Some studies on cement plant location in Japan were conducted by geograhers and economists. But those were on the basis of the Weberian location theory, which assumes markets to be perfect, one price ruling throughout each of them. Or, otherwise expressed, transport costs and other costs involved in movement within a market are assumed to be zero, and the market treated as one-point. In the early years of the cement industry, when the uses for the portland cement were limited to some large cities, these analyses were adequate and correct. As the demand increased and expanded, the networks of supply areas have stretched and extended over almost the entire country of Japan. Weberian theory has not been sufficient to determine the location of cement plants. Lösch's theory is a pioneering first attempt to determine the spatial arrangemet of economic activity. This provides a set of equations displaying the location system. This also asks what the distribution of a producing place will be under postulation of continuous demand on a homogeneous plain. That answer can be achieved by analyzing the possible shapes, and possible sizes of market-areas. In this paper the location of the recent cement plants in Japan will be analyzed basically on the ground of the analysis of market-areas.
1) The first cement plant in Japan was constructed at Fukagawa, Tokyo in 1892. In the beginning this plant was managed directly by the government, but later it was sold to a private concern, the original of the present Nihon Cement Co. LTD. Every cement plant that has been established since then, has been controlled by a private concern. But the cement plant location was not determind through economic consideration until about 1887. After that time most cement plants work their own quarries and have been found to be established in certain localities especially selected for their proximity to rich limestone and coal deposits which constitute the chief raw material and a large part of production co st for cement manufacturing. Hence one third of all 47 cements have concentrated in the northern part of Kyushu which abounds in rich deposits of limestone and coal.
2) As the Japaese cement industry progressed, the 3 main companies, namely Nihon, Onoda and Iwakicement industry Co. LTD. have monopolized the cement production. These three companies are operating 26 plants and their production amounts to 48 percent of the overall total.
3) The change of the maritime transportation situation, the improduction facilties and engineering technique in the cement industry, and the extension of the cement demand over the regional areas of the country have brought about a great change in locational conditions for the industry. That is, since many Japanese ships were damaged during the Pacific War, the cost of maritime transportaion has become so high compared with land carriage. The adaptation of long economical kilns, Lepol kilns and air quenching coolers have brought down the unit consumption of coal. Whereas heretofore the major consumers of cement were the urban areas, the present situation is that the regional areas embracing the farms and mountains are also becoming big consumers and the difference in the volume of consumption between them is gradually dwindling.
In prewar days the selection of sites for the erection of cement plants was made chiefly on their proximity to raw material sources which did not always correspond to the areas of actual consumption and distribution. After the War, however, the construction of new plants (11 plants after the War) and expansion work are attracted to the market-areas which are rather closely connected with the raw material sources, and have a tendency of dispersion. Except from the spatial aspect of monopolitic competition, such the dispersion of cement plants is thus no longer comprehensive.

View full abstract

Studies on the mining town as a kind of urban function are one of the most backward in the field of urban geography. The writer has investigated some mining towns and studied their forms and functions as a subject of urban geographical study.
Metal mining towns under the capitalistic system in Japan are classified into two groups. the historical mining towns which have maintained their own functions since feudal age, and the modern mining towns which have rapidly developed since Meiji era. Here the writer describes only on the former, without enough space to describe both.
The historical mining towns have dual composition. They consist of the area of historical settlement having maintained since feudal age and the area of company settlement established by modern mining company settlement established by modern mining company since Meiji era. The regional arrangement of these areas in a mining town depends chiefly on the topographic conditions.
The area of company settlement was established according to the mining plans of the company, but it was not clear whether the area of historical settlement was established by some mining plans or not, Some historical mining towns in Akita-Han were estadlished in the beginning of the 17th Century and the areas of historical settlement in them were planned by the feudal authorities.
The area of historical settlement has maintained the character of service function area in the mining town, and the area of company settlement has chiefly the mining functions which is expressed by the ore dressing and smelting mills, the mining management offices and the labourer's abodes, The area of company settlement has uniform qualities in form and function, but the people living there come from different origins and have different Buddhist traditions.

View full abstract

A mansion of village lord (Gozoku-Yashiki) has become the core, from which a scattered settlement had been grown; the reserch made by Dr. Makino was an leading study, to which the writer would like to criticize.
Aaccording to his own investigation on the mansions of Gozoku in the north-eastern districts of Japan, it will be possible to find in a way the center point in their “Concentrated Villages”. He has an idea that especially in the north-eastern districts there are many types of the settlements of village lord.

View full abstract