In this paper the author intends to clarify the decrease in the number of seasonal labor migrants and the change of labor market in Sasayama. Sasayama is one of the regions which have had the largest number of peasants engaging in the seasonal labor in sake-brewing factories in Japan. These peasants repeat this seasonal migration in groups led by a leader, called toji, every year.
The author studied the labor market in Sasayama from three points of view. The first is the recent trend of the investments by major sake enterprises in this region. The second is the difference of labor force structure characteristics between the sake-brewing industry and other industries, namely, the textile, furniture, electrical machinery and so forth. The third is the social circumstances in the rural communities where the families of seasonal migrants live.
The results are as follows:
1. Since 1963, the sake-brewing industry has been confronted with the liberalization of producing and selling alcoholic drinks, and entered the age of competition among big enterprises. These circumstances are represented by the decline of the toji system which supported almost all of the sake production only a few decades ago. Recently big sake makers have reorganized local small-scale brewers and besides set up subsidiary firms under their control by purchasing all of their production. And these big makers built many factories which did not need any toji in brewing sake in view of the shortage of toji in the last ten years or so. Even now, many small scale factories, however, depend on the toji system.
2. In the Sasayama area, seven sake-brewing factories were built in the last ten years, and they are divided into two types. One is the subsidiary types whose capital is provided by certain big makers. They have a contract that the sake brewed in this type of factory is to be delivered to its parent maker without paying any liquor tax. The other type is a branch factory of the big maker in search of a cheaper labor` force. These seven factories, however, created a few jobs in this labor market and they depend on the labor force composed of advanced or middle age groups of men and women. On the other hand, the factories including textile, furniture, electorical machinery and etc., depend on middle age groups of housewives.
3. There are many types of rural communities in this area. The author studied two of these types.
In the first type of community, named I-Iiuchiwan composed of 37 farmsteads, 13 inhabitants quitted their seasonal jobs in the sake-brewing industry, but there are still 20 migrants including 10 toji. In the body of this article, the author shows the structure of agriculture and seasonal emigration in another community of this type, named Hannyaji.
In the second type, Kitajima, composed of 20 farmsteads, the number of sake-brewing seasonal laborer has increased to 15. Many commute every winter to the sake factory built in an adjacent town.

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The author investigated the river terraces along the Saru river, Hokkaido, Japan. First, he divided the Quarternary age into four stages by means of the age of marker tephra layers, such as Spfa-1 (ca. 33, 000 yrs. B. P.), En-a (ca. 15, 000yrs. B. P.), Ta-d (ca. 9, 000yrs. B. P.) and Ta-d (ca. 550 yrs. B. P.) which were named Ms, Mw-I, Mw-II, and F stages in the descending order (Fig. 1). Secondly, the river terraces were classified into four topographic surfaces based on topographic continuties, which were named I, II, III, and IV surfaces in the ascending order.
Comparing M_??_F stages with I_??_IV topographic surfaces, respectively, he found that there was a time lag within the formation of each topographically continuous terrace surface (Figs. 4 and 5). One case of time lag is shown by the convergence of terraces, (e. g., II_??_IV surfaces converge into one surface in the middle course; the lag of which is estimated 2_??_4×10⁴ yrs). The other is attributed to the translocation of downcutting place of river bed (e. g., I surface is considered to have formed whithin a time of about 1×10⁴ yrs.).
I and II surfaces along the lower course were formed in the Postglacial age. While, III and IV surfaces were formed by the translocation of knick-point, accompanied with the lowering of sea level during the Lastglacial age.
Judging from the field evidences and longitudinal profiles (Figs. 4 and 5), down-cutting of II surface was initiated from the middle course, slowly proceeding to upward and downward. It is supposed that this phenomenon was caused by the complex influence of the following factors: (1) increasing of curvature in river profile, probably effected by the relative decrease of fluvial load and sea level rise in the Postglacial age, (2) slight falling of sea level after the maximum phase of Jomon transgression, (3) other unknown factors.
The river traces distributed along the course of the Saru have been formed as a result of successive translocation of down-cutting, lateral erosion, and depositional areas to upward and downward along the river course. Fig. 7 shows the presumed changes of river bed altitudes since Lastglacial time along the Saru.

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A study was made of the housing development in the northwestern hilly part of the Nara Basin, using urban planning materials of Nara Prefecture and aerial photographs as well as doing field work. As a result, it was found that a rapid housing development had first begun along the Kintetsu Nara line, and extended to the southern, central, and northeastern parts in a leapfrogging manner, then filled the areas between earlier housing developments.
Especially eye-catching development is the transformation of Japanese red pine forest in the central part of this region, except for the northwestern part where the foothills are being transformed into housing areas. The population of this region has increased four-fold since 1965, leading to the formation of housing areas that include more than 30, 000 households and more than 100, 000 people. Eventually, even the deep forest areas were developed into luxurious communities. With the creation of new housing areas and increase in population, roads have been extended, widened, and paved. Bus service has been extended and at the same time accompanied with the increase of daily runs. Thus, nearly half of these new housing areas fall within a nine-minute radius to the nearest railway station. Other areas are in the fourteen-minute range to Nara City, and a few in the twenty-minute range.
The topographical environment of small scale was analyzed by using the 500 meter grid square on topographical maps with a scale of one to twenty five thousand, and by making field work. It was found that in the case of most of the early housing development areas (1965.1967), houses were built in the areas of relative relief of 22 to 25 meters and altitude of more than 140 meters above sea level. The valley density was low (between 10 and 19) and 70% of housing areas occupied the sunny slopes. However, in the later period, houses were developed in the areas of relative relief of greater than 30 meters and altitude of less than 100 meters above sea level. The valley density was greater than 20, and 60% of the areas occupied the shady slopes. The writer realized that housing development first began in areas with less topographical barriers suitable for the housing development, and then housing development moved gradually to less suitable areas.

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Solar radiation was recognized again as one of the representatives of new energy resources in 1973, when warnings were given to the limitation of fossil resources, and the utilization of solar energy is being investigated very actively in many countries. A large number of studies have been done on the geographical distribution of global solar radiation in Japan. Most of these studies, however, have a tendency to treat the global solar radiation not as energy resources but as one of the climatological or meteorological factors.
In this paper, the author newly proposed the Solar radiation-duration curve as the means for arranging the data of solar radiation from the standpoint of effective utilization of solar energy. This is the application to the data of global solar radiation of the Flow-duration curve, which has been used as the means for arranging the data of discharge in the field of hydrology and others. Fig. 2, is an example of the Solar Radiation-duration curve in 1977 at six stations (Choshi, Tokyo, Kofu, Matsumoto, Fukui and Maizuru) situated in the almost same latitude. Here, daily totals of global solar radiation observed at each station during a year were rearranged from large to small.
In order to find the indexes to clarify the regional characteristics of global solar radiation in Japan, the author applied the classification of discharge in the Flow-duration curve to the global solar radiation. The classification of global solar radiation is shown on the Table 3. On the basis of this classification, the value of global solar radiation at each station was plotted on the map, and the isopleths at 50 ly intervals were drawn.
As a result, the regional characteristics of classified four kinds of global solar radiation in 1976 and 1977 are summarized as follows:
1. The average 95-day solar radiations of all stations in 1976 and 1977 are 412 ly (200J/m²) and 418 ly (202J/m²), respectively. Main isopleths are 350 ly, 400 ly and 450 ly. On the whole, the regions indicating the value over 400 ly distribute from western Japan centering Shikoku, to Tokai and Chubu districts.
Conversely, the regions marking the value under 400 ly distribute Kanto district exept for the eastern coastal areas, Hokuriku district, and Tohoku district on the Pacific side. Especially, the extreme low value under 350 ly appears in the inland area of Kanto district (Figs. 3 and 4).
2. The average 185-day solar radiations of all stations in 1976 and 1977 are 269 ly (130J/m²) and 281 ly (136J/m²), respectively. Main isopleths are 250 ly and 300 ly, and the regional difference in the map of 185-day solar radiation is smaller than that of 95-day. It has the same tendency as the distributional pattern of 95-day solar radiation that the regions with the largest value distribute from western Japan centering Shikoku, Tokai and districts. Smaller value appears on the Sea of Japan side of Hokkaido and Tohoku dis tricts, and stretching to Hokuriku and Kanto districts with the value under 250 ly (Figs. 5 and 6).
3. The average 275-day solar radiations of all stations in 1976 and 1977 are 163 ly (79J/m²) and 174 ly (84J/m²), respectively. Main isopleths are 150 ly and 200 ly, and the regional difference in the map of 275-day solar radiation is the same level as that of 185-day. The region with the value under 150 ly appears in the southern part of Kanto district. On the whole, however, the map shows a distinctive distributional pattern that the region of larger value stretchs on the Pacific side and the region of smaller value on the Sea of Japan side. Furthermore, on the Pacific side, the value over 200 ly exists in Shikoku, Chubu and Tokai districts, and the eastern part of Kanto district. On the Sea of Japan side, there is a tendency that smaller value appears in higher latitude (Figs. 7 and 8).

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