APPLIED HUMAN SCIENCE Journal of Physiological Anthropology Harmony in Men and Harmony in Women

Before beginning to discuss the abilities of men and women to harmonize, the meaning of “harmony” must first be defined. “In harmony” can be considered as being in an ideal state arrived at through regulation and adjustment. At the same time “state” indicates a certain relatedness. As defined in English, harmony can be thought of as a pleasing new relationship which is created when certain elements are combined, for example when the sounds do, mi, so are sounded together the pleasant sound of a tonic chord is produced. In concrete terms, in the instance of humans there are internal relationships, and external relationship namely the relationships between the self and other people, the self and society and the self and nature, with the ability to harmonize functioning in each of these. In addition we can probably say that this kind of relatedness is something which changes immensely with the time period and the life cycle of the individual, as well as with spatial differences (differences in nature and culture). At this symposium, the focus for consideration will be on Japan’s present and its future. In order to understand harmony it is often useful to look at disharmony, so several instances of abnormal states will be taken up. To bring out clearly the differences between men and women, the viewpoint that it is sufficient to understand only the characteristics of women has been taken, and so the discussion will be centered on “women”.