Especially since the oil crises, Japan's long-distance, wide-area Just-in-Time logistics systems have been established through mutual cooperation between completed-car manufacturers, parts suppliers, their logistics subsidiaries, and third-party logistics providers (3PL), against a background of a shift to diverse, flexible production, development of communication and information systems, and more dispersed locations of completed-car factories.
Before the oil crises, during the medium- and long-distance transport of auto parts, longer transport times and distances tended to result in parts delivery delays, making it difficult to arrange space for storage and sorting. This in turn resulted in inefficient circulation of vehicles and staff and led to higher costs. In response to such problems, 3PL built logistics centers with vendor-consolidation and cross-dock functions, which made consolidation, trunk transport, sorting, and division into periodic, small-quantity, high-frequency deliveries possible. These initiatives boosted the circulation rates of vehicles and staff, which reduced transport time, parts delivery delays, transport costs, and storage space needed; clarified the flow of parts and information; and reduced wasteful processes and superfluous staff to achieve greater transport efficiency. In sum, these completed flexible logistics systems simultaneously achieved economy of scale in consolidated trunk transport and economy of scope with detailed sorting and frequent small-lot deliveries.
As examples, we compare the Kumamoto Plant of Honda Motors and the Mizushima Plant of Mitsubishi Motors. In Honda Motors' logistics, costs are mainly borne by each supplier, with reliance on the suppliers' own initiatives. However, Honda provides indirect guidance and support, for example, it transports parts as backhaul cargo after completed-product transport, using 3PL company A. Honda thus developed diverse logistics using railway containers and ferry boats. On the other hand, Mitsubishi Motors pays the all costs of parts logistics to 3PL, and its logistics are greatly influenced by the existing 3PL prime contractor (company E), which developed an information system linking miscellaneous suppliers and many completed-car manufacturers. 3PL company E collects and consolidates numerous parts from each supplier for transport to Mitsubishi Motors using this common information system.
We also compare 3PL companies A and E. Company A transports parts as backhaul cargo after completed-product transport. This 3PL focuses on logistics techniques. On the other hand, company E is a provider of a shared information system that links parts suppliers with many car assemblers. Thus company E has the marked characteristics of a 4PL.

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This paper investigates the realities and causes of regional disparities in community-based services that were newly established in line with the 2006 reforms in the nursing care insurance system. Since the new services strengthened the authority of municipalities as compared with traditional nursing care services, the regional participatory activities of service operators were considered to be the reason for regional disparities in traditional nursing care insurance services. This paper also examines this issue from the perspective of policies, ideas, and financial situations of municipalities.
After using the Gini coefficient to understand regional disparities in services, we found that there were significant regional disparities in services, all of which were greater than 0.7 with the exception of cohabitation and nursing care to cope with dementia. This is clear when compared with the fact that all traditional nursing care insurance services had disparities of less than 0.5. The reasons for these regional disparities were municipalities without services, comprising mainly small municipalities, and medium-sized municipalities with populations of approximately 10,000–50,000 which have high contentment indexes due to more satisfactory services than those of small municipalities. Compared with traditional nursing care insurance services, an overwhelming majority of municipalities did not have community-based services, which has markedly increased regional disparities in community-based services compared with traditional nursing care insurance services.
Because of the concept that municipalities in their position as the closest administrative body to residents should play an important role in community-based services, not only were they able to set facility maintenance targets in nursing care insurance operation plans, which was the role of municipalities with traditional nursing care insurance services, but they were also granted the authority to specify, supervise, and advise service operators. However, very few municipalities were able to exert this authority. Conversely, in many cases municipalities decided not to implement services, and in some cases they did not assent to the principles of national community-based services. Meanwhile, in municipalities that were able to implement services, the result depended greatly on the participatory activities of service operators, such as profit-making corporations or social welfare corporations, as with the case of traditional care insurance services. However, because schemes such as nursing care benefits and staffing were unattractive to service operators, their participation was passive, resulting in an increase in regional disparities in service provision.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the development path of evolutionary economic geography and to consider its future perspectives from the main studies conducted in this area. Evolutionary economics has developed arguments about “routines” as the key concept. Further, methodological variety and openness, which are features of evolutionary economics, have been adopted in evolutionary economic geography. Researchers in evolutionary economy geography have been interested in the evolution of the economic system in multispatial scales. This study also examined arguments related to the path dependency approach and generalized Darwinism approach. The former approach is discussed to rethink the association between path dependency and equilibrium/far from equilibrium, while the method of depicting regional development paths has developed. The latter approach is discussed based on the concept of biology, especially focusing on “related variety.” In terms of the future perspectives on evolutionary economic geography, this paper suggests that it is essential to construct an intermediate concept that establishes a connection between theoretical and experimental studies, to document significant case studies, to reevaluate the existing research, and to deal with the evolution of various actors in multispatial scales.

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This research clarifies the factors behind the expansion of the production of bitter gourds due to partnerships among agricultural cooperatives, using examples from the Tomo region of Gunma prefecture, Japan. Since 2002, Zenno Gunma led the three agricultural cooperatives to form partnerships in the Tomo region, and cooperative sales began. The first factor was that sales managers from JA Gunma Itakura and JA Tatebayashi had a cooperative relationship that predated this project. It was therefore possible to build a cooperative relationship among the three agricultural cooperatives in the Tomo region, and Zenno Gunma was able to establish a system of direction for each agricultural cooperative. Zenno Gunma gave instructions on specifications and sales destinations, and cultivation technologies were owned in common and shared fairly. The second factor was that within the three agricultural cooperatives in the Tomo region there were agricultural households with male professional farmers under the age of 60 years who believed that the introduction of bitter gourd cultivation was necessary. As these agricultural households succeeded in gourd production, others began to cultivate them. These included agricultural households that had been mainly producing crops other than cucumbers or eggplants, female farmers, supplementary farmers, and farmers over 60 years of age. The production thus increased.

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