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It is the recent trend of agricultural land explotion in Japan that the development paddy field on lowland is slow in progress with only exception on the reclaimed land and the development of upland field is taking main part. At the seashore of Saga Plain (Fig. 1) along Ariake Sea, Kyushu, tidalmarsh develops faster (Fig. 2) and coastline has marched forward by 10 meters a year. The topographical charcteristics of reclaimed land are shown in Fig. 5.The earliest reclamation was recorded in 1258 and many reclaimed land with area of about 10ha were made by farmers until about 1860 which were called Komori or Karami (Fig. 6). Since Meiji Era large-scale reclamation has been done by landowners or the state authority.The very aim of reclaimed land is rice production; it is used as wheat or cotton field some years after the completion and then it changes into rice-field after the salt diminishing. In the case of reclaimed land agriculture in Saga, rice has been planted on the fertile soil brought from the creek-bottom in the form of mire. Though not so important technical progress was made in agriculture by 1921, only pumping-up by man power has changed into mechanical irrigation since 1922. Then, success of rice plant improvement and of prevention against damage by blight and noxious insects; increase of the owner farmers and exodus of farmers to North-Kyushu Industrial Zone, and the increase of reclaimed lands made possible the large-scale management at the Japanese standard for 1.5ha, and the highest rice yield in Japan at 1935-1938.After the World War II the social and economical situations have changed and the agricultural management have been diversified, dairy farming and the use of hand tractor being introduced, but the agricultural production has been low in rate.From the analysis on some elements in this area, three problems are pointed out; (1) lowering of fertility, (2) shortage of irrigation water, (2) dispersion of cultivated lands and long distance to go to work (Fig. 8), and the reorganization of the pattern of cultivated lands and villages seems to be necessary for higher development of reclaimed land agriculture.

The traffic congestion in and around Tokyo has become intensified year after year, and the subway has come to be looked upon as the most effective way of eliminating it, or alleviating it to an appreciable extent at least. The Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) in Japan has had an automatic train control (ATC) system in operation for many years to ensure safety adequately while fully exploiting its service efficiency. In the face of ever-increasing population and transport demand, the Authority in its quest for higher efficiency and safety in train operation pioneered in developing an automatic train operation (ATO) system and has been testing it on the Hibiya Line since 1962. Under the ATO, all train functions-notch-in, power running, coasting, braking, and stopping--are performed automatically. The motorman simply presses a pushbutton to start the train, which then runs on safely under ATC and stops smoothly, accurately, and automatically at the next station. We are satisfied with the results of tests in regard to the durability, reliability, and accuracy of the system as well as in regard to riding quality. The Authority is convinced that by putting this new system into operation the ATO can carry on passenger service at a shorter headway, with greater safety and accuracy, and can expand traffic capacity to some extent. Further study is now under way to improve the system by combining a centralized traffic control system and an inductive radio system, in order to exercise group control over all the trains on the track.