In Japan, much of distribution of national forests occurs in the northeastern part (Tohoku) of Japan, and many of the private forests and public forests are located in the southwestern part of Japan. These regional differences were caused by the land taxation reform which was begun in 1887 (Meiji 9) to 1882 (Meiji 14) by the Meiji government. By this reform the area of national, public and private forest lands was subdivided.
In Edo (Tokugawa) era, the ownership of forest land was not distinct, especially in the underdeveloped districts. Thus, more than one half of it was owned by the nation in the land taxation reform, and in the Tohoku districts (northeastern part of Japan) which was in the underdeveloped districts, three forth of it was owned by the nation.
In Shizuoka Prefecture (center of Japan), one half of it was owned by the nation, while the other was by privately and publicly-owned (for instance by common people-villagers, village, city and prefecture).
The author's object is to clarify the regional factors of the establishment of village-holding forest land through the analysis of Tashiro Mura (a part of Ikawa village nowadays) in the upper basin of River Ohi, Shizuoka Prefecture.
The results obtained are as follows:
1) In this village, forest lands were completely ruled by the Edo government during the Edo era (just before Meiji era).
2) The succession of possession of the forest land in this village is:
(a) In 1884 (Meiji 6), by the act of land taxation reform about 260 numbers were newly settled on all the land in this village which contains forest, ordinary field and the other fields. The square of land per one number was large.
(b) By the kaster (“Tochidaicho”) of this village in 1877 (Meiji 9), forest lands and shifting cultivated lands were subdivided into private possession so that the average square was about 300ha per each family. This subdivision was tried by the village manager, but it was not approved the governer of Shizuoka Prefecture.
(c) The kaster in 1891 (Meiji 13) shows us the establishment of village-holding forest (“Muramoti-yama”). But the shifting of cultivated land and ordinary fields around the farmhouses which were mainly located on terraces along the River Ohi were admitted as private.
3) From these successions, it is noticed that three kasters of each of the years were provided by a few villagers, especially the headman (“Kochô”) in this village. He decided to admit this forest land as village-holding possession. In the Meiji era, there were no rice paddy fields in this village, so the villagers were mainly engaged in shifting cultivation. So the shifting of cultivated fields supported them and it was of the most importance. So, headman (Kochô) tried to subdivide this forest land to prevent it from being taken by the government. The shifting of cultivation required land fields around the area. So, he applied for permission to shift the square of cultivated land excessively, in 1877.
4) It was admitted that one of the reasons for him to support his application was a few differences between the upper and lower classes who possessed fields and forest land in those days. There were not any large scale possessors or tenant farmers. Villagers had equal right. These are the important factors in the establishment of village-holding forests in mountanious regions which large shifting cultivated fields during early Meiji era.

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The shipbuilding industry in this country has remarkably developed after the World War II under the state monopolistic-capitalist systems, and occupied more than 44% (as of 1965) in the world production. The shipbuilding industry is a kind of assembly industries and needs various associated factories of sub-contraction, which often varies more than 200.
The main purpose in the present series of studies, to which this paper corresponds to the first one, is to make clear the locational distribution of the subcontract system by several shipyards. Fairly remarkable differences by economic regions will be pointed out, and then the author would try to explain these economic geographical backgrounds for some regional diversities of Japanese shipbuilding industry.
The Shimizu area, one shipbuilding region, situated about 150km west of Tokyo, was chosen as the suitable area for the intensive investigation. In this paper, the author took the largest shipbuilding yard in this area, the N, Company, which was one of the seven monopolistic undertakings in Japan, and researched the situation of its subcontract system and its regional characteristics.
The results were obtained as follows:
1. The reason for the shipbuilding capital to adopt the subcontract system, is nothing but to achieve the maximum profits.
2. There are two main ways, however, for this purpose. The first one is to introduce the Shagaiko system; the Shagaiko means the employees of subcontracted enterprises who are compelled under the worse labor conditions in terms of both qualification and wages. The second way is to utilize the associated factories of sub-contraction.
3. In the Shimizu area, the associated subcontract plants have not yet fully developed to fulfil the demands of the Shimlzu shipbuilding yard. Then the yard has had to depend on smaller associated plants located in the Tokyo Yokohama industrial area.
4. In the less industrialized area as the Shimizu area, the regional characteristics of subcontract system lie in the externality of the developing-process of the yard, in- other words, in the dependence on the external region.

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The arable land reclaimed by pioneers in postwar days now amounts to 5% of the nation-wide cultured land acreage and the farmhouses settled there 2% of those of the whole country.
What attracts attention first is the disparity of the regional distribution. Generally speaking, the numerical value is greater in the eastern than in the western part of Japan. It is especially noteworthy that Hokkaido and Tohoku districts carry the greatest weight. 70% of the national reclaimed land acreage and 40% of the whole of the settlers' houses are concentrated in those two districts. The western part forms a striking contrast: Kinki district in particular shows very small numerical value regarding both the acreage and the farmhouses, the former 1% and the latter 2.9%. A similar tendency is seen in the regional difference of the acreage under cultivation per house. The average acreage in Hokkaido is 7.77ha, while that in the prefectures around the Inland Sea is less than 1ha.
Next, the classification of those farmhouses according to the height above sealevel shows the following rate:
100m and below……41% 100_??_400m……40%
400m_??_700m……14% 700m_??_1, 000m……4%
1, 000m and over……1%
The above list clearly indicates that 95% settled in the region below 700m, 5% over 700m, and only 1% over 1, 000m above sealevel.
1, 000m is the limit value showing the minimum height of “High and Cool Reclaimed Land” which is used as the title of this report. And 700m is the height above sealevel showing the lower limit of semi-“High and Cool Reclaimed Land, ” which is also taken up in this report.
The present reporter puts the horizontal north limit of HCRL in the northwestern part of Kanto district. One reason for this is that the height limit of the arable land noticeably decreases toward north with this region as a borderline. Another reason is that the name of “High and Cool Land Agriculture, ” which is characterized by cool weather due to the height above sealevel, should be applied limitedly to the region to the south of the northwestern part of Kanto district.
This opinion of the reporter's will be justified by the following fact: the distribution of the settlers over 1, 000m shows a remarkable inclination of their concentration in the region extending from Fukushima prefecture in the southern end of Tohoku district across the northwestern part of Kanto district to Gifu prefecture in Chubu district (97%) . If 700m is taken up as standard, 85% of the national total are concentrated in those seven prefectures.
Those marginal zones, which had remained unutilized in prewar days, came to be highlighted for the first time, with a view to tiding over the postwar crisis as a result of the serious food shortage and the rapid increase of the unemployed. The development of national economy and the change of eating habits brought forth the increased demand for dairy products and vegetables, which consequently actualized the potent of HCRL. And this affords a clear proof of the mutability of the condition of location in accord with the development of social economy.
HCRL is characterized by (1)the severe natural conditions (climate, topography, soil, etc.), (2)the restrictions by its isolated location, and (3)the large scale management area to make up for the unfavorable condition. HCRL, under its restricted condition, developed commercial farming, with dairy farming and vegetable growing as its principal axis.
The present reporter, choosing eight out of the above-mentioned regions where are concentrated HCRL's, made some investigations into their actual situations. The principal forms of management in those regions are also dairy farming, vegetable growing and the mixed of the two.

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