Recent development in various fields of science made it ineviatable to rewrite the history of Polynesian migrations. Among the recently developed methods, perhaps the most important is the dating of absolute chronology by radiocarbon activity. By this means the origin of Polynesian settlement in this part of the world was pushed backwards to several centuries before Christian era. This is a short review of the recent contributions made by scholars in various fields interested in the Pacific realm.

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The author visited Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Djakarta and Calcutta in April to June, 1967, for the study of urban structure and urbanization. Although these cities have different historical backgrounds respectively, they have some general character in common concerning the structure of functional areas.
1. Central area is in an administrative area where there are some old-fashioned buildings of European style, and is adjacent to a central park.
2. Central business area and commercial area are in Chinese district (so-called China town) neighbouring to the former administrative area. Commercial area is divided into wholesale and shopping districts.
3. Chinese district has both commercial and residential functions, so the development of areas specialized for residence is limited. Such areas were built in the colonical age, and some new residential areas were added to the outskirts of the former residential areas.

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Using the data observed at about 400 stations in Kantô District (32, 000km²) and its surrounding area, an attempt on the climatic division was made from the meso-climatological standpoint. Paying attention to (1) the tendency (running direction and position) of certain significant isolines and (2) the density of isolines, which means gradient, the division was tried. The division maps were superimposed in order in a following way:
Finally, the maps shown in Eigs. 1-3 were superimposed at the last step into a map as giving a climatic division (Fig. 4). The regions under consideration were divided into five major areas and 29 subareas. Short explanation of climate in the subareas was given in the text.

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In the coastal area of Fukushima Prefecture, there develops a series of landforms consisting of hills 100-50m in height, terraces 50-30m, and alluvial plains. The valleys dissect the hills and terraces, both of which consist of Pliocene sandstone or siltstone. There are two types of valley forms in transverse profiles, concave valley (Muldental) and V-shaped valley (Kerbtal, partly Sohlen-kerbtal). These two types are systematically distributed due to the topographical location, and Muldental is accompanied with an undulating landform of small relief, and Kerbtal with linear or convex slope of relatively large relief.
As the undulating landform is introduced from an almost flat plane by means of surface denudation, sufficient running water and potential relief are not always necessary for its formation. On the other hand, Kerbtal can not be formed without sufficient water and potential relief enough to undercut the channel bed. Consequently, the undulating landform is in the core area of hills and terraces, free from the Kerbtal development which is seen in areas with linear slopes surrounding the core area.
Where the undulating and the linear slopes exist side by side, there appear breaks of hillslopes, knickpoints, in the longitudinal profiles of streams, and so on, forming a front line of topographic unconformity.
The undulating landform area and the linear landform area can be distinguished each other, and patterns of the spatial combination of both areas appear in various features of hill morphology.

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1) Plywood factories in Japan can be classified into two types concerning their types of distributioi. In the type 1, the factories show a concentrated distribution at ports where timber is imported, such as Tokyo, Shimizu, Nagoya and Osaka. In these factories, plywood is produced using imported timber, chiefly Lauan from tropicals, especially from Philippines. The factories belonging to the type 2 are such as are distributed all over the country. Those in Tohoku belong to this type.
2) In Tohoku, some of the factories use timber from neighbouring woodlands. So plywood factories are located in inland area in Tohoku, such as in Kitakami, Yajima, Jumonji and Kariya. They are dependent on timber of broad leaf trees, especially beech, from neighbouring woodlands. Many factories in Tohoku were established just before the end of World \Var It. These factories were founded on two main reasons: one reason is that there was aboundant timber resources in Tohoku, and the other, the national policy. But now the suitable trees for the plywood are decreasing and the factories will be obliged to use imported timber like the factories located at the timber importing ports like the factories of type 1.
3) Prom the ways to acquire timber, plywood factories in Tohoku can be classified into following three groups.
(a) All the timber is supplied from neighbouring woodlands, e. g. Yajima.
(b) At the beginning of their establishment, used timber from nearby woodlands, but in recent years, most of the timber is imported, e. g. Kitakami and Kariya.
(c) Since the establishment of plywood factories, they have been dependent upon imported timber. This type is new in Tohoku, but in future this type of factories will make the majority of the general factories in. Tohoku. Such factories are located near the ports of import such as Hachinohe, Miyako, Akita and Ishinomaki.

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Along the coasts of Chûgoku and Shikoku districts, there are numerous cities with different historical backgrounds offering good examples for the analysis of the types of coastal cities. The writer selected 21 cities in these districts, and induced the regional types of their developments according to the periods in which the cities were founded, and to their relation with such factors as the construction of castles, the development of ports and railway stations. They are summarized as follows.
1) The coastal cities in Southern Shikoku are backward in development.
2) In Sanyô district, in accordance with the development of deltas, cities extended toward the coast after the construction of castles in feudal days.
3) In Northern Shikoku, the castles are generally located on the coast, and the cities developped inland from the coast.
4) The difference in the development of cities between Sanyô district and Northern Shikoku are because in the former area the deltas are generally big and rapid in growth, while in the latter they are small and slow in growth.

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In recent years, metropolises in this country, such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, are strenthening sociall and economic relationship with other districts, and are rapidly making their own urban development, intensifying their predominancy in respective degrees.
The writer, taking an example of Tokyo, intends to explain the growth of a metropolis through the analysis of the distribution patterns, the functions and the structure of civic centers, sub-centers, and large and small central places in the metropolis.
According to the writer's analysis of the “ward” areas of the Metropolis, there are 129 central places differing in structures and functions. These groups of central places are arranged in order on the foundation of the following three fundamental structures: (1) the regional structure surrounding the civic center, (2) the hexagonal structure composed of central places (=smaller than sub-centers), and (3) the radial structure developed with a sub-center as a focus.
Following four itmes will be counted as important factors necessary for the development of a metropolis and for the formation of many groups of central places. Those are; (1) contact activities in central places, (2) expansion and development of the civic center, (3) accesibility to the civic center, and (4) distribution of the nighttime population. Following three factors may be added to these as special factors which give regional difference to the general type of central places, such are; (5) the peculiarities of land and inhabitants, (6) the type of communities, and (7) regional structure of the neighboring districts.

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Changes of the urban structure of Sendai in the last 10 years were analyzed based on the distribution of customers at the central shopping street. Following six items were used as indicators for the analysis. They are; Population, number of wholesale and retail dealers, kinds of shops, deposits in banks, shot-machine game houses, and value of real estates. The trends in the last 10 years reflect the expansion of the urban area of Sendai. The percentage of visitors to the central shopping street shows a decrease or stagnancy concerning the areas near the urban center. It shows an increase in suburban areas, especially in northern and southeastern suburbs.

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Fjord (Norwegian, Danish), Fjordur (Icelandish), Fjärden (Swedish), Förde (German) and Firth (Scottish) are the same word in origin, but they have some varieties of morphological features according to the general landforms of the countries they belong. Nowadays, Fjrod as a geomorphological term means the type of those in Norway, Iceland, Greenland or Svalbard. But the word Fjord and its relatives have meaning somewhat wider than it.

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The author could seize an opportunity to find some quantitative data of deforestation in China Proper in a local Gazetteer of Szechwan. Fig. 1 and Table 1 are the summaries. The virgin forests were called “Ching”, and their distribution was limited in the southern part of Szechwan, near the boundaries of Hunan and kweichow in the first half of the 15th Century. In other parts of South China, forests had been cut or burned by shifting cultivation. In this period the virgin forests in Szechwan were the supply source of good lumber for the construction of Imperial Palaces and Temples. The dominant species in demand were Machilus and Cryptoreria genera. The standard diameter of wood was about 1 meter. Thus the distribution of virgin forests came to be reduced to the most rugged boundary areas of Szechwan.

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Recently many apartment-houses are built in Sendai keeping pace with the increase of population. The apartment-houses are distributed less in the central part of the city, and more in the old residential areas and the new residential areas to the north, the east and the southwest of the outer zone of the city. They receive many immigrants from outside the city. One of the recent trends is the encroachment of the apartment-houses new residential areas. It is because high landvalue in the inner part of the city is prohibitive to the apartment-houses. The conclusion obtained from the analysis of the distribution of apartment houses is compatible with the concept of segregation by Louis Wirth.

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On the 9th of July 1967, there occured many land-falls in KURE city due to the “1967 Heavy Rain”. Geological, geomorphological and climatological factors of this damage were examined.
Most KURE city is located on the deeply weathered and fragile granitic rocks cut into lower erosional surfaces at the heights of 50-70m above sea level. At this occasion the land was saturated with rain water and the heavy rain more than 300mm within two days acted as a trigger. Where the land-falls grew to the mud-flow, the damage was very severe, and where the flow contained boulders, the damage was severest and the landform was changed greatly.

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