According to the statistics provided in “2014 Turnover and Salary Survey Report”, the average turnover rate in Chinese companies remains high at 16.3 %. In addition, the statistics in “2015 Food Industry Salary Management White Paper” show that the voluntary turnover rate in the Chinese food industry has increased to 35 %. Among these, younger employees have the highest turnover rate, reaching above 40 %. It is well known that high turnover rates have a negative impact on the operations of companies. Ensuring the stability of personnel and the successful adaption of employees to their positions is a crucial topic in human resource management for Chinese companies. “Our company has a comprehensive human resource management system and has been investing heavily in human capital development. However, we have not been able to reach the expected target performance; the turnover rate remains high and the employees lack enthusiasm for work.” For companies with such an issue in human resource management, motivations are provided for practical applications of the concept of psychological capital by analyzing the operation of a Chinese restaurant chain “Hai Di Lao Hot Pot” as a case study.

View full abstract

The number of visitors from Asian countries decreased sharply due to The Great East Japan Earthquake and the trouble on Senkakus (Diaoyu Islands) in 2012. So Japan’s tourism industry encountered critical situation. It is required to develop the intrinsic Japanese attractive things and commercialize them to resolve the damage. One of them is “omotenashi” (traditional Japanese hospitality) which is based on Japanese culture. It is a software technique. It is thought that the one should be exported as Japanese indigenous software and become a marketable product which can be proud to show the people of the world. It is not unique strategy to increase the number of foreign visitors. It is necessary to preserve the omotenashi and treat nicely foreign visitors through omotenashi. The export of the software is also an important one. The lodging experience in Japanese resort hotel by Chinese students was carried out to investigate the possibilities for the acceptance of omotenashi and perform an initial evaluation. As for the results, it is ranked high on facility, food and employee attitude, and it is found for Chinese to accept Japanese omotenashi even in China. However, there is some dissatisfaction in the taste of Japanese food. Omotenashi is based on the considerate behavior in the institution.

View full abstract

This study aims to redesign a manufacturing process of wet rice crackers for new customer acquisition at café “Nisyouan” in Mt. Tsukuba. The study tries to reveal the relationship between the physical properties and evaluation terms of wet rice crackers. Three aspects were varied in the production process, namely hoiro time, baking time, and time before application of soy sauce. The results of sensory evaluation were collected through the evaluation of the samples by an evaluator who ate samples and then answered a questionnaire concerning them. An explication of the causal structure using organoleptic evaluation and physical properties was attempted. Using the physical properties and hierarchy for each of the evaluation terms and the psychological response, principal component analysis and factor analysis were performed. Graphical modeling was applied to each hierarchy. The result indicated causality in each hierarchy. Therefore, a method for the design of food texture of wet rice crackers, which young people like, was derived.

View full abstract

Recently, local revitalization has become an important issue. Activities to promote tourism, a comprehensive local force, are increasing most significantly. Because dissemination of tourism information is important in attracting tourists, open data is now gathering attention as a means of providing information. In this study, we propose a local PR model for providing tourism information in the form of open API, intended to disseminate tourism information through the content created using the open API. We converted the actual tourism information of Seto, Aichi Prefecture, into open data, in order to create various content using the resulting API; the proposed model was proven to be useful. We also reviewed some issues involved in providing open data, which were found during the process of creating the trial content.

View full abstract

Japan is facing a rapid decrease in birth rate and an increase in aging people. In addition, especially in local areas, population is decreasing. In Suzu City in Ishikawa Prefecture, the population has been decreasing dramatically, and the number of aging people accounts for over 40 % of the total number of residents. Our previous study, which was related to the revitalization of Suzu City, showed that a roadside station, called “Michi-no-eki” should be utilized as a place for the residents to buy a light meal because there are no restaurants near the residential area, and should also be utilized for the elderly citizens to have an opportunity to run the business of light meal sales by themselves. In this study, we used a questionnaire to examine the effect of the use of Michi-no-eki as a provider of light meals for the residents and tourists in Suzu City. The sales showed that the running cost of the light meal shop was quite reasonable. In addition, a survey for the tourists was conducted to understand how to more effectively make use of the Michi-no-eki. The results showed that, because tourists often visit the place with their family, building facilities or holding events for family should be considered; other important elements for further development of Suzu City were also found.

View full abstract

In March 2011, a large earthquake and tsunami damaged Eastern Japan. Especially, there was severe damage in the Tohoku area (especially, the Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures). In the Tohoku area, there are many tourist spots (e.g., Matsushima, Sendai, and Aizuwakamatsu). Since the earthquake and tsunami, however, the number of tourists in the Tohoku area has been declining. A reason for this situation may be a harmful rumor. This study is focused on the consciousness of tourists associated with their decisions about sightseeing in stricken areas. The purpose of this study is to suggest indicators for attracting more tourists to the Tohoku area. In this paper, inquiries of tourists for sightseeing in the Tohoku area are made using a questionnaire survey. Three main consciousness factors for sightseeing in the Tohoku area are named by applying a factor analysis to data from completed questionnaires: “Sightseeing” (factor 1), “Reconstruction” (factor 2) and “Uneasiness” (factor 3).

View full abstract

Design thinking has been attracting attention as a human-centered, creative, and pragmatic approach for innovation. It also offers feasible solutions to multi-layered and complex problems in society. This study examines an application of design thinking on the development of a tour as a case study in which female second-year college students designed and implemented a day bus tour for female students to Yamashiro Onsen, one of the spa resorts in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. This case study shows that design thinking was effective in designing an entirely new tour that discovered potential needs.

View full abstract

This study aims to identify the number of visitors in different periods and their characteristics based on the location data of mobile phone users collected by the mobile phone company. The sites studied in this survey are tourist destinations in Ishikawa Prefecture and Toyama city, including Kanazawa city, which became nationally popular after the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened in 2015. The opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen brought more visitors to many areas. However, it also led to fewer visitors in some other areas. Its positive effect was remarkable in Kanazawa.

View full abstract

Ishikawa Prefecture is located in the Hokuriku region in Japan. One of the problems of the tourism in Ishikawa is to increase the number of tourists from foreign countries. In order to solve this problem, it should be necessary to provide foreign tourists with “language service.” In this study, in order to understand a state of language service to foreign tourists, the linguistic characteristics that could be found in English guidebooks for Kanazawa, which is the capital city of Ishikawa, and Toyama, which is also in Hokuriku, were investigated, comparing with the official guidebooks for Tokyo, Fuji, Kyoto and Hida. In short, frequency characteristics of character- and word-appearance were investigated using a program written in C++. These characteristics were approximated by an exponential function. Furthermore, the percentage of Japanese junior high school required vocabulary and American basic vocabulary was calculated to obtain the difficulty-level as well as the K-characteristic of each material. As a result, it was clearly shown that English guidebooks for Hokuriku have a similar tendency to literary writings in the characteristics of character-appearance. Besides, the values of the K-characteristic for them are high, and the difficulty level, especially for Kanazawa, is low.

View full abstract

The purpose of the paper is corporate strategy comparison Walt Disney Company and Oriental Land Corporation. These firms manage Disney theme parks in America and Japan. Both of them are successful. However, they have different policy, organization, ability, history, corporate culture, corporate philosophy. Many people think both firms are similar company and have similar strategy. However, they have different strategies. Running Disneyland needs different strategy if they are located in different countries. That means running successful Disneyland in developed countries needs different strategies. Walt Disney is a movie production in Hollywood, and their evaluation is only box office in America. Walt Disney is performance based evacuation. They are extremely talent oriented. Their main business had been movie since establishment by Walt Disney. He diversified to theme park business, that is Disneyland. On the other hand, Oriental Land was established as a joint venture of two Japanese firms, Keisei Railway and Mitsui Fudosan. They still keep Japanese Management System, and Japanese ‘salary man’ work for Oriental Land. The two firms are based on these background, they have different policy, human resource system, evaluation system, and strategy. Core strategy of Walt Disney is diversification and second use of character and movie contents to gain synergy effect. Core strategy of Oriental Land is production of non-Disney Contents, non-theme park business, and new business out of Maihama area.

View full abstract