Recently, historical and cultural geographers have considered ethnic homeland to be an important concept, Because the emotional bonding between an ethnic group and a region is emphasized in this concept, ethnic groups must be examined within their regional context. In this paper, the author examines the ethnic persistence of the Acadians, a francophone group in New Brunswick, Canada. Although French settlers started to immigrate to Nova Scotia in the early seventeenth century, they became a minority in the present-day Maritime Provinces of Canada in the middle of the eighteenth century, when Great Britain's hegemony was established. In spite of a tough environment, the Acadians established many institutions, and as a consequence their collective consciousness was developed by the late nineteenth century. In Grande-Digue, one of the Acadian parishes in southeastern New Brunswick, endogamy is still dominant, and the geographical territory for marriage partners is comparatively limited. Although there are many differences among generations, most spouses are selected among the Acadians. As a result, the French language is maintained as their mother tongue in all generations. These facts contribute to the maintenance of ethnic tradition. In addition to this, it is important for the Acadians that the regional economy has revived and that Moncton has developed as a regional city in the Maritime Provinces, because job opportunities have increased and the Acadians do not have to emigrate to other regions. The Acadians maintain their traits and also play an important role in the development of New Brunswick. These factors contribute to the development of Acadian homeland.

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Since the end of the Cold War there has been growing attention paid to relationships between environment and security. Some scholars and policymakers have suggested that regional environmental protection provides a ‘soft power’ means by which Japan can contribute to its own as well as international security. However, there have been few studies devoted to articulating the links between environmental degradation and Japan's security. This study presents a case of how regional environmental problems affect Japan's security and strategic interests in Southeast Asia. The analysis suggests there are, in fact, compelling reasons for environmental problems in Southeast Asia to be viewed with concern from a security standpoint in Japan.

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This paper aims to summarize the mechanisms of public investment as a social policy in remote rural areas in Japan. It includes findings from former studies as well as a case study undertaken in Shimane by the author, and it discusses the function of public investment in terms of the relationship between the three major groupings involved in the local civil engineering industry. These groups are the “primary labor force group” (PLG) which consists of workers born before or in 1935, the “secondary labor force group” (SLG) which consists of workers born after 1935, and the “local civil engineering companies” (LCECs). In the 1970s and 1980s. there was a strong mutual dependence between the PLG and the LCECs in remote rural areas. PLG workers gave higher priority to maintaining a traditional rural lifestyle and hoped to find jobs in their local area, hence jobs for them should have been created through public works projects. The LCECs also wanted a cheap and quantitatively flexible labor force for public works projects, so public investment worked effectively as a regional social policy. However, as the PLG workers retired and a new generation of workers entered the work force, the disparity between the supply of and demand for labor in the civil engineering industry has increased and the role of public investment as a social policy has been weakened. These changes suggest that the so-called “kaso problem” is generation-specific and that public investment as a social policy for remote rural areas is nearing its end.

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Urbanization and monetization systems have contributed to the reclamation and exploitation of mangroves, which have had some significant effects on the livelihood of those who rely on it. Informal uses of mangroves have received very little attention because they do not contribute to national revenue, and the inextricably linked effects of urbanization and monetary systems on mangrove degradation is lacking. The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-economic impacts of development on mangrove ecosystems and those who depend on it in four coastal villages of Samoa. Fifty households' questionnaire-assisted interviews were conducted first, to provide the social, cultural and economic value of mangroves to the local inhabitants. Second, to identify activities that have changed mangrove ecosystems, and then, to examine how these activities have changed the local inhabitants' social, cultural, and economic relationships with their environment. Findings suggest that, in two cases, land reclamation has strictly and seriously degraded mangrove resources particularly in terms of marine food supplies. For two other cases, increased accessibility to town and the monetization of the rural economy are also factors involved in the decline in quantity and size of fish catch due to the increasing reliance on sales of mangrove food resource for cash. This study supports the position that modern developmental initiatives must be carefully monitored to ensure that they do not undermine the social and economic well-being of resident communities, particularly in areas such as Samoa where a large proportion of the population relies on land and marine resources for their survival.

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The damage caused by the 1996 Lijiang earthquake in China was analyzed using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Data for the Lijiang district were collected from the local government offices and were converted into GIS data layers. The damage ratio of houses, seismic intensity and the occurrence of casualties were mapped. The results show that the distributions of seismic intensity and the damage ratio of houses reflect the occurrence of thick alluvium and the structure of fault systems.

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There are two steps in Technopolis development: attraction of high-tech industries to the designated areas, and construction of technology linkages between these incoming high-tech plants, existing plants, local universities and government R & Ds. The latter step of Technopolis development is examined in this paper using the example of Koriyama technopolis. Data used in this study are derived from questionnaire surveys and personal interviews with the high-tech plant managers in the Koriyama technopolis area. It turns out that industry-university-government technology linkage formation is not well developed due to the absence of proper information channels and lack of interest from the high-tech plants in the results of technological cooperation. These problems seem to stem from the nature of branch plants and the historical technological development of Japan. Therefore, a long time period is necessary for the formation of technology linkages in provincial areas.

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Reflecting the diversification of business activities of Japanese-affiliated companies in the US., the location of such companies is changing from a ready-made pattern of concentration into a large metropolitan area towards a rather dispersed one. An increasing number of Japanese-affiliated companies have established their business bases in the interior of the US. In this paper, locational factors of Japanese-affiliated companies in the High Plains region of the U. S, are examined in order to understand this trend. It appears that various factors, in addition to agglomeration economies, are working to stimulate the establishment of business bases in the High Plains.

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