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Data envelopment analysis (DEA) identifies an empirical efficient frontier of a set of peer decision making units (DMUs) with multiple inputs and outputs. The efficient frontier is characterized by the DMUs with an unity efficiency score. The performance of inefficient DMUs is characterized with respect to the identified efficient frontier. If the performance of inefficient DMUs deteriorates or improves (up to the frontier), the efficient DMUs still have an unity efficiency score. However, the performance of DMUs may be influenced by the context — e.g. a product may appear attractive against a background of less attractive alternatives and unattractive when compared to more attractive alternatives. With an application to Tokyo public libraries, the current paper presents and demonstrates a context-dependent DEA which measures the relative attractiveness of libraries on a specific performance level against libraries exhibiting poorer performance. The set of libraries are grouped into different levels of efficient frontiers. Each efficient frontier (on a specific performance level) is then used as evaluation context for the relative attractiveness. The performance of the efficient libraries changes as the inefficient libraries change their performance. The context-dependent DEA can also be used to differentiate the performance of efficient DMUs. The context-dependent DEA provides finer DEA results with respect to the performance of all DMUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following paper presents the results obtained during the analyses of the street structure of Tokyo, focusing on six districts: Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ueno, Nakano and Aoto. The length-area relation in the chosen zones shows the presence of the analogue of a fractal dimension. The fractal dimension appears in these high-density street zones branching within a limited territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence on cash holdings for Japanese firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, focusing on the impact of corporate governance factors in cash holdings and the implication of cash holdings to firm value. We find that insider ownership and bank relations of firms play a significant role in determining cash holdings. Our results indicate that foreign stockholders select profitable firms to invest, and these firms have higher levels of cash. We document evidence that cash holdings lead to agency problems and impact firm value negatively, and governance characteristics affect the negative relation between cash holdings and firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to shed light on the problem of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) pollution of roadside atmosphere in the Tokyo metropolitan area, we carried out high time-resolution and size-resolved sampling of PM at the Ikegami-Shincho crossing in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Elemental and ionic composition analysis of those samples was then conducted. The research results are important for the physicochemical characterization of nano- to micrometer-size particles in roadside atmosphere, enabling detailed analysis of the various roadside emission sources and atmospheric processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]