation. Additionally, non‐farm income, social transfers, and remittances significantly contribute to improved food security. These findings highlight the urgent need for targeted interventions to enhance educational opportunities, diversify income sources, and strengthen social safety nets to effectively address food insecurity among forest communities.

Achieving access to clean and safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for all is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, most efforts to improve access to clean and safe WASH focus on a single practice, resulting in a low adoption rate and limited impact. This study analyses data from 63,732 rural households from the 76th Round of the Indian National Sample Survey in 2018 to (i) identify the factors associated with the adoption of WASH practices using logit estimations, (ii) explore adoption disparities via the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method, and (iii) assess the health impacts of having one vs. a combination of several, i.e., bundles of practices, using the heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable approach. The findings reveal that (i) the wealth status of rural households and education levels of household heads are significant factors associated with the adoption, (ii) female-headed households and those belonging to scheduled castes and tribes are disadvantaged in adoption, and (iii) bundling several practices is more effective in mitigating health problems compared to single-practice adoption. Therefore, prioritizing bundled practices for impoverished households, those with lower educational attainment, female-headed households, and scheduled castes and tribes is crucial for enhancing health outcomes and alleviating the disease burden in rural India.

Previous studies have examined the cellulase activity of Crassostrea gigas (Pacific oyster) and suggested its potential utilization of terrestrial lignocellulose. However, no studies have been conducted to comprehensively assess its endogenous cellulases. Therefore, our objective was to identify the cellulases present in C. gigas through transcriptome and genomic analyses. The results showed that there are 10 cellulase orthologs, seven of which are endogenous. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that two of these cellulases belong to the glycoside hydrolase family (GHF) 5, four to GHF9, and one to GHF45. An alignment of the amino acid sequences suggested the presence of at least endo-β-1,4-glucanase. Therefore, C. gigas is likely capable of decomposing lignocellulose into glucose. This finding supports the fact that C. gigas, a globally commercial bivalve species, thrives in environments that lack phytoplankton, such as mangroves.

Umbilical cord blood transplantation (CBT) is accepted as an effective treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC), rather than myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimens allowed elderly patients to be treated safely. However, appropriate intensities of conditioning regimens are still unclear, especially for middle-aged patients. To compare outcomes after RIC and MAC regimens, we analyzed AML patients aged 16 years or older in the Japanese registry database, who underwent single cord unit CBT between 2010-2019. Median ages of the RIC group (n = 1353) and the MAC group (n = 2101) were 59 and 51 years (P < 0.001), respectively. 5-year overall survival (OS) after MAC was superior to that of RIC (38.3% vs 27.7%, P < 0.001) with lower incidence of relapse (33.9% vs 37.4%, P = 0.029) and better neutrophil engraftment (84.7% vs 75.9%, P < 0.001). Detailed subgroup analysis revealed that age at transplantation is the most important factor affecting 5-year OS in RIC and MAC. This analysis identified a threshold of 55 years, beyond which the superiority of MAC disappeared, irrespective of other factors such as disease status or performance status. In conclusion, RIC may be preferable for patients aged 56 or older in CBT for AML due to higher potential toxicities.

Microplastics has emerged as a pervasive pollutant with far‐reaching implications for agriculture. This review paper evaluates existing research on microplastics in agricultural systems, exploring their impacts on land, crop growth, farm animals, and consumer health. Using the PRISMA framework and systematic review process, 811 papers were identified in the initial search, and only 164 papers were used for this study after following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Our study found that high‐density polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride are widely used plastic types in agriculture, followed by polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate. This prevalence is likely due to the extensive use of plastics in agriculture systems, such as for mulching, handling harvested products, bags for fertilizers and pesticides, samplings, and seed storage. The study found serious adverse consequences of microplastics on crops, animal health, soil, and consumers. It also highlights the need for comprehensive strategies to mitigate these impacts, by using bioplastics, application of treated water for irrigation, proper disposal of plastics, and following sustainable agricultural practices. Adaptation measures such as soil remediation, different microplastic removal technologies, and policy interventions emerge as a crucial strategy to cope with microplastic pollution. The paper concludes with a call for interdisciplinary research to better understand the complexities of microplastic pollution and to develop sustainable solutions to protect natural ecosystems, agricultural ecosystems, human health, and food security.

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of studies on the measurement of frontier efficiency in higher education. We review the database of 89 studies assessing higher education efficiency by applying both parametric and non‐parametric methods. For the selection of studies, the Scopus‐indexed journals from 1977 to 2022 are screened and methodically chosen. The analysis presents a classification of research in this area by trends, influential authors and works, emerging issues, primary inputs and outputs, efficiency measurement level, higher education efficiency principles, and estimating methodologies. We note the exponential growth of research on efficiency measurement in higher education from 2011 to 2022. Most evidence is from developed nations like Italy, the UK, China, Australia, and Germany, with more scope for research on higher education in developing nations. The subject analysis reveals that student and departmental investigations need more attention and can lead to groundbreaking research. The survey findings indicate that future researchers should emphasise privatisation, third‐mission activities, social responsibility, and higher education spending.

Corporate governance in financial institutions has been a long-standing concern. However, in recent times, growing evidence of inadequate disclosures, an upsurge in fraud cases, and a rising volume of non-performing assets have prompted serious concerns about the robustness of the existing corporate governance structure in the Indian Insurance market. Hence, the current study investigates the linkage between corporate governance and performance, utilizing an unbalanced panel of 49 life and non-life insurers from 2014 to 2021. It employs a dynamic panel two-step system generalized method of moments approach to address potential endogeneity issues and applies quantile regression for robustness checks. The results reveal that corporate governance significantly improves insurers’ performance, with board governance being the most influential dimension. Among individual attributes, independent directors, women directors, board committees, and audit and risk committee size play a quintessential role in determining performance. However, the effectiveness of governance mechanisms substantially varies across life and non-life insurers, highlighting the nuanced dynamics of the Indian insurance market. The findings legitimate a mixed theoretical perspective involving stewardship, resource dependency and agency theories. We believe the outcomes of this study would provide a roadmap to policymakers and regulators to amend or redesign governance norms tailored to the specific needs of insurers, eventually creating an environment that enhances Indian insurers’ performance.

The urgent need for a net-zero future necessitates a fundamental shift in the energy sector, with road transportation responsible for a substantial 37% of global energy-related CO 2 emissions in 2021, emerging as a pivotal focal point in the battle against climate change. Energy consumption in the road sector is expected to surge by 1.26% with a 1% growth in urbanization, concentrated mainly in Asia and Africa by the mid-2030s. Therefore, addressing emissions from the transportation industry is paramount. Electric vehicles (EVs), coupled with a transition to renewable energy, offer a sustainable solution, yet their market share remains at a modest 10% globally and in Asia. With numerous nations committed to achieving net-zero emissions, EV adoption is on the rise, particularly in developing regions with high urbanization and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Governments worldwide have initiated policies that provide incentives to promote EVs, but challenges like patent declines and EV battery disposal concerns persist. In this paper, we make an integrative critical review of the existing literature, conduct a SWOT analysis of EVs, and address crucial factors influencing their adoption, thereby contributing to the goal of a more sustainable future in road transportation.

The uncertainties, such as the pandemic (COVID-19), natural calamities, and war, disrupt agricultural production and supply chains, leading to concerns about food access in developing countries. Therefore, this study uses panel data collected through three survey rounds in June and September 2020 and January 2021 to analyze changes in household food expenditure and consumption behaviors and to investigate the association between household characteristics and food insecurity. The results show that households with diverse income sources, including multiple farm products, non-farm businesses, and remittances from absent members, are less likely to reduce food consumption quality and quantity, and be in the lower tail of food expenditure distribution. -However, households in the upper tail of the food expenditure distribution aggressively stock up on food in the second quarter of the year, fearing that lockdown measures would interrupt the food supply. These households tend to have an urban way of living characterized by salaried jobs, small family size, high educational attainment, and proximity to the capital city. The levels of food expenditure remain high even after the lifting of lockdown and movement restrictions, and the reason might be possible uncertainty about crop harvests, despite the eventual good harvests in the year. Overall, these findings suggest that diversification of income sources for rural households in developing countries can help households cope with disruptions to food production and supply chains. The findings also suggest that policies to ensure food access during the pandemic should target households with limited income sources and those in the lower tail of the food expenditure distribution.

We identify so-called “zombie firms,” which survive with banks’ and governments’ support despite performing poorly without the prospect of recovery, using firms’ financial data. We set the criteria of the zombie firms by arranging methodologies proposed by the existing studies. It mainly focuses on Japan after the collapse of its bubble economy, European countries after the global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crises, China under debt expansion, and developed countries during the spread of COVID-19. The analysis shows that the number of zombie firms surged after the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s in Japan. At least based on the currently available data in fiscal 2020 after the spread of COVID-19, we do not detect a problematic growth in the number of zombie firms as in the 1990s.

Socioeconomic inequalities are known to negatively impact anthropometric outcomes among children, particularly in developing countries. This study, therefore, assesses the gap in anthropometric outcomes of children 6–59 months along the ethnicity-based social groups in India using the National Family Heath Survey 2015–16 and 2019–21. The paper utilizes logistic regression models, the exogenous switching treatment effect regression (ESTER) model, and the Blinder-Oaxaca Model to disentangle the role of ethnicity (referred to as caste in India) in influencing child anthropometric outcomes while accounting for socio/economic factors. Approximately 35% of children in the sample were stunted and 20% wasted. Result indicates that despite the progress made in reducing child undernutrition between the two survey periods, there is a higher risk of chronic growth faltering (stunting) and underweight in socially disadvantageous groups, and these ethnicity-based disparities exist independent of education and household economic status. To improve children’s nutritional status, India needs to develop new nutrition strategies prioritizing double-duty action due to the persistence of undernutrition and rising overweight/obesity among children. The study suggests a need for a distinguished understanding of the underlying causes of chronic and acute forms of malnourishment, and separate interventions are required to reduce the disparities among disadvantaged groups, particularly in tribal communities.

The construction industry significantly impacts the environment through natural resource depletion and energy consumption, leading to environmental degradation. Circular Economy (CE) material efficiency strategies—such as material reuse, design for disassembly, prefabrication, and recycling—offer promising solutions for reducing resource consumption and waste. This paper explores stakeholders’ perspectives on the costs and benefits of implementing CE material efficiency strategies in the construction industry, using the 3-R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) framework. By analyzing data from 382 participants, it assesses perceptions of costs and benefits, uncovering regional differences. The findings highlight that studied European stakeholders prioritize reuse and design for disassembly, while studied non-European countries focus on offsite production and material reuse optimization. Despite these differences, both groups view waste reduction as a key benefit, due to the cost savings it provides. By highlighting regional drivers and barriers to CE adoption, this research establishes a foundation for developing targeted policies and collaborative strategies to advance CE implementation in construction worldwide. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-81741-z.