This paper analyzes the inefficiency caused by the rate-of-return regulation in the power industry. The regulation is scheduled to continue in the power transmission and distribution market even after the coming liberalization. It is necessary to deepen the discussion about the inefficient regulation method of the rate-of-return regulation. First, to quantitatively grasp the inefficiency of the production cost caused by the regulation, financial data of Tokyo Electric Power Company is examined. The data catches the company at a time when it was under strong pressure for rationalization. It shows that 6.8% inefficiency existed in production costs before rationalization. In addition, the information made public regarding rationalization shows us quantitative and qualitative efficiency gains for each accounting title, which have not been revealed up to now. Second, the paper analyzes the mechanism by which the regulation method causes electricity rates to become higher than the actual cost. A high rate that consumers should not rightfully have to pay is being charged. It turns out that in the regulation, a mechanism exists in which the funds circulate cumulatively without being returned to consumers and shareholders. This can lead to negligent management. Based on the implications of these two issues, the paper points out policy proposals for the reform of the regulation method of the rate-of-return regulation.

How do major parties compete with each other and organize themselves in the multi-level political arenas in Japan? Using the survey data of Diet members and those of the prefectural assembly members, this paper argues that organizations of Japanese major parties are affected not only by the institutions of House of Representatives, but also by those of House of Councilors and those of local government. This paper finds an evidence indicating that the members of the House of Councilors and the members of prefectural assemblies take farther policy positions and have more autonomy from party leadership than the members of the House of Representatives, when other variables such as party affiliation and district characteristics are controlled. Though electoral reform of the House of Representatives which replaced SNTV with SMD have strengthened the leadership of major parties in Japan, the result suggests that institutions of the House of Councilors and those of local governments may counterbalance such trend.

This paper empirically analyzes whether political conflicts of interest between younger(from 20 to 39 years old)and older (over 65 years old) voters in Japan affects the level of public financial assistance apportioned to education for financially challenged students. The results of the analysis show that a clear relative advantage of older over younger voters due to comparative voting power leads to decreased levels of assistance for school supplies and lunch fees for public elementary and junior high school students, and decreased tuition subsidies for private high school students.

Currently, Japan has been plagued by chronic budget deficit. The cause of this is not only economic factors, it is also determined by political factors. In this paper, we want to pay attention to political power gap between the generations in conjunction with conventional research on fragmented hypothesis. Whilst verifying the fragmented hypothesis, we will be using the prefecture turnout in to place a member of the House of Representatives general election from 2003, 2005 and 2009 to verifying the impact of generational voting rate has on the primary budget deficit did. From the results of the positive analysis, the reduction of intergenerational political power disparities, it was confirmed that the primary fiscal deficit is likely to suppress.

Do ordinance-designated cities make an impact on suicide rates as the implementation unit of the livelihood protection policy? This study got several findings from fixed-effect panel data analysis regressions. First, operations of the livelihood protection policy change over time and influence the suicide rate, especially of females less than 65 years of age. Cities increase the suicide rate by sending away poor people without applying public assistance. Second, poverty and isolation increase the deaths by suicide, while welfare and economic policies have an effect of suicide-prevention. Public investment, pension and public assistance prevent suicides of the needy in cities. Third, suicides of female over 65 years old are not accounted for by my model.

Recently, referendums on rebuilding and/or repairing the city hall have been growing more common. Several factors have caused this increase. First, there are several factors causing an increase in referendums in general. Second, the recent wave of municipal amalgamations resulted in new municipalities with multiple city halls. Finally, the requirement that the municipal assembly pass a "Location Ordinance" by a two-thirds majority in order to move the city hall to another location stimulated the demand for referendums. In this paper, I analyze the political process that led to a referendum in 2012 on rebuilding or repairing Tottori City hall and the voting behavior in that referendum.

I focus on the discussions concerning enacting a referendum ordinance and the difference between center and periphery of Tottori City after amalgamation. The choice was between rebuilding city hall and repairing the old city hall. The analysis shows that voters who relied more on the city assembly for their information were more likely to vote to repair. The repair option won the referendum but turned out not to be possible. The analysis also suggests that residents of each area of the city had different decision rules for deciding their vote.

Five years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. A survey by Iwaki Meisei University (2014) shows that some residents of Iwaki city understand that Japanese government should do utmost hospitable support for Fukushima nuclear evacuees, but they feel envious of it. However, they have mixed feelings about the support for disaster victims. In this paper, I focus on feelings of residents in the municipality have accepted nuclear evacuees in Fukushima. Using a public opinion survey in Fukushima city, I tried to confirm whether Fukushima city is similar. The result showed that the majority answered "the support for nuclear evacuees by Japanese government is enough", and 38.2% of respondents had mixed feelings. And it was found that the resident of Fukushima city who had dissatisfaction with the reconstruction policy, tended to had mixed feelings. Furthermore, Fukushima was higher in the ratio of residents with mixed feelings than Sendai. Most previous studies paid attention to the vulnerable people and ignored the non-suffering residents who had lived in the disaster-stricken area. Generally speaking, the majority of the suffering municipality (or the municipality which have accepted nuclear evacuees) is the non-victim. Majority rule is a basic principle of democracy, so we should pay attention to the majority when we research on policy making in the suffering area.