From the 18th century, making a visit to sacred mountains became popular among Japanese people. Many such pilgrimages had a regionally distinctive sphere of religion. Mt. Mitsumine, in Chichibu County (nowadays in Saitama Prefecture), was one of the spiritual centers for such pilgrimages. It attracted people from Kanto and Koshin Districts from the middle of the 18th century. This study examines the cult of Mitsumine in Edo (present-day Tokyo), focusing especially on the social background behind its development.
According to an account at the beginning of the 19th century, the Mt. Mitsumine shrine afforded facilities to receive visitors. Pilgrimages were generally undertaken by religious groups called "ko". In Edo, the cult of Mitsumine was believed to prevent misfortunes, such as fire and bandits. Visits to Mt. Mitsumine from Edo increased between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Mitsumine followers of Edo also evangelized their belief to its suburbs and more remote areas.
The Mitsumine-ko in Edo tended to be organized by the trade guilds. Tatekawa-ko was the most influential supporter of the cult. The group consisted mainly of timber wholesale and commission merchants, and its members mostly lived in eastern Edo. A large volume of timber was transported from the mountains in the Kanto District to Edo, and Chichibu County, where Mt. Mitsumine is situated, had also become one of the sources of timber. The commercial relation between Chichibu and Edo is said to have facilitated the penetration of the cult into Edo.
Since the early 19th century, the change in the distributive system loosened the unity among the timber merchants. Religious circles such as Tatekawa-ko played a crucial role in reestablishing a solid network among the merchants. Moreover in Edo, where fires frequently occurred, the merchants, particularly timber traders, were making a profit from them. Thus, the charms of Mitsumine were considered as an indulgence among the merchants. For these reasons, the Mitsumine cult in Edo was established and maintained.
The study concludes that social background profoundly affected the development of belief.

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Interest in technological innovation has increased over the past several years in economic geography and cognate disciplines. Recent work emphasizes the importance of inter-firm networks (that is, user-producer or manufacture-supplier networks) in the innovation process, and that short geographical distance between firms enhances flows of technical knowledge. The importance of distance will vary with the type of innovative activity involved and with the type of firms. However, we need to consider how and to what extent distance matters in the innovation process.
Although its importance is recognized, few studies have attempted to examine the geography of technological innovations empirically and quantitatively since these are invisible and difficult to measure. However, we can examine technological innovations geographically by patent data, as Jaffe et al. (1993) have pointed out. Patents contain geographic information about their applicants and inventors, and enable geographical and empirical analysis of innovations. If two or more firms (or research institutes) co-apply for a patent, then that means these firms (or institutes) undertook joint innovative research through an inter-firm (or extra-firm) network.
The aim of this paper is to identify technological innovations brought about through interfirm networks and to examine the role of proximity in innovative activities. For this purpose, the author focuses on joint technological innovations between Japanese automobile companies and their suppliers.
This paper has used the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) database to search co-applied patents granted in 1998 between four automobile manufacturers (Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda) and their research partners (that is, their suppliers or public research institutes). The inventors' addresses of joint applicants were mapped (see Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5) and geographical distances between the addresses of both inventors were measured by GIS software. The relations between these distances and the attributes of joint-applicants were statistically analysed.
The results are summarized as follows:
1. If a joint applicant is an affiliated firm or a member of a supplier association (Kyoryoku-Kai) of the automobile manufacturers, geographical distance between both parties tends to be short. That is to say, geographical proximity between automobile manufacturers and their suppliers is significantly associated with their organizational proximity.
2. Suppliers whose geographical distances from an auto manufacturer are likely to be long are those with innovative capacity and those whose capital stock is over 100 million yen. A supplier with innovative capacity is defined as one with over 100 patents registration in 1998. This means that large and innovative firms are not always constrained by geographical distance from their partners.
3. If a supplier is a member of the Japan Auto Parts Industry Association (JAPIA), the distances between the supplier and its partner (that is, auto manufacturer) are likely to be short. It follows from this that auto parts suppliers tend to be more proximate to automobile manufacturers than others (for example, a materials supplier).
4. Toyota's average geographical distance from co-inventors is shorter than Honda's. In relation to this, the ratio of affiliated firms in Toyota's joint applicants is higher than that of Honda's. In other words, Toyota tends to do joint research with geographically and organizationally proximate firms, while Honda's joint applicants have a tendency to be geographically and organizationally distant.
5. Joint applications with public research institutes and university researchers are identified. The average distance of these institutes' inventors from an automobile manufacturer is longer than that of private firms.
6. Toyota and Honda co-applied for patents with U.S. firms. These patents are related to 'airbag' technology.

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[in Japanese]

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Many studies on structural change in metropolitan areas have pointed out that in the inner suburbs the employed population increases and the proportion of commuters to the center decreases. However, little is known about trends in the outer suburbs.
The purpose of this paper is to clarify how the employment growth in the inner suburbs of the Nagoya metropolitan area has influenced the outer suburbs. The study area is Mitake town, Gifu prefecture. The findings are summarized as follows:
Firstly, the author examined the overall structural characteristics of the Nagoya metropolitan area. Here, employment growth was remarkable in the northern part of the inner suburbs (Aichi prefecture) in the 1970s. The commuting area to the district has since been expanding into the outer suburbs.
Secondly, the author examined changes in commuting flows in Mitake town, located in the outer suburbs. The districts increasing in numbers of commuters from Mitake town are the municipalities in Gifu prefecture (except Mitake town) and the northern part of the inner suburbs. Between the two districts, the latter shows a higher rate of increase in commuters from Mitake town since the mid-1980s. In terms of sex and cohort, men born in the 1950s (35-44 years old in 1995) have shown an increase in the number of commuters to the inner suburbs, while men and women born in the 1970s (15-24 years old in 1995) and women born in the 1950s have shown an increase in number of commuters to districts surrounding Mitake town.
Thirdly, by means of a questionnaire the author investigated changes in work-residence relationships from birth to the present for men born in the 1950s that strongly relate to the inner suburbs. The questionnaire survey was carried out in November 1998, with the cooperation of a junior high school in Mitake town. The sample comprised 63 men. Most respondents had never worked or resided in Nagoya City. Some respondents began to work in the northern part of the inner suburbs in the 1970s, and most of them moved to the vicinity of their workplace. Consequently, those who both worked and lived in the district increased. Thus, these are the people who have taken part in the employment growth in the northern part of the inner suburbs. Accordingly, it may be said that men born in the 1950s largely both worked and lived in the district compared to men born before the 1950s. Many of the respondents married in their 20s and moved into Mitake town in their 30s, yet continued to work in the northern part of the inner suburbs. Therefore, commuters from Mitake Town to the district have increased since the mid-1980s. From the results of the questionnaire, the author concludes that it is mainly changes in work-residence relationships for men born in the 1950s that have produced the employment growth in the northern part of the inner suburbs in the 1970s and the increase in commuters from Mitake town to the northern part of the inner suburbs since the mid-1980s.

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