Sohei TSUJIMURA’s research while affiliated with Ibaraki University and other places

In temporary spaces such as event venues, signage planning is crucial as relying on user experience may not be feasible, thus necessitating the need to rapidly and properly convey information to users. Additionally, the usage of facilities depending on the events necessitates the signage planning considering the needs of users for each facility and event. Here, we conduct an exploratory impression-evaluation experiment focusing on events at Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall. The purpose of the study is to grasp user needs, signage planning reflecting the user needs, and verify the effectiveness of the signage planning by the impression evaluation method.

In 2023, a socio-acoustic survey on community response to road traffic noise was conducted in residential areas along several arterial roads in Kanagawa Prefecture as part of the Kanagawa University Cross-disciplinary Research Promotion Project. The survey targeted residents living in detached houses and apartment buildings. A questionnaire used for the survey was designed based on new findings from a survey conducted in 2021 using the Image Grid Method. Factors we focused were economic burden due to increased use of air conditioner, harmful impact of noise on family members, and importance of measures reducing noise. Regarding the noise exposure, we estimated Lden using noise maps, which were created for the survey. This paper presented the frequency distribution of the importance of measures reducing noise. In addition, applying multiple logistic regression analysis to individual data, we developed the exposure-response function for economic burden and harmful impact as well as listening disturbance and annoyance. Based on the results obtained, we discussed the importance of measures reducing noise and difference in exposure-response function between housing categories.

A socio-acoustic survey was conducted among residents living along major arterial roads in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, to examine the occurrence of sleep disturbances due to road traffic noise. Lnight noise maps was introduced for estimating ranges from 30 dB to 80 dB. We asked the frequency of "difficulty falling asleep," "nocturnal awakenings," "early morning awakenings", "feeling unrefreshed in the morning",and "daytime sleepiness" due to road traffic noise. Cases experiencing any of these items more than three times a week were defined as "highly sleep disturbed (HSD)", and that one or twice a week were defined as "sleep disturbed (SD)", respectively. The exposure response relationships between those and Lnight were examined with the independent variables of noise sensitivity, gender, and age. The results of multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that Lnight, and noise sensitivity had a significant effect on SD, while noise sensitivity significantly affected HSD. We show the results of this study in comparison with previous surveys on sleep disturbances conducted in Japan and other regions.

Kyushu Shinkansen and conventional railway lines run parallel in the areas 5 km north of Kumamoto Station (northern area) and 12 km south of the station (southern area). Following the operation of the Kyushu Shinkansen Line in 2011, the adjacent conventional railway line in the north was elevated, a new station was operated in the south, and large earthquakes struck the Kumamoto area from March to April 2016. Sleep disturbances were compared before and after the interventions and earthquakes based on noise source (Shinkansen and conventional railways), area (northern and southern), and house type (detached and apartment) through socio-acoustic surveys from 2011 to 2017. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly less sleep disturbances in detached houses in the north after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably due to more frequent closures of bedroom windows in northern detached houses following the earthquakes. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly more sleep disturbances in apartments in the south after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably because the Shinkansen slowed down immediately after the earthquakes and returned to normal speed during the survey, suddenly increasing the noise exposure. There was no significant difference in the other six cases investigated. Overall, the interventions may not have caused significant differences in sleep disturbances. This article expands on the congress paper by Morihara et al. presented in the “Community Response to Noise” session at the 52nd International Congress and Exhibition on Noise Control Engineering in Makuhari, Japan, organized by the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

The government of Japan has developed a plan to promote cycling in response to recent increase in cyclist. The plan includes the use of a bicycle for tourism and daily transportation on riverside road; however, local governments are mainly responsible for implementing the plan and maintenance of the cycling road. The purpose of this study is to obtain knowledge to help determine a maintenance policy by understanding the impressions of cyclists. Here, we have conducted a field test using the caption evaluation method for the cyclists in tourism and daily transportation on the Kinugawa Cycling Road.

In recent years government buildings have become more sophisticated from the viewpoints of responding to diverse services provided to residents and consolidating urban functions. The development of bulletin-board spaces and its operation have become important as a means of communicating information in an easy-to-understand manner. In this paper, we report the results of a survey conducted on the actual condition of the usage of spaces as means of information transmission before and after the construction of government buildings to be merged or abolished, focusing on the Kiso Town Hall as a case study.

In the previous study, we performed a secondary analysis using micro-data and established the Japanese relationships between sound pressure level from night-time (Lnight) and the percentage of highly sleep disturbed people (%HSD) for the following transportation noises: road traffic, conventional railway and Shinkansen railway noises. Adding the datasets associated with civil and military aircraft noises, we successively established the Japanese representative relationships between day-evening-night sound pressure level (Lden) and the prevalence of highly annoyed people (%HA) due to transportation noise in Japan. This paper newly focuses on listening disturbance, which is one of psychological effects of noise. Thirty-five datasets, which were provided by Socio-Acoustic Survey Data Archive and derived from the other recent surveys conducted in Japan, were accumulated for the analysis. All the datasets include the following micro-data: demographic factors, exposure, and reaction to disturbance in listening to telephone, television, or radio. This paper defines the percentage of highly listening disturbed people (%HLD) using a 72% cut-off point. Based on the discussion about the difference in %HLD depending on the question wording, the number of scale points, demographic factor, and housing type, we establish the relationship between Lden and %HLD by transportation noise.

Japanese companies have been focusing on enhancing the knowledge creative activities of older office workers in recent years. In addition, the way of working in the office has been shifting from traditional divisional routine work to collaborative or creative work, and office spaces are becoming quieter, with an increasing number of extremely quiet spaces (noise level < 40 dB). A sound environment that is too quiet gives workers the impression that it is difficult to converse with others, because they are worried about what people around them may think. The appearance of the knowledge creative society in recent years has led to a desire for changes in the workplace environment to improve the productivity of intellectual activities. To realize a sound environment that encourages knowledge creative activities, study outcomes need to be accumulated. Therefore, to clarify what kind of sound environment would be appropriate for knowledge creative activities by multiple people, we conducted psychoacoustic experiments to examine the effects of sound pressure level (signal-to-noise ratio), type of sound, and reverberation time in conference rooms on the impression of a “good conversation”. In addition, we considered a causal model for the psychological evaluation of a “good conversation” by conducting a multiple regression analysis of psychological evaluations of the experimental participants. The results indicated that a sound environment considered too quiet for multiple people to have discussions about knowledge creative activities lowers the impression of a “good conversation”, whereas high levels of relaxation lead to the impression of a “good conversation”.

This paper focuses on clarifying the relationship between noise exposure and the prevalence of highly annoyed people due to transportation noise in Japan. The authors accumulated 34 datasets, which were provided by Socio-Acoustic Survey Data Archive and derived from the other surveys conducted in Japan. All the datasets include the following micro-data: demographic factors, exposure, and annoyance data associated with specific noise sources. We performed secondary analyses using micro-data and established the relationships between noise exposure (Lden) and the percentage of highly annoyed people (%HA) for the following noise source: road traffic, conventional railway, Shinkansen railway, civil aircraft, and military aircraft noises. Among the five transportation noises, %HA for the military aircraft noise is the highest, followed by civil aircraft noise and Shinkansen railway noise. The %HA for conventional railway noise was higher than that for road traffic noise. To validate the representativeness of the exposure–response curves, we have discussed factors affecting the difference in annoyance. In addition, comparing the Japanese relationship with that shown in the “Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region,” we revealed that Japanese annoyance is higher than the WHO-reported annoyance.

In recent years, Japanese companies are focusing on enhancing the knowledge creative activities of office workers, and the way of working in the office is shifting from the conventional divisional routine work to collaborative and creative work. On the other hand, office spaces are becoming quiet, and the number of extremely quiet them with noise levels below 40 dB is increasing. Previous studies have reported that a sound environment that is too quiet gives the worker the impression that it is difficult to have a conversation, further accumulation of research results is desired for the construction of a sound environment that enhances knowledge creative activities. Therefore, in this study, focusing on the relationship between sound environment and intellectual productivity, we investigated a sound environment suitable for knowledge creation activities by multiple people. Psychoacoustic experiments were conducted to examine the effects of sound pressure level (signal-to-noise ratio), type of sound and reverberation time of meeting room on the impression of "good conversation". Furthermore, using the psychological evaluation data of the experimental participants, the causal model of psychological evaluation of "good conversation" was examined by multiple regression analysis, and the psychological factors that contribute to the impression of it was clarified.