This paper intends to evaluate impacts of high-speed rail transit, i.e., Shinkansen network in Japan on spatial dispersion of economic activities and population. For doing so, a simple supply-oriented regional econometric model is constructed, and simulation analyses are carried out for alternative hypothetical scenarios of the Shinkansen network. The results show that denser Shinkansen network will not necessarily contribute to regional dispersion.

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Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.

The present article reviews the effects of wartime and post‐war policies on regional agglomeration of landuse and transportation activities in Japan. For this purpose the authors have formulated a long‐term model over the period 1920–85, and conducted its final test. After confirming the accuracy of the entire model, it is used to evaluate the wartime policies which caused excessive employment agglomeration in Tokyo, and post‐war policies concerning the high speed Shinkansen rail network. We conclude that the choices of alternative policies would have led to a more balanced regional structure than there is now, with less agglomeration in both Tokyo and the Kanto region.