The purpose of this study is to clarify the problems and propose policies for the municipal solid wastes reduction achieving community participation in Chofu city. We surveyed the state of administrative projects and the efforts of residents' associations and enterprises in each stage of municipal solid waste management, focusing on community participation. The major findings of this study are as follows: (1) At both the reduce and reuse stages, there are few administrative projects and limited efforts by residents' associations and enterprises. At the recycle stage, sorted collection and recycling of garbage are not positively promoted by administration, residents' associations and enterprises. (2) Among the policies for community participation, we recommend communication and sharing of information, the holding of environmental events, and encouraging the commitment of NPOs.

Water is a vital and precious resource in this 21 century. Regions where are located at arid and semi-arid climate conditions concern that water will become more severe constraint of economical growth. Dry-up is one of most representative phenomena of water issues. It is said that increases in water demand associated with rapid socio-economic development and decreases, or say unstable, in water resource (water supply) lead the sever water shortage especially in the arid and semi-arid regions. However, the causes of the water shortage, especially relationship between spatial allocations of water supply and demand structures, have not been completely understood. Therefore, this study clarifies relationship between the water supply and demand gaps in China. Firstly, the regional water demand was estimated by using the socio-economic macro framework. Secondary, the allocation of water resource was assessed by using the observed climate data. Finally, the gaps between water demands and supplies were shown by the fine spatial resolutions.

After reform and opening-up in China, the traffic volume among regions continues increasing with the rapid growth of economy. The number of transported passengers in 2006 is 1.3 times of that in 1980, while the volume of transported logistic up to 6 times. Furthermore, the growth rate of CO2 emissions from transportation sector in China has been rising due to increase of the private car possession. Many previous studies estimated and forecasted CO2 emissions in China and in specific region, but different characteristics of factors of regional CO2 emission were not fully evaluated. This study firstly analyzed the factors affecting CO2 emission of transportation sector in China. Secondary, factors influencing possession of the privately-owned car was specified.

This paper proposes a statistical method for determining whether the population distribution in a region is significantly affected by the accessibility to daily facilities and whether population is large at places where facilities are close by. In urban planning, it has been of interest to explore the relationships between population distribution and other distributions. In particular, in recent years, increasing attention is paid to whether a population distribution is affected by the accessibility to daily facilities such as medical and commercial facilities, and also to whether people tend to live close to such facilities and therefore population density is high around the facilities. Taking into account the fact that there is generally positive spatial autocorrelation in population density, this paper proposes a statistical method for investigating these questions, and, using the method, empirically analyzes the distributions of population and supermarkets in Hirosaki-shi, Aomori.

Local villages in Japan have been established a mechanism to protect themselves by cooperating together from the natural hazard. Fire volunteers have been active in protecting villages from natural hazards such as fire and flood for many years. They also have an active role in the community to protect their ordinary daily life but also they have active roles in festivals and educating the young. This report focuses on the roles of fire volunteers in the festival called "Doburoku Festival" in Shirakawa village. Fire volunteer takes a main roles has been established since a leader of the village decided to make this festival as a highlight for the tourism of the village where have preserved the house roof with thatches. This report aims to present the importance of focusing the activities of fire volunteers in the festival which could be effective in the response to the emergency situations.