Since the 1920s, insights into lineage in Southeastern China have been deepened predominantly in the realms of cultural anthropology and sociology. However, a long-term lack of historical-geographical studies addressing the issues has resulted in an inadequate understanding of the spatial aspect, origins, and formation of lineages.
Bei-jiang Basin is one of the red basins in Southeastern China. In this alluvium-floored basin, country villages have highly developed lineage organizations over many years. Based upon an analysis of genealogies and fieldwork, this paper provides a chronological survey of the various aspects, formation and growth process of lineages in the Basin.
The paper addresses a current spatial aspect of various lineages in the basin. There are three proposed patterns of spatial distribution of lineage which are assumed to represent different developmental phases. Based on these three developmental phases of lineage and an examination of genealogical registers in genealogies, it is arguable that most lineages came into existence from the tenth century to the fifteenth century. Their organizations became widespread and popularized at the end of the fifteenth century.
This paper also discusses the founders of lineages in their respective genealogies. That is to say, records of the founders in the genealogies need to be carefully examined under textual criticism, as the earliest compilers of genealogies lacked knowledge of ancient ancestors and had a tendency to reconstruct the founders retrospectively.

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A number of traditional events have recently been on the verge of extinction in Japan mainly because of a lack of successors. The tradition of bullfighting in the Oki Islands has fortunately continued up to now. This study investigates how bullfighting is continued and its significance in the Oki Islands by concentrating on the connection between the social relations created between the bulls and local society. I focus on the various inhabitants who run the bullfighting, particularly the following four types of people: ushinushi (bull's owner and trainer), tsunadori (bull's motivator), the ushinushi's neighbors, and the ushinushi's family. Currently, bullfighting takes place in Saigo town, Tsuma village and Goka village.
First, I consider the transition and background of bullfighting. Bullfighting in the Oki Islands underwent changes in connection with people's occupations. It is said that bullfighting began in common pastures as a local attraction in the agricultural off-season in the Kamakura era. When people started producing beef cattle in the Meiji era, bulls played the roles of draft cattle, beef cattle and fighting bulls all at the same time. However, agricultural mechanization and the depreciation of cattle reduced bullfighting activities in the 1960s. When tourism started to thrive in the Oki Islands in the 1970s, bullfighting was moved back into the limelight as a resource for tourism. Ushinushis began casual bullfighting for tourists and charged admission. Thus tourism has supported bullfighting. In addition to that, town and village offices began assisting bullfighting in the 1980s because they expected the traditional event to inspire the region and create a local identity. Now, there are bullfighting associations in each town and village. They cooperate with the local municipal governments and run bullfighting events in each region.
Next, I focus on ushinushis and tsunadoris. There are forty-three ushinushis in the Oki Islands. Raising bulls incurs some costs, but ushinushis say that the sheer pleasure of training bulls and associating with other ushinushis is worth it. They raise bulls through a trial and error process and have a special feeling for their own bull. They gather and train bulls every week. After training, they exchange information about bulls over drinks and food. The most important point of contact for them is the "shoma, " which is the buying and selling of bulls. Once they have gone through the shoma, they become close friends, part of the brotherhood, because through the shoma, they consider each other as fully-fledged ushinushis. Because they want strong bulls, they trade them beyond the boundaries between towns and villages. Shoma creates a wide-ranging network of ushinushis. At the fight, the ushinushi entrusts his bull to the tsunadori, the motivator of the bull. The ushinushi has every confidence in the tsunadori, and the tsunadori has a strong sense of responsibility for obtaining victory. They build up trustful relations over long periods of time and cooperate with one another to train the bull. To emphasize the unity of their place of residence, the ushinushis tend to ask someone from their home town or village to become their tsunadori. The interaction between ushinushis and tsunadoris increases the solidarity of their community.
Thirdly, I focus on the ushinushi's neighbors and family. Neighbors give gifts of sake or money two weeks before a bullfight. The ushinushi holds a banquet at his house in return for the gifts. The neighbor who gives sake is the most important of all the people giving gifts. They always attend the banquet and cheer on the ushinushi on the day of the bullfighting.

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Every traditional society has its own particular regional food culture. The dumplings examined in this article are one example. In northern China, the dumpling has played an important role in food culture, not only materially but also spiritually. Dumplings even have meaning as ceremonial foods, and they form one of the chief elements of traditional food culture. Due to the liberal reform policies carried out in the 1980s, the Chinese economy has developed remarkably, and daily life, especially the food culture of the Chinese people, has changed radically. The aim of this paper is to examine the changing nature of the traditional food culture by focusing on the dumpling, and also to examine the changing meaning and function of the dumpling itself.
The region discussed in this paper is Shandong in the lower Yellow River valley. The present state of dumpling food culture was investigated in seven districts within this region. In each district I distributed questionnaires, interviewed local people, and consulted historical records concerning food culture.
The Shandong region is the birthplace of the dumpling and we can trace the historical development of it by using local documents. People consume dumplings in various settings, not only in daily life, but on formal occasions as well. The latter category includes annual celebrations and ceremonial events such as weddings, funerals, ancestor-worship rituals, and coming-of-age ceremonies. People still recognize dumplings as a vital dish. Moreover, on formal occasions, the opportunity for consumption, the reason for consumption, the place of consumption, and the group preparing the dumplings differs from place to place. Thus, the dumpling in Shandong is a daily food staple made out of wheat, and, at the same time, is a part of the local food culture that is valued socially and ritually.
Since every local area has its own natural environment and historical and social background, types of dumplings differ by locality. However, people's respect for the dumpling is universal. By observing variations in the form of dumplings and by interviewing cooks, it becomes clear that knowledge about dumplings-their different types, forms, and functions-is a sort of folk wisdom that has spread widely.

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The argument for the rehabilitation from the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake is mainly based on city planning, regional economy, and community revival. It is indispensable to place an emphasis on local culture and folk customs such as local festivals and community activities for investigating the revival of daily life in these areas. Therefore, this paper focuses on the Jizo festival in the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake stricken area. Investigating the Jizo festival is one of the most suitable means to understand the relationship between place and memory in stricken areas.
The Jizo festival is a familiar folk custom in Japan. Jizo is a guardian of children and the stone statue of Jizo made is embodied in a small shrine. People pray to the Jizo statue for children's health and safety, and one's health, safety, and so on. Jizo was enshrined in the stricken area after the earthquake disaster. In 2002 and 2003, the author researched Jizo and the Jizo festival in Nagata-ku, Kobe City, which was greatly damaged by the earthquake.
The results of the analysis are summarized as follows. The Jizo festival has been greatly influenced by urbanization and the disaster. Jizo has been sometimes moved, and the Jizo festival has been suspended. However, it is easy to enshrine Jizo in the niche of a city space because the statue is small. In addition, Jizo is enshrined by a very flexible group of inhabitants. The meaning of Jizo is very flexible for the inhabitants, and they are able to freely participate in the Jizo festival. The greater the inhabitants who participate in the Jizo festival, the more the memory of Jizo is shared among them. Enshrining Jizo is important for the sharing of the memory of Jizo by the inhabitants.

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In the late 1980s, the software industry in Japan grew rapidly not only in the 'global city' of Tokyo but also in some rural areas. In short, it was dispersed from the global city to other areas in Japan. In the late 1990s, however, the software industry became concentrated mainly in Tokyo, unlike the late 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the background of that concentration within the context of international trade.
Two hypotheses were examined as driving forces of that concentration. 1) In the late 1980s, software firms in Tokyo outsourced software business to rural areas in Japan where a low cost labor force was available. In the late 1990s, however, software firms in China and India provided lower costs than the rural areas of Japan. Thus, it was expected that software firms in Tokyo outsourced software not to the rural areas in Japan, but to overseas software firms. 2) As the demand for producer services by Trans National Corporations (TNCs) located in the global city grew with the economic globalization of the 1990s, it was anticipated that demand for software would increase in the 'global city' of Tokyo rather than in the rural areas.
First, the performance of an extended shift-share analysis on the software industry revealed that the import substitution effect is rarely seen in the Japanese software industry although labor costs are significantly reduced by outsourcing to China and India. One reason for limited overseas outsourcing is that electronic devices made by Japanese manufacturers need highly skilled workers. Embedded software in electronic devices like mobile phones and digital cameras need highly skilled workers most of whom live in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The demand for skilled workers for high value electronic manufacturing products prevented further outsourcing of the software overseas and facilitated the concentration of the software industry in Tokyo. Second, the extended shift-share analysis of TNCs growing demand for software shows that export-led job growth became evident in the late 1990s. The correlation coefficient between export-oriented job growth and software job growth is significant at the 1% level. The high demand for software in the 'global city' and the decrease in government public works investment in rural areas have greatly contributed to the concentration of the software industry in Tokyo in the late 1990s. That helped shift software demand from the rural areas in Japan to the 'global city', Tokyo.
With a governmental income transfer policy from urban to rural areas, the software industry grew relatively all over Japan. However, the growth gap between the urban and rural areas was mainly aggravated by economic globalization and the minimal government policy in the 1990s.

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