The purpose of this study was to introduce Trinity Financial Instrument (TFI): micro-insurance, micro-credit and micro-savings, to Thai rural households and policy-makers. TFI provision aimed to increase the long-term financial capacity of Thai rural low-income households that tend to be affected by floods. The study focused on identifying household financial vulnerability for funding house restoration caused by floods, and investigating financial instruments used for the house restoration. A financing gap was adapted from the CATSIM model to indicate the funding proportion of reactive finances to the total house restoration cost that shows the relation between financing gap and the financial vulnerability. In addition, a comparison of household preferences in financial instruments between the previous financial statement and the financial plan explained how households changed their preferences after introducing TFI.
The study divided the respondents into three groups based on their financial vulnerability in the 2006 severe flood. The results showed that households in different vulnerability groups had different preferences for taking sub-options of TFI. However, the most interesting financial instrument was the micro-insurance program. In addition, the study found that pillar-house owners tended to cover their house restoration costs more easily than the non-pillar house owners did because damages to the pillar-house structure were lower than that of non-pillar house structure.

JEL Classification: G32, D14

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This paper used a theoretical approach based on physical laws to estimate large-scale algal production using recycled nutrients to present a multi-utilization scheme for algae that is environmentally friendly.
A closed algal cultivation system that utilizes secondarily treated sewage for algal culture as a tertiary treatment is discussed. Results indicate that cultivation of 18% lipid content microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) and 45% lipid content microalgae (Botryococcus braunii) in raceway ponds effects the reduction of nitrogen discharges by 126 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 111 kg N ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. Meanwhile, the projected biodiesel productivities were 4,052 L ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 8,885 L ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively, accompanied with projected biogas outputs of 9,008 m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ and 3,670 m³ ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. However, an insufficiency of nutrients in secondarily treated sewage resulted in high production costs. For further cost reduction, a cultivation technology that requires less energy and has highly efficient land use is essential.
Combining biomass gasification plants with the algal cultivation system as an integrated approach to algal biodiesel production and CO₂ utilization may make up the shortage in power required by photobioreactors, bringing a projected reduction in the biodiesel production costs by 18% from ¥256 L⁻¹ to ¥210 L⁻¹.

JEL Classification: Q01, Q42, Q53, Q56

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Bioethanol production from rice-straw is carbon neutral and less competitive with food supplies. This technology is called second generation bioethanol production. To facilitate rice-straw bioethanol production, economic and environmental evaluations are needed with consideration of its life-cycle period, i.e. plant construction phase, production phase and scrapping phase of the plant.
The present study aims to show the economic and environmental merits of rice-straw bioethanol production during its life-cycle period in Vietnam, where huge amounts of rice-straw are left unused. We also considered three different technology scenarios, i.e. the present technology, advanced technology in which the conversion rate of bioethanol production from rice-straw increases, and innovative technology in which new production methods and economies of scale are realized.
The results show that, first, rice-straw bioethanol production corresponds to 22 to 53% of the present annual gasoline consumption and investments for plant construction account for 14 to 18% of the present annual investments in Vietnam. Second, the total amount of induced production (LCP) and induced gross value added (LCV) during the life-cycle period was smaller than the life-cycle cost (LCC) under the present and advanced technology. In contrast, the innovative technology increased LCP and LCV, producing a net benefit in bioethanol production. Third, bioethanol production under the present technology emitted more greenhouse gas (GHG) than the reduction from gasoline consumption replaced by bioethanol, but the advanced and innovative technologies reduced the life-cycle GHG emissions as a whole.
Based on these results, we conclude bioethanol production under the present technology is hardly acceptable from the economic and environmental points of view. To overcome such problems, technological progress in rice-straw bioethanol production is highly needed. In this sense, the Vietnamese government and developed countries such as Japan should support research and development projects.

JEL Classification: C67, Q27, Q28, Q58, Q54

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In this study, we examined the effects of welfare and the measurement of social overhead capital for a household. In Japan, a decline in population and the structural straits of public finance give rise to difficulties in maintenance and replacement of social overhead capital that was invested during the period of high economic growth and the subsequent period of fiscal stimulus during the 1990's. The importance of basic services provided by infrastructural services such as public utility services or flood control is increasing because of transformation of regional structures caused by a decrease in population and continual concern for disasters.
To solve the trade-offs between the financial straits for public investment and the increasing needs for safety provided by social overhead capital, we show a model for the evaluation of welfare vulnerability handled by the infrastructure and examine the provision of municipal water. We adopt the concept of “vulnerability” for the model rather than “risk”, because the former describes not only the stochastic state and severity of loss people experience but also the capability of households to reduce risk and the minimum services they receive. In the model, we suppose that households make a choice under ex ante expectations for the probability of a risk event, such as water cut off resulting from drought or facility accidents, while they realize ex post that they should have other expectations. The differences between ex ante and ex post household expectations create vulnerability. The hypothesis of the model for household cognition of risk events and the subsequent choices need to be inspected. We carried out a preliminary questionnaire to propose a process of inspection for municipal water cutoff expectations of households, and their choice under ex ante probability and ex post probability for the loss they may suffer.
The summary of our study follows. First, we show the welfare evaluation model for vulnerability that a household faces. Second, the welfare measurement of vulnerability is developed especially from the viewpoint of theoretical appropriateness of the welfare measure. Third, preliminary questionnaires and their inspection show partially the validity of the application of the model to municipal water cutoff risks and conditions required for evaluation.

JEL Classification: H54, H43, R53, I38

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Public firms have shown trends toward privatization since the 1980s. Many privatized firms often exit the market in rural areas because of low profitability. Nevertheless, no theoretical studies on privatization have paid attention to problems caused by the exit of privatized firms. Therefore, in view of exit problems, this paper investigates the effects of privatization on consumer surplus, producer surplus and social welfare in a two region model with different scales of markets.
We assume that a public firm and private firms supply goods under a Cournot-Nash competition in region A with a large-scale of market and the public firm monopolistically supplies goods in region B with a small-scale of market. Under this setting, this paper considers the possibility for exit from the smaller market after privatization of the public firm. Therefore, we consider three cases: (i) “a mixed-oligopoly and monopoly” where the public firm is not privatized, (ii) “privatization and monopoly” that chooses privatization and continues to supply goods to both regions, and (iii) “privatization and exit” that chooses privatization and exits from the smaller market. We examine the effects of privatization by comparing the above three equilibria.
The results obtained are as follows. First, consumer surplus is the largest in “a mixed-oligopoly and monopoly” case. Second, from the viewpoint of producer surplus, privatization is always preferable and does not depend on whether a privatized firm exits. Third, the effects of privatization on social welfare depend not only on the scales of the markets of the two regions but also on whether the level of the fixed costs is large. That is, if the market size in region B is sufficiently small or the fixed costs are sufficiently expensive, privatization is desirable from the viewpoint of social welfare. This result implies that the public firm should be privatized under conditions of underpopulation in rural areas or for industries with heavy fixed costs.

JEL Classification: H1, H20, L33

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In this study, we investigated the relationship of European Union carbon dioxide (CO₂) allowances (EUAs) prices and oil prices by employing a VAR analysis, Granger causality test and impulse response function. If oil price continues increasing, companies will decrease dependency on fossil fuels because of an increase in energy costs. Therefore, the price of EUAs may be affected by variations in oil prices if the greenhouse gases discharged by the consumption of alternative energy are less than that of fossil fuels. There are no previous studies that investigated these relationships. In this study, we analyzed eight types of EUAs (EUA05 to EUA12) with a time series daily data set during 2005-2007 collected from a European Climate Exchange time series data set. Differentiations in these eight types were redemption period. We used the New York Mercantile Exchange light sweet crude price as an oil price.
From our examination, we found that only the EUA06 and EUA07 types of EUAs Granger-cause oil prices and vice versa and other six types of EUAs do not Granger-cause oil price. These results imply that the earlier redemption period types of EUAs are more sensitive to oil price. In employing the impulse response function, the results showed that a shock to oil price has a slightly positive effect on all types of EUAs for a very short period. On the other hand, we found that a shock to price of EUA has a slightly negative effect on oil price following a positive effect in only EUA06 and EUA07 types. Therefore, these results imply that fluctuations in EUAs prices and oil prices have little effect on each other.
Lastly, we did not consider the substitute energy prices in this study, so we plan to include the prices of coal and natural gas in future analyses.

JEL Classification: Q43

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Dependency on the automobile fosters multiple implications such as urban sprawl and negative effects on health and the environment. To help solve automobile dependency, cities need to review their land use patterns and promote new methods for urban and transportation planning. Nevertheless, the pressing question is if cities make transit-oriented changes in regards to development will residents respond accordingly?　To investigate answers to this question, this study developed different hypothetical scenarios and gathered residents' reactions. Mode-switching behavior (willingness-to-switch) of the respondents in response to the predefined land use and transportation scenarios was examined using a latent binomial logit model. The analysis results reflected that if dense, mixed and transit-oriented developments are implemented, respondents are likely to switch from car use to other means of transportation. This study also identified public transportation-related factors that persuade respondents to shift from car use to public transportation.

JEL Classification: R410

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In this paper, we analyze the interactions between the accumulation of intergenerational expenditures on education and economic development with an overlapping-generations model mainly based on Galor and Moav (2004) , which captures the endogenous replacement of physical capital accumulation by human capital accumulation. Galor and Moav (2004) assumed that an individual determines the transfer to his child to maximize his utility and the expenditure on education of his child is financed by the transfer. The child determines his expenditure on education by himself to maximize his income level. Moreover, they assumed that the economy consists of two groups of individuals, rich and poor, and analyzed the endogenous evolution of the economy from early to mature stage. In the early stage of development, which they call “Regime I”, the rate of return to human capital is lower than the rate of return to physical capital and the process of development is fuelled by capital accumulation, and in the mature stage of development, which they call “Regime II”, the rate of return to human capital increases sufficiently so as to induce human capital accumulation, and the process of development is fuelled by human capital as well as physical capital accumulation. The stage of economic development is influenced by the capital-labor ratio, and the dynamic system is uniquely determined by the joint-evolution of the intergenerational transfers of members of poor and rich.
However, in this paper, we assume that the expenditures on education are determined by both the individual and his parent. That is, we assume that the utility of a parent is influenced by the expenditures on education to his child based on Glomm and Ravikumar (1992) and Cardak (2004a,b) . In addition, we assume that the parental expenditure on education is accumulated socially. That is, in our model, the poor receives benefits from the rich in human capital accumulation. We focus on the extrication from the “ poverty trap” , which is defined as the conditions when the transfer of poor is zero, specifically. Galor and Moav （2004） define in Regime I the transfer of poor is in the “poverty trap” and in Regime II the transfer becomes positive. Moreover, in Galor and Moav (2004), the individual's utility function is invariable even in the process of economic development. However, in our paper, we consider that the individual's utility function evolves with economic development. We compare our model with the one of Galor and Moav (2004), and examine the influence of the parental expenditure on education to his child on human capital accumulation and economic development. As a result, we point out that the optimal expenditure on education, determined by the individual, becomes positive in the lower values of the capital-labor ratio, and extrication from the “poverty trap” is achieved in an earlier stage of economic development than in Galor and Moav (2004).

JEL Classification: I25, O11, O12, O15

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Both academic literature and regional governments are interested in the innovativeness of regions and the drivers of competitiveness, especially when considering the impacts on economic development and social progress. Innovation is the basis for global competitiveness. Innovative capacity enables regions to increase productivity and attract investments, thereby sustaining continuous progress in quality and standard of living. A literature review regarding regional innovativeness produces some insights into the effect of contextual elements on the performance of regions and reveals new perspectives on this issue. This study aimed to measure the innovativeness of different European regions and evaluate the nature of the process of innovation, and relationship between its innovativeness and region of origin. This study proceeded from the assumption that the competitiveness of a region is reflected in its capacity or dynamics of innovation.　Therefore, we compared European regions verifying the existence of subjacent clusters and determining the characteristics that distinguish the different groups of regions. Innovative capacity was considered in terms of innovative output and several factors were analysed to identify and differentiate the dynamics of innovations of the regions. The results point to the existence of five groups of regions, and the factors identified are related to innovative processes, namely forms of innovation, factors and objectives of innovation, and aspects related to the framework of innovation such as tertiary education and life-long learning, business and public R&D expenses, and level of collaboration for innovation.

JEL Classification: R12, O30, O31

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For the purpose of promotion of renewable energy, this paper analyzes reasons not to promote sufficient renewable energy for a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) system introduced in Japan and problems with the institutional design of Feed-in Tariff (FIT) being considered for introduction. Therefore, the first part of this paper discusses arguments in Japanese policies for renewable energy. The main reason for not promoting sufficient renewable energy in Japan so far includes few institutional goals for the RPS system. The FIT system for photovoltaic power generation was introduced in 2009 and the amount of electricity from solar power has increased. However, solar surcharges imposed on consumers of electricity for photovoltaic power generation through the FIT system has already caused regional gaps. In the Kyusyu district introduction of solar power is high, but consumption of electricity is low so electricity consumers pay relatively high solar surcharges. With the introduction of the FIT system, all renewable energy becomes a target, thus introduction of the FIT system is expected to increase the costs of sharing, so the adjustment costs assessed by the Coordinate Cost Agency become more important.
On the other hand, the second part of this paper discusses the promotion of solar power, analyzes the introduction of a mega-solar power plant in an industrial complex, and refers to problems and provisions of a mega-solar power plant. Although there is the image that an industrial complex causes pollution problems the main industrial complexes in Japan are presently making efforts to become environmentally friendly. However, efforts to introduce renewable energy as an environmentally friendly resource are few. In addition to considering the introduction of renewable energy to an industrial complex, I consider whether the introduction of renewable energy is the purpose for promotion of renewable energy. To introduce renewable energy in an industrial complex has different advantages and disadvantages for solar power than in a consumer's roof, and renewable energy by autonomy, generators, pools, etc. This paper takes up three factors— economic obstruction, physical obstruction and social obstruction factors— , as advances for each improvement.

JEL Classification: Q48

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The aim of this paper is to survey the Miyazawa model, which incorporates the Keynesian-Kaleckian multiplier analysis with the Leontief's model, and to analyze the dynamic and structural aspects of the Miyazawa Model. In section 2, we examine the multiplier analysis from the Keynes-Kalecki-Leontief perspective. In section 3, we present the Miyazawa model with a focus on the income-distributional multiplier. In section 4, we present an inter-industry expansion on the post-Keynesian perspective. Finally, in section 5, we present the concluding remarks that include comments regarding the current economic policy implications of public policy and private investment. One of Miyazawa's main contributions to economics was the creation of the full inter-relational income multiplier from the rather simplified Keynesian structure.
Kalecki (1971) and Keynes (1936) considered a capitalist economy as a demand-constrained system, based on the principle of effective demand. According to this principle, the relationships among income, employment and capital stock in a given year was adjusted according to the expected final demand.
Trigg (1999) attempted to integrate Marx with Keynes through Miyazawa's multiplier framework as a starting point. In a similar manner, we can also integrated Keynes with Kalecki through Leontief's output multiplier. We then used the input-output model to estimate the economic damage repercussion of voluntary self-restraint on recreation industries following the Great East Japan Earthquake by the use of the 2005 Input-Output table of Japan. The estimate was 2.8105 trillion yen for the decrease in the private consumption demand. Economic repercussion effects summed up to minus 5.6895 trillion yen by means of an endogenous consumption model.
In such an economic situation, the structural Keynesian policies play important roles in private consumption and public policy investments when macroeconomic impacts are of interest.

JEL Classification: E21, E22

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Recent research concerning environmental policies emphasizes a specific characteristic of environmentalists, particular disconcertment about foreign-source pollution. A polluting sector exists where two polluting firms─one at home and the other foreign─strategically compete in a third market. Each government taxes its domestic polluters on the basis of the emissions level. Therefore, each firm invests in pollution abatement to reduce the emissions level.
An environmental lobby group in the home country initiates action by offering the foreign government a contribution schedule that specifies the payment to be made to the government as a pollution tax. Taking the contribution schedule, the pollution abatement levels and the production levels of the two firms as given, the government then implements a politically optimal pollution tax.
This study investigates the implications of lobbying to the foreign government, when environmentalists are negatively affected by pollution from abroad. We found that the impact of an increase in environmentalism on the politically optimal pollution tax rate depends on (i) whether the pollution is local or transboundary, (ii) the extent to which environmentalists are concerned about pollution in the foreign country and (iii) the marginal cost of investments in pollution abatement by the foreign firm.
Moreover, we compared the non-cooperative pollution tax rate with the politically optimal pollution tax rate and found that a differential between the two rates increases as environmentalism increases.

JEL Classification: F12, H23, Q58

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In this paper, I analyze new developments in regional economic development by collaboration between regional universities and local industries. In recent years, successful examples in which many small or mid-sized new start-up industries grow slowly and contribute to regional economic development are seen. This is in contrast to rapidly growing big start-up industries typically seen in the Silicon Valley. These recent movements are linked with reforms in entrepreneurial education systems and commercialization policies of intellectual properties at universities. These reforms are typically done by leadership-style changes. I examine the University of Utah focusing on the notion of institutional complementarity and analyze the mechanics of the successful reforms in research-oriented universities. Typically there are multiple equilibria in this type of system and I point out the importance of a “Big push” and coordination.
The University of Utah cares about the new start-ups and provides various kinds of support to make it easier for the new start-ups to grow. As a result the University of Utah start-ups have an average smaller firm-size and higher survival rate. This is in stark contrast to start-ups in the Silicon Valley where they receive less support, grow more rapidly and have a lower survival rate.
The University of Utah provides a new model for industrial cluster formation. This is consistent with our hypothesis of multiple equilibria in the theory of cluster formation.

JEL Classification: C70, L16, L24, L26, R11

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Application of information and communication technology is examined as a measure for Green House Gas (GHG) reduction over a long term in Japan. Many study meetings for calculating the environmental load reduction effect in 2020 have been conducted as trials, but there are still few precise examples.
In this study, we investigated the instructions of electronic services for architecting the real estate securitization industry as an example of a paperless platform system. This service is a restored system on the internet that digitalizes documents such as the procession of documents and receipts related to real estate given and received between an asset management company and trust banks.
As a result of the evaluation of this target investigation, we conclude no effectiveness is expected in advance for an environmental load reduction effect. The effectiveness of environmental load in real estate security businesses can be recognized when documents can be sealed by digitalized and the use of home delivery service disappears by sending through the internet, and when trust banks participating in this business can use a paperless system. Furthermore, to realize a paperless system, it is also necessary to develop software and design hardware that adapt to the quantity of savings that lead to environmental load reduction effects.
With expansion of a business by an electronic commerce system, a paperless system is needed, but a traditional legal system still exists in Japan with a regulation that forms must be prepared with a seal on a paper document. Because of this, realizing a paperless system in Japan requires the legal system be changed. A system that stores documents with a scanner as digitalized data is called an e-signature system. If the law for this is changed and such a system can be accepted, business costs will decrease and the operating system will become easier. In addition, on the side of protecting the information system, it is necessary to examine the methods of the e-signature system for long-term preservation.
Finally, as a social rule, if companies can show their efforts for reducing environmental loads by such an information system, this disclosure of reduction in GHG will indicate effectiveness of their business.

JEL Classification: Q51

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In recent years, the conservation of biodiversity has become an increasingly important issue in agricultural policies and has led to the implementation of agricultural practices to conserve biodiversity (bio-friendly farming) . In Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, practices to conserve white storks started in 1965, and through these practices farmers are trying to put added value on stork-friendly products. The local government is strongly promoting farmers' actions with a local environmental and economic policy.
Such efforts will affect not only biodiversity in the region, but also various other aspects such as the regional economy. The local government seeks to achieve co-benefits for the economy and stork conservation. They are trying to achieve positive economic impacts on the regional economy by promoting stork-friendly practices. However, bio-friendly agricultural production has both negative and positive impacts on the regional economy. Therefore, it is important for biodiversity conservation policies to understand which impact is larger.
This study evaluated the impacts on the regional economy, both negative and positive, caused by shifting from conventional to bio-friendly rice farming using a case study of bio-friendly rice farming (to help conserve white storks) in Toyooka City. After applying an input-output (IO) analysis, I considered whether bio-friendly rice farming creates economic co-benefits for the local economy.
In this study, I applied the 36-sector input-output tables for Toyooka City of the year 2005. To achieve our study purpose, I modified the IO tables by disaggregating the agriculture sector into 3 sectors (stork friendly rice, conventional rice and miscellaneous agriculture) . I evaluated the economic impacts by shifting rice production from conventional to stork-friendly production. Specifically, I calculated the impacts when the area of the stork-friendly rice farming increased from the 2005 level （41.7 hectare） to the 2008 level （141.4 hectare）.
The results showed that changing from conventional to bio-friendly rice farming had a highly induced effect （multiplier=1.57） and the positive effect was larger than the negative effect.　This implies that shifting to bio-friendly rice farming creates an increase in farm income.　However, most of the effects reside in the agricultural sector and effects on other sectors are very small.　Although the local government thinks that the economic impacts should be widespread in the regional economy to achieve synergy, the results reveal that the co-benefits are not widespread throughout the local economy.
These results show that the local policy to shift rice production to stork-friendly production brings benefits to rice farmers.　However, the policy target to bring synergy within the regional economy is not yet achieved.　These results suggest that further incentives to promote co-benefits are required, for example promotion of more domestic inputs to produce stork-friendly rice and the use of stork-friendly rice products as an intermediate input for other sectors.

JEL Classification: O13, Q51, Q57, R15, R32

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Housing land space is a high proportion of land use in urban areas. Therefore, vegetation of individual gardens contributes to greening of the metropolis and amenity. However, gardens may be lost through housing renovations or ownership changes. Preservation of gardens leads to an increase in greenery from plants grown in urban areas.
In this study, I surveyed resident's consciousness about greenery for private gardens in a detached housing area. I examined resident's awareness about inheritance of greenery in private gardens from 2 aspects, one the transfer side. When a former inhabitant moves to new residence, the garden of the former residence is inherited by the next inhabitant. Another aspect is the receiving side. When the former inhabitant moves to a new resident, a garden is inherited by him. I investigated the burden of trimming trees and the unfavorable side of greenery, for example insect damage, interruption of sunlight, blind areas, poorly ventilated space, etc. I also investigated factors influencing consciousness about inheritance of greenery. Factors include individual attributes, concern about nature, regional community and contributions to society.
The results showed that the transfer side and receiving side have different consciousness about greenery. Inhabitants who care about greenery desire to inherit a garden, and inhabitants who hope to contribute to society desire to inherit a former inhabitant's garden.
Inheritance of greenery affects not only the resident but also the neighborhood and future generations. Consciousness for inheritance of a garden is also affected by the regional community and social awareness. It is important to initiate interest in greenery and teach that the greenery of a garden contributes to the urban environment. However, elderly residents feel trimming trees is a heavy work. Many elderly residents ask a gardener to do yard work for them but it becomes an economic burden. Therefore, the community needs to consider how to do maintenance of greenery, for example tree trimming and cleaning in community.

JEL Classification: O18, P28, Q51

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This study investigated by a comparison analysis of the intra-provincial disparity between Guangxi and Yunnan using statistical data. These two provinces (autonomous region) belong to the southwest region of China, and are comparatively poor. First, this study showed the two provinces do not reach the national average in many economic indicators. Next, the intra-provincial disparity of the two provinces was verified by the prefectural data. Information on the city was deleted beforehand, and the analysis assumed to be an analysis of data from the rural area. Then, the comparison of the structure of the intra-provincial disparity in the rural area between the two provinces was statistically analyzed.
A part of the factors for disparity are generally seen in the advancement of industrial structure and urbanization. Especially, data analysis at the prefectural level shows disparity, even when disparity is not found in the rural area itself. Disparity arises from the difference in the situations in the stages for developing from a rural area. Moreover, when a comparison of the kernel density function was done by using a statistical index, it was clear that the economic structure in the rural area is different between Guangxi and Yunnan.
Since economic structure shows a difference, a common economic policy to both prefectures is not suitable for Guangxi and Yunnan. Obviously, each province has a separate government, so the possibility of developing a common policy is low, but it is certain that a policy suitable for the actual conditions of each province is desired. This is a future subject for more detailed analysis.

JEL Classification: C14, O18, O53, R12

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Five years have passed since the Vitalization Act of City Centers was revised in 2006. The number of basic programs certified by the central government has reached 100 and various differences can be found among the cities. However, most have similar target indices such as traffic volume, population size and commerce activity levels. In reality, each city center is surrounded by different environments and required to provide respective services brought by individual vitalization programs for each city center.
In this paper, first, we classify cities into seven groups with respect to three features: population size, centrality of the city and interactions with neighboring cities. The city groups are named “atellite cities,” “core cities in a district,” “sprawled cities,” “small cities,” “core cities in a region,” “compact cities” and “cities.”
Next, vitalization programs, targets and effectiveness are compared among all city groups. All groups have adopted traffic volume as a target index and except for the “large cities” group have implemented programs in the field of commerce.
Most “satellite cities” have many inhabitants that commute to a large city, so they try to develop and implement plans to improve the quality of daily life. “Core cities in a district” attempt to promote commercial activities by increasing traffic and population. “Sprawled cities” do not have distinctive features for their target indices or vitalization programs, because they can't determine effective programs or directions. There are only three cities in the “small cities” group, which don't have budgets to implement large programs. “Core cities in a region” recognize decreased commerce and have many programs to enhance commerce. “Compact cities” set tourism as the index because they want to differentiate themselves from surrounding cities with their unique resources. Nagoya City is the only city in the “large cities” group and strives to fulfill the hub function in the Chubu district.
Some vitalization programs are related to city characters. However, it is clear that interurban competition has recently intensified because populations are decreasing . 　In addition, there are doubts about the effectiveness of setting only population and commerce as the targets.　An increase in traffic volume indicates the development of various attractive activities in a city.　Various policies such as employment and tourist destination development are related to city center vitalization policies.　Also, cities should expand their functions and create original brands while working from the standpoint of urban management.

JEL Classification: R54

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