The importance of improvement in living condition in urban areas recently has been stressed in Japan. We can point out three issues in this trend. First, blighted areas have already appeared in suburban areas of densely built “bunka” apartment house. Second, revitalization of the inner city is being watched with keen interest. Third, criticism of existing urban policy which is busy pursuing construction of urban infrastructure is developing new ideas for improvement of urban living condition. From these viewpoints, we can see only two examples of improvement in poor housing distrcts. In fact, Japan has a long tradition of renewal of poor housing districts. Unfortunately, these kinds of districts, i.e. minority group ghettoes, we call “dowa” districts, have not been properly analysed. There are two reasons for this lack of research. First is the tendency for Japanese scholars to avoid topics and ignore groups that are the object of majority prejudice. Second is the record of heavy-handed political intervention in the conduct and findings of such research.
This paper at first clarifies the historical formation of poor housing districts in prewar Japan. Second, we focus on the “Renewal of Poor Housing Districts Act” of 1927, making clear how this act was created and put in force. This research also attempts to put “dowa” districts in their proper place among all kinds of poor housing districts in Japan. In addition, we set value on this housing act as the the first public project to improve living conditions in Japan, and reveal the counter-responses of the people concerned.
In post-war Japan, especially after 1960, the pace of renewal projects quickened and many projects attained good results. These results were achieved mainly by minority-group peoples' movements, and such movements were linked to political influence. The historical approach adopted in this paper aims to pursue the origin of these movements and their political attitudes in pre-war Japan.
The “Renewal of Poor Housing Districts Act” was authorized by the Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Interior. Before the enactment of this act, the Department of Social Welfare conducted many investigations of poorer peoples' living and housing conditions. These investigations not only helped in the enactment, but also added special characteristics to this act. One such characteristic is observance in principle of rehousing people in the same location, and the other is omission of concrete standards in selection of renewal areas. The former is the result of imitating the housing acts in England. The latter is explained by the fact that the Department of Social Welfare had no need to define selection standards since they had already gained information about location of the poor housing districts.
Projects in accordance with this act began in 1928, rehousing nearly 4000 households by 1942 in 6 big cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kobe and Yokohama. The 16 districts selected or planned for selection were divided into three types. This selection reflected the existing three types of poorer peoples' districts at that time. The first type were those of minority groups, i.e. “dowa” districts originating in the pre-modern era. The second type were residential districts of urban miscellaneous laborers centering around flophouse, and the last one was residential districts of lower factory workers. The latter two emerged in modern era after 1868. Seven of the selections were of the first type, and these cases became a precedent for post-war projects. From the viewpoint of the people concerned, Nagoya and Kyoto showed special responses toward the renewal projects. Considering the historical conditions in pre-war Japan, people at that time did not possess any legal ways of opposition and had limited opportunities for achieving their demands for improvement.

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Freight flows reflect the economic and transport systems through demand-supply activities In the past, a limited number of studies of freight flows dealt with dynamics analysis, The dynamics analysis of freight flows can show the spatial reorganization induced by economic growth and transportation development through freight flows over time.
The aims of this paper are (a) to clarify changes in the patterns of freight flows, (b) to clarify the relationship between volume of shipments and interprefecture flows and economic activities. in each prefecture and (c) to show the spatial reorganization due to changes in the transport system through motor vehicle freight flows between 1965 and 1977 in Japan. During this period, there was rapid economic growth and changes in the transport system. The most noticeable change was the rapid decline in rail's share (ton or ton-km) and the rise in motor vehicle freight's share of traffic, accompanying the construction of expressways and the improvement of roads.
Data for this study comes from the interprefectural origin and destination survey (46×46) which was conducted by the Ministry of Transportation in 1965 and 1977. Freight measured in this study are agriculture and fisheries products, metal and machinery products, and light industrial products, in interprefectural flows. These freight were selected by the volume of each freight category for total flows and by changes in the rates of freight flows in each freight category in 1977 in comparison with 1965. Agriculture and fisheries products is a typical freight category which shows a little volumes for total flow in interprefectural flows and which shows a low rate of increase. Metal and machinery products is a typical freight category which shows a high volumes of total interprefectural flow and a high rate of increase. Light industrial products is a medium-type freight category.
Major flows of over 0.3% in proportion to total flow in motor vehicle freight flows were analyzed. The relation between the volumes of shipping (arriving) and employed persons by industries were analyzed by step-wise regression analysis. Then, the changes of total freight flows were compared with the changes of prevailing industries which were measured by a modification of Weaver's method of combination analysis in each prefecture. Changes in agriculture and fisheries products, metal and machinery products, and light industrial products flows are compared with the rates of change which were measured by the changes in products of their freight in each prefecture.
The results are as follows:
(1) The volumes of shipping (arriving) are related to the development level of ‘other manufacturing’. Major flows appear between Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi and regional-center prefectures (Hiroshima and Fukuoka) and their surrounding prefectures in 1965. In 1977 the rates of major flow relatively decreased between Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi and surrounding prefectures and increased between prefectures of the northern Kanto region and a regional-center prefecture (Miyagi). Therefore, the focus of motor vehicle freight flows on the larger city and regional-center prefectures did not change but there were changes in spatial patterns of freight flows (Fig. 1). The reasons for the change are (a) the formation of special production districts, (b) the reinforcement of the role of the central wholesale market in regional-center prefectures and (c) the acceleration of motor vehicle freight flows of material and products of machinery manufacturing with the new location of machinery manufacturing in the northern Kanto region.
(2) Major flows of agriculture and fisheries products are apparent between Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures in 1965 but appear among Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, regional-center prefectures (Miyagi and Fukuoka), and their surrounding prefectures and special production districts, in 1977.

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In Japan there have been many utsushi-reijô (imitative pilgrimage courses) patterned after Shikoku-hachijûhakkasho-reijô (Shikoku's 88 pilgrimage sites) and they are called shin-shikoku (‘new shikoku’pilgrimage courses) or mini-shikoku (miniature shikoku pilgrimage courses). These shin-shikoku can be regarded as pilgrim courses in which the Honshikoku (Shikoku pilgrimage course) model spread to various parts of the country and were transformed under local conditions. Meanwhile shin-shikoku have been transformed historically since their establishment. In this paper the author focuses on the former regional transformation.
The area of the case study is Shôdoshima-hachijûhakkasho-reijô (Shodoshima's 88 pilgrimage sites) on Shodoshima Island in Kagawa Prefecture. The procedure is first to compare Shima-shikoku (the Shodoshima course) with Hon-shikoku at the time of its establishment and find out what was imitated; next to determine how points differing from Hon-shikoku originated in Shima-shikoku. Results are as follows:
1. Similarities between Shima-shikoku and Hon-shikoku are that fudasho (each pilgrim place) were placed at the periphery of the island so that pilgrims could go around it, and the direction of numbering from 1 to 88 was clockwise.
2. Fudasho in Shima-shikoku included all the Shingon-shû (Shingon sect of Buddhism) temples in Shodoshima Island and all the highest-status shrines which later became gôsha (district shrines). The rests were selected from priests' meeting halls, oku-no-in (inner temples), wayside small temples, small temples at cemeteries, historic small temples, small temples at strange site features, and so on.
3. Fudasho in Shima-shikoku were placed in every village in Shodoshima. The number 1 is supposed to have been assigned to the nearest fudasho to Koyasan-Temple.
Historical transformations include allocations of fudasho, changes of fudasho-numbers, rise and fall of bangai-fudasho (extra pilgrimage places) and so forth. Even during these transformations Shima-shikoku have tended to copy Hon-shikoku in that the former have adopted the sekisho (spritual barrier to sinners) found in the latter at an earler time.

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