Abstract: In recent migration literature, three distinctive features in the sex ratio of annual interprefectural migration in Japan since the 1950s have been identified and explained: (1) an upward trend, (2) a persistently high level, and (3) systematic fluctuations around the trend. We first show in this paper that these three features can also be clearly seen in the sex ratio of non-metropolitan out-migration rates in the launching stage (i.e. between graduation from middle school and acquirement of the first job) of the life course of the Japanese. We then explain these features in terms of (1) the changing and persistent ideologies that orient and constrain the behaviors of Japanese household members and (2) the changes in the spatial economy of Japan.
To gain further insights, we also show the systematic effects of educational attainment and sibling status on the non-metropolitan out-migration propensities of the Japanese in the launching stage of their life course. Our findings suggest that the migration propensities will continue to be highly selective with respect to gender (higher for males than for females) and educational attainment (higher for the better educated and lower for the less educated) but will be little affected by sibling status. With respect to the changes in the spatial economy, our findings also suggest that the migration responses will be much greater for males than for females, and that among males the responses will be particularly intense at the two extremes of educational attainment, especially the upper extreme.

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There has been remarkable progress in the study of land-use/cover change in China since the early 1990s, partly because of the pressing need of it for environmental and land resource management, and partly because of the establishment of the LUCC (Land-Use/Cover Change) Programme in 1996. It is argued in this paper that the promotion of Focus 1 of LUCC, i.e. ‘Land-use dynamics-comparative case study analysis, ’ is the key to the success of LUCC in China. The paper reviews Focus 1 studies on China, and raises priority themes and tasks of research, including development and analyses of historical land-use/cover information bases, delineation and use of ‘environmental land-use regions, ’ promotion of field-based regional case studies and comparative studies that together contribute to improved understanding in landuse/cover changes in the whole country, and encouragement of human dimensional investigations in such issues as urbanization, rural sustainability and technology transfer, which have considerable effects on land-use/cover change and sustainable development in China.

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Urban land expansion is the closest representation of urbanization in spatial dimension, and is one of the most important factors affecting land-use/cover change on a regional scale. China has experienced rapid urban growth, which can be monitored by the Landsat TM digital images. This paper measures urban land expansion in China using the high resolution Landsat TM digital images in three periods, 1989/1990, 1995/1996 and 1999/2000, and identifies four types of urban land expansion, namely neighborhood, axis-based, pole-based and multi-nucleus expansion which coexisted in the 1990s. The urban land expansion in China totals 817 thousand hectares, among which the expansion during the first half (1990-1995) is more than four times that of the latter half. This paper identifies the main factors contributing to the formation of the four types of urban expansion patterns based on cases studies of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Zibo, and gives a detailed account of the driving forces of urban land expansion in the 1990s.

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The impact of social and institutional changes on land resource use is an important component of the driving force of land use/cover changes. This paper primarily studies the characteristics and impacts of social and institutional changes on the use of land resources in China since the 1950s, which have played an important role in land use and land cover changes, but have not been studied enough by Chinese researchers in this field. Through discussion of the relation between social institution changes, changes of land resource management institutions and their impact on the changes of land resources, we identify and discuss the close connection between macro social ideology, institution and policy changes, and land use/cover changes in the context of China over the last 50 years, and establish the explanation and framework to illustrate the relationships and the phenomena.

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This paper will begin with a discussion of the particular characteristics of the area of our focus, namely Yuqi Town in a rural area of the Yangtze Delta. As an aid to understanding land-use patterns and changes in that area, satellite imagery has been utilized, and the results and our analysis thereof are reproduced in the Figures chart herein. The paper will then proceed to analysis and discussion of the guiding plan for the area, entitled “Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Yuqi Town, 1997-2010, ” to determine the actual results thus far of the implementation of this plan. It will conclude with an examination of the mechanisms existing for determining the extent to which the provisions of the plan have actually been put into effect.

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This paper examines the transformation of the Chinese grain production during the process of modernization after the economic reform/open door policy, especially focusing on the unshakable position that rice production has historically occupied in China. The first section illustrates how food crops decreased in Chinese agriculture in the period of 1985-2001. Furthermore, the rice production in the south stagnated or decreased, while it gradually became more important in northern China. The second section shows the pattern of local rice production in the Northeast, within northern China, and how a new rice frontier emerged in the north of Heilongjiang Province and the west of Jilin Province (both of which are cold and dry areas with alkaline soil). The third section is devoted to a case study of the rice frontier in the Northeast, which deals with the role of rice production and how production was either supported or restricted. We come to the hypothesis, as a conclusion, that development of the rice production in the Northeast did not only mean an actual increase in Japonica type of rice (high quality rice), but it also had an impact on the situation in the southern rice-growing areas. This might amount to a challenge to the South imposed by the North in the near future

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Using the methods of combining landscape ecology with GIS spatial analysis, this paper analyzes the dynamics of the marsh landscape structure in the Sanjiang Plain in the past 20 years, and further more, taking Fujin County, located in the north of the plain, as an example, analyzes the conversion between marsh and other land use types. It is shown that the marsh in the Sanjiang Plain decreased greatly in the past 20 years but the trend has begun to diminish. The marsh area decreased by 51.33% from 1980 to 1996, whereas it decreased by 4.19% from 1996 to 2000. The fragmentation of the marsh increased; the number of the patches increased by 326 from 1980 to 1996, whereas only by 18 from 1996 to 2000. It is obvious that the speed of increase in patches number was reduced and the marsh fragmentation decreased, which shows that the reclamation of the marsh converted from the fragmentation to the brim in a large area of the marsh. The reclaimed marsh has mainly been converted to paddy field and dry land. The centroid of the marsh moved from the northeast to the southwest on the whole, and the movement of the marsh's centroid from the eastern part to western part was quicker.

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Since China adopted reform and open policy in 1978, intensive land use pattern changes have taken place at different scales with the rapid economic growth and fast urbanization, resulting in complex impacts on the regional eco-environmental security. Based on some case studies in Shenzhen, Beijing and the grassland and farming-pastoral zone of North China, three models, namely City Expansion Model in Metropolitan Area in Beijing, Basin Rainfall-runoff Model in Shenzhen, and Land Use Pattern Adjustment Model in the grassland and farming-pastoral zone of North China were used to try to demonstrate the possibility of promoting ecological security level in China by implementing the rational land use pattern adjustment.

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