Traditional markets in China were composed of periodic markets mainly in rural areas and of daily ones mostly in urban areas. They developed over a long history and their number surpassed 50,000 at the end of the Minguo period.
After the communist revolution, these markets were extremely restricted by the government under the socialization policy of economic activities. The number of markets decreased annually, and the volume of market trade shrank particularly when an extremely left-wing policy was adopted.
Since economic reform and the open-door policy started in 1978, the government has conversely encouraged market activities. Many markets were revived or newly opened, and the volume of market trade increased rapidly each year. Immigrant farmers and unemployed workers in the cities and small-sized part-time farmers in rural areas took part as traders at those markets.
Recently, however, the prosperity of the markets has begun to fade. The number of markets has started to decrease again, the volume of market trade has stagnated, and the share of market trade in total retail trade has shrunk. It is assumed that these new trends are caused by the proliferation of permanent shops, the diffusion of motorbikes, motortricycles, and minibuses in rural areas, the policy of moving street markets to indoor locations, and the rapid increase in supermarkets in urban areas.

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As alternatives to the conventional systems of food provision, short food supply chains (SFSCs) have attracted growing interest in agro-food geography and related social sciences. In this paper, we explore the conditions for stabilizing the operation of SFSCs by analyzing the dynamics of SFSCs of Japanese Shorthorn beef, which is a specific local breed, in Iwate Prefecture, from 1991 to 2004. We developed an analytical framework focusing on three distinctive features of SFSCs as a dynamic system: 1) short-circuiting and simplifying food supply chains; 2) close interactions among the actors; and 3) close interactions with a particular place. We examined how and under which conditions these distinctive features function effectively. The SFSCs of Japanese Shorthorn beef are characterized by: 1) direct selling from producers to consumers through full-set distribution; 2) creation of added value by conveying and offering qualities that are not recognized by appearance and standardized grade, such as taste, safety, and local nature; and 3) a production system closely connected with the ecological and social environments of the production area. After the import liberalization of beef in 1991, the SFSCs of Japanese Shorthorn beef have tried to stabilize operations, especially by intensifying close relationships with production areas.
The findings of this study are summarized as follows. With respect to short-circuiting and simplifying food supply chains, to ensure the efficiency of the distribution system, SFSCs of Japanese Shorthorn beef require a certain level of scale and complexity, which has increased distributors' burdens of supply-and-demand adjustment. For close interactions among the actors, the behavioral principles of consumers cannot be changed easily through the dynamics of SFSCs, and it was difficult to differentiate Japanese Shorthorn beef based on its local nature. To convince consumers to pay premium prices it was necessary to adapt to consumers' preferences or to appeal to their behavioral principles through the continued efforts such as direct communications. For close interactions with a specific place, the production system and technologies related to the resource recycling type of livestock farming, which was thought to be difficult to achieve in Japan, could be realized with a reasonable level of efficiency and quality through the effective interactions between distributors and producers and/or with government support.
It is important to note that the behavioral principles of actors, which are not merely seeking their own self-interest, have become a key element enabling the three distinctive features of SFSCs to function effectively in meeting the conditions described above. In particular, the behavioral principles of the distributors and producers demonstrating cooperation and public interest leading to the promotion of local products have played an important role since the appeal of local nature to consumers is limited and behavioral principles of consumers cannot be changed easily.

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The purpose of this study was to examine areal differentiation of urban reconfiguration effected by urban renewal policies through a case study of Munich, Germany. This study focuses on the constitutional process of the policies and urban renewal by investigating physical and socioeconomic changes in the urban area of Munich.
Since the 1970s, the municipal government of Munich has introduced large-scale urban renewal policies and has allocated money to improve existing old buildings. It has implemented urban renewal projects for improving the old urbanized areas in the inner city.
An investigation of the level of urban renewal activities measured based on the pattern of the number of constructed and demolished buildings indicates that urban renewal in urban areas of Munich varies spatially. There are several core urban renewal sites between 2km and 4km from the urban center, where urban renewal projects were concentrated. These core areas are also located in areas such as near the Munich central station, where some public developments have been carried out. The changes in land use reveal that new residential units, which mainly target new German residents, continually increased in the core areas of urban renewal. Land use change also took place in the core areas where many office buildings were constructed by private capital investment within and near the areas of urban renewal projects. An analysis of demographic change shows that the number of young or middle-aged Germans between 18 and 64 years old remained the same or increased slightly in the core urban renewal areas, while foreigners decreased in the same areas. Such areas have very active building renewal processes. The continual upgrading of buildings and social groups are strongly related to each other. These changes occurred through both the direct and indirect effects of urban renewal projects.
The results of this study show that urban renewal can be achieved by combining urban policies such as urban renewal projects and redevelopments through private capital investment. Renewal projects such as reconstruction and renovation of old buildings help maintain a well-cared-for physical, social, and economic environment in an old urbanized area and they also stimulate private capital investment to relocate businesses or commercial facilities. This also implies that urban renewal can be accomplished in a small number of selected urban areas. This means that urban renewal can operate in small targeted areas near the urban center within the framework of urban policies. This process can be called “selective urban renewal.”

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Wave regeneration in the subalpine coniferous forest of Japan, where the Abies pure stand dominates, is recognized as a natural regeneration process. Wave regeneration, known as the Shimagare phenomenon, has widely occurred on the northern part of the Yatsu-ga-take Mountains, central Japan. We conducted stand structure analysis, tree-ring analysis, and soil profile analysis on the southern slope of Mt. Maekake-yama, northern Yatsu-ga-take Mountains, to clarify the physical and environmental conditions after determining the sequence of vegetation change using aerial photographs. It was clear that the range in which wave regeneration occurs is nearly fixed, and the edaphic conditions on slopes are major contributors to the occurrence of wave regeneration. Soil depth and gravel content are closely related to the regeneration pattern of the subalpine coniferous forests.
The forest stand and regeneration pattern change with the edaphic conditions; each differs in the forest stand structure and renewal cycle. On the southern slope of Mt. Maekake-yama, the Abies forest stand can be classified into four sub stands: the mature stand; the wave-regenerative stand; the simultaneous renewal stand caused by the Ise-wan Typhoon; and the rock-strewn stand.
Wave regeneration shoud be understood as a special type of simultaneous regeneration controlled by specific conditions such as sunshine, wind, soil, etc. depending on slope aspect.

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