ICDs are clearance terminals for cargos that are not located at international ports or airports. In Japan, the number of ICDs has increased after the mid- 1980 s, corresponding to the globalization of industrial production. In this paper, I have researched the international cargo distribution that are shipped through ICDs in Tsukuba and Utsunomiya Districts, in the northern environs of the Tokyo metropolitan area and analyzed from the statistical sources and interviews of the shipping companies. The major origins of imported cargo and destinations of exported commodities in the transactions of the two ICDs are the NIES and ASEAN countries, and the United States. As for the domestic origins and destinations of the aviation cargo shipped through the two depots, both are principally limited in the local areas. In addition, the Tsukuba ICD has also non-local commodity flows since it has a subsidiary function of Narita Airport. By using the ICDs, the companies that I researched in this paper commonly aim at minimizing the transaction cost and the circulation time. The characteristics of international flows through ICDs are divided into mainly two types as follows : (1) export of final goods are outputted from bonded plants depending on imported intermediate goods, (2) inter-plant flows between the domestic plant and the oversea satellites under formation of inner-firm international division of labor. The latter type includes two sub-types of division of labor ; final-goods-specialized type and partially-processed type. The ICDs are strongly required to meet the functions that can deal with the various needs of the customers.

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Policies regarding the agricultural structure in Japan have been rapidly transformed because of globalization in the 1990 s. The government has implemented the Law of Agricultural Management Framework Reinforcement which is aimed at fostering farm units (Nintei Nougyousya) who have each had their farm management improvement plan approved by the municipal office. Also, since the mid- 1990 s, the introduction of market principles to agricultural production has led to several fundamental changes in farm management within large-scale rice-growing areas. This paper aims to clarify the formation process and changing structure of large-scale rice growing areas in Hokkaido in the 1990 s. In particular, the author focuses on farmland liquidity and the hierarchical structure of farmers. The main area studied was Numata-town in Northern Sorachi, Hokkaido, which has experienced a rapid enlargement in average cultivated acreage. The main findings were as follows. In the study area, rice-growing farmers enlarged their farmland holdings by purchasing through the rationalization program of farmland use directed by the Hokkaido Agricultural Development Corporation (HADC). The other way farmers expanded their cultivated land was through negotiated transactions and the rental of land from retiring farmers. Until the late 1980 s, rice-growing farmers in Hokkaido often expanded their scale through outright purchases of land. The leasing of land has since become more common than purchase. This tendency was also observed in the Honshu district. Farmers in Numata town have typically expanded their farm business during the 1990 s. Farmland liquidity was supported by plans such as the farmland tenure rationalization plan, and farm management was improved through the "Nintei-Nougyousya" system. As a result, the management base of the farmers was strengthened through improved productivity and reduced production cost. Users of HADC services were more likely to have been upper-and middle-class farmers who bought agricultural land from retired farmers using Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Finance Corporation loans. The continuous fall of rice prices since 1994 have negatively affected the management of rice-growing farmers, and the profitability of rice farming has been far lower than anticipated. In addition, agricultural land prices have declined as the rice price has fallen, and this has led to an increase in the leasing of land as the main means of achieving farmland liquidity. There are three reasons why farms rents have remained high despite falling rice prices. First, the rice price has fallen much lower than expected, and farmers arc finding it difficult to pay back debt incurred for farmland purchase. Second, retiring farmers have not sold off farmland, preferring to collect a rental fee from the farmland. Third, the supply of attractive farmland (highly productive farmland) has declined. In the study area, farmland prices fell throughout the 1990 s. In addition, rice prices have fallen steadily since the mid- 1990 s. Therefore, expanding the scale of rice farming seems likely to be increasingly difficult in the future. In other words, we have reached a turning point where traditional policies regarding Japan's agricultural structure will need to be reevaluated.

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There is a tendency that unicentric city system are formed in centralized countries like Japan and France, conversely, polycentric system are formed in decentralized countries like the US, Canada, old West Germany and Australia. It is guessed that the distinction between unicentric and polycentric forms is due to each country's government system and that government has an attractive influence on the location of economic actors in centralized countries. The aim of this paper it to examine the impact of the relationship between administration and business organization, two main actors of political-economic activity, on city System. In Tokyo metropolitan area, a national capital city of Japan, specialized information is constantly being circulated between administration agencies and national-scale business organizations. Administration side takes the initiative in this process to exert a strong influence on private sector because the information is mainly originated, occupied and spread by and from government organs, especially from bureaucrats. This process also has a characteristic of administrative guidance without legist ration, called with "Gyousei-sairyou (administration's discretion)". For these reason, the head offices of business are getting closer to the point of head of bureaucratic offices in order to exchange information and is located within the Central Business District of Tokyo metropolitan area. Most of decision-making sections of business, for the exchange of specialized information through face-to-face contact with the administration agency, therefore, have been spatially separated from their origin point or plant section in other metropolitan and industrial areas. If the location of large firms, is pulled by bureaucrat, the hierarchy of national city system will be under the influence of government system. The power distributions of inter-government relations are different according to each country. In Japan, there are two features of central-local relation. Firstly, central government historically had the most of administrative powers against the autonomy of local self-government compared with federal government. Secondly, delegation that central government intervenes in local self-government's office work is remarkable because of the ambiguousness of inter-organizational division of labor (like kikan-inin-jimu) . As a result, local self-government's powers arc made more weakened comparatively and chiefly handled by central government. The rank stability of National City System consisted of two actors reflects this pattern of administrative power distribution. To sum up, the concentration of government offices on capital city makes national-scale business organizations separating their headquarters from their origin or plant point and approaching to the point of bureaucrats. The availability of specialized information from government side attracts most headquarters of business organization. The unicentric hierarchical spatial structure of Administration-Business organizations makes up centralized form of city system of Japan.

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Nowadays, the network of expressways is developing in Japan and the evaluation of a transportation network as a condition of factory location is changing. How do the firms appraise the expressway as a condition of factory location? This paper aims at reexamination of a role of expressway. In order to answer this question, author confirmed the number of new factory locations between 1980 and 1997 in Eastern Japan without Hokkaido on the basis of the data provided by MITI. And I surveyed the reason of factory location and the position of expressways in Gunma and Yamanashi prefectures, where they are equal distance from capital, but aren't different the number of factory locations, and analyzed. The results of the investigation are to be summarized as followings. The expressway has been appraised as necessary social infrastructure for the factor of factory location by the firms. For the firms, the expressway has be a precondition of factory location. It is not led the factory without any conditions. The estimation is different by firm's nature. On one hand, the firms, which originate from the metropolitan areas, appraise the expressway as a factor of factory location. On the other hand, the firms, which come from the local area concerned, do not appraise the expressway. The firms, which appraise the expressway, located the factory after the expressway had been constructing. In that case, because it is necessary to carry the goods for the market broad and to transfer office worker and businessman, the expressway appraised as a condition in the factory location. But, in other case, that don't have, the expressway isn't necessary as a condition. They appraise a good impression as they arc conveniently located. In this sense, the expressway is getting the precondition of factory location.

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With China's emergence as a major "world factory," the number of marine cargos departing from and arriving at Chinese ports has increased enormously in recent years. However, because its domestic port system has still not caught up with the growing demand for both direct transportation and transshipment services, near a half of these cargos needs to be transshipped at hub-harbors in surrounding areas, such as Hong Kong, Pusan, Kobe, and Kaoshiung. Meanwhile, the transportation route of Chinese trade-related marine cargos is becoming an important factor in influencing the development of these hub-ports. Based on the survey data for the marine cargo transportation of export and import companies in China (consisting mainly of 12 provinces of the Yellow Sea area) in 1997 and 1999, this paper analyzes Chinese shipper's behavior for the selection of transshipment ports using a mixed logit model. This model is regarded as useful in clarifying the influence of characteristics of both the selector side (shippers) and the selected side (transshipment ports) on selection probability. The results yield the following findings : 1) Two condition variables, cost for port use and port's handling capability, have negative and positive effects, respectively, on shipper's transshipment port selection. Although the selection probability elasticities of the two condition variables arc low, there is an increasing trend of the elasticities. 2) The location of trading partner has significant and stable influence on the Chinese shipper's transshipment port selection behavior. The shippers who trade with firms in North America and Northeast Asia have higher probability to select Pusan or Kobe as a transshipment port. In contrast, the shippers who trade with firms in Europe and Southeast Asia prefer to select Hong Kong as a transshipment port. 3) The characteristics of cargos also affect the shipper's selection of transshipment ports. The firms that export or import electronic and machinery products have higher probability to select Hong Kong. In contrast, the firms that export or import agricultural and fishery products as well as non-machinery products such as textiles prefer to select Pusan, which provides transshipment services with a much lower charge for port use than Hong Kong and Kobe.

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[in Japanese]

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