ABSTRACTS of the Annual Meeting, The Human Geographical Society of Japan

This presentation is a part of the research for revealing the evolution of modern Mongolian commerce and distribution. On this time, I focused on the distribution of groceries in the Mongolian provincial cities and its surrounding areas. The traders and retailers in these cities buy thier commodities mainly from UlaanBaatar--capital city of Mongolia--,and sometimes from foreign countries by themselves. And in surrounding area, tradesmen get their goods from neighbor city and also from capital city. Why do they go to capital city? There are some factors considered related with this theme. Here, I'll document that there are conventional commerce relic and non-specialized distribution system.It can be said that this relic represent the actual condition of distribution in modern Mongolian provincial areas.

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The results from the interview survey led as assume that indeed synergy effects, as an outcome of visionary and strategic corporate decision making, is influenced by the spatial aspects of work and life of foreign managers. We can conclude the more a business environment advances in the internationalization process, the less foreign managers need to make an effort to adjust to the local culture. Global managers operate best in the global city. And, only acculturated foreign managers are expected to create synergy effects with ease in locations with a lower degree of internationalization.

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Okinawa is known for the longevity and high fertility of its inhabitants. However, the vital statistics for the years before 1972 are incomplete, and therefore, the mortality and fertility in Okinawa before 1972 were uncertain. In this presentation, I address two objectives. The first is to estimate the number of deaths and births in Okinawa from 1920 through 1935, and the second is to interpret the estimated mortality and fertility in Okinawa during that period by comparing them with those of other prefectures in Japan and by identifying the stage at which Okinawa was in the demographic transition model.
The results are as follows:
1.The schedule of mortality rates by the age of the inhabitants of Okinawa was high in the early and middle years of life and relatively low in old age when q₀ and the life expectancy of Okinawans at 0, 15, and 65 years of age were compared with those from the other prefectures in Japan.
2.When the fertility rates in Okinawa obtained using Coale's fertility indices and those of other prefectures in Japan were compared, it was observed that the fertility in Okinawa was relatively high, which was attributed to the high marital fertility and low nuptiality. These structures of fertility were similar to those currently being reported.
3.The crude death rate, crude fertility rate, and infant mortality rate in Okinawa fluctuated around 23 per thousands, 38 per thousands, and 16 per thousands, whereas these three indices for the whole of Japan decreased. Okinawa was, therefore, at the first stage of the demographic transition model between 1920 and 1935.

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The Internet is an effective medium that has great potential for the low-cost provision of information from local government. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between geographic conditions and local government policy for the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), via case studies of official websites operated by local governments in Japan. This paper explores three main issues. First, the process of the diffusion of local government websites in Japan is analyzed. Second, the diversity of website content presented by local governments is assessed. Finally, we discuss the effects of a national policy on Internet utilization by local governments. The following results are based on data collected by a questionnaire survey and an analysis of websites for local governments in selected areas of Japan. The diffusion of official websites for local governments began in the mid-1990s and was largely complete by 2000. In the early stages of this diffusion process, many websites aimed to transmit information to audiences outside of the municipality. In the later stages, however, larger cities established official websites and a greater proportion of websites were internally oriented. The content of these sites targeted the multiple needs of the local residents in terms of public services. Although the Japanese Government established a positive policy with the aim of improving ICT utilization by both local and national government, the national policy had only a minor effect on official local government websites.

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