Barada Basin, where the capital of Syria, Damascus, is located, and hence where most of the human activities are concentrated, suffers from serious environmental problems due to the huge migration from rural areas, illegal settlements, industrialization, and urbanization, and overexploitation of environmental media. According to the list of priorities that has been set by Ministry of Environment and WB in 1997 an immediate action plan should be carried out to address the water pollution issues in Barada Basin. Huge amounts of wastewater (domestic, industrial, and agricultural) are discharged every day to the land, Barada and Awaj Rivers without sufficient treatment converting the only-two water bodies in the region to waste dump. In this paper, the water pollution problem in Barada Basin has been analyzed. Simulations of a mathematical model have been run in order to find an optimal feasible policy improving the environmental status in Barada Basin. This model includes an ecological model that describes the behavior of the pollutants and an economic model that describes the market instruments. A set of policies have been proposed based on the simulations.

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Middle-income economies in the world are under pressure to deal with a variety of environmental problems, such as industrial pollution, urban environmental issues, the deterioration of ecosystems, and global warming, while they are expected to simultaneously achieve high economic growth. In this context, they urgently need to leapfrog over environmental difficulties through progressive environmental management by utilizing their “latecomers' advantages” to the maximum extent possible.
By utilizing the analytical framework of the environmental Kuznets curve (EK curve), this study examines whether or not middle-income economies actually enjoy latecomers' advantages in environmental management, depending on their stages of development. The study's main findings are as follows: (1) the outcomes of comparative analysis of the EK curves are generally consistent with the hypothesis that middle-income economies do enjoy latecomers' advantages; and (2) a regression analysis using cross-sectional data provides significant confirmation of the existence of latecomers' advantages for addressing the well known environmental problem of sulfur emissions in lower-middle-income economies.

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Interregional disparity is a current issue in Indonesia, but the solution has not touched the ground of the reason. This d-model (or disparity model) is a simple model that offers an alternative quantitative device to recognize the emergence of disparity based on a set of causes. The model emphasizes on repercussion between public and private sectors based on regional characteristics assumed as natural rich region and industrial region. The results shows that imposing higher tax improves all targets of development measurements, however based on the characteristics of the model it is suggested that the structural changes is needed especially for the long run.

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Japanese economy and business management after the burst of the bubble are trapped in a severe circumstances. According company housing in going to face with a drastic change. Company housing is a unique system in Japanese management and played a part in leading Japanese economy to its prosperity.
At the peak of the bubble boom, the company housing, apart from its primary function, played a role as a symbol of the company's prosperity. However, it now becomes a priority asset to sell in company's restructuring effort.
This paper will illuminate actual conditions of company housing and other fringe benefit facilities. We will, then, discuss what effect the abolition of these facilities brings about to local economy. This paper will try to foresee how business circumstances and company housing should be managed in future environment of further globalization.

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The quality of water in Lake Kasumigaura has been deteriorating since the 1970's by the pollution discharged from socio-economic activities of the catchment area. As a result of construction of a sewage system, and enaction of an ordinance to prevent the environment by the government, water quality of Lake Kasumigaura has improved to some extent, but the process of deteriorating is still continuing. Recently, many engineering groups are working to develop technologies in order to solve the problem.
In this study, we analyze a dynamic optimal policy and evaluate new technologies to improve the water quality of the lake, considering both-the total ecological system in and around the lake and the situational changes over a certain period of time.
We specify two sub-models (the ecosystem model and the socio-economic model) and one objective function (Regional GDP; GRP) in order to analyze the optimal policy to improve the water quality of Lake Kasumigaura. The ecosystem model describes how the amount of generation and flow of pollutants are changed and the extent to which it is abated by removal equipments in the lake and the rivers. The socio-economic model describes the social and economic activities in the catchment area and the relationship between the activities and the emission of pollutants. The optimal policies are derived so as to maximize the objective function subject to the structural equations which describe both the ecosystem and socio-economic system.
The pollutants measured in this study are nitrogen, phosphorus and COD. These have been strongly affecting the deterioration of water quality.

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To analyze interregional transfer of wastes, it is necessary to make interregional economic input-output relation clearly. Generally, interregional input-output analysis has much more researches in view of quantity side than in view of cost-price side.
The purpose of our research is theoretical analysis of waste recycling and interregional transfer of waste in view of cost-price side.
Our research use linear joint production system introduced waste recycling technique. We assume that waste disposal sector of each region has alternative process which is “recycling inside” or “transfer outside”. Then we research sustainability of our system in terms of “choice of technique”.

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Business cycle fluctuations are rarely limited to one or a few regions and countries. Instead, when economic conditions change, they tend to affect many regions and countries. We observe three different business cycle patterns between the regional and national economies in Japan:
1. Some regional economies tend to fluctuate about three month behind the nationwide one;
2. Another regional economies tend to be worsen earlier and improve later than the nationwide one;
3. The others tend to be worsen later and improve earlier than the nationwide one.
Also we observe various business cycle patterns between Japanese and foreign economies:
4. The Japanese business cycle indices tend to lead about five month the DECD business indices;
5. The US and Japanese business cycles are countercyclical except of particular periods of time, the earlier periods of highly rapid growth in Japan (1957-1958) and the periods after Oil Shock (1973-1975).
We build a Glocal Business Cycle Model based on the business cycle model of Samuelson and Hicks, that is, a multiplier accelerator model. The Glocal Business Cycle Model is used to analyze the business cycles of both the global and local (regional) economy. As the model can be expressed by a simultaneous linear second difference equation system of two regions and a foreign country, the behavior of the system may be very complicated.
We show the above business cycle patterns will occur when there are small changes in demand parameters or the initial conditions in the Glocal Business Cycle Model.

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It becomes difficult to correspond to the urban problem in the system under the economy stagnation. Also present is the continuing low economy growth and a deflation tendency. Therefore, in the income and expenditure system, depending on extra floor sale for the most parts of the income makes the project itself increasingly more risky.
In the study, we pay attention to the original feature of the urban renewal development such as right conversion, or the extra floor sale. Theoretically we make clear the decision-making process concerning the extra floor sale. Also, by using the data of the land price, we explain the relationship between the floor demand and the possibility of project execution.

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Nowadays, the conflict between people insisting on environment and people insisting on development comes to be seen frequently. Management of such conflict and inducing consensus between them must be considered on a future development project. Without such understanding, appropriate development would not be achieved at an appropriate time.
Besides, opinions of residents should be considered more to development project in the future, and it might become impossible to promote project without considering their opinions. They are so various that more conflicts might be occurred if they come to insist on their rights. Therefore, the conflict incidental to development project should be regarded as interactive phenomenon of conflict situation and residents' opinion between development and environment.
From above-mentioned recognition, it is needed for the future development project to manage the conflict as taking various opinions of residents into consideration. Therefore, first of all in this paper, people concerned to the conflict are defined as groups categorized by some features and assumed to have distribution of opinions. A categorized group is called a player in this study. The distribution of opinions and the changing process of it are modeled by ‘synergetics’. The concept of ‘synergetics’ is that it is science treating static or dynamic mass phenomenon that is shown in a close system or open system consisting of many factors that interact each other. That is, ‘synergetics’ formularize the dynamism of the society under the assumption that the society stands up on interactive phenomenon. Secondly, the method is shown for deciding preference vectors using opinion distribution, mentioned above. The preference vector is the order of preference of each player for a set of possible consequences, each of which is a combination of each player's option, and this is the input of ‘replicator dynamics’. ‘Replicator dynamics’ is described with differential equation. The concept of it is based on ‘evolutional game theory.’ An option that is indicated in the equilibrium solution is supposed to be a behavior that is actually taken by a player. Through the model analysis, it can be seen how the conflict would reach stable states.
Furthermore, our model is applied to Nagara River Weir Problem as a numerical example. Nagara River Weir Problem had been under conflict situation for 30 years in Japan. In this study, the conflict between central government and basin residents, which occurred from about 1990 to 1994, is applied to our model as 2 players game.

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This study measures the productivity of water utilities in Hyogo Prefecture during 1992 to 1998. At first, partial productivities are measured. The results show that labor productivity increases, while capital productivity decreases dramatically. The reason of decreasing of capital productivity is that capital grows up sharply, while output fluctuates. And other productivity decreases until 1994 and fluctuates after 1994.
Next, total factor productivity is measured by the Malmquist productivity index. In order to consider technical efficiency change, this study adopts the index developed by Färe et al. They define the Malmquist productivity index as the geometric mean of the efficiency change and the technical change. The results show that technical efficiency decreases and technical change decreases, and TPF change decreases.
Then the Malmquist productivity index is measured in the case that technical change does not decrease, because decreasing of technical change is inappropriate for the circumstances of water utilities. The results shows that TFP change decreases until 1994 and it fluctuates from 1994 to 1998 because of decreasing of technical efficiency and increasing of technical change.

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This paper analyzes the impact of a population aging on the local public finance in Nagoya city, using a regional econometric model with the data of the cohort-component method. This model is a macro-econometric model of Nagoya City, for this purpose, the budget sector to be carefully estimated by components, on one hand, and the population sector to be built, using the data of the cohort-component method, on the other hand. The analysis is based on a simulation for a prediction period of 1999-2010 using the data estimated by the cohort-component method. From the results of simulation, we find that a primary balance government budget deficit defined by [(government expenditure-public loan)-(government revenue-local public bond)] is increasing in this period and reaches 194 billion Yen in 2010.

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Measures for river disasters were studied for people who are particularly vulnerable to disaster. This is because many of the victims in past disasters including flood were disaster-vulnerable people and there have been few attempts to clearly establish and implement measures to address this group. Therefore, an interview and a questionnaire survey were conducted on people whose occupations bring them into contact with this demographic on a daily basis: firefighters, welfare commissioners, public health nurses, and home-helpers. The survey covered awareness of the situation of disaster-vulnerable demographic (the elderly, the disabled, pregnant women, etc), previous evacuation support, experience of providing help, predicted behavior in the case of evacuation support, the importance and feasibility of support planning. Using these data, a support system of disaster-vulnerable people is evaluated in the case of floods, and factors hindering support are analyzed. The effectiveness of the proposed plan is examined by clarifying the reasons for the hindrances.
The support situation was understood by method of Event Tree Analysis. Three items that may hinder the smooth flow of the system (recognition of disaster-vulnerable people, and support provided by supporters, acceptance of evacuation recommendation) were selected as the diagnostic criteria. We clarified the current situation of the items and the reasons for hindrance by using the results of interviews and a questionnaire survey. This research confirmed that the system led by public health nurses is effective. They understand the broadness of the category of disaster-vulnerable people, and the number of disaster-vulnerable people recognized by them is higher than recognition of such people by any other group. It is believed that they will play an important role in establishing the future support system.
The plan to let disaster-vulnerable people evacuate at the early stage of flood disaster is considered effective. Because the further the disaster proceeds, the greater is the danger to disaster-vulnerable people, and evacuation becomes harder. It is thought difficult to cover every disaster-vulnerable person. Therefore, those who can evacuate with a limited amount of support are expected to start doing so early by themselves. This is also meaningful because it reduces the burden on supporters and it supports disaster-vulnerable people who have not been recognized. For the purpose of carrying forward the plan, it is important to improve the environment and systems for evacuation, such as by solving physical or mental problems and the financial burden of evacuation, administrative and legal issues.

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Though faced with the Asian currency crisis in 90's, China keeps the high economic growth rate. In Shanghai, the most modernized region in China, many urban redevelopment projects are under way. They include the Pudong district, which is famous for its newly developed huge New Town with a city center of skyscrapers, and many urban renewal programs at the old city center area near Nanjing Road, which has been recently renovated as the pedestrian walkway with colored tiled pavement. Many parts of Shanghai, whether they are new or old, are drastically changing their physical figures.
On the other hand, retail business categories such as convenience store, supermarket, and hypermarket, which are new for China, have emerged and spread out rapidly. In fact, the first convenience store opened just three years ago, but now more than 1, 000 convenience stores are running. Consumers in Shanghai have adapted to these rapidly changing retail environments. It is no exaggeration to say that the future spatial structure of urban retail system will hinge on the course of the changes of consumer behaviors.
Few studies, however, have been carried out to empirically clarify the actual behavior of consumers at urban China. With this in mind, for the first time we have conducted two surveys on consumer behaviors in Shanghai. One is the on-site survey on consumer shop-around behavior at the city center retail environment near Nanjing Road and the other the home-based diary survey on shopping behavior of consumers at suburban residential areas.
Based on the latter diary survey, this paper tries to clarify the characteristics of consumer's shopping behaviors. We first classify shopping destinations into three categories: neighborhood shopping street, suburban shopping center, and central commercial district. Then we analyze how consumers allocate their shopping trips and expenditure among these three categories.
Using above micro-data of consumer's behavior, we have shown that the central commercial district is characterized by less frequent with high expense shopping behavior and the neighborhood shopping street by high frequent with less expense shopping behavior. We also have shown that the difference of the age and income of consumers leads to different allocation patterns of shopping trip and expenditure among three destinations. In particular, we have shown that the shopping behavior of the age group of lOs to 20s is quite different from other age groups above 30 since they are much oriented to central commercial district in contrast to the other age groups oriented to neighborhood shopping street.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between IT (Information Technology) and environmental preservation in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In recent years, the amount of waste has increased mainly in urban areas of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) member countries. It is said that IT can realize economic growth without inflation. It is also considered to reduce uncertainties or risks, resulting in economic efficiency and benefits.
The collected data show changes in the economic structure of the Tokyo metropolitan area; the share of service-oriented industries, such as business services and information processing, has increased in the past 20 years. It is clear that the role of IT has become more important than ever. Since the adoption of the PPP (Pollutant Payment Principle) policy, all members of the community, such as firms, households and government, have started using IT for the reduction of the amount of waste disposed. It is considered that IT plays an important role in reducing the amount of waste disposed. This study examines the relationship between the amount of municipal waste disposed and IT, using an econometric approach.
The following conclusions were reached:
(1) Economic activities and increase in the number of residents lead to an increase in the amount of waste disposed.
(2) IT is effective in reducing the amount of waste disposed.

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The control of pollutant emission has become a serious social problem in Japan. The automotive pollution is one of the main sources. But until now, the necessary quantitative estimation system on regional level has not been constructed except the fields of acid rain, nitrogen oxides and suspended particulate matter. In this paper, I constructed a quantitative model to estimate the intraprefectural commodity transport, number of vehicles by 4 types, and resulting quantity of pollution by 5 types; carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), carbon dioxide (CO₂), suspended particulate matter (SPM). I estimated them in Gifu and Aichi Prefectures, and extrapolated to the national figures based on regional shares of two prefectures in population and transport quantity. I estimated the automotive pollution for 1991-94, and found that the emission of CO₂, the most important factor of green-house-effect, has not decreased over time, while other three {CO, HC, NO_x} have steadily decreased and the emission of SPM did not show a definite trend in Gifu Prefecture. To assess the effects of policies to reduce the exhaustion gas by vehicles, I made two simulation studies based on the quantitative model. The results are as follows.
Case (1): Hypothesis (a), The reduction would be 25% in NO_x, 64% in SPM by shifting discharging regulation value from 1994 to 1999 against large-sized diesel vehicles. The result was completely consistent with Hypothesis (a).
Case (2): Hypothesis (b), When private vehicles adapt Sekisai-Hi (the percentage of actual loading to full loading capacity) to the level of commercial vehicles, the reduction would be 34% in each five toxic pollutants. The value of reduction volume was between 44% and 29%.
The central as well as prefectural governments are urged to establish the effective countermeasures to automotive pollution if the target of Kyoto-Protocol, i.e., the reduction of emission by 5-6 percent compared with the level at 1990, would be achieved by 2008-2010. For that purpose, their intensive efforts are called for. I hope the quantitative model in this paper can provide some useful materials.

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We suppose that Information Technology industry is classified into four sections ((1) Telecommunication infrastructure, (2) Hardware, (3) Software, (4) Contents service), it is symbolic that the historical lawsuit of Anti-trust law has occurred in each section ((1) AT & T, (2) IBM, (3) Microsoft) until now. In recent years, not only the Anti-trust lawsuit but also the problem related to Copyright law has arisen in the Information Technology industry. The Piracy problem of digital information goods with copyrighted have already occurred on the Internet. In the case of illigal copying and selling by the supplier, it can punish for copyright infringement and a claim for damages produced by pirated copies is possible. However, the distribution of pirated copies among indivitual users is impossible for proving the illicit activities and amount of damage as a matter of fact, since it is private use of many and unspecified individuals even if an illegal copy is made.
If network externality is taken into consideration, piracy has two economic effects on software publishers. The first effect, increasing piracy leads to a fall in direct sales. The second effect, increasing pirates would boost the demand for the legally supplied software by increasing size of the installed-base. This opposite effects imply that the trade-off relation between losses from reduction of direct sales and benefits arises from the effect which enlarges the network scale formed among the users will exist.
In this paper, we consider the piracy problem and hardware taxation system in the present of network externalities. We show that three main results: first, pirates exist in the market equilibrium in the case of no hardware taxation; second, despite the fact that a higher tax rate increases tax revenue transferred to the software firm, the hardware tax rate which maximizes profit of software firm is lower level than the hardware tax rate which maximize tax revenue; and third, a tax on hardware indeed reduces the illigal use of software, but it dose not enhance social welfare.

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The relationship between macroeconomic activity and residential expenditure over 1976:1 to 2001:1 has been examined in Japan. The analysis is conducted using variance decompositions (VDCs) and historical decompositions (HDs). The VDCs indicate that shocks to money stock, output and interest rates have significant impact on residential expenditure. The paper also compares the relative importance of various macroeconomic variables in determining residential investment using HDs of variance of residuals for the residential investment for three periods (pre bubble period, bubble period and post bubble period).

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This paper presents the effect of social capital especially industrial infrastructure on the development of regional industries.
Based on the concept of “new economic geography”, we show the relationship of urban diversity and population size of the MAs. A comparative analysis between Japanese and American cities is presented using the Hirschman-Herfindahl index (HHI) to measure urban diversity. The result of correlation analysis of HHI and population size show that 118 Japanese MAs have approximately equal levels of urban diversity and do not clearly indicate a hierarchical nature with respect to population size and/or urban diversity.
This result should appeal the differences of the local structure, so we investigate the effect of the local industrial policy, so called “Zenkoku Sogo Kaihatsu Keikaku”. The object of this policy is equal development of Japanese regions. We guess no relationship of urban diversity and population size has been influenced by this policy. We investigate this hypothesis to use pooled data of 80 cities of 2-digit manufacturing industries.
We estimated labor demand function, the result of estimations show that the impact of social capital is very strong. But, equipment industries have not been affected by the stock of social capital.

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A development of information infrastructure for correspondence using fiber optics cable is planned for the purpose of preventing and managing river disaster in the region of Tokachi riverside. Not only the completion of disaster prevention system but also the regional promotion effects will be brought if the regional information network system making use of the space of tunnel for fiber optics cable is developed. In this study, a questionnaire survey with respect to regional information network is carried out to local residents lived in the region of Tokachi riverside, and the evaluation of regional promotion effects brought by the development of information infrastructure is also carried out. The evaluation method used in this study is Covariance Structure Analysis, and this study clarifies the relationship between the development of information infrastructure and the regional promotion effects. As a result, it is concluded that the development of information infrastructure will bring the regional promotion effects such as the increase of interest in administrative information and regional subjects, the activation of exchanging information, the promotion to use regional information and so on.

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Research and development of works sited at Techno-Port Fukui was surveyed. Techno-Port Fukui is one of the most successful industrial parks and 66 blocks out of 77 have been sited. The survey was made on the 40 works among 66 who accepted the interview, to know the present status of the research and development activity and the possibility of their further development.
The research and development efforts of manufacturing industries are classified into several patterns. Trial to develop new products in terms of new technology requires risk, time and the investment of management resources, and limited enterprises can take the risk. Small organizations can try only exploration of new application of existing technology or the manufacturing technology improvement.
Most of the works have their headquarters out of the park and only 7 are the independent corporations, among which only one has its substantial management capacity within the park. Most of the works have no concern on the development of new technology and new products except the improvement of manufacturing technology. The fact is quite in contrast to the other small works of the Fukui Prefecture in the glass-frame or fabric industries.
The certain increase of employment and tax revenue might be effected from the industrial park, but neither the industrial activity of Fukui in general nor the activity of the local area have been energized due to the park.

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The bicycle is the most energy efficient vehicle. Among Japanese people, it is used as one of the most important means of transportation for commuting compared with US. But the safety environment for bicycle user is very sever in Japan. We can get many lessons from the US policy, because of its progressiveness and strength.
US Transportation policy gives priority on non-mortorized vehicle, especially on the bicycle. According to US Code 23 (High Way), the bicycle is considered as means of transportation. And financial assistances by federal government to the States for multi modal transportation are very hospitable, and accordingly every state shall make comprehensive and long term transportation plan which includes a bicycle plan. And in addition to this, every state shall put the bicycle and pedestrian coordinator in the State department of transportation. There are no such policy situations in Japan.
Bicycles have the same rights and duties as motor vehicles, and are treated as a means of transportation on the road by vehicle laws of many state. The motor vehicle users must share the road with bicycle. There are the same obligations to give attention to each other for both motor vehicle drivers and bicycle riders. As a result, the number of the traffic accident fatalities of bicycle riders is much smaller compared with that of Japan and decreasing in these years. Japanese Policy needs to learn the fundamentals of those of US.
Lessons from US bicycle policy are as follows. The Bicycle must be considered clearly as the means of transportation by law, and at the same time, had better be given the same rights and duties as motor vehicle. And through these actions, the bicycle policy can be put more priority among Japanese transportation policies. To realize these points, such legislation and financial measures needs to be taken by the Japanese government.

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