In this paper, we examine the determinants for location choice of production plants for Japanese electronics industries in East Asia using the new economic geography (NEG) model.　Particular attention is paid to the market potential appropriate to take into account spatial distribution of demand in location choices, supplier access and complex agglomerations.　Using the bilateral trade data from 1995 to 2009 in East Asia, we conducted the logit estimation of country choice for Japanese electronics firms in eleven East Asian countries including China (mainland), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam after calculating the Krugman market potential and supplier access data.　In addition, the determinants of location choice for Japanese electronics firms were analyzed.　From the estimated results, we found wage, infrastructure, Krugman market potential, domestic supplier access and complex industrial agglomeration show horizontal and vertical industrial agglomeration effects in Japanese electronic affiliates, and affect the Japanese electronics industries investments in East Asia.

JEL Classifications: F23, R11, R30

Thailand should shift its industrial structure from a labour-intensive, manufacturing-led one into a technology-led and knowledge-based one.　The Thai economy can then concentrate on technology transfer from other countries through promoting relevant inward foreign direct investments, but should also foster the potential to develop the capacities of innovation and invention.　However, in practice, this may be challenging from the perspective of developmental economics due to the characteristics of technology itself.　Even though the government attempts to advance domestic innovation, the imperative is to focus on advancing technological development that can be applied to various industries and to teach the general public technologies that are necessary for their daily life and work.　However, companies tend to keep the technology that generates large profits a secret, and the government finds it difficult to identify or further foster this without the cooperation of the companies concerned.　This not only creates a limitation on increasing the country’s overall productivity, but also constrains human capital development.　Although the government cannot develop cutting-edge technologies, it can build the capacities of people to easily utilise the products and services with the cutting-edge technologies by improving education over the long term.

The government should make further efforts in this direction.　As to technological development, public research and development expenditures are still much lower in Thailand than in other developing countries.　Acquiring advanced know-how through technology transfer from other companies may be effective for the time being, but the ability to innovate technologies suitable for the domestic market will become inevitable.　Therefore, the government should focus on enhancing human capital with skills that can sustain a technology-led and knowledge-based economy.　Yet, educational reform has not been guided by the National Economic and Social Development Plan.　Moreover, it will not be possible to provide vocational training to all the low-skilled citizens within a short period of time.　In any case, the key issue is what strategies the Thai government should adopt to tackle the complex problem of human capital development, and this should be recognised as the key for Thailand’s economic development in the longer run.

JEL Classification: H52, I25, L50, O38

In this study, I performed a cost-benefit analysis of the base collection system and the station system wherein residents discarded PET bottles and agents collect them at stations once a week or month.　Accordingly, I evaluated the economic efficiency of local government PET bottle collection systems and found a deficit in all collection systems.

Furthermore, among three methods, the station system wherein PET bottles are collected once a month was the most economically efficient per person.　Conversely, collecting PET bottles once a week is the most beneficial by quantity, but the least beneficial per person.　The base collection system operated at lower costs, but the amount of PET bottles collected was small, so the cost-benefit was also low.　In this system, a large number of PET bottles were mixed with combustible waste, so the scale of PET bottle incineration increased.　Hence, compared with the station system that collects once a month, the cost-benefit of the base collection system was low.

Furthermore, I performed a cost-benefit analysis when （1） the PET bottle collection system was eliminated and （2） only local government PET bottle collection was eliminated.　The results indicated that the net benefit per person of （1） was the lowest and （2） was slightly less profitable than the station system wherein PET bottles are collected once a month.　Furthermore, both were less advantageous than the other two systems, the base collection system and the collection of PET bottles once a week.

This study revealed that although the PET bottle collection systems in Japan are considered to be successful, their adoption by some local governments is not as efficient as generally conceived, and the systems need to be improved to achieve more efficiency.　Collecting PET bottles at cheaper costs and lowering the rate of mixing PET bottles with combustible waste are essential steps to ensure economically efficient collection of PET bottles.

JEL Classifications: Q53, Q58

The name “Field Museum” is widely used in Japan.　A field museum seems to be a specific field like a museum with expected functions, but no official definitions are recognized.　They differ from an “Eco-museum”, which has an accumulation of numerous studies and arguments about the definition, concept and interpretation.

In this paper, the current situation of “Field Museum” is confirmed through investigation of 127 cases reported in 2016 on websites.　The form, target resources, installation management entities, expected functions and survival of field museums are examined, and an overview, the trends and relationships explored by a correlation analysis of items.　

As a result, we attempted to define “Field Museum”, but it became clear that a wide variety of field museums have appeared preceding the establishment of the definition.　The majority of field museums are not hardware but software facilities, and “projects and concepts”, and “websites and information content” have remarkably increased over time.　Currently, many field museums refer to the roles of a museum such as “education”, “exhibition” and “preservation”.　On the other hand, many field museums refer to conscious contributions to the local area such as “participation, exchange and community”, “sightseeing”, “information exchange” and “activation”.　People are expected to recognize the value of the area resources and take actions for conservation based on the image of the word “Museum”.　In the future, “Field Museum” may refer to an area management measure, not a mere expansion of museums.　

However, the name “Field Museum” is unstable and lacks sustainability.　Clarification of the basis, collaboration among research and educational institutions such as museums, stability of the system, and other factors are required to make the functions sustainable as a regional management method.

JEL Classifications: R59, Z00

In this study, we developed a methodology to evaluate the spatial economic impacts of tourism consumption.　Sightseeing areas are generally composed of several cities, towns and villages.　To evaluate the spillover effects of tourism in a spatial context, we estimated the inter-regional input-output table at the municipality level in Shizuoka Prefecture.　Based on the number of visitors to each city, town, and village, we estimated the economic impacts of local tourism.　Hotspots with economic spillover effects were identified for Shizuoka Prefecture.

JEL Classifications: L83, R11

This paper analyses the impacts of tariff elimination policy adjustments on the Kenyan government desires to implement the development agenda of Vision 2030.　This agenda aims to make Kenya a middle income rapidly industrialized economy by the year 2030 and offering its citizens a high quality life.　The 2009 social Accounting Matrix (SAM 2009) and the Kenya CGE model based on Hosoe et al. (2010) and Tokunaga et al. (2017) are used as a basic system with a static single country open economy model and households divided into two regions rural and urban.　Using the Kenya CGE model eight simulations evaluate the impacts of tariff abolition on the key production sectors of the economy.

The results of the study indicate the complete abolition of tariffs in the key production sectors greatly improves the economic welfare and increases household income.　However government revenue is reduced with increased imports in the agricultural sectors.　In conclusion the aforementioned policy of tariff abolition brings great welfare to Kenyan households.

JEL Classification: R13, F17, C68

The Chuo Express Liner is a planned Japanese maglev line designed to ultimately connect Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.　The line is expected to connect Tokyo and Nagoya with a 40 minute travel time from 2027, and eventually Tokyo and Osaka in one hour, running at a maximum speed of 500 km/h.　Intermediate stations will also be constructed in Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano and Gifu Prefectures, and a rail yard is planned for Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture.

This paper focuses on problems with evaluation of community development projects due to the Chuo Express Liner using a residents’ consciousness survey in Nakatsugawa City, Gifu Prefecture.　We analyzed the survey results using factor analysis and covariance structural analysis consciousness for town planning and the regional effects of opening a station.

The results of the analysis are summarized as follows.　First, the factor analysis identified three effects for station;function of intermodal passenger transport, comfortability, and two way tourism, and three effects for expectations;regional vitalization effects, town planning and interregional exchange.　Second, the values of the latent variables that can be inferred from measurements of the observable variables provide corroborative evidence of the relationship between the evaluation of the projects for Gifu Station and expectations for community development projects through the covariance structural analysis of residents’ consciousness.

JEL Classification: R11, R12

In recent years, travel behavior by car has increased with popularization of private cars.　Public transport users have decreased, especially in local areas.　Companies providing public transportation have ceased operating in unprofitable areas.

In such situations, the community bus has been introduced in many areas.　The purpose of the community bus is to ensure citizen mobility.　Generally, inconvenient areas for public transportation are defined as the areas outside the bus stop territories.　However, bus stop territories cannot be represented in the circle of constant radius.　Bus users go to a bus stop taking into account their physical ability and the road conditions.　Therefore, bus stop territories that have been used are not on accessible road networks, and do not accurately represent the inconvenient areas for public transportation.

In this study, we estimated the bus stop territories with consideration of physical ability and road conditions using a Geographic Information System.　In addition, we estimated the inhabitant coverage by the public bus.

JEL Classification: R49

The number of foreign visitors to Japan exceeded 24 million people in 2016.　Many regions in Japan expect more foreigners to visit and have engaged in promotions even though there are problems that need to be solved, and cooperation between relatively adjacent regional areas should be promoted.　In this report, 8 areas as wide regional areas are analyzed from the viewpoint of foreign visitors to Japan, mainly using the number of foreign hotel guests and Chubu Area (Central Area of Japan) in the analyses.

As a result, the proportion of Japanese hotel guests was approximately 87% and of foreigners approximately 13% in 2015.　However, the growth rate in the number of foreign hotel guests is much higher than Japanese.　In addition, the growth rate of foreign hotel guests in Hokkaido and Okinawa are high, and the numbers of foreigners are large in the Kanto and Kansai Areas.　The Chubu Area stands in the middle for both points as a whole, but this situation indicates there is a large potential for more foreigners to visit the Chubu Area, because there are many attractions about nature, culture, and history.

JEL Classifications: R11, R15, R58

Raccoons did not originally live in Japan, but were imported as pets and then escaped or were released from their owners.　Consequently, they have caused damage to agriculture, the ecosystem （by predation on native species）, and the life environment （due to noise and bad odors attendant to their presence） and also mediated rabies infections.　In Hokkaido, a small raccoon population in FY1995 expanded to 147 out of the 179 municipalities by FY2015.

One cause of this expansion was the lack of knowledge about the quantitative value of the dam-age.　The known quantitative value of the damage is limited to agricultural damages, which amounts to only 85 million yen per year.　Consequently, social recognition of the damage caused by raccoons has been disparaged, and countermeasures inadequate.

With this as the background, we estimated the quantitative value of the damage caused by rac-coons in Hokkaido as social losses using the contingent valuation method （CVM）.　Furthermore, we newly proposed an element segmentation method to estimate social losses based on CVM and then applied this new method to quantify the value of ecosystem damage, life environment dam-age, and infections.

We also analyzed the relationships between willingness to pay and the features of industry and consciousness in each region of Hokkaido by means of correlation analysis.　On the basis of these results, we propose a countermeasure for raccoons and clearly specified priority regions for the countermeasures.　In particular, we conclude the regions to concentrate on for the countermeasures for raccoons are the east and the dairy regions of Hokkaido.

JEL Classifications: Q51, Q56, Q57

There are few examples of international support activities that have been evaluated from the viewpoint of beneficiaries.　It is not clear to what extent the achievements of the activities have reached the beneficiaries.　In order to efficiently acquire results in international support activities, differences in the consciousness of foreign participants and local residents need to be compared.　Based on this background, we focused on the evaluation of international support activities by beneficiaries using consciousness surveys at an agroforestry project site in Bali.　We conducted two kinds of surveys in 2011 and 2013.　One was a consciousness survey of local residents, the beneficiaries.　The second was a survey to compare the consciousness of college students will participate in volunteer activities and the local residents.　The survey results were analyzed by quantitative analysis, simple summarization, comparisons of correlations and mean values (nonparametric test), factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis.　Based on the consciousness of the beneficiaries, we found that they thought monthly wages should be at least 1.5 times higher, agriculture should be the main industry, and traditional crafts should be a local commerce.　In agriculture, beneficiaries want to work and learn regularly in collaboration with foreigners.　As added value, they expect to learn environmental issues and obtain tools for agriculture.　Regarding differences in consciousness between beneficiaries and college students, local people (beneficiaries) felt the regional administration should take the lead to solve local poverty problems, students thought that volunteer activities should be taken to solve local poverty problems.　The local people also expected foreigner volunteers to regularly work with them, and did not expect them to solve poverty problems, but instead hoped to obtain new ideas by working together.　The minimum wage that college students supposed was not enough for locals.　Based on the results of this survey, we created six concrete proposals for volunteers and specialists who will participate in agroforestry activities in the future.

JEL Classifications: Z1, R1