Areas In Japan Research Articles

Winter capture records of the Siberian Rubythroat (<i>Luscinia calliope</i>)in Kanagawa Prefecture and their wintering areas inJapan from bird-banding records

Winter capture records of the Siberian Rubythroat (<i>Luscinia calliope</i>)in Kanagawa Prefecture and their wintering areas inJapan from bird-banding records

Survey of Francisella tularensis in Wild Animals in Japan in Areas Where Tularemia is Endemic.

Samples taken from 428 wild animals and 126 ticks, collected from a tularemia-endemic area in Japan between 2005 and 2013, were analyzed for the presence of Francisella tularensis. F. tularensis was isolated from a Japanese hare carcass whereas the samples from live animals and ticks were negative for F. tularensis by real-time PCR. Our results suggest that F. tularensis is still present in Japan although its prevalence is considerably low even in areas where tularemia is endemic.

Effect of Load-Balancing against Disaster Congestion with Actual Subscriber Extension Telephone Numbers

SUMMARY We demonstrated that load balancing using actual sub-scriber extension numbers was practical and effective against traffic con-gestion after a disaster based on actual data. We investigated the ratios ofthe same subscriber extension numbers in each prefecture and found thatmost of them were located almost evenly all over the country without beingconcentrated in a particular area. The ratio of every number except for thefourth-last digit in the last group of four numbers in a telephone numberwas used almost equally and located almost evenly all over the country.Tolerance against overload in the last, second-, and third-last single digitsstays close to that in the ideal situation if we assume that each session ini-tiation protocol server has a capacity in accordance with the ratio of eachnumber on every single digit in the last group of four numbers in Japan. Al-though tolerance against overload in double-, triple-, and quadruple-digitnumbers does not stay close to that in the ideal situation, it still remainssufficiently high in the case of double- and triple-digit numbers. Althoughtolerance against overload in the quadruple-digit numbers becomes low,disaster congestion is still not likely to occur in almost half of the area ofJapan (23 out of 47 prefectures).

The Politics of Financial Crisis Response in Japan and the United States

AbstractWe examine the politics of financial crisis response in Japan and the United States. Many existing accounts of Japan's ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s have emphasized Japan-specific factors, such as structural problems, policy errors, and political dysfunction. We argue that Japan may have been subject to a form offirst-mover disadvantage. Like innovation in the private sector, developing effective solutions to novel policy problems requires a messy process of discovery, experimentation, and repeated failure. Much as late-industrializing countries adapted the methods and technologies of early developers, second-movers can apply effective policies demonstrated by first-movers in a more targeted, efficient, and rapid manner. We show that the behavior of Japan and the United States during their respective financial crises is broadly consistent with this theory. In addition, policy adoption in the United States most clearly reflected lessons from Japan in areas where the lessons were considered clear and implementation was less politicized.

日本の積雪地域の気温・降水量・最深積雪間の関係と気候変化に対する応答の特徴

日本の積雪地域の気温・降水量・最深積雪間の関係と気候変化に対する応答の特徴

北海道電力(株)泊発電所3号機の建設状況と地球温暖化防止への取り組み(特別講演,地球温暖化防止と動力エネルギー技術)

Hokkaido Electric Power Company, Inc. (HEPCO) supplies electricity to almost all area of Hokkaido. Its service area accounts for about one-fifth of Japan's area, on the other hand, the population of the service area only accounts for 4.4% of the nation. This means Hokkaido's nature is precious, and one of HEPCO's missions is to protect such environment, with providing stable electricity. Therefore, nuclear power, which does not emit greenhouse effect gas for generation, is becoming more important. HEPCO's operating nuclear power stations are Tomari No.1 unit and No.2 unit. Their generation capacity is 579MW respectively. Now, No.3 unit is under construction. Its generation capacity is 912 MW and it will be operational in December 2009. In Hokkaido, about one fourth of electricity is now produced by nuclear power, however, after Tomari No.3 is completed, about 40% of electricity will be produced by nuclear. So, Tomari No.3 unit will contribute stable supply of electricity in the first half of 21st century and prevent global warming in Hokkaido. This paper describes the present status of Tomari No.3 unit construction with major specifications and our efforts to prevent global warming.

Runoff Analysis for a Small Watershed of Tono Area Japan by Back Propagation Artificial Neural Network with Seasonal Data

The rainfall runoff (R-R) process was studied for two small sub-basins having different sizes in a mountainous catchment of Tono area Japan. The runoff and other meterological data have been collected in this catchment for the last 14 years. The major objective of this study was to construct numerical models for these sub-basins to predict runoff after 1/2 and 1 h. The effects of season and the size of the catchment on R-R process were also investigated. The hydrogeological conditions of the catchment were studied prior to the analyses. The data obtained for summer (rainy) and winter (dry) seasons were treated separately in order to study the seasonal effects on the model development. The back propagation artificial neural network technique (BPANN) and the multivariate autoregressive and moving average models (ARMA) were adopted for the analysis. It was found that for very small catchments the seasonal effects are dominant and therefore separate models should be developed for each season to obtain better forecasting estimates. It was also found that the predictions by BPANN models were better than multivariate ARMA models for intense rains having complex R-R relationships in summer. On the other hand, both the modelling techniques yielded almost similar results for smaller rains in winter. It was also found clearly that the accuracy of prediction decreased with the increase of the time period for prediction.

Intelligence, diplomacy and the Japanese threat to British interests, 1914–41

This contribution looks at the ways in which the intelligence releases in the 1990s have helped to illuminate previously unknown or misunderstood aspects of the Anglo-Japanese relationship from 1914 to 1941. Although attention in the media has been focused on the release of the Security Service's records, these are of limited use in this area of study. Much more significant are the diplomatic intercepts that were collected by the Government Code and Cipher School, which not only add new angles to old questions, but also reveal British suspicions of Japan in areas not previously studied, such as Japanese pan-Asianism.

Trends of Major Inorganic Species at the Small Watershed Ecosystem in Northern Tama Hills, the Western Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan

Acid rain impacts on the small forested watershed in northern Tama Hills in the western Tokyo metropolitan area Japan were investigated by surveying the trends of major inorganic species in rain and spring water during the years from 1991 to 1997. The ecosystem had been stressed by the annual H+-deposition of around 0.43 kmol/ha. The spring water outflow corresponded to ca. 27% of the precipitation. Budgets for the precipitation input and spring water output gave good balance for Cl−,−0.01 ±0.09 kmol/ha, net gains for H+, NO3− and SO42−, and to the contrary, relatively large net losses for Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Si(as H4SiO4) and HCO3−, thus suggesting the dissolution of chemical weathered products of silicate minerals. Further, in spring water, some concentration relationships were found: CNa+ = 376.5−2.05CCl− (R2=0.748), CNa+=12.69+0.5556CHCO3− (R2=0.872) and CH4SiO4=130.0 + 1.108CHCO3− (R2=0.816). Evidently, the spring water chemistry reflected probable geochemical changes in the soil layer of the watershed. Mass balance in the ecosystem and estimation of the spring water output of chemical weathered products were investigated

Gas Chromatographic Analysis of External Oil and Blackish Liquid Contents of Digestive Organs of Rhinoceros Auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata) in the Japan Sea.

We analyzed 44 Rhinoceros Auklets impacted by the oil spill along the Tsushima Warm Current off Shimane Prefecture, southern Japan Sea in January 1986. All of the carcasses had been oiled with an average of 128g oil weight (ranging from 12 to 300g), which accounted for an average of 31% (ranging from 4 to 72%) of the body mass, and with an average of 40% oiled area of the body surface with wings extended (ranging from 10 to 95%) (n=38). Among the 44 oiled birds, six birds had a few scales and/or vertebrae of fish in digestive organs, but the remaining 38 birds contained no food items. The non-oily blackish liquid contents were found in digestive organs from 34 birds, while blackish liquid was not found in either the esophagus, stomach or intestine of the remaining 10 birds. Neither the presence of the blackish liquid nor the volume found within the digestive organs were correlated with the weight or the area of the oil adhering to the body. This showed that the mortality of oiled birds was independent of the amount of oil adhering to the body and was also independent of the presence or volume of blackish liquid in digestive organs. The oil adhering to the body was detremined to be heavy oil; however, the blackish liquid from within the oiled birds differed greatly from the external oil as seen by gas chromatographic analysis and was considered not to be composed of the n-alkanes identified in the oil adhering to the body or in the oil spilled in the sea. The n-alkane distribution was, however, very similar in the lighter alkanes around C19 and in the phytane and pristane of biomarkers to the liquid contents found in the dead non-oiled bird of the same species washed up on a Pacific-facing beach in central Japan. Petroleum composition analyses, with large sample sizes, of alimentary liquid found in seabirds are needed to clarify the extent to which oil-pollution affects seabirds around Japan in areas that have experienced accidental oil spills and in those that have not.

Maria Kannon Zen: Explorations in Buddhist-Christian Practice

Maria Kannon is the name of a religious figurine that was venerated in certain areas inJapan during the period of Christian persecution. It was a time when civil authorities centered in the Tokugawa shogunate banned the practice of the Christian religion throughout the Japanese islands for various political reasons, and, in addition to expelling the foreign missionaries who had within a short time won so many adherents to this new Western religion, also forcibly closed Japan to virtually all contact with the outside world except through a small port in Kyushu, which remained accessible to Dutch traders.

Japon - Mexique : un cas spécifique de relations Nord-Sud

This article stress the emergence during 1980 by Japan of a new strategy in commercial exchanges with Mexico. Due to threats on hydrocarbon international market, Japan whose mastery of energy supply is the core of her economie security reacts very fast. Thus, at the initiative of Japan takes step towards Mexico who disposes of numerous attractions in economie and politic fields a process of perfect mutual specialization : hydrocarbons in conterpart of equipments goods and know-how. These are supplied by Japan in areas where it excels — steel industry, transportation infrastructures — to Mexico who has a great need of them.

Some Observations on Location of the Truck Farming in Japan

Although Japan's area hardly exceeds that of the State of California, U.S.A., the vegetable cultivation for metropolitan areas is flourishing exceedingly more in suburban districts than in tracts remote from market. After the War the truck farming has increased, but it does not surpass the market gardening as yet.The author studied the vegetable transportation problem of linear programming from the supply-demand relationships between producing districts and markets, and compared the program with the actual features. As a result the distance equilibrium based on transport expence found to be held, even on items which seem to be controlled by complicated local supply-demand relationship.In Japan there are four regions of concentrated population, which form centres of the biggest consumption. They are Tokyo-Yokohama, Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Nagoya, and Kita Kyushu regions. The number of vegetable growing districts are so many and scattered throughout the country, that competition for market is serious between market gardening and truck farming districts, and even among truck farmers themselves. When the cost of transportation to different markets are about the same, or the producing districts situated too far away from the markets, the choice of market tends to be decided by other factors than freight rates. However, the choice of market in this sense is very much limited.In Japan horticulture is practised in the tracts remote from the metropolitan areas. This is at least due to two fundamental reasons. One is to make use of peculiarly favoured natural conditions, the product made under different climates and soils from those at suburban districts, brings about farmers a great profit. The other is to make use of cheap cost of labour, by keeing farmers' own standard of living very low. There are many truck horticulture districts, in which natural conditions are no better than in suburban districts.

The Problems of the Utilization of Slope Lands in Japan

In Japan, where a dense population is crowded together on a few small plains, it is not surprising that the use of sloping land in the mountains, which comprise 67% of Japan's area, has been promoted in various ways. In some regions the cultivation of steep land is amazingly intense. In this essay, only upland fields of considerable slope are discussed. The categories treated are 1) the steep field as a special type of upland field, 2) the regional distribution of steep upland fields, and 3) the problems of their future development.1. Upland fields in general are subordinate in importance to paddy fields, but in some regions they are of first. importance. Broadly speaking, there are two sorts of upland fields, those on flat elevated land, and those on steep slopes. A survey was made in 1942 to classify upland fields by degree of slope, as follows : those with 5° of slope, those whith 5°-15°, and those with more than 15° of slope. Those in the latter category comprised about 50, 000 hectares, or nearly one-fifth of the total area of all upland fields. In fact, the greater part of these had a declivity of 20°-30°, and some reached 35° of slope. The soils of these fields, which comprise 2% of the mountain lands of Japan, are infertile lithosols.Figures 1 to 4 show the distribution of steep upland fields : Figure 1 ……the ratio of steep fields to all upland fields, by prefecture ;Figure 2 ……the ratio of upland fields to all cultivated fields ;Figure 3 ……the ratio of steep fields to all upland fields, by gun (district);Figure 4. ……the relative density of steep fielde to total area.The most important steep upland field regions are the mountainous regions in the Outer Zone of Southwest Japan, namely Shikoku and the Kii Peninsula ; the Inland Sea Region in the Inner Zone ; and peninsular regions of Kyushu. The mountainous regions of Central Japan are secondary to the above areas in importance.2. The development of steep upland fields has been mainly related to self-sufficient food crops both on intensively cultivated permanent fields and on the much less important extensively cultivated shifting fields. Two morphological types of land use are distinguished : a) use of the natural slope with no modification, a type prevalent in Central Japan, and d) modification by terracing, a type dominant in Southwest Japan.In the use of natural slopes, contour cultivation is strictly adhered to, and much organic material is added to maintain the soil fertility. The yield of crops such as barley, wheat and soy beans is higher on these fields than on terraced fields. Mulberry trees are grown in large areas, and in some localities the Konnyaku tuber (Amorphophallus konjac) is grown intercropped with barley. On terraced slope lands, bench terraces are constructed on the steeper slopes, an sloping terraces on the less steep slopes. Typical examples of these are seen in southwest Shikoku. The strong intensity of precipitation is one of the most important factors that make steep land cultivable only by making terraces. The main crops are barley and wheat in winter, and sweet potatoes in summer. These terraces are subject to soil erosion on the one hand, and to drought on the other, , resulting in meager yields of all crops except sweet potatoes.3. To improve the utilization of steep lands by agriculturists, it is necessary to plant profitable cash crops, such as sweet oranges, konnyaku tubers, and mulberry trees. The fundamental weakness, of steep upland field cultivation lies in the extensive cultivation of self-sufficient food crops, which require much labor per unit of area, and yield relatively little in return.