Water availability and the environment are closely related to the spatial characteristics of the regional and urban economy.　The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the environmental impacts of economic activities in the Mikawa Bay watershed and surrounding regions that flow into the Mikawa Bay, and discuss the sustainable industrial compositions in the depopulating society from both environmental and economic points of view.　We estimated an inter-regional input-output table for Aichi Prefecture, and analyzed the relationships between each city, town and the environmental impacts on Mikawa Bay based on the economic trade relationships between cities and towns using input-output and optimization models.

JEL Classifications:R11, Q52, Q53

　　To commercialize multi-functionalities of urban agriculture, many urban farmers have diversified their businesses.　While the importance of labors for farm diversification are recognized, the quantitative studies on them are insufficient.　In addition, the spatial location of farmers affects the farmers’ decision making about farm diversification through the spillover effect of knowledge sharing among farmers.　The objective of this study is to clarify the effects of successors, female labors and employees on farm diversification in peri-urban areas by means of the spatial auto-regression model.

　　The cross-sectional dataset was obtained from municipality-level data of 2015 Census of Agriculture and Forestry.　All sample areas are in whole Kanto Region.　Several measurements of the farm diversification are used.　As targeted independent variables, the proportion of farmers with nominated successors （Successor Rate）, the proportion of farmers with part-time and full-time employees （Part-time Rate and Full-time Rate）, and the proportion of female farm labors to total farm labors （Female Labor Rate） are included.

　　As a result, the spatial lags of farm diversification measures are partly positive.　Second, the regression coefficients of targeted independent variables are mostly positive.　On the other hand, while Successor Rate, Female Labor Rate and Part-time Rate have positive effects, Full-time negatively affects farm diversification.　Lastly, according to the geographically weighted regression model, the regression coefficients of targeted independent variables are spatially heterogeneous.

　　In conclusion, this study suggests that various labor forces are required to promote farm diversification in peri-urban agriculture.　Furthermore, the areas may have spillover effect on each other.　Accordingly, as a promotion model for farm diversification, it is needed to facilitate the social networks between farmers.　At the same time, to promote more diverse businesses, the employment by farmers should be supported.

JEL Classifications:Q13, R12

　　As the industrial product, the first aircraft was produced in the Tokai Region in 1917.　The history of aircraft production in Japan is approximately 100 years.　However, after World War II, studies on aircraft, design and production were also completely forbidden by the U.S. government. After the Korean War, the production of aircraft started again. At present, the aircraft industry is very large in the Tokai Region. Above all, the supply of aircraft parts for the Boeing 787 and other models occupies a large part of this industry. Development of MRJ (=Mitsubishi Regional Jet) is also in progress.

　　Under these circumstances, the “Special Zone to Create Asia’s No. 1 Aerospace industrial Cluster” has been introduced in the Tokai Region as a cluster policy to further expand this accumulation.　This paper attempts to verify the effectiveness of this cluster policy and analyzes indicate this policy functions to some extent at the present time.

JEL Classifications:O22, L52, R58

　　The paper examines the concept of equilibrium and stability in macrodynamics by means of the monetary base of the central bank.　In much of the literature, the mcrodynamic model adopts some version of the Taylor interest rate monetary policy rule by the central bank.　This means that the growth rate of the monetary base becomes implicitly endogenous variable in the model.

　　Japanese economy fell into the serious deflationary depression after 1997.　The United States economy experienced the problems of subprime mortgages since housing prices started declining in 2006.　In both countries, the central banks decreased the interest rates under their control.　Over time, however, the interest rates that are directly controlled by the central banks were close to zero and it could not decline further.　The monetary policy had run into the sharp limit.

　　The central bank has two effective monetary policies in the ‘liquidity trap’ situation.　First the central bank buys bonds unlimitedly in the bonds market by means of open market operations. Second it is inflation targeting, the central bank chooses and announces an inflation target to the public.　Thus, the paper shows significantly some analytical results on the local stability/instability of the equilibrium point in the dynamic Keynesian model by means of the monetary base rule, together with the target of the growth rate of nominal GDP, instead of the interest rate rule.

　　In conclusion, the quick response of the monetary authority to the macroeconomic conditions or high credibility of the monetary authority’s announcement on inflation targeting is a stabilizing factor of the macroeconomic system. To the contrary, the negative monetary policy is a destabilizing factor, if its credibility is sufficiently low and the nominal interest rate is near to a lower bound （liquidity trap）.

　　The latter part of the paper mentions the performance of the Japanese economy from the interpretation of the above theoretical result.

JEL Classifications:E52, E61, E62

　　Senior citizens over 65 exceed 33 million in Japan, resulting in a super-aging society.　The total population is decreasing and senior citizens are increasing.

　　The first baby boomer generation （born in 1947-1949） accounts for over 18%, approximately 6.3 million, and they will become older senior citizens （over 75） in 2025.

　　From 2025, the demand for medical care, nursing care and welfare will be rapidly increase, and the capacity of hospitals and nursing care is expected to be in shortage under the current medical and nursing care system.　Therefore, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare are considering an “Integrated community care system”.　This system requires the set up of a system that includes home medical treatment by a family doctor.

　　Life support systems must be secured for those who receive and provide home medical care. To establish a life support system, it need to be examined about mobility method.

　　We aim to set up an “Integrated community care system” based on the home medical care with several industries.　Initially, consciousness of the system by residents and understanding issues for securing transportation need to be clarified.　In this study, we statistically evaluated the difference in consciousness of home medical care and home doctor with the characteristics of personal understanding and mobility methods.

JEL Classification:R49

　　The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes are a series of earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock beneath Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu Region.　And Kumamoto Castle, another Important Cultural Property sustained damage to its roof and exterior buildings and walls because of the earthquakes and associated aftershocks.

　　This paper pays attention to the problem of measuring impact of the Earthquake Disaster on the Kumamoto and Kyushu Economies.　We then illustrate “Kumamoto Earthquake Damage and Reconstruction Indexes”.　This index is composed of 11 dates about production sector and industries sector including agriculture and tourism, life sector, and public investments sector.　In addition, we use “Regional Domestic Expenditure Index （RDEI）”, which indicates monthly 4 series, consumption of households, private residential investment, private non-residential investment, public investment.　And we compare impact of the Earthquake Disaster on Kumamoto Prefecture and Kyushu area.

　　The results of the analysis are summarized as follows. Kumamoto index fell sharply in April 2016 when the earthquake occurred and remained below the level before the earthquake until September 2016.　Then this index shows measuring impact of the Earthquake Disaster on Kumamoto Prefecture and can assume measuring the influence of large-scale disasters in other areas. In addition, the index can be useful in comparing the situation on other prefectures, because it is based on RDEI.　And the index has significance that we can grasp the damage and reconstruction situation of other areas by selecting series based on the influence on the surrounding area.

JEL Classifications:E32, R11, R15

　　A region or town usually consists of mutually distinctive, heterogeneous areas or districts, such as “uptown” and “downtown,” or “East” and “West” of a river.　In addition, it is common for local public goods/services for residents of such a region to be produced in a facility, like an incinerator, that is constructed in one of these distinctive areas within the region.　Although local pubic goods/services produced at the facility are consumed equally by all residents of the region, some of these production costs, especially environmental costs, such as a noisy environment around the facility, are owed solely by the residents of the area in which the facility is sited but none are owed by those living in other areas.　For this reason, when a government plans to construct a facility that produces local public goods/services in a region, a controversy often arises among residents about which area of the region the facility should be sited in.　Residents usually agree on the necessity for a facility but oppose the siting of the facility in the area in which they reside, which makes the siting decision difficult.　This type of difficulty in the siting decision of a public facility is called the “not in my back yard” （NIMBY） problem.　Examples of public facilities generating the NIMBY problem include airports, public schools, and places to dispose of household trash within a community, thus, every region or town inevitably faces this problem.　Therefore, it is an important task for researchers in regional sicence/urban economics to investigate this problem.

　　In this study, we apply a duopoly model with vertical product differentiation of Motta （1993, Journal of Industrial Economics） to a region that has two heterogeneous residential areas, such as uptown and downtown, which constitute the residential market （i.e., rental housing market）.　In addition, we investigate how the residents of each area having heterogenous preferences for the environment of the residential area constitute their opinions when a NIMBY facility that inevitably worthens the environment of the sited area is going to be built in either of the two areas.　The main results obtained are as follows.　First, the opinions of the residents for the question of which area a NIMBY facility to be built are heterogeneous in both residential areas.　Second, under some usual conditions, more than half of the residents of each area oppose the facility to be sited within the area they live in.　These results suggest that a siting of a NIMBY facility brings among related areas a game-theoretic situation in which there is no Nash equilibrium solution in pure strategy, highlighting the difficulty of resolving NIMBY problems.

JEL Classifications:D72, R53