This study investigates an economic implication of chaotic fluctuations that are observed in a nonlinear economic dynamic model. To this end, it constructs a nonlinear discrete time Cournot duopoly model in which firms have U-shaped or inverted U-shaped reaction functions due to production externality and shows that chaotic output fluctuations can arise for strong nonlinearities. Two main results of this study are: (i) it is theoretically as well as numerically confirmed that one of the duopolists can benefit in the sense that the long-run average profit taken along a chaotic trajectory is higher than the profit taken at an equilibrium point while the other is disadvantaged if both duopolists are homogeneous; (ii) it is verified with numerical simulations that both duopolists can benefit from chaotic trajectories if they are heterogenous.

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The major industrial sector in Japan has been shifting to tertiary industries under the progress of service- and software-oriented economy and the transformation into high information society. Japanese regions have been facing sever regional disparities in terms of economic growth and employment creation since the collapse of bubble economy. The rehabilitation of local economies has been a crucial issue of concern in Japanese Government.
The input-output analysis is a useful tool to examine the economic structural problems concerning economic growth, industrial structure and employment creation. This paper aims to identify the impact of service- and software-oriented economy on the economic growth and the employment creation in Japanese regions. The study employed regional input-output models with detailed tertiary industries for years 1980, 85, 90 and 95.
The empirical study has revealed that a sharp growth of inter-regional trade in business services and knowledge services is a major factor of regional disparities on empolyment creation. While Kanto region has shown a high employment growth under the accumulation of business services and knowledge services, local regions have been losing their economic vitalities due to the lack of advanced service industries.
JEL classification : R11, R13, R15

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This paper examines liability rules for soil contamination damages with the land lender-borrower (principal-agent relationship) framework. The distinctive features of this paper are the focus on soil contamination problems and the classification of the liability for the damages into two responsibilities: the responsibility for the cleanup/removal of hazardous materials (the primary responsibility) and the responsibility for health damages (the secondary responsibility). The question now arises: What is the most desirable liability rule that has provisions for the sharing of responsibility between the land lender and the borrower for primary/secondary damages? In order to approach this problem, this paper deals with the following two types of liability rules, and analyzes each liability rule as a policy instrument from the perspective of efficiency. The simple liability rule (SLR) is one type of rule. SLR provides only the share of lander-borrower of each responsibility regardless of the contamination or health damages. The state contingent liability rule with the deposit-refund system (SCLRDS) is the other type of rule. SCLRDS provides the share of each responsibility and the deposit-refund system according to the state of the contamination and health damages. This paper shows that under SLR, the government cannot affect the discharge reduction/prevention effort level, nor the social welfare in spite of responsibility sharing rule; on the other hand under SCLRDS, the first-best outcome can be achieved.
JEL classification : K32, D82

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The Nakasone political power modeled on the policy of Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the United States, and promoted deregulation, privatization and the administrative reform. To revitalize Tokyo when “The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan” was formulated in 1987, spatial policy such as “Control the Metropolitan Areas and Promote Local Areas” until that time was changed. The Nakasone policy has changed gradually into the measure that expanded the investment in public works from the fiscal reconstruction in the background of the asset-inflated economy.
In the post Nakasone political power after the burst of the economic bubble, it was in the state of straying to alternate retrenched finance and measures to boost the economy. It was “Basic Plan for the Public Investment” in 1990 to influence the investment in the public works expansion.
The Hashimoto political power enacted the Fiscal Structure Reform Law in 1997. But the austerity would be stopped before long so that the business, which just began to recover, worsened. That political power changed measures again, boost the economy and tax reduction were executed. “Grand Design for the 21st Century” (21GD) as the fifth comprehensive national development plan was formulated in 1998 under that circumstances.
The numerical target was almost none at all in the 21GD though that plan had aimed at different one from the former development plans. Therefore it came to plan the long & large bridge project easily because of no brake of the fiscal framework. Moreover, the concept “National Axis Zone” is not supported. However, it was appreciable to have induced trends of today's urban renewal, consolidation of municipalities, etc.
The environment that surrounds spatial planning like the movement of restructuring of government ministries and agencies and decentralization, etc. changed greatly after 21GD. The symbols of a conventional spatial policy like New Industrial City Construction Law, Special Measures Law of Industrial Development, etc. were abolished as an epoch event. On the other hand, new legislation of an individual field like the Infrastructure Maintenance Emphasis Plan Law and the Urban Renewal Law, etc. continues.
These series of trends are new currents that deny the sense of comprehensiveness, character of a long term, and the feature of regionalism that the spatial planning has possessed up to now. The problem is how to reform the spatial planning system from now on.
JEL classification : N95, O21, R53, R58

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The barrier presented by distance has gradually been removed by high-speed transportation systems over the last century. As a result, hub cities have experienced economic growth. In other words, hinterland of each city has been reformed by these new transportation systems. It is needless to say that spreading information technologies (IT) open the door for new world, namely it could cause more drastic changes on the order of world cities. In order to achieve an efficient infrastructure and an affluent society, the conformational changes occurring in societies and regions as a result of the new technology must be examined beforehand.
The objective of this study is to estimate the changes of the order of world cities, caused by distance free cyber-space, that are created by IT. A couple of analyses based on different assumptions are examined below.
1) Language barriers are assumed to be the greatest obstacles to the exchange of information. To estimate the new order of cities in each language unit, composition ratio of the demographics and the number of net sites are compared.
2) From a global point of view, no barrier is assumed in the world. The concept of globality is defined, as the potentiality to invite more cyber access to that city. Model analysis is also examined to clarify factors to affect globality.
From these analyses, it is clarified that each language unit shows different future. More concentration could occur in Japan and France, and more dispersion could occur in Germany. It is also found that the complex of IT industries in the U.S.A. is likely to obtain higher globality. Therefore, it is said that the order of world cities, namely city rank, could change in the world in information era.
JEL classification : R12, R14

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There are various attempts to recycle organic waste. Formerly, most of organic waste have recycled naturally in ecosystem and agricultural society. But, at the present day, especially in urban cities, such kinds of attempts have different problems to realize. Hence we need the diverse verification of the attempts. Meanwhile, some autonomies have just started to see the attempts as objects of administrative evaluation.
In recent years, our society is becoming more complex. We conceive that we need an effective evaluation method which can handle multi-frames, multi-criteria, and multi-subjects. Especially recycling system, such as recycling system of organic waste, have to be evaluated from various points of view, for example, environment, education, autonomy, economy, and health. And in order to work the system, it is necessary to consider diverse subjects who support the system actually, besides the accountability will be demanded (See Horie and Hagihara 2003, 2004).
In this study, we discuss some cases of administrative evaluation of wards in Tokyo, which treat recycling system, organic waste recycling particularly. We inspect the cases from the view of treatment of multi-frames, multi-criteria, multi-subjects, then, we show the present problem for future improvement.
Consequently, we found some problems, that is to say, how the evaluation sheets reflect the purpose of evaluation, how the contents should be judged, whether the indexes are appropriate, how the external evaluation should be slot into the sheets, few description about negative aspects, and the like. Finally, we suggest that the evaluation sheets should be drew up through external deliberations which include experts, vested interests (stakeholder) and citizens.
JEL classification : D7, D8, Q5, R5

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This paper presents a two-sector model of search-generated unemployment with the public sector. When the goal equilibrium of the production sector that makes two goods and the goal equilibrium of the government sector are inconsistent, the economy specializes in production. Matching technologies and the surplus-sharing rule jointly determine whether the inconsistency arises. The paper also suggests a way that the Clarke tax will make a matching function endogenous.
JEL classification : F10, H40

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The purpose of this research is examining the active way of being concerned of the old classification owner called for in order to make the suitable countermeasures for a rebuilding plan reflect from actual condition analysis of a rebuilt apartment's management. And It is thought that considering in advance the characteristic of the new classification owner who joins after rebuilt, and the influence of the difference from the needs has a big meaning.
The following three points became clear by this research. 1) When there are many absentees to rebuilt relatively and there are not many totals of an old classification owner, the chairman of the board of directors who is one of old classification owners may do the reverse fettering of other old classification owners, and may raise management level of rebuilt apartment. 2) In many rebuilt apartments, the feature is in the point that the measure against management (cost) and a resident's moral hazard are taken by making the rate of sufficiency of a parking lot high and making many the familiar type room. 3) In an old public corporation condominium, that all houses are the same conditions is the very big elements which make rebuilding and management easy. In a rebuilt apartment, the variety of a dwelling unit is the key factor which reduces the risk of an apartment rebuilding enterprise.
JEL classification : Z00

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Naha city has two urban retail core areas: Kokusai Street and Naha Shintoshin area. Kokusai Street is a typical traditional shopping street, which includes two department stores, some shopping centers, and traditional markets. Naha Shintoshin is a newly developed shopping area which includes two shopping centers; one is an open mall shopping center, “Ameku Riubou Rakuichi” opened in 2001 and the other a shopping center with a cinema complex, “Naha Mainplace” opened in 2002.
Now on August 10, 2003, a new monorail line was opened, which interlinks above two retail core areas and the Naha airport. The new monorail line, which was the first railroad line introduced in Okinawa since the aftermath of World War II, was welcomed by many local people to expect the decrease of traffic congestion at the midtown area, the increase of customers visiting above two retail areas and so and so forth.
This paper aims to forecast the impacts of the new monorail line on the two retail core areas in Naha City from the viewpoint of customer shopping behavior. For the purpose, we conducted an on-site small consumer behavior survey on July 12-13 before the new monorail line started running. For this survey, we selected three sampling sites; two from Kokusai Street and one from Shintoshin, and the respondents were randomly chosen from the visitors at these sampling sites. In the questionnaire, the respondents were asked how they would change the numbers of visits to the two retail core areas after the new monorail was setup and how they actually had changed the number of visits to Kokusai Street after the establishment of Shintoshin.
From responses to these questionnaire items, we found that while the development of Shintoshin had not much effect on the number of visits to Kokusai Street, the introduction of the monorail is likely to have much more effect on Kokusai Street. First, the respondents who live near monorail stations would increase the number of visits to both Kokusai Street and Shintoshin than those who live far away from the stations. Second, the respondents near monorail stations would increase the number of visits to Shintoshin more than to Kokusai Street. Third, this inclination becomes much stronger for bus users since almost all of the bus users near monorail stations would increase the visits to Shintoshin while only half of them would increase the visits to Kokusai Street.

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In the economic growth theory, most of the researchers' interests moved from the exogenous to the endogenous factor. In the urban growth theory, the concern also gathered for the endogenous growth factor, especially economics of agglomeration. However we wonder whether only the economics of agglomeration will explain Japan's urban growth or not. We examine which of the factors explain urban growth in Japan, economies of agglomeration or exogenous technical progress, extending the model of Ciccone and Hall (1996). Our results show the tendency that the city which has strong economies of agglomeration has small exogenous technical progress; on the other hand the city which has strong exogenous technical progress has small economies of agglomeration. Our results also indicate that the city which has much stronger economies of agglomeration has exogenous technical degeneration, but the stronger the economies of agglomeration become, the smaller the exogenous technical progress becomes.

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of agglomeration (geographic concentration) of Japanese manufacturing industries from 1980 to 2000. Then we measured a degree of industrial agglomeration (geographic concentration) of Japanese SIC two-digit and four-digit Manufacturing Industries using an index of agglomeration (geographic concentration) by Ellison and Glaeser [6] in 1980, 1990, and 2000. We found that the most agglomerated industries are traditional industries, industries with natural advantages, and some high technology industries. Furthermore, the pattern in Japan of the most and least agglomerated industries reveals similar in the U.S. and U.K.
JEL classification : R12, R3

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The location pattern of retail facilities and consumer behavior are closely interrelated. On the one hand, if consumers prefer to shop at a central commercial district rather than at suburban shopping centers, the city center retail sector would become more prosperous than suburban retail sectors. On the other hand, the introduction of a new shop category such as convenience store would lead to the change of consumer shopping behavior, which, in turn, would change the location pattern of retail establishments. Thus the investigation of how consumers of different generations allocate their shopping trips among different kinds of shop categories becomes quite important to figure out the future of retail environment.
With this in mind, this paper aims to clarify the characteristics of daily shopping behavior of Taipei's consumers. More specifically, we first classify consumers into three generations: under 20s, 30s to 40s, and above 50s. Next we categorize the kinds of shops into the following 7 classes: department store, suburban shopping center, specialty store, supermarket, convenience store, neighborhood shopping street, and market. Then we picked up seven typical commodities: fresh foods, foods, home electric appliance, household utensils, personal belongings, street clothes, and home clothes.
In our survey on consumer behavior at different store categories in Taipei, 2002, we conducted questionnaire interviews for randomly drawn shoppers at two shopping malls near city center. In the questionnaire, the respondents are asked how often they go shopping to buy each commodity, how much they spend per shopping trip of each commodity, and what kind of store category they most often visit to buy each commodity.
From responses to these questionnaire items, we analyze how consumers of different generations allocate their shopping trips and expenses among different kinds of shop categories without distinguishing the kinds of commodities. Findings are as follows. Consumers under 20s allocate their daily shopping trips equally to several shop categories such as supermarket, convenience store, and market. However, daily shopping trips of 30s to 40s and above 50s are concentrated in the market category. As for the allocation of the monthly expenses to shop categories, consumers under 20s and 30s to 40s allocate the largest portion of their expenses to the department store category while those above 50s to the market category. Thus preferences under 40s is said to be oriented most to the department store while those above 50s to the market.

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In recent years, many retail establishments in Japan have attached amusement functions along with selling goods such as movie theaters, game centers, and themed food courts. A reason for these trends is a drastic diversification of consumer's attitudes and preferences. In order to acquire new and more loyal customers, shops must grasp diversified consumer demands and provide for their customers the unique characteristics other stores cannot offer such like amusement facilities. Similarly, the functions of open cafes, events, street performers, and music performances in an open urban space also have been reevaluated because of their important roles for attractiveness of city. Exploring what kinds of consumers are attracted by what kinds of amusement functions is worth investigating further in urban studies.
For the purpose, we address the problem to extract critical attributes of frequent visitors for different kinds of urban commercial complexes for investigating the roles of amusement functions to attract customers. First, we apply C4.5 algorithm to visit frequency data for a themed noodle food court set up in a commercial complex for exploring what kinds of customers are attracted by the amusement function of the themed noodle court. The C4.5 is the representative algorithm of decision trees, which are classification algorithms that serve to discover significant relationships between explanatory attributes and a given predicted class in the dataset. We adopt customer's profiles as explanatory attributes and frequent shopper as a predicted class. Thus, using C4.5, we extract the rules to explain critical profiles of frequent shopper for this noodle court. Furthermore, we apply 1R algorithm, which produces one-level decision tree, to visit frequency data for different kinds of 8 urban commercial complexes for exploring what kinds of profiles characterize frequent shoppers for these complexes.

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Landfill exhaustion is important problem on the industry waste management for the local governments but it still remains unsettled. We have so far confronted an exhaustion problem of landfill due to a rapid industrialization. According to the Hotelling rule, it is inevitable that such an exhaustion of landfill will cause its service price to increase. We adapt Hotelling rule to the landfill-tipping fee.
In this paper, we consider the case of Tokyo and other prefecture by using the Tokyo's interregional Input-Output table analysis. It is clear that the waste disposal as well as the landfill-use in Tokyo mainly relies on other prefectures. We also study an optimal landfill policy as well as a suitable local environmental policy, and then analyze the effect of industrial and economic impact on the long run situation. Moreover, we compare the flexible tax system following the Hotelling rule to a traditional taxation policy and confirm its incentive effective on reducing wastes in Tokyo.

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