Sweat monitoring is gaining increasing attention as a key component of next-generation health technologies. In this study, we developed a compact and flexible wearable sensor based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for real-time sweat rate measurement. The sensor detects thermal dissipation of a heat source due to sweat flow within a microchannel, allowing for non-invasive and continuous monitoring. It consists of a microheater and two temperature sensors placed symmetrically upstream and downstream along the microchannel wall. When sweat enters the channel, the convective flow causes a temperature difference between the two sensors, which varies according to the sweat rate. Numerical simulations using finite element analysis were conducted to optimize the sensor geometry, particularly the spacing between the heater and the temperature sensors. The device was fabricated by patterning Cr-Au electrodes onto a flexible polyimide substrate and forming a PDMS microchannel over the sensing area. During exercise experiments, the device was attached to the upper arm of a participant, and the sensor output was recorded wirelessly using a compact data acquisition system. The results showed a clear increase in sweat rate during exercise and a gradual decay during the post-exercise recovery phase. These results demonstrate that the developed device can reliably capture temporal changes in sweat rate, making it a promising candidate for wearable applications in personalized health monitoring and fitness tracking.
This paper introduces the recent rediscovery of the valuable film Hikōki (Airplane), shot by Shomei Tomatsu (1930–2012), one of the leading photographers of postwar Japan. In addition to providing an overview of the work, it also offers a brief report on the process of its digitization and the current state of the archival activities conducted at the artist’s private studio, with which the author is directly involved.
This article recovers a largely undocumented history: the DIY fanzine culture of 1970s Japan and its foundational role in shaping Japanese popular media. Drawing on archival research, primary sources, and oral history interviews with key participants, it argues that amateur cultural production in this period was constitutive of the media industry’s development. These communities generated shared knowledge, preserved production materials, cultivated future professionals and developed participatory practices that professional publishing later inherited and expanded. In an era before specialised magazines existed for manga, animation, or tokusatsu (Japanese special effects productions), enthusiast groups created their own platforms for research, criticism, and knowledge exchange. The article traces this history through three case studies: Monster Club , a tokusatsu fanzine group with direct ties to Tsuburaya Productions; the Space Battleship Yamato fan groups, whose activities pioneered enthusiast engagement that dedicated magazines like Animage would later build upon; and the Brave Raideen Fan Club, led by women but open to all, whose activities revealed an industry blind spot regarding female audiences. Together these cases illuminate how the collaborative practices of these groups, bridging enthusiasts, studios, and publishers, transformed the landscape of Japanese popular culture. The grassroots infrastructure they built in the 1970s not only laid the foundations for specialised anime publishing but created the conditions for Comic Market (Comiket), the world’s largest fan convention, demonstrating that amateur cultural production was not peripheral to Japanese media history but foundational to its development.
