Responding to the recent governmental policies of regional re-creation, local governments try to retain regional economic sustainability.　In order to achieve this, it is often said that driving export growth of regional industries and increasing employment are important for regional economic development.　This approach is deeply related to the economic base model.　Most of the recent empirical studies of this model focus on estimating local employment multipliers generated by tradable industries.　Although the multipliers may have spillover effects on other regions, recent studies ignore such spatial elements.

　　This research estimates local employment multipliers by spatial analysis approaches using data from municipalities and urban employment areas in Japan.　We focus on spatial distribution of multipliers and relationships between the degree of multiplier effects and the extent of each local geographical territory.　The results show that multiplier effects are higher in urban employment areas than in municipalities.　In terms of spatial distribution of multipliers, we find the existence of spatial autocorrelation among municipalities.　Suburban cities of the Tokyo metropolitan area have high multiplier effects.　In provincial areas, on the other hands, only central cities have high effects.

JEL Classifications:F16, R12, R15

　　Japan is faced on a depopulating and aging society.　For instance, 3,688 rural settlementshave existed in Hokkaido Prefecture, but more than half of these settlements are now populatedwith less than 100 residents and over half of this population is elderly aged 65 and over.　Furthermore,the population of Hokkaido Prefecture is forecast to decline by 1.38 million in 2,045.　These issues may directly link to a loss of daily life functions and transportation facilities, as wellas other problems.

　　Based on this background, we targeted a rural settlement in Hokkaido Prefecture.　In thisstudy, we newly proposed an index for living convenience by means of principal component analysisbased on 5 factors ; shopping, medical services, money and banking, logistics, and transportation.

　　Rural settlements were categorized by means of a Cluster Analysis based on the above mentionedindex and the population structure and transportation service status.　From this analysis,it can be seen that rural settlements with a loss of living facility function exist in Hiyama, Soya，Siribeshi, Hidaka and Sorachi regions of Hokkaido Prefecture.

　　We also analyzed the degree of enrichment of support for rural settlements by means of aCustomer Satisfaction Analysis.　This analysis showed that human resources, development andcontinuation of the regional transportation positively effect support of the rural settlements.　Based on these results, we suggest a support method and policy to keep rural settlements viable.

JEL Classification:R5

　　The Korean government focuses attention on the branding of fisheries products to improve the competitive power of fisheries products, and to use regional brands as a part of fishery product branding.　Accordingly, this paper examines the value of regional brands in the fishery product market, specifically seaweed, to identify price factors that reflect regional differences.　The hedonic pricing method is used to examine the value of regional branding, and as a result of the analysis, geographical indication is expected to cause an approximate 30-40% increase in the unit price of sea mustard and sea tangle.　Geographical indication is shown to have an effect on forming the value of a product, implying regional branding can improve competitiveness.

JEL Classifications:D12, O13, R11

　　In this paper, we explore how regional production activities in river basins recover and how the regional economies are restored after heavy rains and floods brought on by typhoons.　For the Toyogawa and Yahagigawa basins in Aichi Prefecture, we estimate an inter-regional input-output table and develop a sequential dynamic model with two types of bottleneck structures:production technology and traffic disruptions.　Given a flood damage scenario and by applying the hypothetical extraction method, direct and indirect damages and the recovery processes in regions of Aichi Prefecture are shown by numerical simulation.

JEL Classifications:Q54, R15, R41

　　Eco-friendly vehicles have a less negative impact on the environment than conventional vehicles.　This study examined the economic impact of the production of eco-friendly vehicles, such as electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, on national and regional economies in Japan.　Considering that automobile firms are concentrated in Aichi Prefecture, the economic impact on this region was also examined.　The backward and forward linkage effects were estimated using the national and regional input-output tables.　Hypothetical extraction method was used to evaluate the impact of reduced production of conventional automobiles.　This study also showed the economic impact of shifting from conventional to eco-friendly production technology in the automotive industry of Japan and Aichi Prefecture.

JEL Classifications:R11, R15, R41

　　Based on the cross-sectional data of the tourism economy of China in 2017, using complex network theory, we investigated how to establish a spatial weight matrix to represent the spatial effects among tourism economies of China’s provinces.　In addition, with different weight matrices, the construction and optimization of the spatial econometric model were discussed.　According to the actual railway line network in China, with complex networks theory, we determined the shortest railway distances between any two regions.　Under different thresholds, different weight matrices in the joint spatial econometric model were constructed, and then different complex networks created correspondingly.　Afterwards, the parameters in the model were estimated via the maximum likelihood estimation method.　Combined with the AIC values, an optimal spatial model was achieved.　When the distance was 1,800 km, the spatial model had a stronger interpretation ability.　In addition, the diameter of the corresponding network was 4, the average shortest path length was 1.549, and the clustering coefficient was 0.742.

JEL Classifications:R12, O14, Q59

　　There have been many empirical studies on the entrepreneurship of start-ups mainly focusedon entrepreneurial motivations, and institutional and social factors.　However, research on thefactors affecting the innovativeness of star-ups through comparative analysis between socialenterprises and commercial enterprises is scarce.

　　Social enterprises that execute a dual-mission to contribute towards the inclusive growth anddevelopment of the society have reached a scale of value added and employment in Japan sincethe 2000s.　It is not easy for social enterprises to solve social problems and realize sustainabledevelopment of business through creating innovative products and services.

　　The purpose of this study was to clarify the socio-economic factors affecting the innovativenessof start-ups through comparative analysis between social enterprises and commercial enterprisesin Japan.　Specifically, quantitative analytical methods such as exploratory and confirmatorymulti-variate analyses were applied to enterprise level micro-data based on the Survey on ActualConditions of Start-ups in 2013（ conducted by the Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute）.

　　We reached the following conclusions based on the analytical results.　First, a highly innovativesocial enterprise has the same level of social attributes（ human capital）, endogenous motivation,and management ability as a highly innovative commercial enterprise.　Secondly, highlyinnovative social enterprises have special factors in business strategies, internal labor marketmanagement and external networks compared to highly innovative commercial enterprises.　Therefore, to promote the development of social enterprises in Japan, policies and support systemsthat match the characteristics of the social enterprise are necessary.

JEL Classifications:O35, L26, L31

　　Currently, problems of external diseconomy originating from land with unknown owners is rampant in Japan, mainly because changes in landownership are not accurately registered.　Generally, economic transactions are conducted based on the relationships between supply and demand under conditions prescribed by relevant laws and regulations.　As a result, land acquisition in water resource areas （LAWRA） by foreign investors has become a social concern and the national and local governments have developed laws and ordinances for land acquisition.　At present, few illegal acts by foreign investors that acquired land have been confirmed and the relevant laws and ordinances have not been considered as measures against actual damage but rather as concerns due to their adverse effects.　Particularly, regarding ordinances enacted by local governments, previous studies have shown that these processes were the official position of the local government.　However, citizen’s policy concerns are not well known to the public.　This study attempts to elucidate the reality of concerns regarding LAWRA by foreign investors by analyzing social media posts concerning citizen opinions.

　　A total of 5,135 tweets containing the word “LAWRA” posted on Twitter between 2010 and 2020 were collected.　From these, 1,550 sentences containing clear opinions and emotions about LAWRA were extracted and used for analysis.　The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, with public emotions about LAWRA extracted from their contents, specifically where posts were concentrated.

　　The conclusions made were as follows:in 2012, a local government enforced an ordinance on the conservation of water resource areas for the first time in Japan and the basic water-cycle law was enforced by the Japanese government in 2014.　On Twitter, posts containing radical content regarding foreign investors and flaws in the Japanese government policies were concentrated in the year immediately before the implementation.　Furthermore, although the number of posts have converged in the last five years, the characteristics of the posts content did not significantly change.　Thus, some of the public emotions expressed through social media may have influenced the basis for this policy.　The results of this study can aid a deeper understanding of problems of unknown land ownership to offer solutions through the relationships between the trends of public opinion and policies

JEL Classifications:Q10, Q15, R52

　　Sharing concerns for a future aging society in Malaysia, I have cooperated with Malaysian researchers for nearly twelve years to transfer know-how for employment of elderly in Japan to Malaysia.　This paper reviews the achievements and issues of mainly the first five years of these academic activities from 2008 to 2012.

　　Japan’s practical knowledge for employment of the elderly may be adapted for Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries where similar aging pressures are expected in the near future.　In other words, Malaysia and neighboring countries may be required to utilize all human resources including elderly people to avoid or at least weaken future negative demographic pressures on age of the working population.

　　In this social circumstance, public and private sectors in Malaysia and other Asian countries are expected to need to keenly discuss the possibility of senior citizen employment.　Regarding this point, there are meaningful cases in Japan.　For instance, Silver Human Resource Center, a public job information center for senior citizens, provides more job opportunities for elderly than previously.　Also some Japanese corporations are aggressively employing experienced senior citizen as specialists for public relations, engineering and business management.

　　Therefore, this paper discusses how to transfer the knowledge for employment of the elderly to Malaysia and other Asian countries.　On this matter, the most striking findings are that Malaysian researchers having studied in Japan consider that employment of elderly can contribute to the local society.　These researchers also positively think employment of elderly may become a Corporate Social Responsibility （CSR）.　With these perspectives, this paper concludes that Japanese researchers definitely need to inform not only the know-how but also the social significance of employment of the elderly to emerging countries for a smooth transfer of knowledge.

JEL Classifications:J01, J08, J10, J11, J14

　　The main purpose of this study was to clarify the role of social innovation for women’s empowerment in disaster risk governance by focusing on common interest groups (CIG) in the haor area of Bangladesh.　We conducted key informant interviews (KII), a case study, and focus group discussions (FGD) with various stakeholders of Itna Union in the Kishoreganj District of Bangladesh to verify the following hypothesis.　“CIG is an effective approach to empower women in poverty reduction and disaster risk governance through the creation of social innovation” (H1).　The results clarified that socio-political transformation for the empowerment of women through the CIG approach is weak in the region even though change has begun.　Thus, policy implications based on the analytical results suggest that the government should pay more attention to social innovation to reduce poverty and empower women in disaster risk governance while introducing a CIG approach.

JEL Classifications:J16, Q54