This paper aims to clarify the process of pluriactivity and the dynamics of farm households maintenance from a detailed case study in Natsui and Kotsuchiyama settlements, which are lokated in Takasato-mura, Aizu Region, Fukushima Prefecture, Northeastern Japan. The author especially focuses attention on the types of non-agricultural work carried out in these settlements and their social significance with regard to the farming community.
The results are summarized as follows.
1) In the study area, pluriactivity began in the 1960s with seasonal migration of first-generation males to the metropolitan area. They reverted to full-time farmer in the 1980s, and they were the first generation who benefited from agricultural mechanization and as a result maintained consistent commitment to agriculture. These settlements have been behind other parts of Japan in respect of household changes towards pluriactivity, and farm households are characterized, by in particular, an aged labor forse. Thus, these settlements retained a state of “moratorium”, not only in terms of household numbers but also in agricultural productivity.
2) For the second-generation, the children of the first-generation who succeeded households, employment in the public sector, the Agricultural Cooperative, and other suth occupations has become important. These employment opportunities were essential if the farming community was to maintain households at the time. Especially, female members of the second-generation rarely engaged in agriculture, whereas males engaged in farming as a secondary activity.
3) Such processes are apparent in both Natsui and Kotsuchiyama settlements, regardless of their locational and agricultural difference. This suggests that the common social and historical paths of these settlements were the major factors in maintaining the menbers of households, amid the transformation of rural society.

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It has been a long time since information technology (IT) came to be a key driver in industrial progress. IT is also driving a huge social transformation. Concern over the impact of this transformation has extended into various academic fields.
Although the rapid diffusion of IT has been covered extensively in Western Europe and North America, these works show poor relations between object and method, making them difficult to comprehend. We aim to illustrate the trends highlighted by these studies, which focus on the usage of IT in industrial activity and its impact.
This article consists of six sections. In section 2, we will look at how IT has been considered in the academic discipline of geography. We will consider the influence of IT to the spatial activities of business organizations in section 3 and 4, focusing on the characteristic of individual industries in section 3, then on business function and office location in section 4. In section 5, we will discuss urban impacts of developing information infrastructures. Finally in section 6, we look at the literature and indicate existing issues.
In current geographical studies, the impact of IT on the location of business activity is evaluated in four ways. In the first type of study, IT is seen replacing face-to-face communication. In the second type of study, time saving from IT is examined, and its resulting impact on the location of business activity. In the third type of study, savings in communication costs are discussed, especially the reduction in long distance charges from using digital and satellite technologies. Fourth comes the impact of information infrastructure on regional development.
In spite of geographers' empirical observations on the spatial influences that IT brings to business, further issues remain. Because information is invisible, it is difficult to investigate its flow or stock in an enterprise, so we can find few empirical studies, just a lot of works discussing the spatial effect of IT in general. Next, while there are many discussions about business location in relation to IT, there are few studies discussing how IT affects business functions. Yet we know IT does change many functional aspects of an organization. Japanese geographers have paid little attention in their research to non-electrical information activities such as face-to-face contact nor the impact on communication costs.
Capitalist societies are being greatly transformed by IT. Though no grand theory on the future direction of society has yet been offered, there is no doubt that IT plays an important role. Enterprises have received positive impacts from IT. A careful, deep understanding of IT impacts on business and a careful debate on how this can be extended to the entire society have great significance in geography. But because of a lack of empirical studies, specific research in this particular sector will also have significance.
The following four areas are identified for further study:
1) The application of IT in individual industries;
2) The general impact of IT on information behavior in business;
3) Social aspects of IT relating to globalization and flexibility; and
4) Technological innovation and the labor market

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate mail order businesses from a geographical point of view. After outlining the mail order businesses in Japan, the distribution system of a leading mail order company (Nissen, headquartered in Minami Ward, Kyoto City) is examined carefully as an example. Then, based on this case study, some spatial characteristics of the mail order business in general are investigated.
The major findings of the case study can be summarized as follows. Regarding procurement of goods for sale, Nissen has two main channels of domestic and overseas trades: procured goods are inspected closely before arrival at the distribution centers. Delivery of goods consists of two stages of main-line transport and home delivery, and particular forwarding agents, who differ by prefecture, are in charge of these stages.
Nissen has the distribution center for wearing apparel and small-sized goods located at Kanazu-cho, Fukui Prefecture, and the other major distribution center for large-sized goods located at Fujiwara-cho, Mie Prefecture. These centers take charge of procurement, keeping, picking, packing and shipping of goods, and each task is automated as much as possible. Quick and punctual task supported by well-prepared logistics has enabled this company's sales to pick up.
The spatial characteristics of mail order business in general are examined from two points: distribution center disposition and the shoplessness effect. From this examination the following conclusion can be shown.
With respect to the construction of distribution centers, we generally need to take account of construction cost, stocktaking cost and delivery time. However, since leadtime in the mail order business is less seriously restricted, it is likely that a single, large-scale distribution center contributes to savings in equipment cost, stocktaking cost and rent.
Shoplessness exerts various spatial influences. Specifically, it tends to lead to construction of fewer large-scale distribution center(s) for reducing necessary stock, to generate the necessity of home delivery, to have a nationwide trade area arising from the distinctive way of extending markets (different from retail business in general), to enable marketing focused on particular customers due to feedback of customer's shopping information, and to form distribution stages of inspection and return of goods.

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This paper aims to describe a kind of relations between Germans and immigrants in the 1990s in the case of a ghetto community in a German city. In general, the situation of immigrants from Third World countries, including Turkey, became severer after the German unification in 1990. This was the case at Bruckhausen in Duisburg as well.
The present author describes the situation of the locality on the basis of interviews with local people who are in the position to be able to grasp the relations between Germans and immigrants. Relevant documents and local newspapers were also used. The main interviewees are a pastor, a schoolmaster and a social worker of Turkish origin. All these informants communicate with Turkish immigrants as well as Germans every day.
It is evident from this paper that Germans and immigrants from different origins do not live together in this locality, but that they live side by side with no interests in their neighbors and sometimes with prejudice, antipathy and even hostility against each other. This atmosphere has been created over the last over twenty years in the local milieu, as the present author has demonstrated previously, and it was strengthened by the enhancement of German nationalism after 1990.
We should, however, pay attention to the fact that some local people and the local government have endeavored to construct communication channels between the majority at the locality, namely Turkish people, and minorities, namely the other immigrants and Germans. We can see some successful examples of communication enhancement. Nevertheless, the dominant atmosphere of living side by side rather than living together remains.

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