Recent studies on the geography of tourism in Japan have investigated tourist behavior in relation to geographic characteristics in a variety of ways. The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics of visitors' space use in Ueno Zoo (Ueno Zoological Garden) in an urban district of Tokyo and Tama Zoo (Tama Zoological Park) in an urban suburb of Tokyo. Two tools were used: first, a questionnaire was administered to determine the purpose of and time spent during a zoo visit as well as the home address and other demographic information on visitors; and second, visitors' movements were recorded by global positioning system (GPS) tracking devices that the zoo visitors agreed to wear. The resulting data were analyzed statistically using the Geographical Information System (GIS). The analysis of data collected from questionnaires showed that visitors' responses to the questions could be divided into three categories: “Experience and Purpose,” “Age of Main Person in Group,” and “Usage of Zoo.” Many visitors to Ueno Zoo had traveled long distances. Furthermore, Ueno Zoo visitors had more varied reasons for traveling there than Tama Zoo visitors. Analysis of the GPS data showed that visitors' space use was influenced by five space elements: “Site Condition,” “Landform,” “Animal Exhibits,” “Rest Facilities,” and “Waterfront and Green Space.” Visitors' space use of Ueno Zoo was mainly influenced by “Rest Facilities.” On the other hand, visitors' space use of Tama Zoo, which is in the midst of a more natural environment, was mainly influenced by “Animal Exhibits” and not by environmental features such as “Waterfront and Green Space.” Complex interrelations of space use in tourism spaces were found between tourist types and space elements in this research. This paper explains these complex interrelations as geographic characteristics of an urban district and an urban suburb.

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The Yamase is a cold, humid, northeasterly wind blowing toward the coast on the Pacific side of the Tohoku region of Japan during summer. However, the Yamase blows in a southerly direction in the Kitakami Basin. In this study, analyses of data and numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model were conducted to determine the reason for this southerly direction.
The results of numerical experiments indicated that the Yamase is southerly in the Kitakami Basin where the actual topography is reduced to 90% of the average terrain height. Meanwhile, it is easterly in areas of the Kitakami Basin when the topography is reduced to 80% of the average terrain height. The results of numerical experiments were consistent with those of mechanical analyses using the Foude number and Rossby number. Analyses of the Yamase in the Kitakami Basin therefore suggest that its characteristics are influenced by topographic obstacles and gravitational flow.

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This research attempted to clarify the role and place of small-scale residential development land in the movements of residents. The area researched was the Sekizawa district of Fujimi city in Saitama prefecture, where the ground-floor area per residence is small and small-scale residential housing is common. Around 1970, many inexpensive, narrow residences were constructed in the Sekizawa district. Despite being owned, many residents moved in and out of those dwellings. The residents were mostly young, ranging in age from 25 to 34 years. Residents moved out after a few years, and few continued to live in the same new building. Thirty percent of outmigrants moved to either the central area of Fujimi or the neighboring town of Miyoshi. The families that left proceeded to purchase houses larger than those they had previously lived in. This indicates that the residences in the Sekizawa district were considered to be temporary dwellings for young households, which lived in on the assumption that they would be vacated later. However, after the mid-1980s, this high resident turnover rate began to decrease. This is attributed to the rapid rise of land prices caused by a bubble economy. While the resident turnover rate fell in the Sekizawa district, home reconstruction began to increase. By comparing the floor area of residences before and after reconstruction, nearly all increased their total floor area. Consequently, it can be assumed that home reconstruction served as a substitute for moving to a different residence. Furthermore, in residences constructed after 1975, ground-floor areas exceeding 100 m² became more common, and fewer residents moved, implying that through home reconstruction and the construction of residences with relatively larger floor space, the role of a dwelling as a permanent residence became more common.
Regardless of home ownership, the causes of high resident turnover can be attributed to: 1) a steady rise in wages and land prices prior to the collapse of the bubble economy; 2) a shortage of rental housing for families; and 3) the lack of a condominium system such as that in use today. As such, the residences with smaller floor area in the Sekizawa district were a product of the times. At the same time, the high resident turnover rate was an exceptional phenomenon of a period of rapid economic growth.

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After the mid-1980s, against the background of the growing suburban centers and progress in information and communication technology, there was a drastic change in the location of office function. In particular, the concept of the “edge city,” proposed by Garreau (1991), strongly influenced studies on trends in the location of office function. This paper first surveys trends in studies on the location of office function in North America, Western Europe, and Japan after the 1990s, when edge cities emerged in these regions. Then, it investigates the local differences and factors contributing to the study trends. The survey results can be summarized as follows.
First, the decentralization process and the factors contributing to it in urban areas differed in each region. In North America, office decentralization was a result of the shift from mass transport to a private transport system. In Western Europe, urban policies and progress in information and communication technology contributed to office decentralization. On the other hand, the conditions in Japanese cities varied with size. Office decentralization in large cities was a result of progress in information technology, but in most local cities, it can be ascribed to the changing preferences for traffic mode.
Second, a city-to-city comparison revealed another difference between North America and Western Europe. In North America, where the hierarchy between cities is clear, it is assumed that a difference in the accumulation of urban infrastructure influences the location of office function. In Western Europe, it is assumed that the relocation process of the office function spread from the core regions to peripheral ones, because it is recognized that the stage of socio-economic development influences the location of office function. On the other hand, with regard to Japan, studies on the location of office function have concentrated on three major urban areas, and therefore, there is only limited scope for a city-to-city comparison. The differences among cities in Japan should be clarified by examining the office relocation process in small- and medium-sized cities.
Third, the changing direction in office relocation—from decentralization to recentralization—in both North America and Western Europe was identified. However, there are some differences in the two areas in this regard. In North America, intensifying globalization is resulting in the recentralization of office function in major metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, in Western Europe, office developments in the central areas in large cities are relatively limited. It is thus assumed that the tendency for recentralization is strengthened around a small city with a long history. In Japan, recentralization is observed in the major metropolitan areas. Therefore, we should clarify how the phenomenon of recentralization is affected by globalization and whether it is observed in medium- or small-sized cities.
The survey showed that, in North America, the decentralization and recentralization of office function were the result of realignments of business organizations brought about by globalization. On the other hand, in Western Europe, the urban policy and stage of socio-economic development of each area were the major factors contributing to office relocation. In Japanese trends of studies on the location of office function, there are few references for a city-to-city comparison. Therefore, it is unclear whether the decentralization and recentralization of office function originated in cities owing to urban policy or a general reorganization process based on globalization. We need to accumulate empirical data from the viewpoint of comparing individual cities and regions.

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The relationship between the distribution of liquefied sites caused by the 1944 Tonankai Earthquake and landforms in the Otagawa Lowlands, Shizuoka prefecture, was studied. Because liquefaction is likely to occur on the loose sandy layer under the groundwater level, liquefied sites have been considered to correspond to the microtopographies on alluvial plains such as natural levees, point bars, former river channels, and edges of sand bars or sand dunes. However, in some cases liquefied sites are located in muddy back marshes.
Coarse-grained sediments under fine-grained sediments comprising the present flood basin were observed by hand-boring. The location of sand volcanoes in the flood basin closely corresponds to the location of part of these coarse-grained sediments. These sediments occur along shallow buried valleys and are similar to sediments occurring in present natural levees. Thus, these sediments are likely derived from buried natural levees. There are also traces of sand volcanoes formed by liquefication in these buried natural levee deposits at archeological sites. After liquefication due to paleo-earthquakes, the buried natural levee deposits appeared to have beeen liquefied again in the 1944 Tonankai Earthquake.

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