The purpose of this study is to clarify changes in the supply and demand of the domestic lily with increasing lily bulb imports and changes to production areas in Japan. I analyze changes in the regional linkage of lily bulb and lily cut flower production respectively.
Import liberalization in the form of the exemption of isolation quarantine inspection for import lily bulbs in 1990 decreased the shipment of domestic lily bulbs. Conversely however, shipments of lily cut flowers increased. The import of lily bulbs triggered price competition between export countries and moreover, the bulb supply of domestic distributors has an influence on the supply and demand of lilies.
According to a case study carried out in Horinouchi Town, Niigata, the bulb supply becoming vital to the production of lily cut flowers sees linkage move toward the international domain rather than linkage in the production area. Now, linkage between domestic production areas takes place, and is implemented based on the production conditions in every production area and the various stages of growth. On the whole, each regional linkage diversifies without completely shifting. We may be opposed to import lilies if we can create regional differences in production conditions in this country.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the status of young contingent workers within the local context of Oita, a prefecture in Kyusyu in Japan.
Analysis of the some statistics revealed that unemployment rate and rate of contingent worker of youth is high not only in metropolitan areas but also peripheral prefectures, although employment problem of youth tend to be treated as a metropolitan problem.
According to an analysis of the questionnaire survey, there is a mismatch between young job seekers' job preferences and the actual labor demand in Oita. Male and female young contingent workers tend to think differently about having such an employment status: men are more apprehensive about being contingent workers than women. However, it is women who more actively visit job centers or participate in occupational training in order to get rid of this employment status.
The latter part of this paper is a qualitative study on Job Café Oita (an employment support center for youth in Oita) and its clients. Although there is abundant labor demand for production workers in Oita, young people dislike production jobs because of the poor work conditions and unsuitable work hours. Many young women expect to be employed as office workers, nurses, or welfare caretakers and they actually find such jobs. Some young men also hope to find such employment, but employers prefer young women as office workers and care receivers prefer to be cared for by women. Sales and transportation jobs are comparatively more accessible to male youth who do not have specific skills or schooling. A driver's license, which helps in accessing customers easily, is indispensable for obtaining these jobs. In Oita, many jobs require the applicant to have a driver's license because of the poor public transportation system. The problem is that some men are excluded from a regular employment status because they cannot afford to acquire driver's licenses.

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The fossil periglacial involutions that had been formed during the latter half of the last Glacial Age have been observed in the upper Kitakami river basin. The formative age of these structures are discussed on the basis of radiocarbon ages and deformation patterns of the scoria and buried soil layers. Involutions that marked by deformation of the scoria layer (T2S) generally show the festoon like features. Their maximum amplitudes attain 100cm, and the upper part of the deformations reach the buried soil layer (BS2) containing AT (24.5ka), which has downward intrusive or pocket like structures.
Such features strongly suggested that the deformations of scoria layer (T2S) and buried soil layer (BS2) occurred simultaneously when BS2 layer had formed the ground surface. Based on the stratigraphical relationship, the formative ages can be estimated between 24.5ka and 18ka, and it corresponds to the maximum cold stage of the Last Glacial Age. It is becoming clear that the solifluction lobes and steps had been formed on hill slopes of this area in same the period. Existences of these fossil periglacial phenomena imply that the area of upper Kitakami river basin had not been dominated by dense boreal forest during the maximum cold stage of the Last Glacial Age.

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