Showing papers by "Musashi University published in 2002"

Interactions between fleshy fruits and frugivores in a tropical seasonal forest in Thailand

Abstract: Large frugivores are considered to be important seed dispersers for many tropical plant species. Their roles as seed dispersers are not well known in Southeast Asia, where degraded landscapes typically lack these animals. Interactions between 259 (65 families) vertebrate-dispersed fruits and frugivorous animals (including 7 species of bulbul, 1 species of pigeon, 4 species of hornbill, 2 species of squirrel, 3 species of civet, 2 species of gibbon, 1 species of macaque, 2 species of bear, 2 species of deer, and 1 species of elephant) were studied for 3 years in a tropical seasonal forest in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. The purpose was to examine the dietary overlaps among the large frugivores and the characteristics of fruits they consumed. Most fruit species are eaten by various kinds of frugivores; no close relationship between a particular fruit and a frugivore was found. The number of frugivore groups that served a given plant species was negatively correlated with seed size. Additionally, the fruit/seed diameters consumed by bulbuls were significantly smaller than consumed by the other nine groups. These trends of fruit characteristics were consistent with those observed elsewhere in Southeast Asia: small fruits and large, soft fruits with many small seeds are consumed by a wide spectrum of frugivores while larger fruits with a single large seed are consumed by relatively few potential dispersers. Importantly, these large, single-seed fruits are not consumed by the small frugivores that thrive in small forest fragments and degraded areas in Southeast Asia. To insure the natural seed dispersal process in the forest, an evaluation of all frugivore groups in the forest is urgently needed in Southeast Asia.

Japanese Multinational Enterprises: The Paradox of High Efficiency and Low Profitability

Abstract: The fundamental characteristic of Japanese MNEs is revealed in the paradox between their high-performance operational efficiency, as reflected in quality control and inventory management, on the one hand, and their low-performance profitability, on the other. The key to unraveling this paradox lies in the organizational features of those Japanese corporations that emphasize the accumulation and utilization of managerial resources to increase operational efficiency. The paradox and the type of business management are characteristics that Japanese corporations at home and abroad share. Moreover, features that have come to be considered characteristic of Japanese MNEs, such as the high ratio of Japanese expatriates, a home country-oriented style of management, and the importance of informal information networks, have a common root with the paradox. These features can be explained by the endeavors of Japanese MNEs to compensate for the insufficient transfer of their organizational characteristics which are preconditions for high operational efficiency.

A cost-benefit analysis of enlarging the japanese judicial system

Abstract: TOMIO KINOSHITA (*) I. INTRODUCTION This article presents a cost-benefit analysis of enlarging the Japanese judicial system. It is widely known that the Japanese judicial system is very small. Compared with its gross domestic product (GDP) ([yen]439 trillion) and population (130 million), the numbers of judges, public prosecutors, and lawyers in 1990 were 2823, 1173, and 14,173 respectively (see Table 1). The shortage of judges constrains the supply of judicial services. This will cause delay of trials, which means high trial costs because the discounted present value of a trial decreases. The increase of judges will increase the supply of judicial services and shorten trial time. However, it will raise the budget of the judicial system. So, the optimal size of the system should be determined by the familiar condition that the marginal cost and the marginal benefit of its input are equal. If the marginal benefit is larger, the judicial system should be expanded. The Coase theorem (Coase, 1960) states that the initial allocation of legal entitlements does not matter from an efficiency perspective so long as the transaction costs of the exchange are nil. In this view, the lower the transaction costs, the more efficient is the allocation of resources. As the cost of litigation is an important part of transaction costs, it is very important for the judicial system to be the optimal size. This article is organized as follows. In section II, the court system of Japan is illustrated briefly. In section III, the framework of the model is explained. The model focuses on the civil section of District Courts (CSDC), which are the main part of the judicial system from the economic point of view. In section IV, a simple econometric model is constructed and estimated. Then, using the estimated model, the author calculates the effects of increase of judges on the supply of judicial services and the trial time. In section V, a cost-benefit calculation is done. In section VI, brief conclusions are given. The main conclusion is to recommend enlarging the Japanese judicial system by more than double. II. THE ORGANIZATION OF JAPANESE COURTS A. The Court System of Japan Figure 1 illustrates the Japanese court system. It consists of 1 supreme court, 8 high courts, 50 district courts, 50 family courts, and 575 summary courts. The Supreme Court of Japan (SCJ) has the central role in the judicial system. First, final judgments on constitutional cases are made by the SCJ. Second, the SCJ controls the whole court system (the appointment of new judges, personnel changes, the allocation of judges, etc.). Third, the management of the national law school (Shiho-kenshusho), at which all prospective judges, prosecutors, and lawyers must study for two years after passing the bar examination, is directly under the SCJ. There are high courts in eight major cities. One district court and one family court are in every prefecture except Hokkaido, which has four district courts and four family courts. The 575 summary courts are dispersed in both larger and smaller cities. Usually the first action is brought to a district court, family court, or summary court. Civil cases for monetary value of a suit (MVS, Sogaku) (1) exceeding [yen]900 thousand and serious criminal cases are brought to the district court. Small claims and minor criminal cases are brought to the summary court. Cases concerning domestic relations and juvenile delinquency are brought to the family court. If either side (plaintiff or defendant) disagrees with the judgment of the first trial, they can appeal to an upper court. Further, if either side disagrees with that judgment, they can appeal to a next upper court. The second appeal is the last. So a case can be tried three times at maximum. B. The Size of the Japanese Court System To describe the size of the Japanese court system, it is useful to see two indices, which are the total number of cases and the aggregate of MVS. …

The OAS Approach and the Martingale Measure for Mortgage Prepayment

Abstract: The option-adjusted spread (OAS) is a standard measure in evaluation of mortgage-backed securities. In calculating the OAS, a prepayment model is incorporated to generate prepayment cashflows, however, no attention has been paid to a prepayment process and its associated probability measure. To illustrate the situation we examine two categories of prepayment models, the proportional hazards and the Poisson regression models. We formulate prepayment processes by point processes andfind constraints on the point processes under which these prepayment models are reproduced. The prepayment rate is specified by the intensity of the point processes, and the intensity depends on a probability measure. We give warning of implicitly adpopting the real measure in the OAS approach.

Agglomeration Effects versus Policy Effects: The Case of the Electronics Industry in Malaysia

Abstract: The present study analyses investments within the Malaysian electronics industry in 1991 to assess the effectiveness of development policy in light of strong agglomeration effects in the electronics industry. We find that agglomeration and the use of industrial estates as development policy have had positive effects on firms’ location choice. However, agglomeration has a much larger effect than industrial estates. In addition, we find that the marginal effect of industrial estates is positively correlated with the degree of agglomeration. This suggests that improvement of problems of regional inequality by industry estates would be very difficult in reality.

The Usefulness of Management Forecast Information

Abstract: This paper investigates the usefulness of management earnings forecasts from the perspective of their value-relevance, their impact on analysts' forecasts, and their usefulness as an investment indicator The value-relevance of management forecasts of earnings is investigated based on the Ohlson [2001] framework that expresses firm value as a function of the book value of equity, current earnings, and expected earnings The results show that management forecasts of earnings are more value-relevant than book values and current earnings When the value-relevance of analysts' forecasts and management forecasts is compared, little difference is found between these two forecasts Deviation of analysts' forecasts from management forecasts is then examined The results show more than 80% of analysts' forecasts are identical to management forecasts Further analysis suggests that the relatively high accuracy of management forecasts may explain their high value-relevance and their large impact on analysts' forecasts Finally, the predictive ability of P/E, P/B, and P/MF ratios with respect to future returns is examined The P/MF ratio based strategy generates the highest abnormal returns Thus, the findings of this paper indicate that management earnings forecasts provide the market and analysts with valuable information and are also useful as a predictor of future abnormal returns