Metropolitan Area Of Japan Research Articles

The Present Problem of the Hokkaido Regional Economy and a Remedy: A Reform Plan of the Institution of Money and Finance by Using Hokkaido Community Currency

Hokkaido as a regional economy outside metropolitan areas in Japan has suffered many serious economic problems in the ‘two lost decades’ caused by the current trend of globalization of capitalistic market economies. For instance, prolonged depression, decline of local economies, disparity between urban and rural regions in term of the rate of bankruptcies and the rate of unemployment, and persistent interregional balance of payments were observed. Hokkaido is frequently advised to strengthen its secondary industries to lessen its big interregional deficit of payments, however, it seems to be out of date in our post-industrial age and irrelevant to the region whose major sectors are agriculture and tourism. The implicit assumptions of theory of comparative advantage that back up such a remedy are also examined. In order to give a theoretically possible answer to such problems, the present paper, based on evolutionist institutional design in terms of money and finance, proposes a new reform plan for creating Hokkaido Community Currency (HCC) for enhancing local production for local consumption and forming a more sustainable and ethical socioeconomy.

Do Automobility Cohorts Exist in Urban Travel?

This paper uses the results of household travel surveys from the Osaka metropolitan area in Japan from 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 to explore how automobility progression was influenced by the characteristics of automobility cohorts, the age of individuals, the time period, and the residential area. In this paper, three measures are used to examine automobility: household car ownership, automobile modal share, and auto travel time. An age–period–cohort–residential area model is also developed to describe which effects significantly explain automobility characteristics. The results of a statistical analysis offer ample evidence that automobility cohorts do exist and, along with residential area and age, have a great impact on household car ownership and auto use.

Modifiable Attribute Cell Problem and Solution Method for Population Synthesis in Land Use Microsimulation

Land use microsimulation requires the preparation of a set of microdata for the base year. Most existing procedures used for the synthesis of population data are based on the iterative proportional fitting method, in which the number of individuals in each cell of the cross-classification table is estimated. Such a procedure is referred to as the cell-based approach in this study. The approach is based on predefined categories of individuals. Originally, however, these individuals have continuous attributes. Therefore, a different type of categorization would yield a different classification table, which would change the end results of the analysis. In this paper, this phenomenon is referred to as the modifiable attribute cell problem (MACP). It is similar to the modifiable area unit problem that arises when spatial data are aggregated into zones. This paper addresses MACP and proposes a method to determine the best combination of the categories. The solution of MACP is considered to be the minimization of the number of cells in a table with respect to the key output variable that has been defined and used as an evaluation criterion. Because of the computational difficulty resulting from the combination explosion, symbiotic evolution, which is a kind of genetic algorithm, is used. Finally, a case study is presented for the Sapporo metropolitan area of Japan.

Geographic Trends and Spread of the Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in the Metropolitan Areas of Japan Studied from the National Sentinel Data

The identification of geographic trends of an influenza pandemic is important for analyzing its social epidemic factors. We performed spatiotemporal analyses focusing on the metropolitan areas in Japan by using the influenza-like illness (ILI) sentinel surveillance data for the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 and seasonal influenza. The epidemic curves and spread features expressed by the kriging method of geographic information system (GIS) and correlations between reported cases and demographic data were analyzed. The incidence of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 increased gradually at the beginning and showed more sporadic epidemic features compared to seasonal influenza. However, there were coincidental locations of patient clusters affected by the seasonal influenza, with a significant coefficient for the total sentinel reported cases (r = 0.71, P < 0.01). This suggested similar patterns of the epidemic over seasons. Patient clusters tended to be located in suburban areas, and there seemed to be stronger relationships between epidemics and higher ratio of larger families (with r = 0.26-0.35, P < 0.01, between ratio of families having more than 3 members and total reported cases in Tokyo and Nagoya areas). Whether populous areas had a greater probability of maintaining the epidemic patterns needs to be determined. Nonetheless, the patterns found in this study can be useful for further analyses for epidemic modeling and designing relevant controls.

Clinical characteristics of healthcare-associated pneumonia in a public hospital in a metropolitan area of Japan

Healthcare-associated pneumonia (HCAP) is a new category that is essential in the present aging society. Knowing the different characteristics and outcomes between patients with HCAP and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) would help physicians manage and treat HCAP patients. Although HCAP is thought to be heterogeneous in regions, there are no reports from a metropolitan area in Japan. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical findings of all consecutive pneumonia patients who required hospitalized care in our hospital between April 2006 and March 2010. There were 184 (35.0%) patients with HCAP and 342 (65.0%) patients with CAP. Previous hospitalization within 90days of the infection was the most common criterion for HCAP (63.0%). HCAP patients were significantly older than CAP patients (82.5 vs. 70.0years, P<0.001). The percentage of patients with poor functional status was higher in HCAP than CAP (64.0% vs. 26.6%, P<0.001). Hospital mortality was significantly higher in HCAP patients than in CAP patients (15.8% vs. 5.0%, P<0.001). Low levels of serum albumin (odds ratio, 0.126; 95% CI, 0.025-0.640; P=0.012) and high scores in the ADROP (age, dehydration, respiratory failure, orientation, and blood pressure) system (odds ratio, 2.846; 95% CI, 1.449-5.587; P=0.002) were the risk factors for HCAP mortality. In conclusion, patients with HCAP have different epidemiological characteristics compared with those with CAP in a metropolitan area of Japan. Outcomes and risk factors for mortality of patients with HCAP included poor nutritional status and high severity scores on the pneumonia severity scoring system.

Volatile Organic Compound Emission Factors from Road Traffic in a Highway Tunnel in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

Volatile Organic Compound Emission Factors from Road Traffic in a Highway Tunnel in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes: A comparative study between three metropolitan areas of Japan

Local spatial interaction between neighborhood land-use categories (i.e. neighborhood interaction) is an important factor which affects urban land-use change patterns. Therefore, it is a key component in cellular automata (CA)-based urban geosimulation models towards the simulation and forecast of urban land-use changes. Purpose of this paper is to interpret the similarities and differences of the characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of different metropolitan areas in Japan for providing empirical materials to understand the mechanism of urban land-use changes and construct urban geosimulation models. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes of three metropolitan areas in Japan, i.e. Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, were compared using such aids as the neighborhood interaction model and similarity measure function. As a result, urban land-use in the three metropolitan areas was found to have had similar structure and patterns during the study period. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction in urban land-use changes are quite different from land-use categories, meaning that the mechanism of urban land-use changes comparatively differs among land-use categories. Characteristics of neighborhood interaction reveal the effect of spatial autocorrelation in the spatial process of urban land-use changes in the three metropolitan areas, which correspond with the characteristics of agglomeration of urban land-use allocation in Japan. Neighborhood interaction amidst urban land-use changes between the three metropolitan areas generally showed similar characteristics. The regressed neighborhood interaction coefficients in the models may represent the general characteristics of neighborhood effect on urban land-use changes in the cities of Japan. The results provide very significant materials for exploring the mechanism of urban land-use changes and the construction of universal urban geosimulation models which may be applied to any city in Japan.

Goodness-of-Fit Evaluation Method for Agent-Based Household Microdata Sets Composed of Generalized Attributes

Microsimulation models of land use characterize attributes of a household and its location, referred to as microdata in this study. However, methods for evaluating the goodness of fit between estimated and observed sets of agent-based microdata have not been investigated extensively. Although the attributes of a household include various items, such as the relationship with the household head and ages of the members, housing type and spatial location, number of cars owned, and income, the attributes can be classified into general categories. The objective of the present study is to develop a goodness-of-fit evaluation method for agent-based household microdata sets composed of generalized attributes. First, a distance measure between the estimated and observed microdata for each household is defined. In this definition a generalized scheme is introduced, whereby attributes are structured by the household composition, attributes of the member, and attributes of the household as a whole. The goodness of fit is measured on the basis of the minimum sum of distances for all households in the study area. The calculation cannot be carried out with just a conventional algorithm for microdata of a typical size because the number of calculations increases in proportion to the factorial (N!) of the number (N) of agents. Therefore, a genetic algorithm, especially one using symbiotic evolution, is developed to solve the problem. The effectiveness of the method in regard to accuracy and calculation feasibility is confirmed by using person trip survey data for the Sapporo metropolitan area in Japan.

Land price maps of Tokyo Metropolitan Area

The spatial distribution of land price is indicative of the urban structure of a region. However, since most information on land price is in the form of point data and not area data, a certain process must be established for the creation of a land price map. The authors have already developed a computer-aided system that enables the creation of precise land price maps on the basis of residential land price data for metropolitan areas in Japan at low cost but with precision. In this paper, the system is applied to Tokyo metropolitan area and creates several land price maps using the officially assessed land prices provided by the Japanese government and data from the land price surveys conducted by prefectural governments.

Countermeasure Strategies against Traffic Congestion on Motorways in Japan

Due to excess demand, we encounter traffic congestion on motorways quite often at bottlenecks in the vicinity of metropolitan areas in Japan, mainly on holidays. The administrators of motorways have tackled this issue for more than four decades. At the beginning, they just tried to increase the number of lanes; however, widening of motorways requires huge construction costs and long periods. After the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, it became so difficult to broaden the existing motorways. To alleviate traffic congestion, they have introduced comparatively costless innovative attempts; however, those could not eradicate traffic congestion completely.This paper describes the advantageous effects of innovative attempts, methodologies and applied cases, such as traffic information system providing location of the traffic bottleneck to drivers to activate them to gain speed on the upgrade, using the variable message signs, or traffic demand management disseminating real-time traffic information (e.g., travel time, length of the queue) to drivers, resulting in mitigation of traffic congestion on motorways.In recent years, toll discount has been introduced on motorways as a pilot program; the situation of traffic congestion is getting worse. This paper also mentions a quick overview of the countermeasure strategies against traffic congestion and of the state of the congestion on motorways for a couple of decades.

首都圏の汚染状況と市民生活への影響

首都圏の汚染状況と市民生活への影響

Erratum to: Transmission of Specific Genotype Streptomycin Resistant Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosisin the Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

Erratum to: Transmission of Specific Genotype Streptomycin Resistant Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosisin the Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

A cointegration analysis of dynamic externalities

This paper presents a cointegration analysis on the effects of dynamic externalities upon economic growth using time-series data from 1975 to 2003 on the one-digit industries of the Tokyo metropolitan area in Japan. Some new time-series econometric methods that have been recently developed to conduct unit root and cointegration tests are used in the analysis, allowing for an endogenously determined structural change in the time period studied. It also proposes a new type of dynamic externalities, called Network dynamic externalities, to represent knowledge spillovers resulting from the whole agglomerated area via transportation networks, and shows that they have cointegrated relations with the total factor productivity (TFP) of the manufacturing, finance, wholesale and retail trade, as well as the overall industries. In addition, evidence is also found that Marshall–Arrow–Romer (MAR) dynamic externalities, which are associated with own industrial production concentration, affect the TFP of most industries selected for estimation. However, Jacobs dynamic externalities, which are represented by the diversity of industrial production, only contribute to the TFP of the services industry, and Porter dynamic externalities, which are expressed by the competitiveness within industries, do not influence the selected industrial TFP.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Network in a Metropolitan Area of Japan

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Network in a Metropolitan Area of Japan

The effect of information processing style on beliefs toward paranormal phenomena

A survey study was conducted to examine the effect of the information processing styles (rational processing vs. intuitive processing; Epstein, 1994) on the beliefs toward paranormal phenomena. Five-hundred and fifty Japanese citizens who reside in the metropolitan area in Japan were randomly selected and received the questionnaire, and 116 citizens responded. The information processing style was measured with the short version of Rational and Intuitive Information-Processing Style Inventory developed by Naito et al (2004). We also asked the participants to indicate the degree to believe the three kinds of paranormal phenomena; fortune telling (a horoscope and blood type fortune-telling, para-science (UFO and supernatural power, and conventional religion (gods or Buddha and curse. To examine the effect of the information processing style, we first divided the participants into 4 groups (high-rational and high-intuitive, high-rational and low-intuitive, low-rational and high-intuitive, and low-rational and low-intuitive), and submitted the ratings for the degree to believe the three kind of paranormal phenomena for 2 (high-rational vs. low-rational) x 2 (high-intuitive vs. low-intuitive) ANOVAs. The analyses revealed the significant interaction of rational processing and intuitive processing for fortune telling; the participants who were high-rational and low-intuitive believed the fortune telling less than other. Furthermore, a tendency for the main effect for para-science indicated that those who were high-rational believed para-science more than those who were low-rational. For conventional religion, no effect of information processing style was revealed. The discussion argued that these results were to some extent due to the social functions of three kinds of paranormal phenomena.

Speciation and Mobility Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Coastal Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Ash Landfill

Abstract In the metropolitan areas of Japan, coastal landfills have become a practical and main solution for the disposal of municipal solid waste incinerator ash (MSWIA) due to limited inland space. Leachate from the landfilled MSWIA contains many dissolved and suspended substances harmful to the surrounding environment, particularly heavy metals, such as lead, zinc, and cadmium. The mobility assessment of these heavy metals is therefore one of the important environmental issues for the coastal landfill. In this paper, modified batch tests were conducted to investigate the effects of pH and Eh changes on the mobility of heavy metals in both MSWIA and marine clay layer. Based on the speciation of heavy metals by using a sequential extraction method in the leachate-MSWIA and leachate-marine clay systems, heavy metal mobility and availability were discussed with the comparison to large-scale model test results presented by (Kamon et al. “Biochemical Effects on the Long-Term Mobility of Heavy Metals in Marine Clay at Coastal Landfill Sites,” J. ASTM Int., Vol. 3, 2006), which provides the long-term change in heavy metal concentrations and forms in the coastal MSWIA landfill site. Under the high pH (≈11) and low Eh (≈−200 mV) condition in the MSWIA-leachate system, Zn, Pb, and Cd were effectively immobilized by the formation of the reducible and oxidizable fractions of Zn and the oxidizable and residual (insoluble) fractions of Pb significantly. However, the potential mobility of Cd was relatively high since the formation of exchangeable compounds was more dominantly contributed to the immobilization. Test results on the speciation of the metals in the marine clay-leachate system accounts well for the evidence that the marine clay acts as the attenuation layer for heavy metals in leachate. These findings strongly support that heavy metal mobility is restricted in the coastal MSWIA landfill due to the formation of stable and insoluble forms under reduced-alkaline condition and the attenuation effect of the marine clay.

Transmission of Specific Genotype Streptomycin Resistant Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosisin the Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

BackgroundFrom 2003 through to 2004, an outbreak of tuberculosis was identified at a university campus in Yokohama City, located in the southern part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area (TMA). All Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) strains detected with regards to this outbreak turned out to be Streptomycin resistant with matched patterns of 14 IS6110 bands of Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). The M. tuberculosis bacilli, which had the matched IS6110 band patterns with resistance to Streptomycin to those of bacilli isolated in the outbreak, were also concurrently detected through either the population-based or the hospital-based DNA fingerprinting surveillance of M. tuberculosis either in Shinjuku City or in Kawasaki City respectively.The aim of the present study is to describe the spread of the specific genotype strains of M. tuberculosis in the TMA as observed in the above incident, and to identify the possible transmission routes of the strains among people living in urban settings in Japan.MethodsWe applied Variable Numbers of Tandem Repeats (VNTR) analysis to all M. tuberculosis isolates which were resistant to Streptomycin with a matched IS6110-RFLP band pattern (M-strains). They were isolated either from cases related to the tuberculosis outbreak that happened at a university, or through DNA fingerprinting surveillance of M. tuberculosis both in Shinjuku City and in Kawasaki City. For VNTR analysis, 12MIRU loci, 4ETR loci, seven loci by Supply, four loci by Murase (QUB15, Mtub24, VNTR2372, VNTR3336) were selected.ResultsOut of a total of 664 isolates collected during the study period, 46 isolates (6.9%) were identified as M-strains. There was a tendency that there was a higher proportion of those patients whose isolates belonged to M4-substrains, with four copies of tandem repeat at the ETR-C locus, to have visited some of the internet-cafés in the TMA than those whose isolates belonged to M5-substrains, with five copies at the ETR-C locus, although statistically not significant (38.1% vs. 10.0%, Exact p = 0.150).ConclusionAlthough firm conclusions could not be reached through the present study, it suggested that we have to take into consideration that tuberculosis can be transmitted in congregated facilities like internet cafés where tuberculosis high-risk people and general people share common spaces.

Genotoxic activation of the environmental pollutant 3,6-dinitrobenzo[e]pyrene in Salmonella typhimurium umu strains expressing human cytochrome P450 and N-acetyltransferase

3,6-Dinitrobenzo[e]pyrene (DNBeP) is a potent mutagen identified in surface soil in two metropolitan areas of Japan. We investigated whether DNBeP can cause genotoxicity through any metabolic activation pathway in bacteria using the parental strain Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. typhimurium) TA1535/pSK1002, nitroreductase (NR)-deficient strain NM1000, the O-acetyltransferase (O-AT)-deficient strain NM2000, bacterial O-AT-overexpressing strain NM2009, and bacterial NR- and O-AT-overexpressing strain NM3009 established in our laboratory. To further clarify the role of human cytochrome P450 (P450 or CYP) and N-acetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes in the bioactivation of DNBeP to genotoxic metabolites, we determined the genotoxicity of DNBeP using a variety of umu tester strains expressing human P450 and NAT enzymes. The dose-dependent induction of umuC by DNBeP was observed at concentrations between 0.01 and 1nM in the O-AT-expression strain, but not in the O-AT-deficient strain. In the CYP3A4-, CYP1A2-, CYP1A1-, and CYP1B1-expressing strains, DNBeP was found to be activated to reactive metabolites that cause the induction of umuC gene expression compared with the parent strain. The induction of DNBeP in the NAT2-expressing strain had a 10-fold lower concentration than that in the NAT1-expressing strain. Collectively, these results suggest that nitroreduction by human CYP1A2, CYP3A4, and CYP1A1 and O-acetylation by human NAT2 contributed to the genotoxic activation of DNBeP to its metabolites.

Evaluation of ETBE in Biogasoline as a Marker for Tracking Distribution Routes of Gasoline

Biogasoline, which contains 7 vol% of bio-ETBE (ethyl t-butyl ether), began circulating in the Metropolitan area of Japan on April 27, 2007. Among 44,000 gas stations in Japan, biogasoline is currently sold only in 100 gas stations. Name and location of these 100 gas stations are disclosed. If biogasoline is truly sold only in these gas stations, tracking a gasoline sample back to its retailer will be possible; when ETBE is detected in a gasoline sample, it is certain that the sample was sold in one of the 100 gas stations. Biogasoline was collected in the end of June, September, December 2007 and March 2008 from gas stations of 3 different brands in Chiba prefecture, and its color, density, composition and concentration of ETBE were analyzed. Regular gasoline was also collected from gas stations of the same 3 brands for comparison. GC/MS analysis revealed that biogasoline of 3 different brands was identical, suggesting that adulteration of biogasoline by mixing with regular gasoline was not carried out. ETBE was not detected from any sample of regular gasoline at all. Absence of ETBE in regular gasoline indicates that handling of biogasoline was strictly regulated, making the tracking of biogasoline sample back to its retailer possible.

日本とオランダにおける地下水，湧水の水質の比較研究

The quality of shallow groundwater and spring water was investigated in two study areas in central Japan and central Netherlands, which are considered to have many contrasting geographical features. Human activities and their backgrounds were also investigated to clarify genealogically the relationships between land-water quality and surrounding human activities. The study areas are located in the eastern part of Tokyo Metropolitan area in Japan (referred to as JP) and between the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht in the Netherlands (NL). An additional small area (Js) within the JP area was also selected to supplement shallow groundwater quality in the area. For each study area, 105 water samples were selected from data collected, sources of which included field data, a web-accessible database and a published thesis. Major inorganic ion concentrations and latitude/longitude/altitude information were collected for the selected water samples. In each study area, 7 classes of 15 samples were based on total major inorganic ion concentrations, and the values of data collected were averaged within the classes. The class-averaged values of ion concentrations and of latitude/longitude/altitude are shown and trends observed in each area are described. Common factors and differences among study areas are: •The conditions controlling class distributions in both JP (incl. Js) and NL areas are considered to be the same in terms of regional structures. Differences in source and residence time of groundwater along with altitude largely control distributions, and horizontal differences in land use have small effects in addition. •General characteristics as well as ways ion-balances and latitude/longitude locations change along with classes differ among study areas. One cause is the existence of brackish groundwater in NL. The other is considered to be the difference in land-use allocation and associated water-use mixture in terms of their patterns. The above two causes of differences are linked, incorporating the fact that shallow groundwater from recent precipitation is present in areas where the land is drained and groundwater is disturbed by human activities. In conclusion, the formation of class distributions in both JP (incl. Js)and NL areas is strongly related to land-use allocation and associated water-use mixture. Differences in land use in terms of altitude are greater than those in terms of horizontal distribution, which led to the common regional structures controlling distributions.