Makoto Tsukai

Exploring Potential Use of Mobile Phone Data Resource to Analyze Inter-regional Travel Patterns in Japan

In Japan, Inter-Regional Travel Survey gives rich information to researchers and transportation planners. The current survey data was conducted in 2010, and the newest survey data collected in 2015 will be available soon. This national survey is mainly based on the on-site questionnaire survey which requires an enormous budget and spends so much time to finalize and publish the data result. Recently, ubiquitous mobile computing and the big data give us new opportunities for exploring a new type of data resource besides the traditional survey data. This study clarifies the deviation of cell phone data at aggregated origin-destination level of inter-regional trip flows, compared with the traditional on-site passenger survey. Also, the mechanisms of inter-regional trip generation are explained through travel patterns by a classification tree analysis, one of the big data mining classification algorithms.

Business service location with spatially stochastic demands: agglomeration economies generated by interaction costs and localized uncertain demand – an optimal stock location model approach

The contributions in this volume extend our understanding about the different ways distance impacts the knowledge conversion process. Knowledge itself is a raw input into the innovation process which can then transform it into an economically useful output such as prototypes, patents, licences and new companies. New knowledge is often tacit and thus tends to be highly localized, as indeed is the conversion process. Consequently, as the book demonstrates, space or distance matter significantly in the transformation of raw knowledge into beneficial knowledge.

Taxation Policies for Promoting Fuel-Efficient Vehicle Ownership and Use

This study evaluates the effects of taxation policies on promoting fuel-efficient vehicle ownership and use. Ownership is described as choice of vehicle type based on a paired combination logit (PCL) model and use is represented by a copula-based multivariate survival (CMS) model that includes both holding duration and annual distance traveled. To estimate the integrated model, the PCL model is first estimated and then incorporated into the CMS model. Policy effects are evaluated by calculating changes in CO2 emissions under different taxation policies. An empirical analysis was conducted of data from a questionnaire survey in the Chugoku region of Japan in 2006. Through the simulation analysis of vehicle-related taxes, it is found that increasing the fuel tax is the most effective means of reducing CO2 emissions, followed by the auto tax and weight tax collected at vehicle inspections. Moreover, it is further observed that, contrary to our expectation, increasing the acquisition tax actually leads to an increase in CO2 emissions.

Interregional Tourism Demand and Destination Management

The tourism market in Asian countries has grown rapidly every year, partially because of increasing household income and improvements in interregional transportation infrastructure. Analyses of nationwide tourism markets are, however, very limited because of a lack of data. Taking Japan as an example, this study evaluates the influence of improving interregional transportation infrastructure (including MAGLEV) on tourism demand in all the regions of Japan, focusing on trip generation, trip distribution, trip duration, and travel mode choice. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of the following destination management policies promoting regional tourism to different population groups: the integration of tourism resources among neighboring areas of major destinations, the policy of providing novel experiences to tourists from distant places, and coordination between transportation modes to encourage tourism.

Continuity of CBD housing by using a duration model for the housing period

In this study, continuity of CBD housing is analyzed by using duration model for CBD housing period. The expected CBD housing period in future is calculated for household characteristics, former housing location, house ownership, and for the generation of household representative, based on the estimated duration model. As the result of analysis, the categories with longer CDB housing period in future are the house owners with 25 -29 generation of household representative and the tenants with over 55 generation, while the category with shorter CDB housing period is the tenants with under 40 generation.

Local Airport Usage from Wider Are Affected by Access Service

In Japan, aviation service become main mode for the long-distance passenger trips. Many passengers now use flights from a little separated airport from origin area if higher frequency is available than from the nearest airport. In this research, the net passenger trip data (1995) is aggregated to clarify the actual use of airports in local areas. Next, logit models selecting route from (1) direct flight, (2) flight with longer surface access and (3) whole railway route are estimated for each trip purpose. It shows that frequency is an important path selection factor especially for business passengers. After clarifying the use of each airport in Chugoku Region, a simulation about the access improvement to the Hiroshima airport is performed, and the increase of the use from the wider surrounding city zones is analyzed.

Analysis of Branch Office Structure by the Establishment and Enterprise Census

This study compared the inter-city business network structure in 1991 and 2001, by using the establishment and enterprise census. In order to clarify the change in number of employees per customers, the relationship between employees on the inter-city business structure and estimated business network is analyzed and compared in 1991 and 2001. It was shown that the headquarters of nation-wide firms increased in Tokyo, but they decreased in the surrounding area. Further, the number of employees per customers in 2001 was fewer than that in 1991 at the identical branch function level. It means an employee in 2001 can supervise much number of customers than 1991.

Longitudinal Analysis on Inter-regional Information Interaction

We modified the inter-regional business interaction model proposed in our previous paper, which considers substitutability and complementarity between face to face communication and telecommunication, and applied the model to longitudinal inter-regional interaction data. In 1990s, the telecommunication cost was remarkably reduced to 1/2 to 1/5 levels, but the telephone traffics did not increase accordingly. We clarified that the effect oftransportation cost, inter-regional business administrative relation are stable on the inter-regional interaction in different time points. Centralities of both cities became insignificant for the interaction, and it may result the stable trend of the telephone traffics.