This paper aims to clarify the intangible legacy to the host city of the 12th Asian Games held in Hiroshima in 1994. Research was conducted to shed light on activities for learning and supporting the participating countries in community centers and the long-lasting legacy to citizens and communities. The games featuring citizen participation left intangible benefits such as social activities and an international sensibility to people living in Hiroshima which have continued for 25 years. However, only those who participated in the Hiroshima Asian Games (who are now older),shared pleasant emotions, and remember it as a positive experience have continued the activities. On the other hand, such social activities and international sensibility have not been passed on to young people who do not share such experience, emotions, and memories of the games. Therefore, as people who remember being actively involved in similar events become older, the intangible legacy may not be inherited by younger people living in the host cities.

Various theories have been proposed as model cases for geographic research on new field development. The Senchono development is one of the early examples of new field development in the Musashino upland. Studies have attempted to understand the Senchono development from the perspective of planned land allocation, land use, land productivity, and the role of feudal landlords. However, they did not mention the actual involvement of the shogunate in the development. In this study, we investigated the detailed history of the shogunate retainers who migrated to Senchono to clarify the actual participation of the shogunate. The results showed that the main actors can be classified into three functional groups: 1) the governor and agents; 2) experts in surveying and construction; and 3) experts in falconry and falconry field management. Based on these results, we conclude that the Senchono development was carried out with the explicit involvement of shogunate technocrats’ migration.

The aim of this study was to investigate the shopping environments of local people in a remote rural area. Specifically, we assessed shopping environments using food access, the healthy eating indicator shopping basket (HEISB) measure, and local people’s living conditions using interview/questionnaire surveys. The study area was the town of X, which is in a mountainous agricultural and fishing area in western Japan. This town has a serious problem with a declining birth rate and aging population as well as a lack of grocery stores. We found that because of the large proportion of older people who drive, their self-sufficiency in obtaining many types of fresh food, and mutual assistance from other residents, many local people have maintained their diet at a satisfactory level. However, more than 70% of local people still have poor eating habits, entailing a high risk of malnutrition. In addition, many local grocery stores show low food availability rates according to the HEISB, which means that it is difficult for older people who do not drive to maintain healthy eating habits. Moreover, mobile vending vehicle services in this area are usually unsuccessful. Declining birth rates and aging populations are expected to become more serious in the near future in rural areas, including in X. There is thus a concern that it will become very difficult to maintain the living environment, including shopping facilities, in this town. Specific measures to maintain the living environments in such rural areas should be examined and possible countermeasures considered.

Recently, significant floods have occurred more often, and hazard maps of flooded areas have received attention as measures for disaster relief and prevention. There are some issues to be resolved in the use of hazard maps, such as: 1) the detailed characteristics of flood conditions in relation to the geoenvironment are not shown sufficiently; 2) flood conditions in neighboring administrative areas are not shown; 3) several flood simulations for a single area are sometimes illustrated in different maps. Under these conditions, the use of landform classification maps combined with hazard maps is more effective. However, it is difficult for the general public to understand flood conditions from landform classification maps. To make landform classification maps realistic, it is beneficial to use relief shading on them. This shows the reality of landform topography and makes it easy to understand flood conditions in each area.

This paper analyzes the geography-related knowledge required to pass the recruitment examination for middle school teachers, which is open to all, from 2015 to 2019 in “Prefecture A” in Japan. The aim was to give perspectives on the direction of geography education in teacher training courses. The results showed that “a volume of knowledge” was required to correctly answer more than 60% of questions, and it was clear that a specific “quantity of knowledge” was necessary. These results reveal a gap between knowledge imparted in undergraduate teacher training courses and the general curriculum of school teachers.

This paper clarifies the process of developing tourist destinations in Tequila, Mexico, focusing on the efforts of tourism actors and landscape improvement. Tourism in Tequila, which began in the latter half of the 1990s under the initiative of a tour company, was developed in response to external factors such as tourism promotion programs, the registration of World Heritage sites, and the setting of TV dramas in the region since 2000. In the process of becoming a tourist destination, tourism actors such as tour companies, guides, and distilleries appeared, thereby constructing a regional image based on tequila. Initially, each actor actively adopted things and events that emphasized the locality of tequila, but as tourism developed, they also used objects that symbolized Mexico. Currently, major distilleries are constructing large-scale tourist facilities and becoming the main actors in attracting tourists.

In recent years, new phrases have emerged to describe a new type of economy, referred to as the gig economy, sharing economy, and on-demand economy. The gig economy, in particular, has provided individuals with an opportunity to subvert the notion of “employment.” In the gig economy, workers access online platforms through smartphones or other devices and undertake one-off jobs. This article examines one part of the gig economy in Japan by clarifying the status of C-to-C babysitter services. In this service, a user who wants to use a babysitter for a short time selects a sitter on an online platform and creates a contract. An analysis of the sitters’ profiles shows that most are qualified nursery teachers and homemakers with children who have some experience in care work. In addition, in this C-to-C service, sitters can set their own service price and therefore differentiate themselves by utilizing their experience and childcare skills. Moreover, since most sitters define the area around their homes as their operational area, it is clear that they use slight gaps in their living schedules to achieve a flexible working style. On the other hand, there are also many complaints from users and sitters. There is considerable criticism regarding compensation and responsibility by the platform owners, who are simply digital intermediaries and not responsible for protecting unemployed gig workers. In addition, low barriers to entry into the labor market threaten the quality of services in the case of care. Thus, the survey results show that there are essential issues for platform owners including guaranteeing wages and rights to workers and maintaining a high quality of service through an evaluation system that ensures mutual trust. It is necessary not only to consider aspects of the gig economy such as freely flexible labor but also to pay attention to the elements of precariousness that are imposed upon workers.

Aqua-Line bus fares have been reduced. In the city of Kisarazu, the number of commuters to central Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama has increased, and most use highway buses. The population of Kisarazu has increased, especially in the suburbs, and large-scale shopping centers such as the AEON Mall have opened in cooperation with the government, with clusters of chain stores around them. As a result, the shopping environment of Kisarazu has improved. However, profits have declined for private shops in the city center. There are few supermarkets and drugstores, and it is difficult to purchase daily necessities. AEON operates a free shuttle bus, which is used by older people. Kisarazu’s population distribution and commerce are based on the use of cars. As relations with AEON and the aging of the region progress, the ease of shopping and securing means of transportation have become an issue.

The Caatinga, which is the largest tropical dry forest in the neotropics, is distributed in the semi-arid region of northeast Brazil. We investigated the relationship between tree phenology and hydroclimatic conditions in Petrolina-Perunambuco, Brazil. The leaf phenology of Caatinga trees was strongly related to the seasonality of water availability. Leaf flushing was triggered by the slightly increased soil water content immediately after the start of the rainy season in the year of observation, and then the canopies of Caatinga tree species formed synchronously in about 2 weeks. Progressive leaf abscission occurred through the first 3 to 4 months of the dry season, suggesting that the production of Caatinga trees can continue for a time under high water deficits by regulating water status. These results demonstrated that the leaf phenology of Caatinga tree species effectively adaptated to limited water availability in a semi-arid region.

The aim of this paper was to analyze the history of developing markets and pick-up and shipping activities in seafood distribution by the Nandan Fishermen’s Cooperative. To date, there have been only two middlemen in the Nandan Fishermen’s Cooperative. One Fishing Company S went bankrupt in 2012, and cooperative members became anxious about the depreciation of fish prices due to the loss of that middleman. To counter the fall in prices, the cooperative started a seafood delivery service as a new venture. This allowed the shipment of seafood to a wide area, from northern Kanto to the Kansai region. Markets developing under this system were previously managed by the Fishing Company S. Pick-up and shipping were handled by local people, and seafood transport was managed by Transport Company S, a member of the same corporate group as Fishing Company S. Connecting these activities from the fishing port to wholesale markets enabled the transport of seafood to distant areas.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the collection, distribution, and consumption trends of insects as food and attitudes toward entomophagy as a local food culture in the city of Ina, Nagano prefecture, Japan. According to the results of a questionnaire survey, more than 60% of respondents followed the custom of eating insects and some recognized insects as elements of local food and local food culture. However, there has been a decreasing trend in the frequency of insect consumption, and the environment surrounding entomophagy has been changing. At present, entomophagy in Ina and changes in consumption trends differ by type of insect in the area. Further investigations of decreases in consumption, especially among the younger generation, and of changes in distribution patterns when the resource supply is dependent on other regions are necessary when considering how to ensure that the custom of entomophagy is passed down to future generations in Ina.

Since the formation of Local Enterprise Partnerships in 2011, successive regional policies have been deployed in England, including city, growth and devolution deals as well as the formation of combined authorities and direct election of mayors. This paper examines the development of devolution policies in England since the establishment of Local Enterprise Partnerships and aims to show how regions have accepted the policy changes and been transformed by them. A case study was concluded of three combined authorities, North of Tyne, North East, and Tees Valley, formed in North East England. Combined authorities are a new form of governance created for economic development which exploit the agglomeration effects of city-regions in the new market-driven economy. A combined authority’s territory is justified by the assembling delegations through deal making.

This is a report of the findings from a series of field surveys to visualize and quantify the local custom of “daily grazing” by Western Mongolian nomadic herders living in the Altai Mountains through behavioral analysis and to clarify the actual conditions of land use in relation to regional environmental changes. The author recorded 19 days of grazing activities through observations at two study sites (SS1 Alztai Horow/SS2 Thunher nuur) at Mt. Munkh-Khairkhan range, Bulgan village, in Bayan Ulgii province. Those surveys clarified technical aspects of the control of livestock herds for management and intervention using three types of skills (physical, auditory, and throwing). In addition, daily grazing tends to be a labor-saving activity, and more strenuous grazing is limited to wealthier social strata.

In recent years, Japan’s tourism policy has aimed at employment and economic growth through tourism promotion. Analysis of the economic development due to tourism in each prefecture from 2012 to 2016 reveals that the number of tourists and consumption increased nationwide, but the increase in employment and economic growth in the tourism industry was concentrated in metropolitan areas, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In other regions, there was almost no economic development that compensated for existing regional economic disparities and made tourism a key industry. The reason for this is that the impossibility of storage and the small productivity enhancement capacity of mechanization are disadvantages in regional areas. Moreover, the concentration of the tourism industry has been cumulatively increasing in metropolitan areas because of location advantages, and opportunities for rationalization of management through linkages with urban service industries such as human resource development and IT have expanded. Japan’s tourism policy has structurally reproduced the disparities between metropolitan and other regions. COVID-19 may serve as an opportunity for Japan’s tourism policy to shift from an overemphasis on economic promotion.