The global warming is the most important environmental issue for human society in terms of its scale and impact. The Japanese Government established the Global Worming Headquarters in December 1997 to implement effective measures against global warming-related issues. The Japanese Diet approved the Kyoto Protocol in May 2002, and accordingly, Japan has an obligation of greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 6% below 1990 levels.
The greenhouse gas emissions in Japan are mainly generated from energy sources, such as oil, coal and natural gas. They are closely related to the public life and economic activities. Therefore, it is necessary to take various measures for both energy supply and demand sides to achieve the reduction of greenhouse gases stipulated in the Kyoto Protocol.
The input-output analysis is a useful tool to examine the economic structural problems concerning the economic growth, the industrial structure and the environment. Various researches have been made to estimate the carbon dioxide emissions from the economic activities and the public life in Japan using input-output tables.
This paper aims to identify the relationships between the regional economic structure and the carbon dioxide emission in Japanese regions. The study employs regional input-output tables published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the data for carbon dioxide emission intensity estimated by the National Institute for Environmental Studies for years 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995.
The empirical study has revealed that the electricity and the transport sectors showed marked increases in carbon dioxide emissions during 1975-95, whereas most of the manufacturing sectors showed reduction during the same period. According to the analysis by region, the carbon dioxide emission showed a growing trend in each region due to an increase in final demand. The trend was the clearest in the capital region, Kanto.

View full abstract

The argument on the index for sustainable development is active internationally after United Nation Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. However, The intelligible and operational index of sustainable development could not be found, especially in the local level.
In this paper, first of all, it arranged and classified main existing index for sustainability. This study adopt the environmental capacity according to all prefectures using one of the new indexes of “The Ecological Footprint” which is developed in University of British Columbia in Canada. The Ecological Footprint measures the amount of the globe's biological productivity an individual or a country occupies in a given year. In this paper, Ecological Footprint calculations are based on five categories: “Arable land”, “Pasture”, “Forest area for product paper or timber”, “Urbanized area” and “Forest area for assimilate CO2”, in prefectural scale. Furthermore, Exports and imports are also considered to calculate Ecological Footprint. Correlation analysis between Ecological Footprint and tax allocated to prefectural government is also examined.
The results show that the value of Ecological Footprint is relatively large compared with the environmental capacity in each prefecture, excluding Hokkaido. It is also clarified that Ecological Footprint that was produced from metropolitan area could be covered by local prefectures. Moreover, from correlation analysis, tax allocated to local prefectural governments could be interpreted as the subsidy for environmental balance from metropolitan area.

View full abstract

Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis is a method which takes relation structures between objects into conventional determinant-finding researches. The important point of this analysis is to specify efficiently the appropriate and representative spatial-autocorrelation pattern as weight matrix. For the purpose of establishing this model as practical method, we applied it to explain variations in planting area of green beans and bitter gourd galsam pears in 33 municipalities of Okinawa Island. Since Okinawa is relatively isolated and can be regarded as a closed system, bias from other prefectures in the mainland can be negligible. Green beans regarded as the most strategic vegetables for mainland metropolitan markets, while bitter gourd galsam pears, which were traditional Okinawan domestic vegetable, rapidly developed to the second largest strategic vegetable after deregulation of epidemic prevention in 1990. Therefore we can expect high interdependency in planting area variations among the municipalities due to their competition or cooperation.
From practical viewpoint, we tried to test various patterns of spatial-autocorrelation-matrices based on gravity type and adjacency type. Some of them showed statistical significance and, totally, the adjacency type matrixes showed better statistical reform performance to conventional regression model.
Furthermore, the statistical difference of relation matrices and spatial autocorrelation between two vegetables seemed to reflect the real vegetable diffusion process.
Finally, we suggest some topics of plausible relation matrix preparations and the case of panel data treatment.

View full abstract

The purpose of this paper is to measure technical efficiencies and scale economies in joint public-private venture railways and small and medium-sized private sector railways and to test the hypothesis that two groups (Group 1 is joint public-private venture railways and Group 2 is small and medium-sized private sector railways.) belong to the same population. Joint public-private venture railways mean the railway companies that are funded by local governments and private companies. We use data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure technical efficiencies and scale economies. We apply the Mann-Whitney test to test the hypothesis. We derive the following results:
1. The mean efficiencies of CRS model obtained from pooling data, Group 1, and Group 2 are 55%, 52%, 58% respectively. The mean efficiencies of VRS model obtained from pooling data, Group 1, and Group 2 are 72%, 68%, 75% respectively.
2. The results obtained from DEA indicate increasing returns to scale in many railway companies.
3. The null hypothesis that the efficiencies of Group 1 and Group 2 have the same distribution is accepted.

View full abstract

Natural open-spaces are essential not only for providing natural amenities, but also for evacuation in the case of earthquake disasters in urban area. These spaces are particularly important as many urban areas are vulnerable to natural disasters. In addition, environmental planning for earthquake disaster mitigation is important because the construction of many disaster prevention facilities can be problematic, particularly when the return period is long.
In this paper, regional diagnoses for earthquake disaster mitigation is carried out, focusing on evacuation activities in the Hokusetsu region (Osaka Prefecture). This region is assumed big damage by three earthquakes. The topographic and land use characteristics of this region resemble those of Kobe city, where big damage occurred as a result of the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake.
Firstly, regional analysis is done to make where these spaces should be create for reduction of earthquake disaster risk clear. This analysis is composed of necessity of evacuation action and simulation model regarding this action. The former is evaluated by the possibility of building collapses and fire spread. The latter is developed for evaluation of danger of evacuation action in earthquake disaster considering with possibility of district isolation and the location of neighboring chou-chou-moku. This simulation model involves eight plausible assumptions with respect to the planning methodology. This model is made possible to derive important indexes in order to evaluate earthquake disaster risk. As a result, it is making clear that districts of southern part of Suita city are most dangerous.
Secondly, this study proposes new approach which is water side creation using sewage treatment water as an alternative for earthquake disaster mitigation. The mitigation effect of this alternative is shown by the analysis using simulation model.

View full abstract

It has been expected that a big earthquake will occur in the near future at many cities where more than 500 thousand people live in Japan. Therefore several measures for preventing and mitigation of disaster have already been taken. However, most of these measures had no effect at the time of the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. It was the reason that circular water utilization network system including waterworks networks and sewerage networks and river systems has not been considered at all.
In this paper, a hierarchical model of circular water utilization system with 4 layers (a river layer, a water supply layer, an urban active layer, and a sewerage layer) is firstly proposed. Each layer is consisted of elements such as intake facilities, water purification plants, and sewage plants and so on. With the aid of this system model, earthquake disaster risks are classified.
Secondly, earthquake disaster risk indices are set up. The concepts of stability and safety of water circulation networks are introduced and modeling considering with so large and complex system, that is, stability is modeled with graph theory and safety is modeled statistically (not mechanically). Stability indices were already discussed and published, so safety indices are mainly discussed in this paper. Then, earthquake disaster risk diagnosis that is consisted of stability and safety indices is introduced. It could be called a type of multi-dimensional criteria analysis.
Finally, earthquake disaster risk diagnosis proposed is applied to Yodo River circular water utilization system including Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, where population is more than 13 million, as a case study. As a result, both the indirect and direct damage in this region in question at the occurrence of an earthquake are clarified by using stability and safety indices and the areas with high earthquake disaster risk for water supply and expected environmental pollution disaster are pointed out. Consequently, it is shown that our proposed evaluation indices of earthquake disaster risk diagnosis are effective against future great earthquakes.

View full abstract

This study attempts to illustrate the patterns of regional inequality and their dynamic variations in Korea and Japan where economic development levels differ. In order to present a reasonable demonstration of such patterns, the study starts with and further develops Williamson's inverted-U hypothesis and Amos' augmented inverted-U hypothesis through a detailed empirical analysis of the interplay between regional dynamics and regional income inequality in the cases of both Korea and Japan. The primary conclusions of this study can be stated as: (1) Korea and Japan are moving into the spatial restructuring phase from the preceding polarization reversal phase after 1996 and 1978, respectively; (2) Regional dynamics applied to widespread regional growth and decline becomes very clear by portraying of the dynamic variation of inequality in geographical space.

View full abstract

Economic growth and the increase in population lead to remarkable increase in energy consumption. China, whose population is more than 20% of the world population, is the 2^nd biggest electricity consumption country of the world in 1999.
The environmental problem related to energy consumption in China, which cannot be ignored, is that the huge amount of coal is used as an energy source. As the carbon content per unit calorific value in coal is 30% higher than in oil, therefore the carbondioxide emissions has increased, which is the main factor for global warming.
The contents of the paper include four parts: the literature review and objective, quantitative analysis of carbon tax in China while considering the introduction of a green energy (wind power and solar power), conclusion and policy proposal, and future works.
In this paper, we propose a policy mix, imposing carbon tax in China for CO₂ emission curtailment and introducing the green energy. The main point of this paper is to form a carbon management policy that will lead to greening of the existing energy system in China, using our multi-sectoral macro-economical model including I-O table, then we derive the optimum carbon tax rate endogenously by running simulation model under CO₂ emission restrictions.

View full abstract

The construction of several regional input-output tables in Japan has enabled us to employ them for regional economic analysis in various regions. The most important of these tables is the nine-region interregional input-output table, which covers the whole of Japan by MITI, and is which is the first of its kind in Japan. However, the regional divisions in this table do not correspond with those of the local government. Therefore, researchers have rarely used this table. Most regional input-output tables, excluding this, are intraregional, rather than interregional, input-output tables. Therefore, the analysis using these tables does not take interregional interdependence into consideration.
In this study, we attempted to compile a 47-region interregional input-output table at the prefecture level, covering all of Japan. The hybrid approach of constructing regional input-output tables was adopted in this 47-region interregional input-output study. First, all intraregional input-output tables were prepared at the prefecture level. We used intraregional input-output tables of all prefectures in Japan from 1990 onwards. The second step was to estimate the interregional trade coefficients because this is a very important step in the construction of interregional input-output tables. In this study, we propose a method for the estimation of interregional trade using a distribution census and some data. In addition, the interregional trade coefficients were adjusted using a new iterative method to ensure that the sum total of the total output of 47 regions would match the total output of Japan. Finally, a 47-region interregional input-output table was compiled using tables of all 47 prefectures and the interregional trade coefficients.
In this paper, we show the characteristic features of a 47-region interregional input-output table. Further, this paper presents a regional economic analysis using the 47-region interregional input-output table. We analyzed regional relations among all prefectures by measuring interregional input coefficients and using the Leontief inverse matrix. As a result, we found that most industries in local prefectures have economic linkages with services in Tokyo. In addition, we estimated the effects of an increase in the demand for automobiles in the Aichi prefecture on each prefectural economy in Japan. We could observe the relation between the transportation networks and interregional economic linkage at prefectural regional level.

View full abstract

In 1997, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport revised the River Act., and they newly add the aim of “the adjustment and preservation of the river environment” to those of “the flood control” and “the water use”. It is necessary to examine new methods for relating their opinions to the river improvement plan.
Once the river policies promoted by the Old River Act improved inhabitant's living environment remarkably for a long time, and brought the expansion of the residential space widely. The river improvement projects contribute to the reduction of flood damage, when snow is melted in Hokkaido enormously. At the same time, the progress of the river improvement made association with the river estranged, and the improvement reduced the natural preservation ability.
The new methodological purpose of the improvement and preservation of the river environment is included in the infrastructure that brings such affordability and comfort.
The objective of this study is to adjust ideas of a river improvement plan, to propose the trial balloon and to examine a practical model to treat the concrete process of planning. The concrete decision process of a plan leads an approach to think about in terms of strategic environmental assessment (SEA).
Here, the idea that makes the final agreement easily is proposed. Namely, the opinions and information can be exchanged with each other using three axes of planning process, that is, the administration process of decision-making, the participation process of community reflecting residents' opinions, and the adjusting process on such opinions and information. The workshop is available for constructing the interrelationship between administrative sector and inhabitants. We introduce some technical methods such as fuzzy structural modeling, conjoint analysis and fuzzy integral into the discussion in workshops.
An example here is a river improvement plan in the middle stream of the Tokachi River.
Through the planning systems, we conclude the following points:
1) The comprehensive planning system leaded the issues of the river improvement projects to be developed.
2) The contents and factors were founded due to discussions using Brain Storming, KJ method and FSM.
3) The alternative plans to be completed by using some components of river improvement were selected by Conjoint Analysis and those plans are assessed due to a kind of Multicriteria Analysis, namely, Fuzzy Integral (Choquet's integral).
4) Finally we can establish a stage where the complicated alternative plans are discussed and assessed. And then, we can also determine the appropriate plan smoothly in terms of such discussions.

View full abstract

Although institutions, regulations and technical measures can be considered as the measures against preservation of natural environment, decision and implementation of efficient environmental preservation plans are called for. Thus, it is indispensable to introduce multi-criteria evaluation methods and obtain the participation and cooperation of local residents for making a highly efficient conservation plan.
First, this study introduces participatory analysis to obtain potential ideas regarding conservation plans from local residents. Second, it evaluates various alternatives to the environmental preservation plan according to three criteria: effectiveness, ease of implementation, and the possibility of residents' participation in the plan.
Finally, it prioritizes the various alternatives using concordance analysis and AHP analysis, and it provides a well-balanced planning proposal for the regional conservation of the natural environment.

View full abstract

The first highway in Japan was opened in July 1963 between Ritto and Amagasaki with the length of 71km. The total length of highway in Japan reached 7, 236km in August 2003. The highway construction has become a crucial issue in the recent Government reformation under the sever conditions of Japanese economy and national finance.
However, the provision of highway brings about various positive economic effects in the surrounding areas, such as the new location of industries, the rationalization of distribution systems, the promotion of tourism and the improvement of living conditions. It is obvious that the rapid growth of Japanese economy has been supported by the construction of highway network since 1960s. Therefore, a long-term impact analysis, which considers the changes in regional economic structures, passenger flows and commodity flows, is necessary to identify the exact outcome of highway construction projects.
This paper aims to examine the long-term impact of highway network construction on the travel time between 46 prefectures in Japan and their effect on the inter-prefectural commodity flows. The outcomes of highway network provision have been measured with the changes in the shortest travel time by car between prefectures and the surplus for commodity flows induced by the improvement of travel time.
The empirical study has been conducted for years 1975-2000. The main findings have revealed that the trunk highway construction during 1975-80 had brought about a significant improvement of travel time and surplus for commodity flows in the metropolitan regions. The improvement in local regions appeared after 1980s. The highest improvement for commodity flows had been achieved between 1995 and 2000 when the local highways connected to the trunk network. The fact has revealed that the formation of highway network in local regions is effective to improve the conditions of commodity flow in the whole nation.

View full abstract

Since the collapse of the bubble economy in Japan, cultural activities have been forced to slow down across the country, due to reduced public funding and diminishing private-sector donations. At the same time, the 21st century is often called an “age of arts and culture, ” whereas the unstable economic situation, as exemplified by growing employment insecurity, has been affecting people's lives, not only economically but also spiritually and mentally. Under such circumstances, an increase has been noted in the number of cases in which artistic and cultural activities contribute to the spiritual and mental well being of local people, while also having a positive impact on community revitalization.
In recognition of this, the present study analyzes 59 cases of cultural activities contributing to community revitalization across Japan, cases extracted via questionnaire surveys and other means. In many instances, such community cultural activities often take place at local community halls and similar cultural facilities. This study has succeeded in collecting considerably detailed data concerning the use of these facilities and the financial matters involved, including expenses required for the activities. Such data have never before been compiled or made publicly available on a national scale, even administrative surveys by the Agency of Cultural Affairs. Using such data, which reveal previously little known aspects, the study also examines possible future directions for community cultural activities

View full abstract

In this study, we discuss an optimal water environmental policy to analyze the effect of integrated river basin management with residents' evaluation of water quality of Lake Kasumigaura through a dynamic system simulation analysis. It is involved that residents' willingness to pay for improvement of lake water quality, in case of donation. We assume that the association of river basin management is established to utilize the fund efficiently for subsidies of household wastewater disposal equipments and so on.
We build a lake water estimation model and simulate the near future situation of the lake water quality, linked by socio-economic, ecological and water cycle model in the catchment area of Lake Kasumigaura. It can be evaluated that the effectiveness of integrated river basin management system and residents' payment for policy measure by comparing some cases, and also obtained actual information as a practical guide to make a decision for the water environmental policy in the future.

View full abstract

This paper is based on a questionnaire survey that was conducted on the working population in the service sector in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our objective is to find out to what extend do the effect of nature of job in contributing to the usage of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by the Malaysian urban working population. By using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we establish a causal effect relationship focusing on “nature of job”, as well as “income/wealth effect” and “geographical effect” as the factors that will encourage the urban working population to use the ICT services. The result of the analysis confirmed that “nature of job” is the most influential factor for this segment of the population to be networked.
However, different level of competency in using ICT is proven from our further analysis (of the collected data) to widen the digital gap among the urban working population across the different level of hierarchy within the organizations. Even though “nature of job” is influencing the urban working population to use the ICT, at the same time it is creating a digital gap that is based on ICT skill among the workforce within/outside the organizations.
Finally, we come up with practical recommendations on how to bridge the skill related digital gap among the urban working population in service sector in Kuala Lumpur.

View full abstract

The purpose of this research is to ascertain how the advancement of Information and Telecommunication Technology (ICT) changes people's behavior as well as the demand structure of transportation. In this paper, we focused on the purchasing behavior and shopping-related trips as the derived demand.
Firstly, we produced a conceptional framework to model consumers' purchasing behavior, and specifically direct our attention to the transaction costs in shopping, that is, the costs for information gathering and for acquiring goods because they are certainly influenced by newly developed forms of information technology and their applications, such as the Internet, e-mail, and e-commerce.
Secondly, for the empirical study, we conducted a questionnaire survey in two locations in Japan: the major metropolis of Tokyo and the smaller regional city of Nagasaki. The survey inquired into selection factors between retail shops and Internet or catalog-order shops. The result of our empirical survey showed that (1) the willingness to pay (WTP) for information gathering costs has a positive effect on individuals' ICT related characteristics, and (2) the WTP for information gathering has a positive effect to non-shop purchasing, while the WTP for acquiring goods affects nonhas a negative effect on non-shop purchasing.

View full abstract

Household is a unit of economy and society. Various studies have been conducted on its changes. However, its data are scarce and its measurement methods have not integrated. The reason for this situation may be the necessity to simultaneously consider both the number of households and the size distribution of households to investigate its changes. Researches from these two viewpoints have not been conducted.
Objectives of this research are (1) the estimation of the average size of migrating households, and (2) the determinant analysis of its time-series variation. A Markovchain model of inter-prefectural household migration is constructed and on this basis, the average sizes of (1) staying households, (2) migrating households within prefectures and (3) inter-prefecturally migrating households, are estimated. The determinant analysis of their variations shows that they are influenced by life-events such as marriage and university-enrolment and by general economic conditions like GDP growth rate. A change in the causal structure is also found during periods of the oil-crisis and the collapse of the bubble economy.

View full abstract

Recently, there is observed also in Japan that some elder move to other districts. Although there are many reasons, it seems to be important that the services of social security or social welfare in the district they moved to are better than the initial. Then, the problem is that he or she can obtain the benefit with little burden of cost comparing with natives. (free-rider problem) Another problem is that the residents' benefit from the social security might decrease with increasing in population. (congestion problem)
To analyze this sort of situation, we consider two-district model. There is one central government and two local governments. Each district has one local government. There are rich and poor residents in both districts. Suppose that in the initial, there is the same number of residents in both districts, but over one second of the one district's residents is rich and vice versa, that is, one district is richer than another.
In this paper, we analyze the level of social security (welfare) service and how the residents' move can be as a result in both cases that the central government using conditional matching grants intervenes and not intervenes in the local governments that consider political situation in their districts. In the case she doesn't intervene in, the level of social security (welfare) service become smaller in rich district than social optimal. In poor district, on the other hand, it can be either larger or smaller depending on the income gap and the fraction of rich residents in the district. Comparing these levels between districts, we can see that poor district produces more than rich, thus elders move from rich district to poor district. In the case the central government intervenes, elders move from rich district to poor district also. Service level in poor district is, however, always larger than social optimal independent to the income gap in this case.

View full abstract

In the developed countries, cars have come into wide use. In the developing countries, with fast growth of economy, cars become popular and the number of them has fast increased because of the population explosion. Therefore especially, it is necessary to examine environmental measures according to a regional characteristic.
In order to carry out urban and transportation policies on environment effectively, it is necessary to classify the world countries according to the change of car popularization and to develop the structural model on car-ownership and car-use for each group.
Then, in this paper, in order to clarify influence of traffic conditions on the reduction of the CO₂ emissions, which is considered to be the cause of global warming, a structure model is proposed. Although there are some which were analyzed according to the city about each possession factor and the rates of possession, such as an economic standard and a rate of possession, there is no efficient model for such purpose. Moreover, in order to implement urban and traffic policies effectively to global environmental problems, it is necessary for car-ownership and car-use to create the model according to group, after performing the classification corresponding to the situation of the spread of cars, such as a country of saturation, a country where possession is advancing rapidly, and a country where car hasn't spread yet. Then, after classifying according to cluster analysis for the world countries by making into each factor first considered to influence automobile possession, such as economic conditions, urban structure, and traffic environment, about automobile possession of the world countries, the model was built about car-ownership and car-use and its influence factor for every group using the simultaneous equation.

View full abstract

Traditional determinant analyses of the socio-economic and spatial interaction data are vulnerable to biases in parameters if estimated without important relation factors. In order to avoid this bias problem, the Odds Ratio Decomposition method (ORDEC) has been proposed and applied by the author. However, its statistical properties of decomposed factors have only been derived with Monte-Carlo simulations.
This study, firstly, demonstrates an unbiased decomposition of a linearized Gravity Model. The interaction data can be unbiasedly decomposed into latent push factor, pull factor and relational factor by the Generalized Least Square method. Secondly, it is shown that determinant analyses of these decomposed latent factors can be separately conducted so that biases are contained only within the same class of the latent factors, and that unbiased and consistent estimates of determinants' parameters can be obtained. The results of this paper would greatly help us to understand both determinants of socioeconomic and spatial interaction data, and characteristics of the ORDEC.
In this paper, due to limitations of space, only the unbiased decomposition of push factor and its determinant analysis are described on the premises that diagonal elements of a socio-economic or spatial interaction data matrix can be used and may be treated equivalently to non-diagonal ones. Decomposition of pull factor and relational factor can be similarly conducted, and cases without diagonal elements can be also similarly treated but with more complicated matrices.

View full abstract

This paper examines the relation between industrial location and the provision of public infrastructure, in the context of the new economic geography. The provision of public infrastructure has positive and negative effects: improving industrial productivity; reducing the market size through the taxation to finance the cost of the public investment. The relation between them decides industrial location. In conclusion, when transport costs are sufficiently high, industries concentrate on regions providing less public infrastructure, and when transport costs are sufficiently low, industries agglomerate to regions providing more public infrastructure.

View full abstract

It seems to be very natural to accept that there are three stages or phases along which the environmental problem comes into conflict between polluters and victims and finally comes to a negotiated settlement. The first phase is the animadverting stage upon the terrible environmental situation. The second phase is the institutionalization stage of judicial and administrative procedures against environmental disruption. In the third phase of the environmental development, the governmental activity against environmental issues would be tested how it is effective and if it takes them seriously.
We shall incorporate model-frameworks some specific characterizations concerning the people's eco-consciousness, governmental policy stance against environmental issues and juristic and administrative institutions. From cross-sectional view, to follow the foregoing reasoning leads us to predict that the lower levels of ‘governance index’ will be associated with higher levels of pollution. Moreover, some other non-income factors, including anti-pollution technology, are proved to be important determinants of pollution level in the economy. Hence the underlying structure model to be tested will be given by
ENVIRONMENT=f (INCOME, PREFERENCE, TECHNOLOGY, GOVERNANCE).
In the absence of direct measures for the ‘governance index’, we shall adopt some of KKZ (Kaufmann, Kraay and Zoido) indicators. The original version of KKZ indicators has developed by Kaufmann, Kraay and Zoido (1999) and we used the version in 2002.
We have estimated for each of the environmental or pollution variables. In the case of sulfur dioxide, we obtain a plausible positive correlation between income and pollution and find an effectiveness of higher technology to reduce pollutant.
Our hypothetical approach suggests that there is no logical consequence of a predictable relation between economic growth and environment, not always leading to an inverted U-shaped EKC. Statistical procedures for estimating the structural model also have proved that the hypothesis is very likely to be statistically significant, in particular for the air pollutants.
Factors of each pollutant are classified into two region categories; OECD and non-OECD countries. Emission of each pollutant in an OECD country is almost a half or two-third in a non-OECD country.
One policy implication of our findings is that environmental situation in non-OECD countries can be accompanied by improvements in non-income factors such as PREFERENCE as well as GOVERNNCE that might be propelled by economic growth in per capita income term. Accordingly, it must be important for OECD countries to lead developing countries towards achieving improvements in those factors. Our findings also prove that prompting environmental-friendly technology in non-OECD countries possibly via foreign aids and foreign direct investment is timeworn but still important political procedure. Furthermore, we found that many of developing Asian countries are still in the first phase. It is strongly recommended that in the countries still in the first or second phase, some additional policy instruments must be employed toward higher stage of environmental development.

View full abstract

Since the economic reform in 1978, the problem of regional inequality in China has gathered a lot of attentions. This study focuses on the regional differentiation which is directly related to the regional inequality. The purpose of this paper is to extract the typology in the regional differentiation of industrial structure which reflects the characteristics of regional economy at the prefectural level in China.
Forty-six (46) variables on social economy were collected from the statistical secondary data and integrated into twelve (12) principal components based on factor analysis. Each of them reflects a social phenomenon. Then the cluster analysis by factor scores of the principal components extracted the five types of prefecture in Chinese rural area. These types present not only the inter-regional differentiation, which reflects to the regional inequality existing between Eastern, Central, and Western Region, but also the intra-regional differentiation, which reflects to the regional inequality existing insides the provinces.
The geographical distribution of the types indicates the location condition as a main causal factor determining the development degree and inequality of regional economy in China. However, the fact that some prefectures with high development degree exist even in the rural and remote areas suggests the possibility that disadvantageous areas could be developed if proper development policy is introduced with good local government.

View full abstract

This paper proposes a method of valuation of housing using a hedonic price function, which leads to pareto optimal allocation in the housing market. The real theoretical prices of houses can be calculated by regression of the hedonic price function and substitution of attributes and quality-adjusted price index in the estimated equation. We show how to remove analytical error in this process. To realize this appropriate method of valuation of houses, information to be disclosed is estimated equation of hedonic price function, parameter to calculate the real theoretical prices of houses and the attributes and the offer prices of houses. The method of valuation of housing proposed in this paper will contribute to the market of used houses and newly-buillt houses in the region.

View full abstract

In recent years, we have been facing the decline of city functions by traffic jams during the peak hours of traffic in urban areas. It is necessary to conduct policies for the relaxation of traffic jams that cause big loss in social economic activities and road environment. It has been attached importance to policies of software side such as providing with information of route guidance or Transportation Demand Management (TDM). Demand of drivers have been diversified by the progress of information technology. As one the road traffic policies that make use of information technology, we can pick up the practical use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The provision of road traffic information for drivers is one of the ITS policies. The shortening of travel time is expected as one of the effects of information provision, and it is considered that we can drive cars more smoothly and comfortably. However, it is necessary to carry out detailed analysis on the reaction of drivers in order to develop the information provision service that can be accepted by car users.
We pay special attention to the travel time information system in this study and we take up route choice and change behavior as the reaction of driver to the virtual travel time information. In this study, we try to grasp the influence of provision of travel time information on the decision making of route choice behavior before the trip departure time.

View full abstract

Recently, that it opens information to the inhabitant and that it sufficiently carries out the description are required in the public work. Therefore, questionnaire and workshop are done.
In the workshop, the human of various feeling of value gathers. Then, there is a difference of the viewpoint to the theme. Discussion may not be smoothly carried out from this fact. In addition, it is difficult that the opinion of the group is put together.
In such a case, the method of helping the summary of the opinion of a group is required.
Then, the consensus building support method is proposed in this study. This has noticed the consensus building of the individual pair individual. Then, Relative Position Measurement Approach with the simple evaluation is used. Evaluation Wrights Adjustment Model is utilized as a correction method of the weight. By using this method, whether the evaluation person should adjustment what factor how much is proven. In addition, position data estimation method which deduced position data from the estimated result was proposed. It is shown by that the consensus building is smoothly carried out this method.

View full abstract

“Public Involvement” becomes a keyword in drafting comprehensive plan. However, it has been limited to putting together opinion by opening of workshop. There are no keys on this fact, when opinion of inhabitant can be accurately reflected. It is a problem of what is called “silent majority”.
Based on these backgrounds, this study proposes Public Involvement support system. To begin with, this system utilizes AHP, and it is quantitatively clarified on feeling value of all participation members of workshop. In addition, member is grouped by utilization of cluster analysis using feeling value data. Then, by clarifying of allelism structure, convergence directivity of discussion is presented.
By utilizing this system, it becomes possible that group consensus building is supported. And, it is possible to ease problem of the silent majority.
In addition, the case of concretely utilizing this support system is presented. In 4th comprehensive plan decision in Hokkaido Siraoi town, this system is utilized in scene which presents directivity of “future image of community planning”. Then, a posteriori estimated result from inhabitant is analyzed for directivity of “future image of community planning”.

View full abstract

This paper focuses on two aspects of education. One is to increase one's ability to do something while the other is to get information about one's innate traits. We insist that the latter aspect of education is important to understand education demand in the economy where people are uncertain about their educational outcomes. There, people try to reduce the uncertainty by receiving optimal amount of education, given the variety of skills in the region where they belong. We present a model in which a relation between the education demand and the variety of skills in the region is described. Also, the model is empirically examined by using the cross-section data of Japanese prefectures. Our main finding is that the effects of the degree of development in a region (the variety of available skills, labor market mobility) on the education demand cannot be ignored, especially in its early stages. We also point out that the government in less developed region should have an incentive to implement appropriate policies to induce the primary education demand.

View full abstract

About the time at Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the Hanaore, Nishiyama, and Obaku fault that pass through urban area in Kyoto city have been activate, so it is necessary to act against the huge disaster in the urban area, Kyoto city. This area has a lot of traditional wooden houses and dead-end street, so it is vulnerable for the disaster. But we can't change the townscape only to prevent damage in a disaster because it is one of the cultural assets in Japan. Furthermore most of people living there hope to keep on living the same place in their lives, but they are so old and not so rich that they can't repair their living environment themselves. Therefore we have to consider risk mitigation plans after a disaster in these areas. In this plan, it is essential to regard aged people as exposures, because most of them have physical handicaps in daily life, and cannot avoid many difficulties in a disaster.
In this paper, our purpose is to denote a provision against a huge disaster risk in the target area. Firstly we suggest the vulnerable area index based on the townscape and show the vulnerable area in the target area.
Secondly we denote a pattern of life style of aged people based on our original questionnaire and discuss the construction of community for risk mitigation of aged person. Community is classified into two types: inhabit point based community and facility based community. And then we explain that both communities are complementary. But in traditional research, the importance of former community was only pointed out. So we focus the importance of latter one and their complementary relationship.
Finally, we show facilities that can be core place of facility based community and analyze the layout of facility based community for aged person using Voronoi diagrams.

View full abstract

In advanced countries, more than 70% of the population lives in urbanized areas. This fact causes that low population density urban areas are expanding resulting from promotion of car transportation, and hollowing out in centers of cities with more energy consuming city structure. These phenomenon increase discharges of carbon dioxide, waste, and other pollutants, thus a new city structure should be explored. Among others, compact city has recently been paid attention. The concept of compact city does not emphasize the physical city size but it rather implies the balanced state of a city between environmental burden and city growth with appropriate city functions. This article focuses on a compact city. And as a first step for realization of a compact city, this paper aims to construct a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model internalizing waste recycling. Usually, CGE models have been constructed for a national or prefectural level economy, but our model has daringly been developed for a small region's economy. Thus the input-output table of the economy itself must be estimated. Taking account of this point, this paper presents the estimation of an economic and material circulation accounting matrix, and then shows some simulation analyses of promotion of waste recycling.

View full abstract