The Best Paper AwardAwards and Grants

No.44　In 2022

Title：The Shipping Industry Regarding Awashima located in the Seto Inland Sea and Hayase in Wakasa Bay in the Early Modern Period of Japan

Recipient：Norifumi Kawahara

Reason for award：

This study presents a fascinating history of maritime culture, focusing on the Kitamaebune, which played a crucial role in early modern Japanese shipping and its ports of call at Awashima in Sanuki Province and Hayase in Wakasa Province. Specifically, based on an in-depth analysis of the “Register of Foreign Vessels” from the Shimizu family collection in Sotonoura, Hamada, and Iwami Provinces, the book is a list of passenger ships of a shipping agent’s clientele and describes various aspects of the shipping industry in Awashima and Hayase up to the modern perspective.
First, the “Passenger Ship Book” shows that Shimizuya purchased the three most prominent commodities, also known as Sanuki Sanpaku, from Sanuki Province (purchased goods), namely, sugar, salt, and cotton, and that it was one of the largest unloaders of sugar in Japan. It also outlines that cargo for sale was namely large sales of dried sardines and chemical fertilizer. The “Passenger Ship Book” is presented as a valuable historical document that allows the comprehensive understanding of various aspects of the wide-ranging distribution of goods mediated by Shimizuya on a nationwide and chronological scale. This is intriguing not only for scholars but also for general readers.
Subsequently, the development of the shipping industry on Awashima since the Shokuho period is described in terms of its geographical characteristics (being a land-locked island connected by a sandbar) and the use of ebb and flow of the tides to operate facilities such as ganpi (wooden lattice) and shipyards for mooring and ship repairs. In addition, it is mentioned that the combination of a unified government and the Funakata-shu (association of ship owners) contributed to this development.
According to the “Passenger Ship Book,” a helmsman from Awashima was employed as an offshore helmsman on the Osaka Ship and Matsumae Ship, and another historical record shows that two Awashima merchants were on board a Shogunate warship sailing to the North Sea, along with an officer from Awashima, indicating the wide and diverse activities of Awashima shipping companies.
With regards to the Wakasa Hayaseura region, the book also depicts the reality of trading cargo between Hamada and Hayase, focusing not only on the economic aspect but also observing the cultural aspect. A wide variety of products, including Wakasa’s specialty tung oil, kelp, and dried sardines produced in Hokkaido and Hokuriku, were transported to Hamada by the ship owners in Hayase, keeping an eye on market conditions. However, salted mahi-mahi, a celebratory fish which had high demand in the Wakasa region, was also procured from the distant city of Hamada. In Hayase, the early modern shipping business was carried on into the modern era by ship owner Yaemon Iwano, who appears in the “Passenger Ship Book” during the Ansei period (1854–1860) and established the Iwano Deep Sea Fishing Company in Vladivostok, Russia during the Meiji period (1868–1912).
Finally, the editorial subsequently introduces this aspect of inheritance as the activity of “preserving the maritime culture.” Even after the Kitamaebune itself began to decline in the latter half of the Meiji period, Japan’s first local merchant marine school, the Awashima Marine Officer Training School, was established in Awashima and continued into the postwar period. In contrast, the present-day area of Mihama-cho, including Hayase, was a region that sent immigrants over the Pacific Ocean to places such as Hawaii, the United States, and Canada during the Meiji period. There, Saori Goto, a native of Fukui City, was involved in the establishment of the Tokyo Immigration Co. Ltd., which played a central role in organizing the Canada–Japan Delivery Company, a labor agent for the Canadian Pacific Railway in Canada. The text concludes with an introduction to the unknown cultural history of the descendants of those involved in maritime transportation who inherited the “power of knowing what is on the other side of the ocean” and supported rail transportation in foreign countries even as contract immigrants.
We evaluated this study as a timely contribution to the special issue on “History and Culture of Transportation,” which emphasizes the importance of stopping for a moment to think about daily transportation issues, and as a deserving recipient of the academic award (thesis category) in this academic society, which emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches centered on transportation.

Title：The Socio-Cultural Background of the Differential Charges System in French Inter-City Railways

Recipient：Keiko Kurita

Reason for award：

This study elucidates two socio-cultural aspects that contribute to the widespread support for time and day-based fares on intercity railways in France. The first aspect is that in France, there is a clear distinction between intra–urban transportation, which is mainly for commuters, and intercity transportation, which is mainly for tourists. The second aspect is unique to France in that government engineers have worked on the pricing of public transportation and theorizing discriminatory rates and have convincingly shown that discriminatory rates contribute to the overall benefit of society.
Through this study, it has been elucidated that the discriminatory pricing system of the French railways reconciles the two ideas of fairness and efficiency as advocated by government engineers. The purpose is to maximize the benefits to society as a whole (derived from the transportation routes) rather than maximizing corporate profits, while the beneficiaries bear the burden of the costs.
The discussion of discriminatory fee systems and price elasticity is a socially beneficial topic that provides foundational insights into the future price elasticity of demand in commuting and tourism in Japan, where the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed labor patterns. In addition to being interdisciplinary, the study has the distinction of being an excellent commentary on transportation economics, as it takes a systematic approach to elucidating the theoretical flow of discriminatory rates while considering the history of the development of French railways. What is even more remarkable is that the argument is extremely clear and easy to understand.
Thus, we rated this study as exceptionally excellent.

International and intercultural differences in arguments used against road safety policy measures

Recipient：Wouter Van den Berghe, 　Nicola Christie

Reason for award：

In the area of road safety, there are cases where policy measures may not be easily implemented for several reasons, or policy makers may be reluctant to implement them because of the expected high costs or lack of public support. In this study, surveys have been conducted in 10 countries (China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Greece, France, Nigeria, and Argentina) with distinct characteristics to analyze the factors that contribute to the support or lack thereof of such road safety policy measures.
The survey asks the respondents whether they support or oppose 10 different road safety measures presented to them, the rationale behind their arguments, and what impact the measures would have on them as individuals. Subsequently, the survey results are analyzed to identify the factors influencing their arguments.
The structure of this study is as follows. Chapter 1 reviews previous findings, which broadly discusses factors influencing support for road-safety policy measures and public opinion analysis. The analysis reveals that support for these measures varies from country to country and exhibits certain trends when organized by gender and age group. However, the analysis of this study revealed the need for more specific factor analysis of support or lack thereof for policy measures. Furthermore, the study explains the reasons that led to this necessity. Chapter 2 explains the design of the survey items, focusing on 10 types of controversial policy measures. By covering various trade-offs for different types of road users, the survey addresses a wide range of ethical issues such as avoidance of interests, freedom, fairness, and responsibility. It also considers factors such as opposition from certain stakeholders; finding a balance and compromise between health promotion, accident reduction, and travel restrictions; and ongoing debates between the interests of society as a whole and various individual constraints. This approach is carefully designed to allow factor analysis by highlighting the aforementioned factors. The analysis of the survey results in Chapter 3 shows that the overall findings correlate with support for each policy measure, their relevance to views on road safety, and their associations with driving behaviors. In addition, it highlights that certain labels of the opposition to the policy measures such as “restriction of mobility,” “discrimination,” and “unjustified state intervention” have a strong and negative correlation with support. Furthermore, Chapter 4 delves deeper into the above three objections. In Chapter 5, we attempt to analyze the factors behind the opposition to each of the policies by taking the three specific measures, “ISA: Automatic Maximum Speed Limit System,” “Bicycle Helmet Requirement,” and “Mobility Restrictions for the Elderly,” to identify the differences in views between supporters and opponents of the policies, in the form of an analysis of the opposition in the previous chapter. Chapter 6 summarizes the debate and organizes the logical structure for support or disapproval of the policies. For example, when public support is low and policy makers have difficulty enforcing new regulations, it is suggested that public support for policy measures can be increased by providing appropriate information, education, and awareness campaigns to reshape the public’s perspectives.
Thus, this study is intriguing in that it shows the relationship between specific objections to policies and the support toward or disapproval of the corresponding measures. For example, it highlights the need to consider not only attributes such as age but also attitudes and perspectives for helmet usage. It reveals useful findings for policy makers to consider in developing future measures. We evaluated this study as excellent because by comparing a diverse range of countries and regions, this thesis contains international and interdisciplinary findings that lead to the implementation of road safety policies.