Vol.63 No.3 (2011)

Contents

Article

KAGAWA Takashi
The Separation of Parents and Their Adult Children in an Aging Society with Below Replacement Fertility: A Case Study of Senri New Town in the Northwest Part of Suita City, Osaka Prefecture 1

Reviews

A survey of Geographical Studies in Japan 2010 21

Research Note

GOTO Takuya
Locational Changes of Production Facilities in China by Japanese Food Firms
: The Cases of Two Japanese Frozen Food Firms 70

Meeting Reports

123rd Meeting of Historical Geography 87
39th Meeting of Metropolitan Area Studies 88

Announcement 93

Abstracts

KAGAWA Takashi
Faculty of Education, Kyoto University of Education

This paper investigates aspects of the separation of parents and their adult children associated with public and private housing condominiums in Senri New Town, located about 10km north of the city center of Osaka. Senri New Town is a joint public-private housing complex that was first built in the late 1960s. Surveys were conducted in twenty public rental condominium buildings which were about 45 years old, and also three private owner-occupied condominium buildings which were less than 10 years old.
In the public rental housing, many of the original tenants were still living in their condominium apartments and by now they had adult children with families of their own. But in some cases, condominium households were younger people who had parents living outside of Senri New Town, either in other parts of Osaka Prefecture or the larger Kinki Region of Japan. Consequently, the survey focused on whether the children were living far apart or close-by to their parents and also the type and strength of formal connections and informal visiting patterns. For instance, were there any differences between visiting patterns between the wife and her parents in contrast to the husband and his parents? What were the implications for aging parents that had only one child when they needed medical care? A similar questionnaire was conducted in the private sector owner-occupied condominium buildings.
The results indicated that adult children lived apart from their parents in both types of housing. In terms of visiting patterns, ‘visits from children to parents’ occurred more than ‘visits from parents to the children’. Shorter the distances between the two types of households were associated with more visits between parents and their children during the year.
In the case of parents living in public rental housing buildings, there were cases where their adult children also resided nearby in Senri New Town. But in some instances the children’s new homes were located further away outside of Osaka Prefecture, and in these cases parents often visited their adult children at the time of their grandchildren’s school athletic meetings. On the other hand, longer distances led to visits from the children back to their parents homes only ‘once a month’ or just ‘only in the summer and at New Year festivals.’
In the case of adult children living in Senri New Town and where their parents lived elsewhere in Osaka Prefecture, the frequency of visit contact between the wife and her parents was higher than those between the husband and his parents. But where the parents lived further away, outside of the Kinki Region, the frequency of visits between the husband and his parents was higher than between the wife and her parents.
In the case of links between parents and daughters, the purpose of visits was tied to ‘nursing parents’ by the daughter, and ‘grandchild nurturing support’ from the parents.
In summary, the need to maintain contact between parents and their aged children was strong, and in the future the supply of housing in Japan needs to take this into account, especially to reduce the costs of nursing aged parents.

Key Words: aging society with a declining birthrate, nearby parents and adult children separation, public rental housing, condominium, Senri New Town.

Locational Changes of Production Facilities in China by Japanese Food Firms: The Cases of Two Japanese Frozen Food Firms

GOTO Takuya
Faculty of Humanities and Economics, Kochi University

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how Japanese frozen food firms restructure their production facilities in China. This mechanism represents the restructuring of food production areas in China under the food security and safety issues in recent years. The results of this analysis are summarized as follows:
In China, the number of direct investments by Japanese food firms has increased significantly since the 1990s. Prior to this, Japanese food firms had concentrated their investments in the areas close to Japan, in particular Shandong and Liaoning Provinces. However, in recent years, some of these firms have dispersed investments to the southern part of China, in particular to Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces. Moreover, some of these firms are investing in new facilities for selling products in the Chinese market. There are a variety of the locational strategies taken by Japanese food firms.
The locational strategies used by Japanese frozen food firms were examined through the cases of two typical firms (Companies K and L). The contrast in these two firms’ strategies results from differences in the timing of their investments and the type of products produced in China. Until the 1990s, it was efficient for them to concentrate their facilities in areas close to Japan. Since the 2000s, however, several firms like Company L have dispersed facilities to the south to reduce off-crop seasons and production risks because of the increasing requests for food security and safety in the Japanese market.
The changes in the locational strategies by Companies K and L were examined in detail. Company K has concentrated production at large-scale facilities in Shandong Province to intensify the quality control system of their products. Moreover, Company K developed new production facilities in Japan to improve the reliability of their products. On the other hand, Company L has established a risk reduction system not only by dispersing facilities, but also by replacing Chinese brokers with Company L’s own farms. That is to say, these two firms’ locational changes have resulted from developments of quality and risk control systems against the food security and safety issues in China.
To satisfy Japanese consumers’ demands for food security and safety, the locational strategies taken by Companies K and L have been much alike in character since the 2000s. In conclusion, the strategies used by Japanese frozen food firms have been affected not only by cost factors, but also gradually by quality and security and safety factors.

Key words: agribusiness, frozen food firms, foreign direct investments, production facilities in China, locational strategies in China, firm’s own farms