In Nigeria, regionalism is often seen as something working against national integration, and the word ‘regionalism’ has tended to be used in a negative term to denote divisive tendancies. And this is very different from the situation in Japan where political and economic centralisation is so strong that the study of ‘regionalism’ have received considerable attention in recent years.
The origin of regionalism in Nigeria dated back to the history of the establishment of the country as a political unit. In this paper, the author traced the history of the demarcation of Nigeria's international boundaries.
The emergence of Nigeria as a political unit occurred in two stages. The first stage featured the establisment of the British trading posts and later protectorates along the sea coast and the River Niger. The second stage was the demarcation of boundaries between Nigeria and the neighbouring countries.
During the first stage, Britain succeeded in securing economic and political interest in the Niger delta district, partly because she had established relatively strong trade relations with the people of the district, and partly because the Royal Niger Company had made treaties of protection with the people.
The second stage occurred when the land boundaries were decided upon during the partition of Africa at Berlin in 1885. And in this scramble for territory, the emphasis was on effective occupation.
In both stages, the question of consulting the local people never arose, and in mamy cases, the international boundaries split some ethnic groups into two different countries, or it forced peoples of different languages, different religions, and different outlook to life to amalgamate into one country. The problem of regionalism in Nigeria dates back to this forced amalgamation. However, Nigeria aims at destroying tribal based regionalism in several ways. One of which is the creation of more states.

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In the Senboku District which comprises northern part of the Yokote Basin and its surrounding area, Akita Prefecture in northeastern Japan, we still find some examples of the traditional L-shaped houses called Magariya. These L-shaped houses are in many ways similar to the L-shaped houses distributed in Iwate Prefecture, the so-called Nanbumagariya, and are usually considered to be descended from these. In other areas close to this region, however, it is known that there is another type of L-shaped houses called Chumonzukuri. In this paper the author has tried to clarify the distribution of Magariya and its subtypes in the Senboku District and to consider its cultural relationphip to the areas in which are distributed the Nanbumagariya and Chumonzukuri.
In order to investigate the house type distribution, the author has used mainly old house plans which were plotted by local admistrative offices. In addition to this material he has made a field suryey and various interviews for this study.
The typology of house types, especially Magariya types shown in Fig. 2, was used to illustrate regionality in house types and some distribution maps for each type were drawn.
Many types of Magariya considered to be descended from the Nanbumagariya are distributed thoroughout the Senboku District, but the proportion of Magariya is higher in the northern area than in the southern. Some houses in this region, however, can be inferred to be descended from Chumonzukuri, and this type occurs predominantly along the southern border of this region and in the northern fringe, such as in Tamagawa Village (ref. Fig. 12)
From this distributional pattern of house types a following hypothesis referring to cultural diffusion can be assumed. Namely, the cultural elements of Chumonzukuri descent have diffused from the southern distrct to the northern periphery of the Senboku District, and later those of Nanbu origin were introduced from the Nanbu District via the Sengan-Pass and gradually became widespread over the greater part of the Senboku District. This assumption is the product of purely geographical observation without any historical or architectural evidence and it will therefore be necessary to make further examinations.

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Hachijo-jima and Kojima is located in the Pacific Ocean and about 250km far from the Main-land of Japan. The author has got some of the death registers of these islands, which recorded the name, the year of death, sex, adult or children etc. from the end of the 17th Century to the end of the 19th Century. This paper reports the result of analysis in the death numbers by regional and chronological methods for the next object; what are the factors to put the inhabitants at the great disadvantage for living in the isolated islands as those islands.
The author made the chronological line graph of death number for each village in these islands and compared with each other. He found that each graph line to be classified into two parts of the Era. One is the times from the end of the 17th Century roughly to the end of the 18th Century, and the other is about times from this to the end of the 19th Century. He recognizes in the former time the line is appeared comparatively smooth but has some outbreak of irregular great peaks. On the other hand, in the latter the number of death shows very irregular curve. Another feature of the region is the trend of pararellism of the graph linein every village community.
Above mentioned phenomena is caused by the changes of factors to restrict the increase of population in different times. The main factors are as follows;
1) In the latter times of Tokugawa Government, its policy was converted from that of the middle times which blocked and to isolate for these islands, to insert in the open economic system of the Main-land.
2) This policy was done by the permission of migration or going for labor in the Main-land, and promoted to transport the products of these islands and deal with Edo City. These enforcement of the policy diminished the death of starvation.
3) By the shock of those acts, the closed communities in these islands went to sensible and to joint into one society in the latter period of the 19th Century.
4) As those communications among the inhabitants and between the Main-land and these islands, especially as the long going for labour to the Main-land, the death of epidemic disease increased at very large numbers, and every village community suffered in the disease at the same time.

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The alluvial plain along the lower Nakama River on Iriomote Island can be divided from the shore landward into the following four sections: 1) a section consisting of the estuary, the coast of which is occupied by mangrove forests with Avicennia marina and Sonneratia alba constituting the seaward fringe; 2) a section of the delta covered with mangrove forests, dominated by Bruguiera gymnorhiza and/or Rhizophora stylosa, but also with some Kandelia candel but not including Avicennia marina or Sonneratia alba; 3) a section consisting of low, flat mounds composed of estuarine deposits formed during the Holocene transgression and covered with Pandanus tectorius thickets; 4) a section of a floodplain on which Barringtonia racemosa forests are prominently distributed.
This paper, as the second part of a study on vegetation-landform relationships on this alluvial plain, deals mainly with detailed descriptions of the relationships in the third and the fourth sections mentioned above. In those sections, natural levees have developed along the Nakama River and its branches, and mixed forests of Machilus thunbergii and Mallotus paniculatus are found there. They are distinguishable from Barringtonia racemosa forests which compose a swamp forest in the back swamps and the Pandanus tectorius thickets on the flat mounds of the estuarine deposits. Colluvial slopes are occupied by other Barringtonia racemosa forests including Cyclobalanopsis miyagii.
Close correspondence between the areal extent of landform units and plant communities is found both in small-scale and in micro-scale. The landforms of the area were outlined in the course of deposition during the Holocene transgression and have been differentiated by the processes that followed. The arrangement of the plant communities on this alluvial plain can be interpreted in terms of both present and historical land-forming process types.

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In Japan, the type of commuting flows in metropolitan area is different from that in non-metropolitan area. The commuting mobility is low in non-metropolitan area, but the rate of increase is high. The purpose of this paper is to examine factors affecting this phenomeon in Iwate Prefecture from 1965 to 1975.
First of all, the writer set up the spheres of commuting. In 1975, each sphere of commuting expanded in comparison with sphere in 1965. But the coefficient of specialization of chief industry diminished at every commuting center. The commuting mobility of the workers of the primary industry is low. So its decrease influences the increase of commuting mobility of the workers in whole industries. The work-place population in the cities or towns around the commuting center is increasing, so the inflow rate of workers is growing high in these areas. The writer shows that the type of commuting flows in commuting center is different from that in other region in main industries such as manufacture, service, and wholesale/retail in Iwate Prefecture.

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Tephra is often effective for chronological studies as time-marker beds as long as identification of the tephra is completed. This paper describes the age of the Mukaibara river terrace which is along the Midare River. The age is based on evidence of the Obanazawa ash layer.
The Obanazawa ash layer is composed of yellow-brown ash and underlies the Obanazawa pumice layer. The pumice layer erupted from the Hijiori caldera depression which was followed by the Hijiori pyroclastic flow about 10, 000yBP (¹⁴C age).
The heavy mineral composition of the Obanazawa ash layer and the Obanazawa pumice layer are characterized by a high content of hornblend. There is no tephra layer containing high content of hornblende without being associated with the Obanazawa ash layer and the Obanazawa pumice layer in the Midare River valley along the eastern fringe of the Yamagata basin. Accordingly, identification of the Obanazawa ash layer was determined by a high content of hornblende in the heavy mineral composition.
Archeological data at the Kanohara D site near Mt. Yakurai leads to an estimation of the age of the Obanazawa ash layer. At the Kanohara D site, evidence of tanged points accompanied by linear relief potteries between the Obanazawa pumice layer and the Obanazawa ash layer and a micro blade within the Obanazawa ash layer shows that the deposition of the Obanazawa ash layer was completed between 14, 000yBP and 12, 000yBP. ¹⁴C age of the layer containing the tanged point accompanied by linear relief potteries and the micro blade in Japan is 12, 200-12, 700yBP and 13, 200-14, 300yBP, respectively.
In the Midare River basin, the fact that the Obanazawa ash layer is deposited on the Mukaibara terrace leads to the conclusion that the Mukaibara terrace, which has been considered to have been completed between 10, 000yBP and the present, was completed at least by 12, 000yBP.

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The Isshi Fault System, located on the eastern rim of the Kinki Triangle, has been said to be active mainly from the early to the middle Quaternary (Matsui, 1967 et al.). The writers have investigated the activity of the Isshi Fault System through the late Quaternary at the southern part of it, west of Tsu City. The findings can be summarized as follows.
1) In this area two active faults, Syoda Fault and Kazahayaike Fault, deforming upper and middle terraces vertically are observed. So it is to be considered that the Isshi Fault System has been active through the late Quaternary.
2) Middle Terrace I is deformed by Kazahayaike Fault with the vertical displacement of 11m, but no deformation for Middle Terrace II by the fault is recognized (Fig. 2). Syoda Fault has deformed Upper Terrace II, Middle Terrace I, and Middle Terrace II, and vertical displacement of each terrace is 8-10m, recognizing no significant difference between them. Therefore Kazahayaike Fault was active before Middle Terrace II had been formed, and Syoda Fault began tectonic movement after the formation of Middle Terrace II.

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