Until now, the Southeast and South Asia region has been slow to develop economically and has accumulated a small amount of damage. As a result, the scale of damage has been limited despite the relatively large scale of disasters. However, rapid economic growth and delayed development of social infrastructure have resulted in the accumulation of damage targets, and extensive damage has been occurring every year. This increase in the number of disasters is becoming an opportunity for the potential vulnerabilities and problems of the society in question to become a social problem. This interest in disasters as social problems has reminded us of the fact that existing hardware-centered disaster prevention measures alone will not result in disaster mitigation, and the policy shift to "watershed flood control" has indeed illuminated the "limits of technological theory. As the scale of disasters is expected to increase in the future, it is urgent to consider not only engineering disaster prevention measures but also local relationships between nature and humans from the viewpoint of disaster mitigation, and solving the problems of "depopulation" in rural areas, as well as the "separation" of family farms, which produce 80% of the world's food supply and are less dependent on fossil fuels.

Therefore, this study sets up a comparative axis of "depopulation" and "abandonment of agriculture" as "global problems" that are economically common phenomena, and specifically analyzes the background and current status of "depopulation" and "abandonment of agriculture" in each country and region.

As a mechanism for promoting the formation of urban landscapes, this presentation focuses on the accumulation of land revenues by local governments, triggered by the land fee system. This presentation will also elucidate the regional characteristics of how such mechanisms of urban formation developed in China during its period of rapid economic growth.

The modern postal system in Japan was established in 1872. Modern postal service is characterized by a combination of "(1) low, uniform nationwide rates under the exclusive control of the government, (2) a postal collection and delivery network throughout the country, (3) prepayment of fees using stamps and other means, and (4) equality of use. The involvement of the government in (1) was used as a convenience to incorporate the postal system into the sphere of control of imperial Japan.

In the modern postal system, local Meibo families opened their residences to the public as post offices, and the "Postal Route Chart" describes the connection between their residences and post offices. However, the analysis of the "Postal Route Chart" can only be used to reconstruct the original map of the Japanese postal system.

This report focuses on postal routes connecting Japan and foreign countries, and attempts to reconstruct them.

In recent years, slash-and-burn farming has been reconsidered in some areas of Japan. Examples include Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, where swidden fields are used to produce turnips for commodities; I kawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Mizukami Village, Kumamoto Prefecture, where buckwheat is produced as part of community revitalization efforts; and Shiiba Village, Miyazaki Prefecture, where swidden field experiences are offered as school lessons. Based on these trends, the author has been promoting village community development through slash-and-burn farming in Itsuki-mura, Kumamoto Prefecture, from 2019 to the present. Here, through the interrelationships and division of roles among local residents, the government, and researchers, the process of mountain village development using slash-and-burn agriculture is grasped, and the way in which this process should be carried out is considered.

In this presentation, we focus on the settlement in the riverside land (Yabejima) of the Kiso River basin, Gifu Prefecture, and clarify the mechanism of the continuation of the settlement based on the relationship with the River Act.

It can be said that the Yabejima settlement is sustained by residents who can accept the restrictions on residential construction based on the River Act, while assuming an excellent living environment.

This study focuses on the Kushimoto area in Kushimoto-cho, Wakayama Prefecture, which is the closest and densest urban area to the Nankai Trough earthquake source among the potential areas affected by a Nankai Trough earthquake. In order to mitigate tsunami damage to the approximately 3,000 residents living there, we clarify the potential risks and characteristics of the tsunami evacuation difficulty zone.

In Japan's Sea of Japan side, Shou-setsu pipes are installed in the roads for snow melting purposes. This survey is an attempt to examine the geographic distribution, focusing particularly on the northernmost and westernmost points. As a result, it was found that the northernmost point is in Aomori Prefecture, and the westernmost point is in Tottori Prefecture.

Surface air temperature data in rural areas is useful for temperature rise estimation due to global warming. Here we reconstructed the trend of annual mean temperature for 1916–2020 at 43 rural stations in Japan using the data of AMeDAS and local stations digitized from published data books. The results showed that the temperature rise estimated as +0.96℃/century was clearly lower than that of the Japan Meteorological Agency (+1.4℃/century), indicating that urban warming is not negligible. Interdecadal natural variation possibly caused by solar activity and/or internal variation was also suggested in the temperature trend in rural areas.

This study examines regional differences in surname distribution in Japan, considering historical and cultural contexts, using 2007 telephone directory data and The Study of Regional Differences in Japanese Culture, a 1960s survey on village societies of Meiji-era. The study introduces the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure surname concentration, which suggests stronger patrilineal kinship. Higher HHIs are found in eastern Japan and correlate with persistent patrilineal kinships or medieval village origins. The study concludes that modern surname distribution reflects historical contexts and that detailed local studies are needed for further understanding.

The fields of interest listed in the Membership Directory 2023 were compiled to examine the characteristics of the fields of interest for each age cohort in 10 year incroments. For all generation, the top three fields of interest are in the four categories: general geomorphology, urban geography, economic geography, and geography education. However, detailed analysis revieals differences in the fields of interest among the generations.

During the period of rapid economic growth, many rivers near Tokyo became heavily polluted due to the influx of domestic wastewater and other contaminants. Today, with the establishment of laws such as the Water Pollution Control Act and the development of sewage systems, water quality in many rivers is showing signs of improvement. However, there are still areas where sewage infrastructure development is lagging, and pollution remains. In this study, we selected two tributary watersheds with similar basin areas from the Tama River and Arakawa River, which are representative major rivers flowing near Tokyo. By conducting water quality observations and comparing the results with previous studies, we examine the changes in water quality and their causes in the tributaries of major rivers near Tokyo.

This study contributes a new case to sub-ethnicity research, highlighting the role of religious institutions as spaces for interaction among diverse groups and their importance in constructing a multicultural society. It explores attachment to Yokohama Chinatown, identity and belonging as Chinese diaspora, and the relationship between traditional Chinese culture and politics, exemplified by the worship of Guandi and Mazu.

Since the 1970s, postmodern geography and feminist geographies have criticized traditional geography, the foundation of geographical education, as male-dominated. We share a concern that geographical education has not sufficiently addressed these criticisms. This report investigates how citizens grasp landscapes by surveying observation decks. The results showed that while activities like looking at a map promote understanding of landscapes, they also hinder comprehension of lived spaces. It is concluded that geographical education should not only focus on spatial understanding through maps and statistics but also aim to understand "place" as the lived space of people.

In this presentation, the way how mobile lifestyles in Japan have been portrayed in national land planning policies will be mainly analyzed. Newspaper articles will also be analyzed to examine the acceptance of mobile lifestyles in society. The practice of mobile lifestyles is not realized only by personal subjectivity, but also affected by the interaction of social and economic conditions, and discourses. This research is particularly significant in Japan, where policy influences have a large impact on mobile lifestyles.