This paper discusses enactment and enforcing processes of the Japanese renewables Feed in Tariff (FIT) Law and its amendment of 2017. Thanks to the introduction FIT in 2012, the installed capacity of renewable energy is growing rapidly. As of 2015, the renewable electricity ratio in the generated electric power amount of Japan is 14.6 percent. Meanwhile, the levy burden (surcharge) reached JPY 2.1 trillion (aprx. USD18.7 billion). Through the enactment process of the FIT Law, the upper limit of the burden initially determined by the Japanese Diet was removed. A fundamental measure could not be taken to control the installation and the burden since the law does not allow for revisions on the system based on the results of renewable installation, even if the financial burden increases rapidly. Therefore, the Japanese Diet weakened the efficiency of the FIT Law in Japan.

Multichannel sales strategies are now very popular owing to the prevalence of the Internet, which makes it much easier for manufacturers to engage in direct sales. Because direct channels, including catalogs and the Internet, compete against, substitute for, or complement conventional retail channels, finding the best way to utilize them in conjunction with retail channels continues to be a challenge for many firms. Specifically, multiple channels give rise to channel conflict when the channels compete for almost the same market with substitutable products. To avoid this channel conflict, some manufacturers, such as Daimler, Nikon, and Rubbermaid, have used the Internet as a medium to provide information about their products and/or to point users of the Internet to the nearest retailer carrying the product, but without offering the product for sale directly over the Internet. Dell, which is arguably the most successful Internet marketer in the personal computer market, opened kiosk locations in shopping malls across the US from 2002, and has operated full-scale manufacturer-owned stores since late 2006. However, in 2008, Dell shut down all of its kiosks in the US and instead expanded into retail stores, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Furthermore, IBM redirects orders taken at ibm.com to its distributors in an attempt to mitigate the conflict, and HP gives their intermediaries a commission fee for orders placed online. In the context of multichannel management, the question of to what degree a manufacturer should set a direct price to coordinate all channels has commanded significant attention from both academic and practical viewpoints. However, marketing research addressing when a manufacturer should determine the direct price is missing from the existing literature, although it is a critical practical issue for manufacturers that adopt a multichannel sales strategy. Given the current status of the literature, this paper investigates the optimal timing of pricing by a manufacturer managing two types of marketing channel, a retail channel and a direct channel, using a dynamic noncooperative game framework. Traditionally, analytical marketing models describing channel conflict between these two channels examine price competition where the retail and direct prices are established simultaneously. In contrast to this conventional approach, our model demonstrates that such a simultaneous price competition never arises if the manufacturer and retailer can choose not only the level of price, but also the timing of pricing. If the manufacturer has sold products wholesale to a retailer presuming that the manufacturer will set the direct price before the retailer prices, the retailer accelerates the timing of retail pricing prior to the direct price setting by the manufacturer. Our findings suggest that the manufacturer should post the direct price before or upon, but not after, selling products wholesale to a retailer. Such upfront posting of the direct price not only constitutes the unique subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (SPNE) of the noncooperative game between channel members, but also maximizes profits for the manufacturer. The logic behind this outcome is as follows. If the manufacturer determines the Despite the significant amount of marketing research on multichannel management, an overview of the literature suggests that research incorporating the choice of optimal pricing timing into channel operation issues is completely lacking, despite the fact that the timing for posting the direct price is a crucial problem for manufacturers. That is, the existing marketing literature treats the order of moves of channel members as exogenously given, which is rather surprising because each member is expected to maximize its own profits in the context of a standard price-setting game. From a multichannel management perspective, this paper addresses the issue of the endogenous order of moves by adopting the established observable delay game framework (e.g., Hamilton and Slutsky 1990). Therefore, it is worth noting that the present paper is the first to introduce the idea of endogenous choice of decision timing in the field of marketing research. Our findings imply that the addition of a direct channel and the posting of a direct price after the sale of a substantial number of products through a traditional retail channel—a common multichannel strategy in practice—is inferior from the viewpoint of overall profit maximization. If a manufacturer employs such a strategy, it fails to coordinate the marketing channels and to maximize the channel profits. Indeed, as noted at the beginning of this section, many dominant manufacturers in various industries have withdrawn their direct channels. Our model effectively explains such real cases, providing useful managerial insights for business practitioners.

The mean global surface temperatures have increased since the late 19th century by approximately 0.3-0.6 o C (IPCC, 2007). The linear warming trend over the last 50 years is nearly double that of the last 100 years. The impact of climate warming on insects was studied using the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula as a model insect. This bug is known as a cosmopolitan agricultural pest that damages diverse crop plants worldwide. Effects of climate warming on insects include distribution, abundance, phenology, voltinism, physiology, behaviour, and community structure. It should be noted here that climate warming affects insects not only directly but also indirectly through interaction of species in ecosystem. 1. Northward range expansion of N. viridula in Japan. Past and current limits of the distribution range of N. viridula were compared (Tougou et al., 2009). It was found that the climate warming promoted northward range expansion of N. viridula by providing favourable overwintering conditions close to the specie’s range limit. The past and the current limits of the distribution range of N. viridula in central Japan were investigated. In the early 1960s, the northern limit of the species’ range was in Wakayama Prefecture and was limited by a +5 o C isothermal line for the mean January temperature. Forty five years later (2006–2007), a new survey in Wakayama and five neighbouring prefectures demonstrated that this northern limit shifted northward by 85km, at a rate of 19.0km/decade. The shift northward was likely promoted by milder winter conditions. The mean January–February temperature in the region was 1.03–1.91ºC higher in 1998–2007 than in 1960–1969. In the 1960s, the mean January temperature exceeded +5 ºC only in Wakayama city, but by now it has surpassed +5 ºC in Osaka and Tsu cities, located further north (52 and 59 km respectively), which corresponds to the current distribution of N. viridula. The number of cold days (with mean temperature below +5ºC) also significantly decreased, while the annual lowest temperature significantly increased. N. viridula was found mostly at or close to those locations where (1) the mean January temperature exceeded +5ºC, (2) the mean number of cold days did not exceed 26 during January–February, and (3) where the mean annual lowest temperature did not drop below –3.0 ºC. The general linear model shows that the mean January temperature and number of cold days are the most important factors controlling the northern limit of distribution of N. viridula. All the climatic data suggest that over the last 45 years environmental conditions have become more favourable for overwintering of N.viridula at many locations in central Japan. This has likely promoted the northward spread of the species, representing the direct response of the species to climate warming. A sympatrically distributed congeneric N. antennata is responding to the warming by retreat from the ocean coast towards cooler elevated habitats, which might be a complex response to elevated temperature and interspecific mating with N. viridula. This range expansion of N. viridula is now accelerating the extinction of N. antennata by the infertile interspecific copulation. 2. Ecophysiological responses of N. viridula to simulated warming. The effect of simulated climate change on N. viridula was studied close to the species’ northern range limit in Japan (Musolin et al., 2010). Insects from the same egg masses were reared for 15 months in 10 consecutive series under quasi-natural (i.e. outdoor) conditions and in a transparent incubator, in which climate warming was simulated by adding 2.5ºC to the outdoor temperature. The warming strongly affected all life-history and phenological parameters. In the spring, the simulated warming advanced the timing of body colour changes and post-diapause reproduction. In the early summer, it increased egg production and accelerated nymphal development. In the late summer (the hottest season), the effect of the simulated warming was strongly deleterious: nymphs developed slowly, suffered higher mortality and had difficulties during final moulting; the emerged females were smaller, some exhibited abnormal cuticle, produced fewer eggs and had a decreased life span. Our current studies are going to clarify that such an adverse effect of high temperature is caused by the decrease in bacterial symbiont which is harboured in the midgut of stink bugs. As in many phytophagous heteropteran species, N. viridula possesses a number of sac-like outgrowths, called crypts, in a posterior section of the midgut, wherein a specific bacterial symbiont is harbored. In previous studies on N. viridula from Hawaiian populations, experimental elimination of the symbiont caused little fitness defects in the host insect (Prado, et.al., 2006, Prado et al., 2009). N. viridula from Japanese populations consistently harbor the same gammaproteobacterial gut symbiont. However, in this case, contrary to the previous works, experimental sterilization of the symbiont resulted in severe nymphal mortality, indicating an obligate host-symbiont relationship (Tada et al., 2011). Considering the worldwide host-symbiont association and those experimental data, N. viridula is considered to be generally and obligatorily associated with the gut symbiont, while the symbiont effect on the host performance may be different among geographic populations. In the autumn, the warming accelerated nymphal development, resulted in larger female size, affected the timing of the diapause-associated adult body colour change from green to russet and enhanced preparation for overwintering. Larger females had higher winter survival rate than smaller females. The warming strongly increased survival rate in both size classes and allowed smaller females to reach the same winter survival rate as larger females had under the quasi-natural conditions. The winter survival also differed between the green and dark-coloured females under the quasi-natural, but not under the warming conditions. However, under the warming conditions, green females survived the winter even better than dark-coloured females did under the quasi-natural conditions. Moreover, the warming shortened the life span of females from the summer generations and prolonged it in those from the autumn generation. It is concluded that even a moderate temperature increase (+2.5 ºC) in the future is likely to have a complex influence upon insects, strongly affecting many of their life-history and phenological parameters.

It is widely believed that diversity of soil animals are poorer in the tropical zone than in the temperate zone. Is this right? Then, I compared Asian oribatid faunae of the following localities: a tropical lowland rain forest in Pasoh Forest Reserve (Peninsular Malaysia), a subtropical forest in Yunnan Province (China), warm temperate forest in Chiba, a cool temperate forest in Sapporo (Japan), and in a taiga in arctic zone in Siberia (Russia). Samplings in a primary forest and in a 40-year secondary forest, which were 2 ha each and adjacent to each other, showed about 100 oribatid species there. Total species number was estimated at 135 to 150 with Jackknife method. This shows that the species diversity of oribatids are rich in tropics as compared with that in the temperate Japan. Oribatid species richness was even lower in Siberia (Yakutsk) than in Japan. These indicate that oribatid diversity in tropics is higher than in other areas of higher latitudes. Analyses based on Motomura's geometric series rule showed that the inclination became steeper with latitude, also suggesting that a high species diversity in the tropics. Although the number of families did not change greatly with latitude, a DCA analysis showed that composition of families was related with latitude. It was shown that a low latitude area has many winged oribatid mites, such as Haplozetidae, Protoribatidae, and Galumnidae, with many primitive groups in a high latitude area, such as Brachychthoniidae and Hypochthoniidae.

Several boride sintered bodies such as , , and were previously reported. In the present study, the sinterability and physical properties of chromium boride containing chromium carbide sintered bodies were investigated in order to determine its new advanced material. The samples were sintered at desired temperature for 1 hour in vacuum under a pressure by hot pressing. The relative density of sintered bodies was measured by Archimedes' method. The relative densities of addition of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mass% composites were 92 to 95%. The Vickers hardness of the with 10 and 15 mass% composites were about 14 and 15 GPa at room temperature, respectively. The Vickers hardness at high temperature of the addition of 10 mass% composite decreased with increasing measurement temperature. The Vickers hardness at 1273 K of the sample was 6 GPa. The Vickers hardness of addition of composites was higher than monolithic sintered body. The powder X-ray diffraction analysis detected CrB and phases in containing composites.

Mechanical properties of metal injection molded titanium and titanium alloy parts were investigated in this study. Material powders with low oxygen content and spherical shape were obtained by electrode induction-melting gas atomization which could melt and atomize titanium and titanium alloy bars with no touch on crucible or tundish. Tensile specimens were fabricated from obtained powders by metal injection molding process. Tensile strength of the specimens increases with increasing oxygen content. This result corresponds to a tendency of wrought metal.

WC-TiC-TaC binderless cemented carbide was oxidized under low partial pressure of oxygen (50ppm) at 873K for 1 to 20 h. Surface roughness was measured using atomic force microscope, and effect of TiC amount on oxidation behavior of the carbide was investigated. WC phase was oxidized more easily than WC-TiC-TaC solid solution phase. With an increase in TiC amount, WC-TiC-TaC phase increased and the oxidation resistance of the carbide increased.

The effect of TiC content on oxidation behavior of the sintered WC-TiC-TaC alloys with 2 mass% TaC and different TiC amounts of 3-45 mass% was investigated through oxidation tests in air at 973K. As a result of the tests, it was revealed that with increasing TiC content in the alloys, mass changes caused by oxidation and thickness of the scale decreased. Thus, it is considered that the main component of the scales changed gradually from to with increasing TiC content in the alloys, and oxygen diffusion through the scale to the alloys was inhibited gradually.

We have studied the effect of C/Ti atomic ratio of TiCx (x=0.5, 0.75 and 1.0) raw powder on the properties of the Ti-Mo-WTiC sintered hard alloy. The decrease of C/Ti atomic ratio accelerated the densification in the sintering process. The hardness was remarkably improved up to 1350HV with decreasing the C/Ti atomic ratio because of increase of TiCx phase volume content and its fine dispersion. From the results of electro-chemical tests in acid and 3% NaCl solutions, it was obvious that every alloy had excellent corrosion resistance, which meant about 200 times better than that of WC-Co cemented carbide.

Anomalies in the far-infrared [C II] 158 μm line emission observed in the central one-kiloparsec regions of spiral galaxies are reviewed. Low far-infrared intensity ratios of the [C II] line to the continuum were observed in the center of the Milky Way, because the heating ratio of the gas to the dust is reduced by the soft interstellar radiation field due to late-type stars in the Galactic bulge. In contrast, such low line-to-continuum ratios were not obtained in the center of the nearby spiral M31, in spite of its bright bulge. A comparison with numerical simulations showed that a typical column density of the neutral interstellar medium between illuminating sources at hv ~ 1 eV is NH ≲ 1021 cm-2 in the region; the medium is translucent for photons sufficiently energetic to heat the grains but not sufficiently energetic to heat the gas. This interpretation is consistent with the combination of the extremely high [C Il]/CO J = 1-0 line intensity ratios and the low recent star-forming activity in the region; the neutral interstellar medium is not sufficiently opaque to protect the species even against the moderately intense incident UV radiation. The above results were unexpected from classical views of the [C II] emission, which was generally considered to trace intense interstellar UV radiation enhanced by active star formation.