Social Studies 10: Land use

May24

1. You own a ______ restaurant, and you are interested in moving to Rokko Island. Where would you locate your business? Why?

*Map of Rokko Island Yellow – Industrial | Green – Residential | Pink – Commercial | Blue – Educational | Red – Recreational

As the first step to expanding our business on Rokko Island, I’ve decided to locate our new convenience store in the Marine Park area. We plan to have it in Marine Court, a vacant area thats located right below Marine Park station. I chose to expand our business in the Marine Park area based on its land use. The area around Marine Park is mainly used for educational and recreational use.

For educational use, schools such as Canadian Academy, Rokko Island Highschool, Kobe International University, and Yumenohoshi Kindergarden locates there. Konan University also has several sports grounds and infrastructure around the area. Therefor students usually commute using the Rokko Liner and Marine Park station. Although there are many convenience stores at Island Center, there are no stores between Marine Park and the schools itself, therefor it will be very convenient for students if there is a convenience store around the area, which they will be able to access easily during their commute. I chose to expand our business in Marine Park because we will have a large group of students as our target consumers. There for we will have many customers and our sales would be very high.

Marine Park is also very popular for its recreational areas. Just few minutes by walk, you are able to access Dekapatosu (water park), Skate Park, Rokko Island Futsal Stadium, and the public grass field + dog run. Due to these facilities, there are many families that visit Marine Park during the weekends. Even though there are many recreational facilities, there are no convenience stores (closest one is 2 and a half block away).

If we locate our new convenience store in the Marine Park area, it will be very convenient for the target consumer (families who came to visit the recreational area), therefor we will have many customers.

2. You work for the Urban Development Office of Rokko Island. You are trying to identify areas of improvement for land use on Rokko Island. Make two recommendations to the Mayor of Kobe that you think Rokko Island should do over the next 5 years related to land use.

Rokko Island has an very diverse form of land use. Despite the fact that I haven’t mapped out Rokko Liner/transportation, Rokko Island has every type of land use. Although Rokko Island has every type of land use, it is very biased in terms of scale. For example, the industrial land use takes up majority of the area outside of green belt, while the commercial use of Rokko Island only takes a small portion of the island. Rokko Island could be used much more effectively through having a better balance of land use.

Inorder to make the Rokko Island an better place, I would recommend the Mayor of Kobe to invest more on recreational and commercial land use. The current Rokko Island isn’t very lively. Most people come to the island for work and education, not for the recreational areas. Although there are few recreational areas such as the Skatepark, waterpark, futsal field, and the river mall, these only attract a specific range of young people. Since Rokko Island already has a good population of students, the island should focus on building recreational areas that attracts a wide range of people. These would be things such as a shopping mall, amusement parks, bowling center, karaoke, game center, etc. By having these facilities the island will be much more appealing to young people, especially the students that commute there. Since there are many vacant areas on Rokko Island, it wouldn’t be a vital problem to find a large mass of open land.

Another recommendation I will make to the Mayor of Kobe will be to invest more on commercial areas. Recreational areas go most effective when placed near commercial areas. In most places where young people focus, there are often combinations of recreational and commercial areas together. For example in Sannomiya they have multiple shopping streets and food chains. Inorder to effectively sell out these commercial areas, they also have facilities such as game centers, karaoke, bowling centers, movie theatres, and such recreational spots where young people tend to visit. Commercial areas can be located in Rink, where it is empty from the third floor and above. By conducting both recommendations, Rokko Island will be a much more lively place where young people will visit often.

3. You are the Project Manager for the Coastal Management Task Force for Rokko Island. You need to make three recommendations for future coastal management for Rokko Island. List out your three recommendations, explain why you are recommending them, list any disadvantages they may have. Finally, explain how the stakeholders related to the changes would feel.

There are many improvements that can be made for Rokko Island’s coastal management. Rokko Island’s coastal management can shift basis on tourism. The current coast of Rokko Island is mainly used for transportation of cargo. Despite the great view (during the night especially, i.e. Osaka and Harborland), Rokko Island isn’t taking any advantage of it. Although there are few benches by the sea side, nothing beyond. There are two restraunts, they both don’t seem to be having many customers at all times. More commercial areas should be opened next to the seaside, along with a lot of advertisement so that people would actually visit there. By having more tourism along the sea side, Rokko Island will have more visitors, which is directly proportional to the islands income. Although there may be great benefits, there are great disadvantages to conduct this coastal management. It is hard to find shops that are willing to open their business on the island. More of all, they wouldn’t be more willing to open in the Island Center area where all the commercial areas focus. Due to this it is close to an bet to open business by the seaside. If they fail to get a good amount of customers, they will have no choice to shut their store, causing a lot of economic loss.

Another recommendation is to expand the ferry system. The current ferry system on Rokko Island has three routes, all of them goes to different parts of Kyushu. The ferry system will be even more attractive if they had routes that go to Osaka. An possible route will be from Rokko Island to Universal City. Universal City has Universal Walk, which is an recreational and commercial area made based upon Universal Studios Japan. The current transportation methods from Kobe to USJ is only by train, which requires a lot of exchange of lines. This may be very complicated and time consuming, therefor it will be very convenient if there is an ferry that takes you straight to Universal City. Also ferry’s can be accessed very cheaply and is also very enjoyable. Although this may sound like an good recommendation, there are also some disadvantages that follow along. Rokko Island will have to invest money on labor costs, ferry fees, and the current facilities. The current ferry station is located on the edge of Rokko Island, which is very hard to access by walk. There are busses that connect from Island Kitaguchi to the ferry station, however there are only about 3-4 that run everyday. Conducting this coastal management will affect many people. The ferry company of Rokko Island will have much more work to do, regarding organizing the facilities and running the ferries.

Another recommendation that can be made to the current coastal management is the improvement of wild life habitats. The current image of Rokko Island’s coast seems to be that it is very polluted and dirty. There for not many people visit the seaside, due to their low expectations. However, in fact there are many fishers amongst the coastline, meaning that their are many fishes. If we can improve the current conditions for the wild life habitats and increase their population, people will have much better impressions on the seaside. Although this may sound like an good idea, there can be many disadvantages. The current coast of Rokko Island is mainly used for transportation of cargo. Inorder to make the water less polluted, Rokko Island will have to balance out the amount of transportation, compared to other factors such as tourism and wild life habitats. Conducting this coastal management may greatly affect the commercial areas by the seaside. The two restraunts that reside by the seaside may have an increase in their amount of customers.

Social Studies 10: Why was the Haitian Earthquake so Deadly

May21

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by an earthquake with the magnitude of 7.0. With an estimate death toll of 316000 people, the Haitian Earthquake is known to be one of the most devastating earthquake. Compared to Japan’s Tohoku Earthquake with an magnitude of 8.8, the Haitian Earthquake with the magnitude of 7.0 is 100 times weaker. Despite the large difference between magnitude, the Haitian Earthquake turned out to be much more destructive compared to the Tohoku Earthquake with an death toll of 15854 people. The reason to Haiti’s overwhelming destruction was due to its environment and not being able to prepare for risk-mitigation.

Haiti is located on top of the Carribean plate, which is in between the North American and South American plate. Tectonic plates are always moving, causing friction between one another. The plate boundaries are classified in three different types; divergent, convergent, and transform. Divergent is when the plates are moving apart from each other. Convergent is when the plates are pushing against each other. Transform is when the plates rub and grind against each other. In this incident both the North and South American plates were moving towards the Carribean Plate, causing tension. As the tension built up during the past few years, it finally set off causing the earthquake. Since Haiti is located right on top of the plate boundary close to the fault line, the epicenter of the earthquake was right below the city, which was one of the major reasons why the Haitian Earthquake was so deadly.

Geographic location of Haiti and its surrounding fault lines, plate boundaries, and tectonic plates. (*Wordpress isn’t letting me insert pictures)

The epicenter of the Haitian Earthquake was located right under Port-au-prince, the capital city of Haiti. The earthquake happened in the most populated areas of Haiti, which also was the reason to the Haitian Earthquakes overwhelming death toll.

Haiti’s GDP is 12.44billion dollars, ranking 145th in the world. On the other hand Japan’s GDP is 4.389trillion dollars, ranking 5th in the world. Haiti is an LEDC country. This means that compared to Japan, they have much less money to spend for their country. Having one of the lowest GDP around the world, they wouldn’t be able to invest money on health care, infrastructure, and education. Which all three relates to risk mitigation. Without good health care, they wouldn’t be able to treat the wounded from the earthquake, causing them to die. Without good infrastructure like Japan, most of their buildings have collapsed causing the people within to die. Also without good education, they aren’t able to teach individuals way to survive after the earthquake.

In these ways, the Haitian Earthquake happened to be very destructive, causing a huge damage through out Haiti despite its level of magnitude

Social Studies: How and Why do People Make Decisions?

Mar30

Our daily lives evolve around making decisions. Everything in the world is somewhat different from each other no matter what. Things are different, therefor they are valued differently. Difference in value brings diversity to alternatives. Because of diversity within alternatives, we humans are always destined to make a decision. We are constantly making decisions, whether they are small or big. Small decisions are things such as deciding what to eat for dinner. Making this decision wouldn’t cause a large impact to our lives, there for it is decided instantly to what ever is reasonable. On the other hand, large decisions are things such as deciding which subject you are going to major in college. Making this decision will cause huge impacts to your life, both negative and positive, therefor in most cases it is decided very carefully.

How do we make decisions? The most popular method of making decisions is the PACED method.

1. People choose (PACED)

2. Cost (Peoples choices involve cost. Cost do not always just mean money. The most important type of cost that economists are interested are finantial (opportunity?) costs.)

3. People respond to incentives in predictable ways. Incentives are actions or rewards that encourage people to act in certain ways. When incentives change, peoples behaviours change.

4. Peoples choices have concequences that lie in the future. Concequences can be both positive and negative. The important cost and benefits in economic desision making are those that will appear in the future.

5. Making the decision.

The PACED method is composed of comparing different things. Determining which is the most suitable for the appropriate moment. The PACED method is even used when making small decisions, however at a much smaller scale. For example deciding what to eat for dinner. We don’t tend to list out all the costs and benefits, we instantly (in most cases over the course of few seconds ~ few minutes) decide in our mind whats the most suitable. The PACED method is used in more detailed when making large decisions. For example when we choose which course to major on people spend days or even months investigating on the alternatives, trying to decide.

In conclusion, there are all sorts of decisions in our life. There is no reason to making decision. Its human nature, just like blinking, we happen to do it even without thinking about it. However, depending on the scale of the decision, we differ how and why we make the decisions. The larger and more important the decision is, we spend more time and knowledge to decide.

Social Studies: One to One Laptop Program

Mar16

Daiki Presentation

Microeconomics Inquiry

For my microeconomics inquiry, I investigated on the benefits and costs of the one to one laptop program. My inquiry question was “What are the benefits and costs for having the one to one laptop program”, while my subquestion was , “Has Canadian Academy will adapted the one to one laptop program?”. I chose this topic because we’ve been studying under the program for more than a year already however, we dont seem to get a strong sense of whether its beneficial or detrimental. Another reason I chose this topic was because since we come to study at Canadian Academy, we should be aware of our study environments. One of the focuses while investigating for this topic was to conduct first hand research. For first hand research, I sent out google surveys to students in grade 9-12. While sending out my survey, I kept in mind to..

Gather sufficient and balanced amount data – I would have to have enough data so that it will be enough to represent the whole high school. My data will also have to be well balanced in terms of ratio for boys, girls, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade.

Have variety with my replies – Most of my questions were consisted of checklist format, so that the student will be able to pick a several answers.

Limit the variety of answers to the extent in which I can analyze – I wanted to limit the different types answers so that I will be able to analyze it. To do this I used checklists instead of text answers, which makes it much easier to analyze the data and at the same time have diversity.

Planning for the Inquiry:

In my initial stages for the inquiry, I made a plan on how I will proceed on the project.

Week one + two: Conduct a survey and to wait till a sufficient amount of people reply

Week three: Analyze my data

Week Four: Prepare presentation

Analysis

After collecting my data, I created bar graphs for each question, which I will explain later on.

What do you find beneficial about the one-to-one laptop program?

From this I can observe that majority of the students had strongly agreed that the one to one laptop makes studying much more convenient. As I can tell already from here, convenience will be a very strong factor when reflecting on the benefits of the one to one laptop program.

What do you find detrimental about the one-to-one laptop program?

As you can see here, majority of the people answered that the one to one laptop program is too heavy, causes too much screen time, and causes damage to their eye sight. I noticed that there factors are more focused on the physical side, and less people tend to agree on the economic side. Only 17 people answered that the laptop is expensive, and 8 people answered that the laptop is valuable. This may be because of the environment we live in CA. Since most of us have our parents pay for our laptop, we dont seem to get a hang of the value of our laptops. For example if we take the one to one laptop program to a Japanese public school, most of them will tend to reject it because of the expenses that cost while having the program.

Is the one-to-one laptop program beneficial?

In this question, half the people answered that the one to one laptops value depends case by case. However seeing that only 3 people answered that the program is detrimental, I can conclude that the students think that the program is more rather beneficial.

Do you think CA has well adapted the one-to-one laptop program?

Despite of the recent graph, 1/3 of the people answered that CA hasn’t well adapted the one to one laptop program.

Conclusion

The one to one laptop is exclusively beneficial. However there are many trade offs that will need to be made inorder to have the program.

The one to one laptop program allows us to be convenient, productive, better communicaters, and very well prepared for the upcoming technology generation. In exchange for receiving these benefits, we have to face physical costs such as screen time. However this is only because we are in CA. If the one to one laptop program is brought up in a less wealthy area, the largest problem will be expenses. Laptops cost more than 100 thousand yen to buy. This may be a very fatal cost when it comes to other people.

Evaluation

For this inquiry, I think my question was very straight forward. Even before starting the investigation, I already had a broad idea on what my presentation was gonna be. Inorder to improve this inquiry, I will have to go into more depth with my analysis. Answers may differ depending on gender and grade, which I didn’t really focus on. Also I will have to balance my survey results depending on grade. I only got 8 replies from the seniors, which may have causes inaccuracy in my results.

Social Studies: Tohoku Disaster’s effect towards Japans Economy

Mar16

Tohoku Disaster

The Tohoku earthquake that took place on March 11, 2011, caused massive destruction throughout northern Japan. The epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake was located directly east of Sendai prefecture. Triggered by the earthquake, tsunamis higher than 10 meters struck upon the eastern coast line. The earthquake and its secondary disasters resulted with more than 15000 deaths, 27000 injured, and 400000 evacuee. Due to the massive damage, the disaster caused negative impacts to Japans macroeconomics. The economic damage caused by the disasters are divided amongst two types; direct damage and in-direct damage.

Direct Damage

Direct damages are visible damage caused by the disaster. For the Tohoku disaster, the majority of direct damage was seen from seaports, roads, houses, and buildings. The following results were released by the Japanese government regarding the direct damages caused at the stricken area.

The direct damage of the Tohoku disaster totalled to cost 17.28 trillion yen, which is approximately 1.8 times larger than the Great Hanshin Earthquake (9.98 trillion yen). As you can see majority of the damage came from destruction of buildings. Through out the disaster, areas aligned besides the coast line were stricken with continuos waves of tsunamis. Therefor houses were carried away, infrastructures were destroyed, and facilities were devastated and required reconstruction. Even though most of the people who live in Japan are effected by this disaster, majority of the stakeholders belong in northern Japan.

Indirect Damage

Indirect damages are conditions triggered by the initial damage. These are things such as opportunity losses of deals, decline of merchandise production, and secondary disasters. The most urgent indirect damage after the Tohoku disaster was the power shortage. During the Tohoku disaster the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant was destroyed by the tsunamis. Because of this, Japan had a huge electric shortage thus having to have the government restrict the amount of power used by both companies and citizens. Inorder to cover the power shortage, the Japanese government had to conduct scheduled black outs in Southern Japan. Even though most of the people who live in Japan are effected by this disaster, regarding the fact that people who live out side of northern Japan will have to take care of the indirect damages, the main stakeholders will be people who live in southern Japan.

Conclusion

The Tohoku Earthquake did bring negative impacts to Japans economy. Inorder to cover both direct and indirect damages, Japan had to pay its reconstruction fees, which were payed from the citizens taxes. Also because of the damages caused by the disasters, Japan GDP had a huge drop.

As you can see from the chart, during the year 2011, Japans GDP Growth Rate dropped to -1.8 at the worst. This was mainly because of the decline of merchandise production share northern Tohoku has. In conclusion, because of various in-direct damages, Japans GDP had dropped, symbolizing a depression in Japans economy.

Social Studies: Cantaloupe (Task Two)

Nov27

Problem: Cantaloupes infected with Listeria have been found from Jensen Farms in the Rocky Ford region of Colorado. Cantaloupes, shipped to various states were in effect of recall, thus causing the supply and demand in the United States to decrease.

Terminology:

Demand: The amount of a good or service that a consumer is willing and able to buy at various possible prices during a given time period.

Supply: The quantity of goods and services that producers are willing to offer at various possible prices during a given time period.

Quantity Demanded: The amount of a good or service that consumer is willing and able to buy at each particular price during a given time period.

Quantity Supplied: The amount of a good or service that a producer is willing to sell at each particular price.

Producer Expectations: Producers making decisions according to past events.

Consumer Expectations: Consumer making decisions according to past events.

Equilibrium Price: Price of goods/services supplied is equal to the price of goods/services demanded.

Regulation: To protect the public, the government passes many kinds of regulations, or rules, about how companies conduct business.

Stakeholders:

Losers:

Jensen Farms – They will most likely have to shut their company. Facing law suits and infection reports caused their reputation to drop drastically, losing their dealer and customers trust.

First hand relation with Jensen Farms – This includes dealers and transporters. Even though the infection was found in Jensen Farms, customers being aware and suspicious of the infection will refuse to buy cantaloupe. Dealers will have to face recalls and law suits for selling infected listeria. Dealers will have bad reputation from customers because of this incident. Transporters will have less jobs since Jensen Farms stopped exporting cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe Industry – Because of the decrease in demand, their income will fall.

Victims (Charles Palmer, death cases, etc..) – I classified victims as losers. Even if they sued Jensen Farms and won money, the fact that they were infected with a deadly disease makes them a loser. People who bought cantaloupe will have to send it back to Jensen Farms.

Winners:

Lawyers – More customers!

Unknown:

Victims – They can be classified in any category depending on, if they won law suits or not and the level of disease they were infected with.

Hospitals – Hospitals will have more patients to take care of.

Colorado State – Colorado State wouldn’t be able to collect tax from Jensen Farms. However Jensen Farms is a very small company so there wouldn’t be a large change.

Shift in Supply and Demand:

D1/S1/E1 represents the supply, demand, and equilibrium price for cantaloupe in the US before the listeria outbreak. D2/S2/E2 represents the supply, demand, and equilibrium price for cantaloupe in the US after the listeria outbreak.

The supply and demand decreased because of consumer expectation and government regulations. Cantaloupe consumers in the US started demanding less cantaloupes because of the Jensen Farms listeria outbreak. Being aware that there is a possibility for listeria outbreak in other farms, consumers will lose their desire on buying cantaloupes. Compared to the decrease in demand shift, the decrease in supply shift is much more smaller. Government regulations restricted Jensen Farms exports of cantaloupe. The cease of cantaloupe export from Jensen Farms is one of the factors to decrease in supply shift. Since Jensen Farms is a small portion within the whole US cantaloupe market, the shift in supply will be very small compared to the shift in demand.

Alternatives:

Inorder to keep position in society, Jensen Farms will have to take action. If they take action, there will be consequences. These consequences can be both positive and negative.

1. Close Jensen Farms and start a new company

This will most likely be the most reasonable and profitable action Jensen Farms can take. The current Jensen Farms has a very bad reputation both amongst their customers and in the food market. Going on with the brand name ‘Jensen Farms’ will be very difficult and tough. By starting a completely new company, they will once again have a ‘clean reputation’, and will be able to start off from the beginning again. However, starting off a new company may be economically damaging. They will also have to lose everything they built up till now and start off from scratch once again.

2. Stop selling cantaloupes and focus on another product

Jensen Farms can stop the production of cantaloupe, and instead focus on other products. According to their site, Jensen Farms also sells watermelon, pumpkin, wheat, corn, and alfalfa. However, this alternative wouldn’t be as effective compared to the others. The reputation of Jensen Farms after the listeria outbreak has dropped greatly. Most consumers will have no intention on buying Jensen Farms products. The food industry is very competitive, there are many companies that sell cantaloupes. Therefor, the consumers have no reason to buy cantaloupes from Jensen Farms which once have caused deadly infection throughout the US. This alternative wouldn’t cost very largely, however it is a very risky option to take.

3. Promote that their cantaloupe is safe

Perform tests, secure safety, and commercial their cantaloupes once again. This alternative is very hard to succeed in. The “Killer Cantaloupe” produced by Jensen Farms have at least caused two deaths and 22 infection reports. It will be close to impossible to get the consumers trust back again. The food industry is very competitive, there are many companies that sell cantaloupes. Therefor, the consumers have no reason to buy cantaloupes from Jensen Farms which once have caused deadly infection throughout the US.

After considering all three alternatives, it seems like the best to close Jensen Farms and start a new company. The food industry is a very competitive market. The listeria outbreak in Jensen Farms have completely caused them to lose trust from their customers. Causing at least two deaths and 22 infections reports, Jensen Farms’s reputation is now at un un-recoverable state. Therefor, alternative one (creating a new company) will be the most reasonable option. As an company trying to regain its place in the food industry, this alternative will be the most profitable, although it may cost quite a lot of money and time.