The Yaeyama archipelago which is positioned at the southern-most point of the Ryukyu islands has a history of commuting in search of arable land from the “low islands” on which wet-rice agriculture was not possible to the “high islands” on which malaria was prevalent. Originally commuting to distant farms on the Yaeyama archipelago was viewed as resulting from the poll tax (1637–1902) that was part of the customary tax system. Such migratory production after the abolition of the poll tax was viewed as retroactively recalling lifestyles under customary systems and did not attract attention. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to clarify the transition to, and rise and fall of, commuting to distant overseas farms during the early modern period, that is, after the abolition of the poll tax due to the land tax reforms of 1903 (Meiji 36). The research method used included analysis of administrative documents in the Kihoin Shushukan (喜宝院蒐集館) from 1897 to 1896 (the 30s of the Meiji era) and of land ledgers and associated cadastral maps in addition to interviews conducted in field research.
These results of these investigations showed that the peak period for commuting to distant farms was the early modern period. Factors such as the 1) implementation of the new tax law; 2) infiltration of market economics; 3) degeneration of rural communities positioned on the high islands; and 4) technological progress created the peak period as an adjustment to permanent employment that absorbed excess population from the low islands.

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In rural areas of Japan, abandoned cultivated land has expanded markedly for three major reasons: 1) a decreasing population and aging of farmers; 2) lower agricultural commodity prices; and 3) the existence of small-scale farmlands on slopes. Similarly, the problems associated with the expansion of abandoned land can be summarized as wild animal invasion into farmlands, slope collapses, and decreased permanent resettlement. Therefore, this study focuses on grazing to decrease the amount of abandoned cultivated land and provide a solution to those problems because grazing does not require much labor and it is possible that abandoned cultivated land could be utilized in new ways.
Cattle grazing in hilly and mountainous areas in the Chugoku and Kyushu regions can be taken as a model for managing abandoned cultivated lands and promoting livestock raising. Cattle are grazed on drained paddy fields, terraced paddy fields, or steep land instead of in vast pastures. Moreover, in 1989 Yamaguchi prefecture started a grant project for grazing on drained paddy fields which played a pioneer role at that time. Cattle are pastured on approximately 40 hectares in the city of Nagato.
This study examines the Yuya district of Nagato in detail as a case study, focusing on stock raising on beef cattle-breeding farms and the reasons for the spread of cattle ranching. The findings of the study can be summarized as follows. 1) When farms began to graze beef cattle, farmers could take advantage of the grant project that was related to the improvement of grazing facilities. 2) Grazing is an effective tool for farmers to save labor in beef cattle breeding and to reduce expenditures on fodder. 3) Cattle breeding farmers were able to use farmlands near their livestock barns as pastures. 4) An enthusiastic leader in cattle pasturing resided in this district.
Finally, pasturing can be introduced to expand the number of grazing areas for beef cattle. However, major problems in grazing on drained paddy fields include securing the pasture, lack of investment to improve grazing facilities, and giving cattle-breeding farmers a better understanding of grazing. If non-farmers who own farmland have abandoned cultivated land, the cooperation and consensus of people residing in rural settlements may be necessary for the expansion of stock raising. The grazing form of land use can lead to the sustainable management of cattle-breeding farms in hilly and mountainous areas where the abandonment of cultivation continues.

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This paper discuss climate variations in summer half years (May to October) from the 7th to 10th century in the Kinki region of west central Japan based on historical documents. Most previous research used the compilations of meteorological references contained in various unspecified documents. That method of research may be effective when examining climate variations after the 17th century since numerous documents are available. However, before 10th century, few documents are available, and their different features are likely to lead to nonstandardized analysis.
Many of the Japanese documentary sources that potentially could have been used to reconstruct the climate from the 7th to 10th century have been lost. This research therefore relied specifically on the Rikkokushi and Nihon-Kiryaku. The former, one of the oldest documents in Japan, was compiled before 887 and consists of six official books. The latter contains records from before 1036, was written in the late 11th century, and was based on the Rikkokushi and many other documents.
The terms “a long rain” or “drought” are treated seriously in this analysis because of the large scale they represent. Their occurrence in every 10-day period was counted in this study to discuss changes in the summer climate, because there are numerous comments in ancient texts on the amount of rainfall during the Japanese rainy season and the various stages of production of the staple crop of rice.
The results of analysis showed that drought was much more common from the late 7th to 8th century and that long rains were more common in the 9th century, especially from 850 to 887. Mentions of drought in July increased in the late 8th century, which suggests that the occurrence of a northerly polar front connected with warming may have corresponded with the “medieval warm period” defined by other scientific research. The increase in the mentions of long rains in July from 879 to 887 suggests the relation of a southerly polar front associated with cooling. On the other hand, the results could be related not only to polar fronts but also to other climatic and anthropological factors. For example, the increase in long rains in the early 9th century despite the absence of marked temperature changes between the late 8th to the early 9th century could indicate that moving the capital in 794 from Nara to the Kyoto basin with its many rivers shifted the focus of ancient writers to flooding or other phenomena resulting from heavy rainfall.

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With the dissemination of GIS and geospatial technologies, the influence of them on not only geographical research but also society has been discussed in English-speaking countries since 1990s. Further, in Japan, as the production of geospatial data and diffusion of GIS have remarkably progressed, geospatial technologies are penetrating into business and daily life. The aim of this paper is to summarize the argument about the issues of GIS and society in English-speaking countries and consider their implications for the GIS studies in Japan.
To begin with, we examined the tone and background of the argument about the issues of GIS and society before 2000 mainly on the basis of the work of Schuurman who called this subject “Critical GIS” dividing the progress of the argument into three periods. As a result, it was found that the controversy between GIS scholars and social theorists in the early 1990s changed to cooperation between two groups around the mid 1990s owing to the dialog meeting held by NCGIA in the USA. This movement led to the establishment of Geographic Information Science that embraces the issues of GIS and society as a research subject.
Then, we traced the development of the argument since 2000, especially in North America, and found that the following themes concerning GIS and society have been discussed: the practice of PPGIS, qualitative GIS raised by feminist geographers, social construction of GIS based on the perspective of STS (Science, Technology, and Society), and ethical or legal issues of surveillance and privacy.
While these arguments are suggestive of GIS studies in Japan, Japanese scholars do not fully understand the point of the argument. This seems to be reflected in the partial understanding of PPGIS that has been led on the initiative of the Japanese government. Recently, however, interest in the social impact of the sophistication of geospatial technologies has grown in Japan because of the increasing popularity of LBS (Location-Based Services) provided using mobile phones and the Internet. In addition, it is expected that enactment of Japanese NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure) Law in 2007 will promote the prevalence of geospatial information and related technologies. Hence, Japanese scholars are now coming to grips with the issues related to GIS and society. While tackling these issues, we ought to grasp the meaning of critical GIS accurately, considering the characteristics of the technological development and institutional/social context of GIS in Japan.

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The purpose of this essay is to clarify the nature and perspective of labor geography by investigating the related discourses in Anglophone economic geography.
The origin of labor geography is traced to some works written by radical economic geographers in 1970s, and its disciplinary characteristics were established in 1990s. Labor geographers criticize the capital-centered standpoint of mainstream economic geographers (both the radicals and the neoclassicals). Then, they try to make a sub-discipline of economic geography through the eyes of labor. They recognize that labor has the agency to participate in the making of the capitalist economic landscape. Flexible arrangement of labor force by employers turns to “risk” from the employees' point of view. Labor geographers claim that the concept of employability, which usually means the components of a worker's value in labor market, should be understood as spatially and temporarily contingent one that cannot attribute its components to only individual factors. If employability is redefined as a contingent concept that contains various circumstantial factors, validity of workfare social policy that regards workers' skill shortage as the cause of unemployment and urges the unemployed to participate in labor market in order to shrink welfare and social security expenditure, should be questioned.
For labor geographers, labor market is not orthodox commodity market governed only by price mechanism, but segmented and socially regulated arena for various social actors. Labor market is intrinsically constituted locally as a consequence of triad of causal processes associated with production, reproduction and social regulation. Localization of employment policy underpinned by workfarism puts importance on local scale as a unit of social regulation, however, different spatial scales emerge as a consequence of the interaction of social actors in labor market. Labor geographers investigate how the specific spatial scale is produced and how it is articulated with both upper and lower spatial scale.

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Fagus crenata is a dominant tree species in the montane forest zone of Japan. The spatial distribution of F. crenata canopy trees was investigated in the upper limit of the montane forest zone to examine the relationship between landform evolution and vegetation structure.
F. crenata was more abundant on south-facing slopes than on north-facing slopes. Further, the abundance varied among slopes with different geomorphic histories. F. crenata trees were more frequent on steep, incised slopes, which occurred on lower mountain slopes, than on the gentle, smooth slopes of the ridges and upper mountain slopes. The concentration of F. crenata on south-facing slopes was explained not only by differences in micro-climates, but also by slope type (i.e., smooth or incised). Because of the geologic structure of the region, incised slopes are prone to develop on south-facing slopes in parts of the study area.
Differences in F. crenata abundance between smooth and incised slopes were partly due to differences in soil conditions. The frequent formation of canopy gaps that facilitate the regeneration of F. crenata seems to be another factor on steep incised slopes. Smooth slopes were formed during the last glacial age, whereas incised slopes were formed by landslides and gullying during the Holocene. These results suggest that mountain slope evolution influences present vegetation structures by controlling edaphic conditions and slope stability.

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