Japanese regional systems of government are expected to undergo great reform. Regional autonomy laws have been enforced since 2000. A law to promote decentralization reform was approved to enact new regional autonomy laws in December 2006 and the decentralization reform promotion committee started in April 2007. In addition, a new local financial reform was also done though local financial reforms executed in terms of finances between the 2004 fiscal year and 2006 fiscal year. A scale reduction in the tax money allocated to local governments was one local financial reform. From April 2007, a new tax allocation was executed for simplification of the delivery standard. Fiscal resources were decreased by the local financial reforms, so local governments were requested to improve the physical conditions of their cities, towns and villages. Therefore, a large number of municipality mergers of the ‘ Heisei' Era are advancing now.
Introduction of the ‘ Do-Shu' system is being discussed as a system for not only the city, town and village governments but also for the administrative prefectural governments. In addition, the Act for Comprehensive Development of the National Land was revised by the Japan Development & Construction Co., Ltd. Plan based on the past Act for Comprehensive Development of the National Land of 2005, and the name changed to the Country Formation Plan. A variety of local system reforms have been continuously carried out since the 1990's.
In this paper, the following three points are clarified. 1. Finances in Japan lacked financial moderation in the 1990's and this caused the need for modulation. 2. Problems were caused by local public finance trying to carry out measures to boost the economy of the local government in the 1990's. 3. Problems have increased with local financial reforms being executed before the problems of the local public finances are corrected. A new problem has occurred in Japanese regional finances because of the introduction of decentralization and the Do-Shu system.
The central government faced a fiscal deficit in the 1990's. The local governments then experienced a fiscal deficit because the central government made the local governments subrogate the deficit. Therefore, the central and local governments need a fiscal reform. The central government hands over their work to the local governments to decrease their own fiscal deficit, and has reduced the local tax allocation distributed to the local governments. The central government is planning to further decrease the local tax allocation by introducing the ‘ Do-Syu' system in the future.

JEL Classification: H62, R51, R58

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In this article, we construct a general equilibrium model that uses households and firms distributed over a one-dimensional space including households that commute to each firm. In addition, we examine whether the configuration of the city becomes symmetric or asymmetric depending on the values for the transportation and communication parameters. An agglomeration occurs as interplay between the interaction field among agents and competition in the land market. Access costs encourage each firm to establish itself near other firms, thus fostering an agglomeration. As expected, one kind of firm concentrates in the city center, and the remainder of firms locate around the city center.
Consequently, the configuration appears to depend on an increase or decrease in the values of the parameters. Even more interesting is that the direction of the parameter change affects the configurations of the city. This phenomenon is known as hysteresis in physics and can result in various urban configurations depending on historical conditions. This indicates that different configurations of a city occur with different initial endowments.
The equilibrium patterns in the parameter space and the conditions of the transition between all patterns need to be analyzed. The optimal configuration of a city can also be clarified by examining lower transport costs and environmental impacts with this model.

JEL Classification: R14, R30, L20

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Effects of increased consumption taxes and educational subsidies on human capital accumulation and lifetime utility levels in heterogeneous households were clarified with an overlapping generations model. Effect on the level of public debt in Japan's economy was also investigated. Households at three life-stages were further categorized into five types of human capital accumulation defined by human capital technological levels.
The Japanese government is considering an increase in consumption tax to reduce the large public debt. However, with a declining work force, economic downturn is a significant concern. Positive educational policies may be needed to generate human capital and revitalize the economy. For policies to succeed, it is important to grasp the effects of policy changes on various household income levels because implementation may lead to a more unequal society with a widening educational gap. Although contributions to education are widely thought to contribute to human capital accumulation, few studies have been done that quantitatively analyze the effects of educational subsidies or tax policies on human capital accumulation, especially for the Japanese economy.
In response to the above issue, we conducted simulations and obtained the following two important findings. First, a trade-off exists among households that have different human capital technological levels when the government changes policies. When the government increases the rate of educational subsidies, households with higher and lower technologies of human capital accumulation obtain higher utility than those with middle levels of technology when a steady state is reached. On the contrary, a lower rate for educational subsidies leads to negative effects on the utility levels of households with higher and lower technologies, but households with middle levels derive a positive effect. Yet, households with the higher and lower technologies prefer only a consumption tax increase rather than an increase in both the consumption tax and educational subsidy. On the other hand, households with middle level technology prefer both changes. Second, if the government only increases the consumption tax rate, human capital accumulations are inhibited because individuals study less and work more. Therefore, the level of public debt will continue to increase at a steady state according to the results of our simulation.

JEL Classification: C68, H24, I28

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This study employed a computable general equilibrium model to examine the impacts of expanding non-grain-based fuel ethanol production on regional equality in China. The results showed that expanding non-grain-based ethanol has a positive impact on inequality reduction and regional equality. However, the impact is minor or moderate. A much greater effect occurs in urban−rural inequality as compared with within-rural inequality. Moreover, synchronous development of fuel ethanol produced from cassava, sweet sorghum and sweet potato is the best choice for the expansion of fuel ethanol production.

JEL Classification: C68, E65, I32, O18, O53, Q42, R13

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The purpose of this study was to investigate how the presence of green and producer lobbies can affect the political determination of environmental policies. We considered the economies of two countries——Home and Foreign. Both countries were perfectly similar, except for the presence of environmentalists in Home who are negatively affected by pollution abroad. There existed a polluting sector where two polluting firms——one in Home and the other in Foreign——competed strategically in a third market.
We assumed that the green lobby existed only in Home and was concerned about environmental damage in Home. Moreover, the producer lobby existed only in Foreign and was concerned with industrial profit in Foreign.
Political competition can be modelled as a two-stage game. In the first stage, the green and producer lobbies simultaneously present incumbent politicians with contribution schedules, namely functions describing their political contributions contingent on the chosen environmental policies.
In the second stage, given the equilibrium contribution schedules, incumbent politicians select environmental policies and collect the corresponding contributions from each lobby. The implicit objective of the incumbent politicians is to be re-elected. They are concerned with social welfare and support from lobby groups.
We determined the impact of an increase in the size of each lobby depends on whether pollution is local or global, and the extent to which environmentalists are concerned about pollution in the other country.

JEL Classification: F12, H23, Q58

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Arsenic contamination of drinking water in rural areas of India and Bangladesh is a serious problem. Although activities for improvement are continuously practiced by local NGO and foreign agencies, the problem is still serious. In this study, we focused on drinking water. Questionnaire surveys were conducted twice in a rural village of India before and after information on arsenic was provided to the villagers. People in local areas of India do not know well the risks of arsenic because information on arsenic is seldom provided. By conducting a latent mixture model analysis on the pre- and post- informed situations, the relationship between frequency and period of information dissemination and changes in the attitudes of the local people toward arsenic risks were analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis, factors to voluntarily change attitudes to improve the environment are clarified, and development aid planning to bring a change to the existing consciousness structure was considered.

JEL Classification: O21, O31, O33

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In these years, decrease in population aggravates the financial situations of municipality. Special Municipality Mergers Law deadline passed, then incentive of the merger was considerably reduced from the viewpoint of fiscal effect. Additionally, a merger plans in Hokkaido prefecture is not mostly achieved to get around increase inhabitant burden risk entailed in area increase of municipality. A quantitative effect analysis of the merger is required from the aspect of sustainable development and municipality management.
In this study newly proposed an analysis framework and model for quantitative effect of municipality merger from view point of ‘public finance’ and ‘public service’, and applied to an effect analysis for municipality merger in Hokkaido prefecture which has a lot of municipality and large area. The aim of this paper is that get a useful suggestion for merger negotiation in the future.
A dataset on municipal employment cost and budget expenditure in after merger municipality are computed from a forecasting model which explanatory variable set out a population in after merger municipality. Additionally, a debasement of public service level for inhabitant is taken account of access environment aggravation with an increase in municipality area. Especially, in this study newly proposed an Access-Total Service Score (A-TSS) that is composed of integration index of public service and access burden for inhabitant.
A quantitative effect of municipality merger is analyzed based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model by using the above-mentioned datasets, from the viewpoint of ‘public finance’ and ‘public service’. The effect values are derived from a variation of efficiency scores. Then this study newly proposed Merger Beneficial Degree (MBD) that is computed based on deviation score graph using public finance effect and public service effect in those merger plans.
From MBD results, it is revealed that beneficial merger plans in Hokkaido prefecture are in a minority for the reason of serious public service reduction deep associated with explosion access burden for inhabitant.

JEL Classification: R12, R51, R53, R59

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In the present study, both the importance of intangible asset succession and “ba” as the place of knowledge creation in succession management of agriculture were clarified through the analysis of two cases where the management of succession became a problem and where the management of succession to the third party has succeeded in a short term. However, when the intangible assets are passed on to the employee, not only the skills are transmitted, but also the manager should transmit the corporate principles at the same time. This is possible through the formation of “ba” and changing the organization into an institution of study. Therefore, the formation of “ba” for study becomes a first step in the personnel training as a manager.
Nevertheless, there are three problems left in the present study. First is the method for extracting tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge must be extracted from concrete work of each administrative function and verified because both explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge exist in each administrative function. Second is the classification of tacit knowledge because there are two kinds of tacit knowledge, one converted from tacit to tacit and the other converted from tacit to explicit. Third is clarification of the influence that industrial clusters have on the management of succession in agriculture. Generally, cluster formation is expected to be advantageous for securing various talents. Therefore, whether a cluster for securing a successor of farm management can be obtained must be verified. These are important research topics for the future.

JEL Classification: Q10

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In this study, interregional distance in China was measured by freight data in 1997 based on the method proposed by Plane (1984) . Moreover, the interregional distance in 2002 was similarly measured and showed how distance changed from 1997 to 2002. In addition, changes in distance from 1987 to 1997 were compared with changes from 1987 to 1997. The results of this analysis revealed the distance to Beijing was shortened in the contiguous regions of Beijing from 1987 to 1997, and the outer regions from 1997 to 2002. The same trend was observed in Sichuan, which is located in an inland area. On the other hand, the distance to Shanghai was shortened from the outer area of the contiguous regions from 1987 to 1997, and the inland regions from 1997 to 2002.

JEL Classification: C82, O18

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While the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-Based Society is already enforced, wide-area transportation of industrial waste is increasing on a yearly basis. The authors previously analyzed the yearly trends in wide-area industrial waste transportation and discussed possibilities for reduction of waste transportation in terms of ton-kilometers. However, industrial wastes are generated in the early stages of the production process when the final consumption demand of goods and services is considered. Therefore, it is important to ascertain not only the wide-area transportation network but also the entire process comprising goods and wastes, including the supply and demand of goods and services. In this study, an analysis was performed to clarify the causes of changes in induced wide-area waste generation and transportation. Triangulation analysis was also attempted to clarify structural changes in transactions of goods and wastes. The analysis revealed that i) changes in inverse matrix coefficients contribute to decreases in wide-area waste transportation, while changes in carrying out coefficients and direct waste generation coefficients contribute to increases in wide-area waste transportation, ii) Kinki and Chugoku regions showed different causes of changes in terms of regions and wastes, and iii) ratio of the current wide-area transportation ton-kilometers to a minimum value increases waste plastics, dust and wood wastes, and is useful as an indicator for management of wide-area industrial waste transportation.

JEL Classification: R15, Q53

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Agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food industry products have provided the foundation for the Japanese diet as well as provided the Japanese society with the basis for living and cultural activities. Nevertheless, along with the development of the Japanese economy, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors have undergone a considerable decline in production and employment. In addition, food safety has become an important problem for Japan.
The Japanese government has adopted various measures to reverse the decline of Japan's food self-sufficiency ratio. In addition to economic aspects, growing concern over global environmental problems has supported the search for effective measures to reduce environmental burdens in primary industries. Comprehensive economic analyses of circumstances related to agriculture, forestry, fisheries and their related industries must be undertaken to cope with structural problems that confront Japanese primary industries.
This study used input-output tables from segmented agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related industries to examine relations among regional economic structures and environmental burdens in Japanese primary industries. Furthermore, this study used simulation analyses to assess the effects of economic policies provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan on carbon dioxide emissions.
This empirical study revealed that, according to the results of structural decomposition analysis, the growth of carbon dioxide emissions in primary industries has been induced mainly by emissions from food and marine fisheries industries. Simulation analysis of Japan's recent revitalization policies for primary industries has identified substantial increases in carbon dioxide emissions in local regions because of interregional trade. Therefore, we infer the necessity for measures to remove disparities among regions and also between industrial sectors in rural regions. Effective measures must be undertaken to achieve a balance between economic revitalization and a reduction in environmental burdens from primary industries in Japan.
<>JEL Classification: C67, O13, Q18

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In this study, a model that estimates the benefits brought by provision of a passing lane in opposing two-lane roads was proposed. The model does not depend on a Monte Carlo simulation technique, so the benefits can be analytically calculated. The model requires the distribution of velocities of a platoon of vehicles after provision of the passing lane for calculating the benefits. The distribution of vehicle velocities can be easily obtained by observing real traffic situations along a road that has a similar traffic situation as the road of interest. The distribution of velocities assumed in this study was a Gumbel distribution. The proposed model calculates the velocity differences, i.e. increase in average velocity, with provision of the passing lane. Benefits, such as those from travel time reduction and travel cost reduction, can be estimated by the velocity differences. The proposed model can be combined with network analysis models, e.g. deterministic user equilibrium model or stochasitic user equilibrium model. Benefits from provision of the passing lane in the road network can also be estimated by the proposed model if combined with a road network analysis model. Therefore, the benefits calculated by the proposed model can reflect the route choice behaviors of drivers. A numerical experiment using a small road network was carried out to demonstrate the model. The road network had one origin-destination pair and two parallel routes in which it was assumed that one consisted of a one-lane road and the other a multi-lane road. Provision of the passing lane was then made to the route with the one-lane road. The drivers in the road network were assumed to change their route choice behaviors by using agerage travel they experience. The road network model applied to the numerical experiments was a deterministic user equilibirium model. Benefits due to travel time reduction in the network was correctly calculated by considering the route choice behaviors of the drivers. In addition, the benefit can be overestimated if the network analysis model is not applied because route choice behaviors play an important role in the calculations of the benefits.

JEL Classification: C69

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Generally, evaluating the values of maintaining and preserving the environment is a difficult task. Multi-criteria analysis is expected as a new method for environmental evaluations to select the most desirable alternative by a weighting scheme in Europe. In river environment management, a method for evaluating natural factors as well as social factors influenced by the project is necessary. Establishing an evaluation method that reflects the opinions of residents around a river as well as the administration is also an urgent task.
In this study, we assumed that when residents evaluate an alternative they do not use scientific information, but use their own impressions of the rivers. Based on this assumption, the multi-criteria evaluation model was used to establish a cognitive system to evaluate the impressions of the local residents. That is, the impression cognitive system was composed of Type 2 quantification methods for a questionnaire distributed around the Kamo River. Answers to questions about actions (ex, frequency to go to the river, etc.) were used as the dependent variables and nine impressions of the river were used as the explanatory variables. Finally, the possibility of consensus between upstream and downstream residents for river environment management of the Kamo River was examined with the established impression cognitive system.

JEL Classification: Q51, R10, R53

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A detached island in Okinawa Prefecture is roughly typified as an island that is a tourist resort or not tourist resort. Both types of islands have important problems. The resort islands have problems such as drought, waste disposal and succession of tradition. On the other hand, aging and a decrease in the population are progressing in islands that are not resorts. This study focused on the Tonaki Village, a small island that is not a resort.
The Tonaki Island has a population of 440 with an elderly ratio of approximately 40%. According to the Okinawa tsunami and high tide assessment damage report, if an earthquake occurs off the Kume Island north of Tonaki a tsunami is predicted to arrive at this island in 16 minutes. Furthermore, the entire community will be flooded by high tide.
The purpose of this study was to develop a planning system for disaster risk mitigation suitable for this region. In this paper, I clarify problems with the structure of the social network that pays attention to vulnerable persons at the time of a disaster using information from resident's daily life activities and associations with neighbors.
The following experiments were carried out. First, a field survey was conducted to clarify the disaster weak factors. Although a historic preservation district is the pride of the residents, but it is also a factor vulnerable to the disaster. Second, refuge actions after a tsunami were simulated. This simulation was analyzed for four cases: case 1, each person taking refuge in designated evacuation spaces; case 2, a school and a welfare center added as evacuation spaces to case 1; case 3, when one support person helps a vulnerable person at the time of a disaster in addition to case 2; case 4, when two support persons help a vulnerable person in addition to case 2. Even if the safest situation represented by case 4 is assumed, the results of the simulation shows the time for reaching a refuge is only 3 minutes and 48 seconds. Finally, an analysis of the relationships between residents clearly showed that support persons do not recognize vulnerable persons. Many of the support persons are teachers. Most teachers in the detached island are precious young persons essential for risk management. Therefore, the relationships between young teachers and vulnerable persons need to be developed in daily life.

JEL Classification: Q54

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In Thailand, certification of food as Halal is an emerging new business for exporting foods to Muslim countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. However in Japan, the processes and values of marketing Halal food are still unknown. A global economy has expanded international food flow, especially processed foods such as frozen foods, sweets and snacks. For export to Muslim countries, certification of food as Halal is indispensable. Islamic adherents are 1.57 billion, making up 23% of the world population. Halal foods are even necessary during critical times, for example as relief during the Earthquake response for the Muslim minority in the Sichuan Province of China in 2008. Actually, some Muslims refused to eat non-Halal food even during the state of emergency.
Our research motivation was to understand the real needs of Halal foods in non-Muslim countries especially from experiences in Thailand. Our preliminary research verified the following facts (i) Halal food businesses are expanding in non-Muslim societies, (ii) Halal certification is a continuous process of trail and error, (iii) Halal certification provides a good opportunity to up-grade the security of food trade, and (iv) the Halal food logo brings new branding value to a community.

JEL Classification: R58

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The present paper aims to analyze the network structure of food sub-cluster through a case study of health-related industry clustering in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. First, an outline of the policy and market trends of health-related industries in Japan is summarized, and a survey of existing research on business alliance and network formation is presented. Next, the transaction network among member enterprises of the cluster conference initiated by private companies aiming to develop health-related industries is analyzed. The following analytical results were obtained.
First, we clarified that this cluster still existed at the early stages of the cluster formation through analysis of the transactional relationship among the conference member enterprises. Therefore, the effect of knowledge creation and spillover closely related to the generation of innovations after a certain period must be verified in the future.
Moreover, as a result of the analysis on the structure of the transaction network among the food manufacturing companies, the main industry of the cluster, the existence of the network of a small-world type is considered to induce efficient distribution of knowledge and information, and productive activities are unable to be confirmed. However, we clarified that the core enterprises that were considered to form a food sub-cluster within the health-related industrial cluster take the strategy of global-local activity, i.e. selling their products to the domestic markets in metropolitan areas while remaining located in their local place in Niigata Prefecture, and developing an overseas market as a result of the classification of the network community. In other words, a new health-related industry is being created by catching the public needs for health, and attractiveness of the food industry is being simultaneously increased through competition and cooperation among the core enterprises.
Finally, in the future, it is necessary to verify the most effective ways for business alliance and structure for networks that correspond to the developmental of the industrial cluster through interview surveys and quantitative analyses based on the original surveys to determine the ideal way for regional development under globalization.

JEL Classification: O30, R58

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The tourism policy as an international aspect of Japan started in 1930 to acquire foreign currency at the time of the worldwide Great Depression. At the same time, the modern national development planning policy was founded. However, the two measures were not related at that time. National development policy and tourism policy became linked when the Comprehensive National Development Law was enacted after World War II.
Postwar, the primary purpose of the tourism policy was again the acquisition of foreign currency. However, due to natural resource losses resulting from widespread development, there grew the necessity for national development planning. Moreover, dam development by a specific regional development created resources for tourism even though it was expected, the results would be disappointing. A national protest campaign against the development plan of the Ozegahara Dam marked the beginning of the nature conservation movement in Japan, and it became a part of the tourism policy though formation of the national park systems. Moreover, domestic tourism was assumed to be recreation in the sense of national development planning.
Six national development plans focused on tourism measures as reflecting social background in each era, but these plans didn't concentrate on tourism measures. The influence of social change on population migration patterns was particularly great in the era of the third plan. Moreover, a policy to encourage Japanese to travel abroad was needed to decrease the international imbalance of payments, rather than acquire foreign currency with the economic growth of Japan.
However, attracting inbound visitors became a necessary measure for regional promotion in Japan with recent globalization. Accordingly, the Tourism Agency as a promotion organization was established. In the national administration of Japan, the tourism policy is given further priority as an effective means for regional promotion with a decrease in current public works. In this paper, the author reviews the transitions of the tourism policy in past national development planning, and discusses the circumstances of the social background and other factors in each political era and their relationship to the historical tourism policy.

JEL Classification: O20, R10, R11, R14, R58

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Today, Japan is experiencing significant changes in social structure and lifestyles, and amid such changes losing tangible folk cultural properties that were produced as necessities in people's daily lives and passed down to the present while undergoing constant evolution. Tangible folk cultural properties are objects and implements used in everyday life (related to food, clothing and shelter) , livelihood activities such as farming and fishing, and annual events in local communities. They are important cultural heritages indispensable for understanding changes in people's modes of life. However, with changes in the industrial structure and lifestyles, many tangible folk cultural properties are on the verge of being dispersed or lost. Furthermore, since tangible folk cultural properties are familiar tools and implements used in daily life, their true value is not fully recognized, resulting in improper preservation and use.
P. Claval states that “ cultural change takes place in the course of profound social structural changes and cultural conflicts between the local traditional culture and a standardized culture brought from outside, particularly from urban areas, and that reexamination of regional identity begins as a reaction to the standardized culture”. He also states that people seek not only for personal identity, but also for regional and social identities, leading to increased group consciousness.
Local and regional cultural activities have become active in recent years. On the other hand, folk cultural properties, which are deeply rooted in the lifestyles of local communities, are at a risk of being lost. The loss of folk cultural properties may lead to the disappearance of regional identity. In view of these circumstances, I conducted a study to ascertain the actual conditions of the collection and preservation of registered tangible folk cultural properties. Seventy items, cultural properties related to production such as agriculture and industry, accounted for the largest proportion (approx. 74%) , followed by properties used in daily life related to food, clothing and shelter.
This study revealed that due to changes in industrial structure and social lifestyles, many tangible folk cultural properties, which have been deeply rooted in local communities and have helped shape regional identities, have been lost or neglected. This is thought to be due to the characteristics of tangible folk cultural properties and it is expected that the social structure will change even more rapidly in the future. Hopefully, this study will provide materials for discussion on how to preserve folk cultural properties that have also provided spiritual support to local communities, and how to use folk cultural properties for community and regional development and to promote regional identity.

JEL Classification: H54, R51, R53, Z11

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