There are three types of business successions: successions to family members, successions to employees, and successions to third parties. In particular, there are many cases of successions to relatives. This has important significance on small and medium sized Japanese enterprises; however, there are also quite a number of cases in which the succession process does not proceed smoothly between the predecessor and successor, resulting in a deadlock. Regarding the succession process of the current management and the successor, in recent years, research is being done on the advancement of the succession process in stages in the form of an interactive relationship between the current management and the successor. However, there has been criticism that it is important to obtain the other party's trust to proceed with the succession process, but it has not been made clear which factor specifically leads to the obtainment of trust. In this study, we shed light on the factors required for the business succession process to proceed smoothly and their relationship through case studies.

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In the majority of family business succession cases, the successor is a relative. When problems arise in communication between the predecessor and the successor, the succession does not proceed smoothly. At times, problems might escalate to the point where the candidate for succession leaves the company. Smooth communication is necessary in order to successfully transfer the family business from predecessor to successor. However, there is no prior research that clarifies what kind of communication should be conducted during this process and what to pay special attention to. In this study, we focus on communication between the predecessor and successor of the family business. Through case studies, we clarify the communication mechanism by which necessary elements in the process of business succession are inherited, the points to keep in mind, and the mechanism of the effect of having communication support.

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Guidelines for sustainability and business are provided in the 2010 Guidance on Social Responsibility (ISO 26000) published by the International Standards Organization (ISO). In addition, ESG investment is accelerating while the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 set goals for a sustainable society by 2030. Some prior research has been conducted on SDGs and ESG, but the analysis of the relationship with ISO26000 are limited, and an ESG / SDGs matrix utilizing ISO26000 has been shown to integrate ESG investment and SDG response using ISO26000. Therefore, in this paper, the author makes the theory of this, and verifies the effect on the internal penetration side and the outside transmission side by the matrix utilization case analysis.

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Recently, the area management has become more and more common and visible in various places with its variety of activities. In order for the area management to become even more widely recognized in the society, the management body should have a perspective of marketing for its activities to analyze and identify the needs of visitors. It also should act strategically, involving local businesses and the public sector in the area. Taking the Umeda area as an example, this paper tries to clarify who are the visitors to the area, how they evaluate area management activities there, and how they will change in near future. The findings of this paper include 1) the area currently visited by many young females are expected to become older, 2) the urban landscape improvement activity is highly evaluated by the visitors, and 3) inbound tourists will have some impacts to the area in the future, and so on. These findings may useful to area management activities in other areas as well.

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