Today, Japan is experiencing significant changes in social structure and lifestyles, and amid such changes, tangible folk cultural properties that were produced out of necessity for people’s daily lives have been passed down to the present while undergoing constant evolution. With changes in industrial structure and lifestyles, many of the surviving tangible folk cultural properties are on the verge of extinction. This present state is said to be due to the improper preservation and use of these properties.
At a convention in 2010, I presented the results of an actual survey targeting tangible folk cultural properties that aimed to understand the state of the collection and preservation of those properties. In a period of high economic growth in Japan, drastic changes in industrial structure and social lifestyles resulted in the loss of many tangible folk cultural properties that were deeply rooted in local communities and helped shape regional identities. These findings were based on a survey that was conducted in areas with high population mobility and considerably affected by urbanization, such as the Tokyo Metropolitan and Kanto area. Considering the importance of a national-level survey for conducting further comparisons of the influences of urbanization, I conducted a similar survey for three Tokai Prefectures in 2011. Approximately 130 tangible folk cultural properties were considered in the survey. While many tangible folk cultural properties created in and after the Meiji period were used throughout the three periods from Meiji to Showa, the use of tangible folk cultural properties created during the Edo period were limited to the Edo period. Furthermore, the situations in the three Tokai areas is similar to that of the Kanto region in which tangible folk cultural properties used until the modern high economic growth period in Japan have nearly fell out of use. However, unlike the Kanto region, cultural properties from numerous genres in the three Tokai areas have been used for a long time. While in the Kanto region many tangible folk cultural properties designed for production and livelihood have been used for a long time in some genres, the long-term use of cultural properties can be observed in all genres of the three Tokai Prefectures. Having analyzed these results to determine whether this can be attributed to the Tokai Region’s spiritual climate symbolized by a conservative nature of its citizens and careful use of things for a longer duration, or to a difference in the changes in economic and social conditions, I present the analysis results along with indices of changes in social and economic conditions that cause differences in social changes.

JEL Classification: H54, R51, R53, Z11

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In the spirit of the deregulation movement, Japan is faced with an ‘Asia Open Sky’ agreement that favors liberalization in international airline services. This means an end to Japan’s aviation policy of isolation. Recently, Low Cost Career （LCC）, a new business model with low costs and low prices in the airline industry, is garnering attention in Japan with the above mentioned Asia Open Sky agreement. Actual services of LCC for one region affect the vitalization of the tourism industry, and economic benefits are anticipated from vitalization. LCC actual services are an extremely important policy for Hokkaido that depends heavily on the tourist trade regions.
In this study, we developed a logit model on choice behavior in tourism regions, and analyzed the effects of LCC actual services on tourism from East Asia to Japan. The objective variable of the model was set as “choice probability of tourism regions”, and the explanatory variables of the model set as “airplane fare” and “attractiveness of sightseeing region”. This model especially focused on the “attractiveness of sightseeing regions” which is difficult to measure in existing studies. In this study, we defined the variable based on “brand force of regional resources”. Additionally, a newly developed “wintertime logit model” was incorporated with wintertime attractiveness as an explanatory variable.
Using the model, we computed simulations that assumed a number of introduction levels in LCC related to the circumstances in Europe and Asia. Based on these results, economic ripple effects for advanced LCC actual service regions were estimated by an input-output analysis.
From this analysis, we conclude that large positive economic value is effectuated for Hokkaido if the region LCC actual services are advanced. In contrast, if the region delays introduction of LCC to actual services, the model revealed significant negative consequences. Therefore, we propose a regional strategy and policy based on subsidies from the regional government to LCC actual service companies as landing and stationary fees.

JEL Classifications: R11, R15, R40, R58

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Presently, most people consume not only domestic products but also imported goods. Such consumption of tradable goods has become extremely widespread. Consequently, international trade has developed to an astounding degree. The steady expansion of international trade has led researchers to become more engaged with corresponding difficulties such as free trade problems associated with the Trans-Pacific Partnership （TPP）. Simultaneously, global warming, in particular, the emission of greenhouse gases （GHG） by developing countries, constitutes a daunting problem. The GHG emissions from one country affect not only that country but also neighboring countries. Similarly, the production of goods for export increases pollution in exporting and importing countries because citizens consuming imported goods are exposed to trans-boundary air pollution caused by the GHGs emitted during production processes by firms in the exporting country. Therefore, the occurrence of trans-boundary air pollution caused by international trade is an extremely important issue from the perspective of environmental economics.
Focusing on the introduction of environmental taxes and consumption of tradable goods under transboundary pollution, this paper presents analyses of differences related to decisions on environmental taxes in individual countries, with a comparison of cases with and without consumption of tradable goods.
This paper presents the following results. Comparison of environmental taxes with and without consumption of tradable goods reveals that when the degree of transboundary pollution is small （large）, the environmental tax rate chosen under open economies is higher （lower） than that decided under closed economies. Next, we compare social welfare with and without consumption of tradable goods. The welfare level is always greater under the closed economies for any degree of transboundary pollution.

JEL Classification: H23, H71, Q53, Q58

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We discuss a prospective, theoretical research agenda on the connections between entrepreneurship, innovation and multi-regional economic growth and welfare. This agenda advocates the use of endogenous economic growth theory and advances in new economic geography to analyze models that shed light on the effects of innovative entrepreneurship for economic growth and welfare in multiple regions. Four salient questions comprise the subject matter of this paper. First, what are the impacts of human capital use, innovative activities and alternate patent policies on economic growth and welfare in any region? Second, what are the effects of human capital use and negative externalities in innovation on economic growth and welfare in a region? Third, what are the impacts of alternate tax policies on innovation driven economic growth in a region? Finally, what role does human capital in a region play in influencing innovation driven economic growth and welfare in a region?

JEL Classification: R11, O31, D90

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In Indonesia, the local market is dominated by unique farming organizations that are unlike any typical Japanese farming company and have superior paprika production areas. The purpose of this study was to survey the specific constitution of paprika production areas in Indonesia and to understand the factors affecting the dominance of such organizations. The results of the field survey were subjected to SWOT analysis to identify the prospects and problems in management of these organizations.
The study area was Desa Pasirlangu Kecamatan Cisarua, Kabupaten Bandung Barat, and the interviewee was the accountant/treasurer of a representative company in this area （Koperasi Mitra Sukamaju）. The first step was to clarify the organizational structure and marketing strategies and identify associations among similar companies using the interview data. The second step was to perform a SWOT analysis to evaluate the factors affecting success and the potential barriers to development.
The results were as follows. The interviews clearly revealed a company that produced and distributed paprika did not process it and domestic trading counterparts were not supermarkets but individual wholesalers. The company was careful about acquiring new trading counterparts for technical and business practice reasons. Technical reasons included limitations in the education system so employees had insufficient time to master the cultivation of high quality paprika that could achieve customer satisfaction. Business practice reasons were related to the importance of trading with old customers because the company empirically knew that these old customers selected suppliers on the basis of mutual trust. Therefore, the company did not increase the number of wholesalers even if a new wholesaler temporarily demanded a large amount of commodities. New wholesalers were approached only if supplies remained after commodities were delivered to the old wholesalers.
However, considering recent uncertainties in global markets, there is a risk of change in the wholesaler’s preferences because of factors such as price and safety. Therefore, the relationships between the strengths, weaknesses, business opportunities and threats for the present conditions under which Koperasi Mitra Sukamaju operate were examined. On the basis of the SWOT matrix used in this study, I conclude that such an Indonesian company should implement more flexible strategies to cope with possible risks and fluctuations in the market.

JEL Classification: Q13, Q18

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The aim of this paper is to integrate tourism-related industries in the Chubu Region. We focus on the following points.
First, spread of average length （Average Propagation Length） was used for analysis of tourism-related industry clusters. Second, results of typical residential tourism in the Chubu Region were analyzed by using the average spread length for a tourism-related industry in Toyama Prefecture as follows: （1） Toyama Prefecture has a business relationship with other prefectures, paying attention to the proximity of the economic distance;and （2） Toyama Prefecture has inter-industries and inter-industry direct spread.
Third, we focus on the tourism-related industry in Aichi Prefecture as typical of urban tourism in the Chubu Region. Main results are as follows: （1） Aichi Prefecture and economic transactions in Aichi Prefecture have economic transactions with economic distance;and （2） when attention is focused on proximity, spread is also presented in the direct spread between industries.

JEL Classification: C67, D57, R58

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In this paper, we developed a pilot model of the public service production structure of the local government in Japan. “The productivity analysis of the local government in Japan;a production function approach” was previously published by Kinugasa （the Otemon Economic Bulletin, 45（2）, pp. 34-53, 2011）. In the previous manuscript （Kinugasa 2011）, the Cobb-Douglas type production function and the Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA） were estimated to measure the productivity of local governments in Japan. As the next step, we estimate the multi-output production function. Two major purposes supplied by local governments such as cities, towns and villages are defined. The first purpose is “municipal income distribution” and the second is “population growth rate”.
In local governments, there are various types of public services, for example, elementary and secondary education, welfare of persons with disabilities, welfare of the aged, medical services, firefighting, etc. The various public services for citizens must be integrated to estimate the production function of local governments. However, these services are difficult to integrate. We adopted “municipal income distribution” as one integrated indicator that is the consequence of monetary oriented public services by local governments. This indicator is based on the former report by Kinugasa （2011）. Another indicator, “population growth rate” we adopted is not precisely “output of public services”, but is defined as “the result of improvement in the welfare of public services in every local government”. Many people migrate from one region to other region based on comparison of the welfare of public services. Non-monetary oriented public services by local governments are integrated as an indicator of “population growth rate”. From the estimated results and consideration of conditions, the multi-output production function of local governments we propose provides a reasonable result.

JEL Classification: G21, L10, L13

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Urban sprawl is a multi-layered concept that includes topics ranging from the outward expansion of a city to the development of auto-dependency in surrounding rural areas. This diffusive structure has become the root of numerous economic, social and environmental problems. Therefore, many local governments have shifted their focus onto a compact city policy, which is a more effective urban structure. Numerous studies have focused on overall effectiveness of the so-called hub city. However, two pertinent issues remain to be studied. The first is the details of political costs for such a concept, and the second is the inclusion of surrounding suburban and agricultural communities in large-scale land uses. This study examined the influence of the compact city concept on the surrounding areas. In particular, we established a scale of policy that consists of two points: the scale of the hub area and the scale of the size of the population settling into the hub. This was achieved by employing the existing “effectiveness of land use” to simulate changes in such uses.
Our framework for describing the effect of such a policy implementation is as follows: First, we utilized a scatter diagram that consisted of the size of the population and rate of land use in a 1 km2 area. The first variable was designated as “urbanization area” in which an increase in population can shift rural land use to urban land use, and the second variable was “regeneration area” in which a decrease in population can shift urban land use to rural land use. The angle of the line represented the scale of the hub area. Second, we established the aggregation point for each area in the scatter diagram. In this case, the point of urbanization was called “size of the population.” Third, we controlled the movement of plots in each area, which simulated population migration and change in land use to calculate the political costs.
Next, to evaluate the surrounding area, we described the spatial population and land use after policy implementation. In this case, we focused on the regeneration area and calculated the percentage of land use needed to establish the relationship between the scale of policy, political costs and degree of isolation.
This study provided four overall findings. First, larger hub area and higher population density in the hub lead to higher political costs. Second, the degree of isolation in agricultural communities geographically far from the city center is basically high. Third, the degree of isolation in suburban communities increases as the hub area and population density of the hub area rise. Fourth, low scale of the hub area in terms of size of population settling into the hub impacts the relationships between political costs and degree of isolation in the surrounding region. These results show that the compact city policy influences isolation in the surrounding areas.

JEL Classification: R11

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