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We are studying the thermodynamic behaviors of social systems . For finding thermodynamic variables which would exist in social systems , we analyzed Japanese regional societies by the principal component analysis . The methods and results of the analysis are presented. The data used are cross-sectional and of time series from 558 cities. We could extract 5 factors through cross -sectional analysis and that of time series. These factors are considered to be important to explain the behaviors of the society. The properties of the factors are discussed from several viewpoints.

This chapter explains the advancement and the price decline of products based on the VCR case. After the dominant design emerges, the product advances incrementally or cumulatively because the dominant design sets a standard design of the product and a framework for the competition. Many new generation products appeared in the market with innovative functions to spur sales. Some of them became popular and others did not. In the VCR case, most consumers bought a monaural VHS machine and, then later, a HiFi VHS machine. On the other hand, most consumers did not purchase S-VHS, D-VHS, and other advanced machines because those were too expensive in comparison with their performance. As a result, the alternation of generations of the VCR occurred only once, from the monaural to the HiFi machine.