With the rise of the “new” cultural geography since the late 1980s, human geographers have recently focused on the processes by which religious facilities and sacred places have been produced by social groups. However, few have studied the mutual relationships between such facilities/places and social groups dynamically. In this paper, the author analyzes a series of mutual relationships through which Buddhist facilities are constructed and given deep significance by social groups, and their influence on groups of villages in Japan. Then, the common structure of and differences in the mutual relationships are examined, based on the influences of the specific contexts of the villages and those of the general trends beyond them. Few geographers have paid attention to the “unofficially sacred” spaces utilizing secular ones rather than “officially sacred” spaces like churches and temples. Therefore the author focuses not only on official temples but also on unofficial Buddhist facilities called dojos. Three villages, Kanamata, Kuratsukuri, and Shigedate, in the northern part of Fukui Prefecture were selected as cases. Generally, this area is regarded as part of the “Shin Buddhism region.” In Kanamata there are three temples, in Kuratsukuri there is one temple, and in Shigedate there are no official temples but a dojo.
The mutual relationships between Buddhist facilities and social groups in the three villages have a common structure. First, social groups such as local communities and supporters' groups construct and give deep significance to these facilities. Second, the existence of these facilities strengthens the ties among the members of those groups. Then, interdependent relations between the facilities and groups become fixed. However, when internal changes within the villages and external trends such as secularization and propagation policies decided by the head offices of denominations influence the groups supporting the facilities, transformed groups often reconstruct these facilities and reevaluate them. Then the existence of such new facilities strengthens the ties among the members of new groups. Thus the forms and significance of Buddhist facilities have changed frequently.
Comparing the changes in Buddhist facilities in the three villages, the dojo in Shigedate has been transformed more drastically than the temples in Kanamata and Kuratsukuri. This results partly from the unofficial nature of the dojo. The forms and significance of unofficial religious facilities like dojos are more changeable than those of official facilities like temples. The status of caretakers and managers of functions of the dojo in Shigedate are insufficiently institutionalized and unstable. Thus, when one analyzes the transforming processes of religious facilities in relation to social groups, it is effective to focus on unofficial facilities such as dojos.

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This paper elucidates the development of ethnic solidarity among Brazilian residents in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, through research and analysis of their use of ethnic businesses. Apart from being places that provide goods or services, ethnic businesses also perform social and cultural functions; which make them “special places” to many Brazilian residents. The development of the functions performed by these ethnic businesses is closely connected to the characteristic forms of Brazilian migration to Japan after the amendment of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act in 1990, especially the migration system arranged by brokers and “repeat migration” (a form of migration in which migrant workers repeatedly go back and forth between Japan and Brazil). In Hamamatsu, the Brazilian community centers on ethnic businesses with the above-mentioned social and cultural functions. The forming of such communities can be characterized as being open and flexible. With the prolonged stay of Brazilians in Japan, the necessity for these types of communities is predicted to become even greater.

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In 1873, the second year after the start of the modern elementary school system (gakusei) in Japan, the Ministry of Education published several textbooks, among which Chiri-Shoho was one. It was believed that the original text of Chiri-Shoho was Cornell's geography textbooks that had been used widely in the USA.
There have been two views of the original text held by different scholars. One argued that Cornell's Primary Geography was used as the source book and Cornell's High-School Geography was referred to for supplements. The other contended that Cornell's First Steps in Geography was the original text. Neither of those views was based on minute verification.
This paper aims to ascertain the original text of Chiri-Shoho. There were six Cornell geography textbooks in print when Chiri-Shoho was published. In addition to the three mentioned above, they were Cornell's Intermediate Geography, Cornell's Grammar-School Geography and Cornell's Physical Geography. All six books are candidates for the original text. This paper compares the text of Chiri-Shoho to the six Cornell geography textbooks sentence by sentence and illustration by illustration.
As a result, the author concludes that the original text of Chiri-Shoho was Cornell's Primary Geography, written for elementary school students. However, there are several sentences and illustrations in Chiri-Shoho not found in Cornell's Primary Geography. Those are mostly from Cornell's First Steps in Geography, Cornell's Intermediate Geography, and Cornell's Grammar-School Geography.
Cornell's First Steps in Geography is an introductory textbook and precedes Cornell's Primary Geography. Chiri-Shoho uses it for easier or supplementary explanations.
Cornell's Intermediate Geography and Cornell's Grammar-School Geography are textbooks for students who completed Cornell's Primary Geography. Chiri-Shoho adopts some topics from these two textbooks which Cornell's Primary Geography does not teach.
A few sentences and illustrations in Chiri-Shoho cannot be found in any of the Cornell geography textbooks. Interestingly, those are all related to shipping and navigation. Also Chiri-Shoho changes or rewrites some contents of the Cornell geography textbooks based on the Japanese context.

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