This book introduces to the reader unfamiliar with primatology in Japan three research projects representative of the unique multidisciplinary approach carried out by scientists at Kyoto University, the country’s premier institution for primate studies. The projects are all aimed at understanding the age-old questions, where did we come from, and what makes us unique or similar to our primate ancestors? The first chapter, by Naofumi Nakagawa, focuses on the cultural diversity of social behavior in the Japanese macaque. This chapter reviews research on primate culture, in particular the work on Japanese macaques, then presents what is arguably the first example of a culturally transmitted social convention in the species, called “hug-hug”. The second chapter, by Michael A. Huffman, introduces our current knowledge of self-medication in primates, based largely on a long-term study of wild chimpanzees at Kyoto University’s longest ongoing chimpanzee field in Africa, Mahale, in Tanzania. The suite of behavioral adaptations to parasite infections in chimpanzees is compared with our current knowledge of self-medication in other primates and other animal species. The third chapter, by Yasuhiro Go, Hiroo Imai, and Masaki Tomonaga, describes the ambitious efforts to combine cognitive science and genomics into a new discipline called “comparative cognitive genomics”. This chapter provides an overview of recent advancements in chimpanzee comparative cognition, the construction of a chimpanzee genomic database, and comparative genomic studies at the individual level, looking into factors affecting personality and individuality.

1 Cultural Diversity of Social Behaviors in Japanese Macaques.- 1.1 Cultural Behaviors That Have Shed Light on Non-human Primates.-1.2 Forgotten Cultures of Social Behaviors.- 1.3 Culture for Embracing Behaviors in Japanese Macaques: Prologue.- 1.4 Inter-population Differences in Behavioral Patterns and Presence or Absence of “Hug-Hug”.- 1.5 “Social Cultures” Among Non-human Primates References.- 2 Primate Self-medication and the Treatment of Parasite Infection.- 2.1 The Field of Primate Self-medication.- 2.2 Primate Self-medication and the Parasite Predicament.- 2.3 Behavioral Strategies of Health Maintenance and Parasite Control.- 2.4 Dietary Selection or Disease Prevention?.- 2.4.1 Medicinal Foods.- 2.4.2 Nutrient Poor Items.- 2.4.3 Hallucinogens and Stimulants.- 2.4.4 Antibiotic Properties.- 2.5 Therapeutic Self-medicative Behavior in Great Apes.- 2.5.1 Great Ape Parasites.- 2.5.2 Bitter Pith Chewing, a Chemical Mode of Parasite Control.- 2.5.3 Leaf-Swallowing, a Physical Mode of Parasite Control.- 2.6 Future Directions of Self-medication Research for the Health of Humans.- References.- 3 From Genes to the Mind: Comparative Genomics and Cognitive Science Elucidating Aspects of the Apes That Make Us Human.- 3.1 Exploring the Chimpanzee Mind: Thirty Five Years of Comparative-Cognitive Studies of Chimpanzees at the Primate Research Institute (PRI).- 3.1.1 Comparative Cognitive Science.- 3.1.2 Teaching Visual Symbols to Chimpanzees: The Initiation of the “Ai Project”.- 3.1.3 How Do Chimpanzees See the World?.- 3.1.4 Comparative–Cognitive–Developmental Perspective.- 3.1.5 Step Toward the Next Decade of the Twenty-First Century.- 3.2 Primate Genome Database.- 3.2.1 Introduction.- 3.2.2 Geographical Information.- 3.2.3 Family Tree.- 3.2.4 Gallery.- 3.2.5 GenotypeComparison.- 3.2.6 Chromosome Image.- 3.2.7 Microarray.- 3.2.8 Personality Comparison.- 3.2.9 Genotype–Phenotype Relationship.- 3.3 Chimpanzee Genome Studies at an Individual Level at PRI.- 3.3.1 Advances in Genome Science in the Last Ten years.- 3.3.2 Application of NGS Technologies to Comparative Genomics Studies.- 3.3.3 Chimpanzee Genomics at an Individual Level to Understand Their Variations.- 3.3.4 Further Perspective for Linking the Genome and Phenome.- References.