The purpose of this paper is to examine the distribution process in place between modern Japan and colonial Taiwan during the interwar period, and to position the activities of the main economic actors in response to the actions of the government as commodity regulator. Specifically, I focus on changes among export brokers from the 1920s to the 1930s. In doing so, I pay attention to the actions of economic actors in response to changes in the external environment, and consider the quantitative and qualitative state of the process of commodity distribution that emerges as a result of my analysis of changes in the trading system. The following findings emerge from this analysis. The expansion of Taiwan rice shipments to Japan following the appearance of horaimai in 1922 was supported by a speculative trading system based on a mixed storage system, and the rice accommodation system made possible by the Yamashita Kisen issue of bills of lading. As a result, a large number of Taiwanese export brokers expanded their business operations and increased market share. However, the aim of these transactions was only to preserve export quantity and did not stimulate the export brokers to improve export quality. Although the amendment of the Taiwan rice inspection law in 1926 aimed to improve the domestic market reputation of Taiwan rice, strict inspections acted to regulate the quantity of rice shipped and provoked excessive competition among export brokers, resulting in a fall in profitability. This aggravation of trading conditions made it difficult for export brokers to continue business and they had no option but to withdraw from the market. On the other hand, I also show that Japanese exporters facing the same risks dealt positively with these changes in the trading environment by acting to improve quality, such as by the introduction of rubber roll rice hullers. Additionally, I show that although Mitsui Bussan, Mitsubishi Shoji, Sugihara Shoten, and Kato Shokai engaged in intense competition at the beginning of the 1930s, such activity was funded by rebates from shipping companies that profited from the rice trade. That is, I conclude that the change in major actors in the Taiwan rice export trade was due to structural change in the distribution process, the main factors of which were the trading and distribution systems.

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Since the 1987 report Our Common Future was published by the World Commission on Environment and Development, debate around the concept of "sustainability" or "sustainable development" has attracted wide-ranging interest, including not only narrow economic argument over the theory of economic growth under the limits of exhaustible resources, but also distributional issues concerning intra- and inter-generational ecological and social inequality. However, this widespread use the term "sustainability" has obscured the meaning of the concept, and the term itself no longer guarantees the generality of the semantic content. Similarly, economic approaches to the formulation of sustainability were never uniform, and each school of economics has attempted to interpret and define the concept of sustainability using their own framework. In particular, environmental economics based on the neo-classical approach is in opposition to ecological economics, which has tried to reconstruct radically the traditional framework of economics in terms of the laws of thermodynamics, on the degree to which natural capital and human-made capital can be substituted for each other. Correspondingly, two normative conceptions of sustainability have been suggested in recent studies of the ethics and economics of sustainability: namely, weak sustainability, to which mainly neoclassical economists have appealed, and strong sustainability, which has been defended from within the tradition of ecological economics. The main purpose of this paper is to reassess the discord between these two conceptions by returning to the basic concepts which constitute the economic discourse on sustainability, such as the metaphors of natural capital, substitutability, welfare and well-being. Although the above core concepts are open to different interpretations to a certain degree, little critical examination of these concepts has been performed. In fact, to classify conceptions of sustainability in terms of substitutability between goods or capital critically depends upon how we understand the concept of human welfare or well-being. Therefore, by scrutinizing these basic concepts and their internal relations, I shall try to reveal the common flaws of interpretations of sustainability based on subjectivist welfare theory and/or capital theory, as well to identify the differences between the two conceptions of sustainability. Then, it will be shown that as the proper basis of normative theory of sustainability, a shift is required from a subjectivist understanding of human well-being to an objectivist and substantive one.

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This paper elaborates on the value of a discussion of "Re-reading [Otsuka Hisao's] 'Fundamental Theory of the Community'" concerning Cambodia in particular, and South East Asia in general, both of which have yet to be examined comprehensively in relation to Otsuka's theory of the community, particularly concerning the essence, cohesion, and transitions of the pre-modern community. In the book report, issues relating to occupation/ownership of land by tribal leaders are emphasized in the discussion of the community cohesion and opportunities arising from transition within the community. In particular, Mishina focuses on exogenous factors, emphasizing the role of direct control and exploitation by external forces in village formation. One issue that has been raised concerning rural Cambodia today is the almost complete lack of permanently functioning institutions, the selfish and transient nature of interpersonal relationships, and the difficulty of organizing productive cooperative action. In this paper, starting from the above discussion, I attempt an analysis of the problems and characteristics of modern rural Cambodia. Through field research and international comparison, I focus on how higher levels of political power relate to the village, and additionally, how the form that the law takes as a result of that relation affects not only the social activities and social relationships of the people, but also is also reflected in the formation of the characteristics of the village. After two preliminary investigations, the investigation was carried out in February 2008, by conducting interviews with villagers and the village headman in two rural Cambodian villages. The results of this survey showed that expectations of government intervention for development were meager, government presence was weak and national law was ineffective, and social norms held sway among villagers. It was also observed that in relationships with neighbors, and even with intimates within the village, it was recognized by all that individual actions were motivated strictly by the "pursuit of self-interest", and the concept of "pursuing the good of others or of society" was almost entirely lacking.

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