The purpose of this paper is to make the case for expanding the reach of Global Production Networks Theory, henceforth GPN theory. Having gained a rapid “hegemonic” status in Anglophone economic geography in the first two decades of the 21st century, it seems an opportune moment to bring it to the attention of the academy here in Japan where its affinity with the study of industrial geography appears persuasive. In so doing, I will examine both GPN's achievements and the contestation that has accompanied its rise. The theory's originality stems from the following five points: 1) it identifies ‘strategic partners' as one type of the firm actors while incorporating non-firm actors into the theory; 2) it proposes two organizational configurations known as the ‘strategic partnership model' and ‘lead firm-centric model'; 3) it defines three dynamic forces, i.e. cost-capability ratio, market development and financial discipline, to elucidate causal mechanisms; 4) it identifies four patterns of firm strategy that encompass intra-firm coordination, inter-firm control, inter-firm partnership and extra-firm bargaining; and 5) it proposes the ‘value capture trajectory' and ‘strategic coupling' as new concepts to understand regional economic development.
    Since the 2010s, numerous related studies have been published which can be classified into several categories such as the definition of GPN theory, the concept of dynamic forces, the analysis of firm strategy, and the concept of value capture trajectory/strategic coupling and regional development. In addition, there has been a significant increase in research in a number of adjacent areas such as the role of the state, finance, labor, and the importance of the environment. There are, understandably, critics of the GPN theory. A key critique, from their perspective of political economy, is that it lacks insights when it comes to research on uneven spatial development. Henry Yeung, one of the GPN advocates, counterargues that GPN should be viewed as a meso theory, not a grand theory. In addition, he seems to be cautious about applications such as “hegemonic” status. Since several concepts in GPN theory are useful for economic geography in Japan, they may become popular also in Japan in the future.

    The automotive cluster in the Kyushu- Yamaguchi region has experienced rapid growth since 1990 as a result of being connected to the global production networks (GPNs) of Toyota, Nissan, Daihatsu, and Mazda. Today, the Kyushu-Yamaguchi automotive cluster is the third largest automobile production base in Japan, accounting for about 20％ of the country's total automobile production.
    The purpose of this paper is to examine the sustainability of the automotive cluster in the Kyushu Yamaguchi region by focusing on the global division of labor of assembly plants among the GPNs of the aforementioned four automobile manufacturers. In addition this paper addresses the issue by analyzing where the automobiles produced in Kyushu-Yamaguchi are produced outside the area simultaneously, and where they are sold finally.
    The finding of this paper revealed that Japanese automotive firms aggressively globalized their production network in the 2010s. Japanese automakers have managed to maintain domestic production by increasing exports of luxury and mid-size cars while at the same time transferring the production of small cars from Japan to overseas. The assembly plants in Kyushu- Yamaguchi have been chosen as export bases for these higher value-added vehicles. Therefore, from the quantitative point of view of maintaining the number of automobiles produced, the sustainability of the automobile industry in the Kyushu-Yamaguchi region is highly likely.

    While not abundant in Japanese geography, geographical studies on international students have globally been flourishing in the context of the globalization of education and the concomitant increase in international students. A series of studies have originated from different strands of geography. This article reviews and disentangles the trajectory of progression focusing mainly on the Anglophone academic contribution after 2000.
    Studies on international students have been developing with strong remarks on John Urry's notion of “mobility”, which is believed to evoke an epistemological turn in the social science. This article clarifies the conceptual differences between mobility; a status of being mobile, and migration; a discrete moment from one settlement to another. Coupled with mobility, the concept of emplacement―which foregrounds the necessary condition that international students situate themselves in specific contexts of host societies/localities to accomplish their formal and informal international learning―is of great importance for a theoretically informed research.
    Traditionally, population geography mainly attempts the to reveal the socio-spatial structure which causes and directs students' international migration, whereas geography of education tends to aim at recognizing the underlying intentions of international students and their families. Despite the difference in These points of departure, both fields are likely to result in economic determinism similar to human capital theory. Both tend to deem international education as a measure to accumulate cultural capital which is expected to guarantee international students privileged positions in the professional world. That said, both fields see the emergence of novel contributions which overcome any drawbacks.
    Centered on urban social geography, Australian and New Zealand studies uncover how the power geometries of states, universities, and intermediaries, and media representation concerning international students, create urban spaces in which socio-spatial exclusion and marginalization of international students occur. They also depict international students' agency to emplace themselves into the urban socio-spaces combatting such exclusion and marginalization.
    The endeavor to situate experiences of international education within ex-international students' life courses is at its nascent 　 stage. However, pioneering research describes an unexpected reality of international students. Contrary to a taken-for-granted regard as a global elite, they are said to be precarious in that they are always searching for “home”, i.e., a place to belong; they are being tossed about by immigration policies and often groaning under the double bind between family and career-building.

    Agricultural technology can contribute to public good, and so research and development (R&D) in agriculture has been conducted by the public sector. Public research stations have played a central role in driving innovation in local agriculture in developed countries. However, since the 1990s, the performance of public R&D has been severely questioned, and “producer-driven” public R&D has been introduced in many countries.
    Australia was the pioneer of the producer-driven R&D system under neoliberal political reforms. Collective funding bodies called Research and Development Corporations (RDCs), were established. The RDC is funded by the farmers' levy, and it budgets public research institutions for projects that satisfy farmers' needs. In this system, local producers are expected to be proactively involved in the local public R&D processes.
    This study traces the actual interactions between local producers and researchers in the research process at an agricultural research station in Australia and analyzes who steers R&D and how it is steered under the system. This case study was conducted at the Katherine Research Station (KRS) in Katherine, Northern Territory.
    Generally, it is essential for agricultural R&D to reflect the specific constraints of producers in the local ecological and socioeconomic environment. However, producers alone cannot steer research in the right direction. The perceived technical issues of individual producers do not necessarily correspond to research questions that can and should be addressed at the research station. Therefore, to conduct effective local R&D, producers must report their technical constraints, and researchers must extract research topics for the research stations based on these reports. However, if researchers at the experiment station are in charge of such extraction work, there is a possibility that researchers' interest may be placed ahead of the producers' needs.
    In the Katherine region, effective interactions between producers and researchers have been explored under the RDC funding system. The Katherine Pastoral Industry Advisory Committee (KPIAC) was formed, and producers' representatives discussed what research to be conducted at the KRS. KPIAC-approval was required for KRS projects to obtain research money from the RDC. In the interaction between the producers' representatives and researchers in the Katherine region, several producer representatives raised their technical issues in the KPIAC, and researchers in KRS extracted the research topics. However, there were only a limited number of cases in which the issues raised by producers were directly related to the research topics. In most cases, the researchers proposed alternatives to producers' suggestions, such as holding workshops or strengthening extension activities. Rather, many research topics have been proposed by researchers and then producers' opinions regarding their feasibility and appropriateness were sought. The researchers carefully explained to the producers that the proposed topic was important for improving the productivity of the region and obtained approval from the producers' representatives.
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    The purpose of this paper is to reexamine Jane Jacobs' theoretical insights into economies of cities and regions from the viewpoint of social economic geography. The present author compares the logic of Jacobs (1969) with that of Jacobs (1984). In both her books, Jacobs attaches importance to import replacement and to the transformation of goods and services for local needs into an export base. Therefore, her logic coincides with the theory of regional economic growth that was developed by Douglass North (1955).
    Jacobs' unique concept of “improvisation,” which is a prerequisite for import replacement, means incremental innovation. Furthermore, new goods and services for local needs must be transformed into new exportable ones for the further development of a city and city region resulting from innovative activities by the local people and enterprises as well. This process generates either new work within a city and city region or new imported goods that are the basis for the next import replacement.
    These continuous processes create economic diversity in a city and city region. While Jacobs (1969) contrasts the city economy with the rural one, Jacobs (1984) thinks that the national economy depends on networks of city regions, which consist of a large city and its vicinity, including small and medium-sized cities and villages. Therefore, a city region means a metropolitan area.
    Jacobs' theoretical insights into economies of cities and city regions are important for considering the development of regional economies. She often exemplifies her logic using cities and city regions in Japan. However, her understanding of Japan is not accurate because there are import replacing SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in rural areas in Kyushu, a peripheral area in Japan. Some of them have become hidden champions or their equivalent, transforming their products into exportable goods and occupying a high share in a niche market either in Japan or in East Asian countries, or sometimes even in the world. Furthermore, a metropolitan area with vitality has emerged in Kyushu as well.
    However, rural areas with import replacing SMEs in Kyushu have suffered from an exodus of young people and economic and social decline since the 1950s. To revitalize peripheral areas, it is necessary to create regions, each of which can perform Daseinsgrundfunktionen, or the basic functions of everyday life in the meaning of German social geography. We should realize that it is not necessary for a region to be as large as a metropolitan area in order to have vitality, as exemplified in the cases of Emsland in Germany, Vorarlberg in Austria and other small rural regions in middle Europe.