During the 1960's the production of weaving industry in Japan has been shifted to Hokup riku district, especially to its northern part.
The weaving industry, which forms a highly-processed part of the textile industry and is one of the advanced modern industries, has been built up in Oku-Noto with the newest equipments, consisting mostly of eight power looms, under the direction of commercial firms. They intend to get an advantage of the keen competition in the domestic production and in the overseas consumption markets of textiles.
The farm economy in Oku-Noto faces the serious crisis of collapse, losing its major sidejobs, such as charcoal industry and coastal fishery. Besides, a rise in general prices and a relative fall in rice price forced many farmers to work away from home, to quit their cultivation and to change their arable land-use pattern. Furthermore, the land price and the rent tend to decline.
In order to overcome this difficult situation, the local governments have tried to introduce new industries and to gain population in Oku-Noto. Above all, the weaving industry, one of new industries in this district, has been expected to support the farm economy, taking the place of forestry or fishery.
If the farmers had disposed on a large scale of their lands for raising initial funds of weaving, the agricultural cooperatives and the other financial institutions would have encountered with a land crisis owing to the sharp decline in land price.
In these circumstances, the Ishikawa local government formulated and carried out the policy of paying a fixed rate of interest to the weaving industry in Oku-Noto. This policy, however, brings about a reduction of cultivation and a concentration of land. Therefore, it is not at variance with the agricultural policy of the Central Government.
The foundation of weaving industry has made a considerable impact on the local politics and economy of Oku-Noto in terms of their reorganization.

View full abstract

Though it is clear that much complicated conditions rule over the actual process of slope evolution, it is also the fact that a series of slope forms of geomorphological interest can be derived from the mathematical model of diffusion type for two-dimensional slopes, namely, _??_ where u denotes elevation of land surface, t is time and x represents horizontal distance from the divide, respectively. The model is justified as a sort of the first approximation to the basic equation describ the phenomenon even viewed from the physical background of the mathematical expression to the various processes operating on the slopes.
A theory of graded slope can also be developed starting from the model mentioned above. The model on this theory maintains that the graded slope is produced as a time-independent form (steady-state solution of the equation) under the definite balance between erosion and such material supply as achieved by crustal movement whose effect is introduced by the term f (x, t).
Under the condition in which graded slopes appear, the relation ∂u/∂t=0 is satisfied. The same is also the case when graded form appears in connection with the river down-cutting at a constant rate, except that the former relation must be replaced by ∂(u-u_r)/∂t=∂t=0, where u_r means the elevation of the river-bed. Such proportionality between rate of down-cutting and ground slope as assumed by W. Penck is satisfied with good accuracy so far as steady-state solution is concerned.
When the agent that brought the occurrence of the graded slope is disappearred, the slope thereafter changes its form irreversiblly with time as illustrated by Davis and declines itself successively and gradually. Though two types of slope forms distinguishable in the course of slope disintegration are controversial in the discussion by Davis against Penck, they are both acceptable in relation to difference of relative magnitude of the coefficient a to b in the model, when slopes of the same dimension are compared each other.
Measurement of the coefficients a and b is possible using the chracteristics of the graded slope and this is especially easy for the slopes accompanied with the antecedent river. Application of the present theory to morphometric data on the valley wall of the river Kiso dissecting the Toki surface shows that a=0.02-0.05m²/year and that b=1.7-0.75mm/year, under the appropriate assumption on the age of formation of the surface, The value of the recessional coefficient bü shows good coincidence in order with that obtained from morphometric analysis on the fault scarp of the Yôrô mountain range, Central Japan.

View full abstract