This study illustrates the diffusion process of a medical information system from relationships among healthcare providers in Nagasaki prefecture. Looking at the diffusion process on a prefectural scale, the cooperative behavior fostered by system-promoting agencies could operate as a common system between the differing related actors. In addition, the system was diffused beyond the jurisdiction of local government. The system-promoting agencies were combined with professional organizations, which increased the number of participating facilities through cost reductions.

However, the trust relationship with regional medical associations or regional pharmaceutical associations played several important roles on a municipal scale. The members of those professional organizations were fully aware of the economic value of the system. The investigation revealed that system diffusion has not only technical issues but also issues related to the characteristics of the professional organizations, which vary between regions.

The study area of Nagasaki prefecture contains many isolated islands and has large regional differences in medical resources. Against this geographic background, cooperative relationships among healthcare providers were developed before the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT). The conclusion of this study suggests that adequate consideration of geographical conditions of ICT diffusion and effects from a variety of spatial scales can make ICT function as social infrastructure.

Greening public spaces with potted plants increases the quality of life in densely populated residential areas. The extension of personal property into public spaces indicates the spatial recognition by residents regarding architecture in Japan. Nevertheless, it is still not known exactly how potted plants are distributed and managed, perhaps because of the variations in their placement, which is possible due to their portability and small size. By mapping the placement of potted plants and by interviewing planters, this study investigated the characteristics of potted plant distribution for a variety of road widths and describes how they are managed in the Nagono area of Nagoya, Japan.

The main results were following three points. 1) Potted plants along wider roads were placed farther out (from private land) than those along narrower roads, although the total volume of greenery was the same. Along roads less than 4m wide, most gardeners placed their potted plants either on or outside of private land, but not both. Along roads 4 to 8m wide, gardeners used areas both on and outside of their private land, and where roads were more than 10m wide, they placed more potted plants on the edge of the sidewalks. 2) Gardeners also used the empty alley spaces between buildings for planting to different degrees, depending on traffic density. The portability of plant containers contributed to the flexibility of daily management by neighbors. 3) The number of potted plants sometimes increases or decreases through interactions among neighbors; they give potted plants to each other and move their plants in case of conflicts in spatial management. The daily management of potted plants by neighbors varies depending on the daily habits of residents.

Urban residential greening, such as backyard/frontyard gardening, guerrilla gardening, and urban agriculture, has been a recent focus of urban geography. Residential greening of public spaces serves various purposes and has impacts on both political and ethical issues concerning urban environments. Based on the existing results of geographical studies on these new greening actions and changes in urban structure, further studies and case comparisons of private areas of greenery that extend to public spaces will be needed.

This study investigated bay-head delta progradation and delta-plain development in the Ishikari lowland, northern Japan. Nine auger cores and geological samples were obtained from one site, and measurement of loss on ignition of sediments and radiocarbon dating of plant and wood fragments were conducted. Five cross sections of the lowland were also constructed using existing lithologs. The results showed that the lowland was transgressed to form a lagoon system during the early Holocene sea-level rise. As the sea-level rise decelerated ca. 8,000cal BP, bay-head delta deposits began to fill the lagoon and drove an expansion of the subaerial delta plain. Peat deposits formed shortly after the emergence of the delta, indicating wetland development on the newly emergent land surface. Later, crevassing and avulsion of the Ishikari River channel occurred in the upstream part of the delta plain before ca. 5,600–3,600cal BP, as reflected by fluvial deposits overlying the peat that caps the bay-head deltaic deposits. Fluvial deposition nearly ceased after 5,600–3,600cal BP, largely due to decreased precipitation from a weakened East Asian summer monsoon. During this time, the wetlands redeveloped across the now less fluvially active delta plain. Consequently, the accumulation of peat was dominant in the downstream part of the delta plain until the end of the 19th century, when intense human activities began in Hokkaido. Comparison with previous studies suggests that the low fluvial activity of the Ishikari delta plain after 5,600–3,600cal BP may also be common to other riverine delta plains in Japan. However, such low fluvial activity did not generally continue in those other systems, as fluvial activity increased again after ca. 2,000cal BP. The factors that drive such distinctions between the Ishikari lowland and other delta plains have yet to be fully understood.

In recent years, historical geographers have used geographic information systems (GIS) to develop historical databases. However, researchers still lack systems that can handle large amounts of historical geographic data because preparing these databases is time-consuming. Address geocoding systems that convert addresses into coordinates (latitude/longitude) have been developed; however, most of these systems in Japan can only convert present-day addresses and cannot convert historical addresses of the Meiji and Taisho Eras. This study aimed to develop an address geocoding system that can effectively convert historical addresses from old Tokyo’s 15 wards in the Meiji Era into coordinates. To carry out this study, we used printed maps of 1907 to construct databases of historical addresses and developed an algorithm to search the databases. We examined 15 wards that existed for 44 years (1889–1932) in old Tokyo. Our databases contained attribute information such as the historical address strings and their coordinates. We obtained this data using GIS to digitize polygon data from geometrically collected map images. Because the coordinates of each address had to be inside the polygon, we made points within the polygon and used them as the representative points of each address. After we entered an address into the system, the algorithm searched the databases by matching the characters in each address string, starting with the beginning of the string, until it found a mismatched character. The system replaced each mismatch with the special character “_” and searched until no result was returned. Because every address string that we entered matched a string in the databases, we were able to find the correct addresses and their coordinates. Although converting addresses into coordinates using our system takes more time than existing geocoding systems for present-day addresses, this did not pose a problem. Our comparisons of conversion accuracy over different publication dates of addresses indicate that our system accurately handles historical address data from the 1890s to the 1920s.

The purpose of this research is to clarify how the intensification of apple shipments to wholesale markets is developing in the context of the increasing transaction volume in conjunction with the merger of Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. Apple shipments by the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative are used as a case study. The results of this study show that apples are sent to wholesale markets when apple stocks accumulate at the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. There was a concentration of volume at wholesale markets in major cities to which large shipments were feasible. However, this often placed various burdens on those wholesale markets such as requests to provide packing bags and difficulties in receiving the prices sought by the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. On the other hand, in wholesale markets without the capacity to receive large shipments, there was a tendency toward increasing shipments to markets offering a transaction advantage of loose specifications for prices and grades as well as to markets requesting an increase in shipment volumes.

However, even in markets receiving small amounts, shipments to markets with few advantages in trading are on a downward trend. Furthermore, the study shows the relationships among different markets, including an overlap in apple grades shipped to markets with the capacity to receive large shipments and those without transaction advantages, reduction in the shipment of apples to markets with the capacity to receive only small shipments, and concentrated shipments to markets with the capacity to receive large shipments.