Geographical, meteorological and hydrological characteristics in directional distribution of water quality should be found conspicuously in radial mountainous streams for high cone-shaped and isolated mountains. I selected mountainous streams of four mountains, Mt. Iwaki, Mt. Chokai, Mt. Daisen and Yakushima Island, which are covered with snow in winter and beyond higher than 1600 m and face to the Sea of Japan or the East China Sea. The observations of their radial streams were conducted in the autumn of 2009 and the spring and summer of 2010. In contrast with these high mountains a same observation was conducted in the spring of 2012 for Oki-dohgo Is. which is a circular and has only lower mountains than 608m. Concentrations of Na⁺ and Cl^－ in western streams except Mt. Iwaki were higher than those in others. Though Mt. Daisen is faced to the Japan Sea in the northern side, the concentrations of Na⁺ and Cl^－ in the western streams were higher than those in others by stronger influence of westerlies. Influences of wet deposition by long-range transportation of air pollutants almost from the overseas, mainly in SO₄^2－, were found in western streams by prevailing westerlies. But in the southern streams of Mt. Iwaki and in the northern streams of Mt. Chokai the concentration of SO₄^2－ was higher than those in others due to the geological influence of volcano and hot spring. In the Oki-dohgo Is. the influence of sea-salt in the western and northern streams by westerlies was larger than in other side ones. Though Yakushima Island had the smallest differences in directional concentration distribution of stream water quality among the four mountains, it is the most suitable observation field among the three high mountains and two circular islands in order to clarify the influences of meteorological and hydrological conditions to stream water quality.

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This study collected and summarized 50 years of Japanese national opinion polls that asked energy issues before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. We thoroughly reviewed survey records of the national government and three major survey databases. We found 339 energy related surveys and acquired questionnaires for 313 of them. We made a chronological summary of energy related questions by grouping those questions into 10 categories of energy issues. The most asked issue was the evaluation of energy policies relative to other policies in the society. The nuclear issue came in the second place and this is followed by the energy saving issue and the energy price issue. We then created indices of questions by which we might follow the history of public opinions regarding particular energy issues.One index collected chronologically traceable questions that a survey body asked the same or approximately the same questions for more than once. These questions might provide clues when evaluating impacts of past public opinions to the development of Japanʼs energy policies. The other index listed two years of survey records immediately before the 2011 earthquake in order to facilitate comparisons of public opinions before and after the earthquake.

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In this study, small-scale bioethanol production from rice straw was demonstrated with a pilot plant. It combined with rice husk carbonization process which equipped a heat-recovery boiler to generate steam. By simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, 24.8 kg ethanol was produced in the fermentation broth from 99.6 kg of alkali-pretreated rice straw, and then 19.6 kg ethanol was recovered by distillation. It was shown that around 69% of total energy required (except for rice straw-derived energy) for bioethanol production process (from cutting to distillation) was covered by the heat recovered from the carbonization. A concept of small-scale biorefinery which combines bioethanol process and charcoal production for efficient energy use was successfully demonstrated.

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