فصلنامه پژوهش های جغرافیای انسانی
پیاپی 71 (بهار 1389)

During the Second half of the twentieth century, influence of without planning urbanization in developing countries, Irregulars that features land use in the cities there are, so to improve quality of urbanization, cities rehabilitate land use is very important. However quantitative and qualitative analysis of levels of urban land use for establish and optimize the distribution of usage factors, Proportionate of needs of residents and logical access solutions to existing problems, that’s an effective step for managers, planners and urban authorities.Urban land use planning as main center Urban planning execute main role in spatial planning managing of towns, and evaluation how Urban land use planning is more importance. In this article is tried until with the help of abilities to Geographical Information system (GIS) values urban land use in Galoogah town. Galoogah town has the population about 5700 which is in the south of Babul eparchy, Commutation to town in 1381. Lack management and lack of functional rules and rules of urban design one side and addressing as blighted urban in babul eparchy another side in servicing and providing facilities and also use spatial planning managing caused to have unsafe town. In this study, in addition to the library resources and information, field works have also been incorporated to enhance the quality of the project. Meanwhile, methodology of the study has been based on comparison-analytic which largely identify the drought impact of Hamoon Lake on Sistan economical functions comprising the main objectives of this study. In this research land uses town are studied from two aspects, quantity and quality. In quantity search, pay attention to the surface and basic need Percapita in this condition until 1395. The results of this search show that in this condition, utilized land area Galoogah according to Percapita and standard to have shortage about 123873. In quality analysis land use town with using soft word Arc GIS and considerable evaluation (desirability, capacity, compatibility) the results show that site of many land use of town in fit idea is partly unfit although in the view of compatibility is about 39% compatible. However in the view of capacity without commercial and official in another land uses such as athlete. Educational-cultural, healthy–treatment land use doesn’t have better use from this needful service. One of the important steps in the process of urban land use planning is Evaluation and Determination of proportion the framework of quantitative and qualitative criteria. Based on the results of quantitative land use levels, it was found that the existing of Galoogah, except of residential, administrative, religious and roads, other passages usage factor Posts face space required. Therefore, this city with the existing mutual relationship with the surrounding villages, unable to city needs and spheres of influence in order to eliminate restrictions positive response to urban. With considering the total usage factor area available - of this city, (976, 521 square meters), about 123, 873 square meters space deficiency has been estimated. That most lack is belonging to the educational, park and green usage factors. The results of qualitative analysis of the compatibility matrix in this city, shown that the average usage factor of adaptation of this city is 39 percent. Administrative usage factor with the highest compatibility with 82 percent and usage factor of cultural with 73 percent, educational with 73 percent, sport with 63 percent and residential with 54 percent, conditions are relatively consistent. Capacity matrix of the city show that in this village-City only business land use need, population-level city and administrative spheres of influence were covered and the other usage factors existing facilities, only answer primary rural-urban of Galoogah needs and in this respect the conditions are relatively poor. From desirability Matrix view, some usage factors of this city such as health – treatment, suffer from voice pollution, because that’s in the vicinity of the main artery of city. Also, the lack of space most land use comments dimensions, some of the administrative space occupied more than have needs. Therefore, in these urban spheres of influence, it is necessary to provide facilities necessary for the city level and sometimes the village level spheres of influence comes an attempt made double. Therefore, in this city because the natural topography and geography is relatively unfit (due to restrictions created by the forest, rivers and variable slope), Considering the Location land use indexes, do to separate parts of the Proportionate of urban density and Benefit from professional and technical staff in civil affairs are including the factors affecting the future development of this city. The find out of the research shows that the Galoogah town with flat topography and being plain, development context and that physical extension in the text. In addition to creating convenience and logical pitch land use with the notice of indexes and standard and also devotion spaces need able and spatial spread for removal shortage town with using of expert urbanized people should locate in the first programming too.

Several evolutions of development planning and rural development show that this planning moves unintentionally toward unborn development and disregarding rural participation. In fact, rural have ability to plan for themselves better than other and understand the path of development. Researcher’s emphasis on community participation in planning as key element to dominant on economical and social inequality. Furthermore, regarding to importance of tourism in the process of planning rural tourism, paying attention to it in plans and projects of rural development particular at local projects is more important. In this regard, rural tourism provides ability for some rural that have the tourism resources. By using this opportunity they can participate in and plan for the future of tourism and their rural development. The main goal of this paper is operating of rural tourism planning in Vakilabad. For achieving to this goal, we use interactivity planning method with emphasis on approach participatory rural appraisal. For gathering the data, unstructured and structured interview and participatory observation was used. Providing preparation and activation of this capabilities and sustainable planning of rural tourism, we are able to view progress of tourism and improve of live indexes and integrated development of Vakilabad rural (Sardabeh) and local more further. Based on interactive rural tourism planning with approach participatory rural appraisal, a participatory planning is presented as an hypothesis suggesting that planning for disadvantaged social groups participation in development may be initiated through benefit-sharing, gradually proceeding to shared decision making will increase. In the top-down making process, there is inadequate public participation. When development means outsiders imposing their ideas without understanding local conditions, it is undesirable. Development is positive when it involves local people and is based on their resources and knowledge. From that perspective, some development in rural sardabeh is not positive. The development of a tourism industry has been shown to help diversify and improve rural community’s economies. Tourism has been shown to improve a regions economic condition and has therefore been employed as a development strategy in many rural communities. Improved economic conditions, resulting from tourism, are often accompanied by negative impacts associated with the industry. These negative consequences are often overlooked as a result of the perceived economic benefits tourism has the potential to generate. While these communities can receive a tremendous amount of economic support and other social benefits from tourism, there are also many negative consequences that have been associated with the industry. In order to help minimize the consequences, while still benefiting from the industry, there are a multitude of factors which should be addressed before considering the development of a tourism industry. Studies measuring impacts often indicate one or more positive consequences and one or more negative consequences resulting from the industry. Therefore careful planning representing between the economic benefits and the acceptable levels of negative impacts. Vakilabad (Sardabeh) is placed on high and beautiful hillsides of Sabalan. This rural area have mineral waters (Sardabeh, Eddy Blok, Yersoeey, At Kgoly), unique Sardabeh waterfall, the summer for Eailsovan or Eilsevan tribe, pastures, scenic valleys, and other natural attractiveness is marked the one of rural tourism of province. Whereas tourism was developed in unbalanced ways in this rural. In order to planning tourism in rural could say which with regard to considered problems and limitations, more responses will view the positive future. Results show that if we develop this potential and sustainable rural planning we will witness progress in tourism and more improving life indicators and integrated development of Vakilabad (Sardabeh) and this area. Tourism investigated not only as a tool to attract recreation and leisure travelers to a community, but as a method of developing a rural community. However, it has been difficult to development tourism in Sardabeh. There are many disparate opinions in the rural, and attempting to reach consensus has been a tedious process. The community has a great deal of potential, and there are several people that are ready, willing, and able to work on tourism development. The process has been started, but it is floundering from lack of leadership, funding, and stiff opposition from some members of the community. Research on impacts and perceptions, social development, and community development research approaches tourism as a pre-existing condition in rural communities. Tourism was not planned, it evolved; tourism was a successful self-development project; tourism development was stifled in rural Sardabeh because of the lack of government support; the residents did less support tourism development; there was, and continues to be, no plan for tourism. Most respondents suggested that tourism had not been planned. Several others said that if it had been planned, it would not be in danger of disappearing. The respondents said that there has been a failure to plan for the future of tourism, and said that the community would not begin to plan anytime soon. They again said that the planning for tourism has been negatively affected by the fear that tourism would result in overdevelopment.

One of the critical criteria in sustainable tourism development approach is support and attitude of inhabitants. Local resident support for tourism development is critical because successful operation and sustainability depend heavily on their good will (Jurowski et al, 1997, 3; Gursoy et al, 2002, 679 and Jurowski and Gursoy, 2004, 269(. Therefore planning in respect to sustainable tourism development should be on the basis of the goals and priorities of local residents. Indeed some of researchers even went further and recommended that local attractions be promoted only when endorsed by residents. Residents perception have been shown to be influenced by a number of factors, including personal economic reliance on the tourism industry, the importance of industry to the locality, the type and extend of resident-visitor interaction and the overall level of tourism development in the community. Implicitly or explicitly; theoretical base for this research is social exchange theory. Social exchange theory concerned with understanding the exchange of resources between individual and groups in an interaction situation. Therefore social exchange theory suggests that people evaluate an exchange based on the costs and benefits incurred as a result of that exchange. The objective of this research is to determine factors affecting attitudes and level of inhabitant support of tourism development in rural areas of Golijan County, The case study target is located in Tonekaboon township in Mazandaran province This county having favorable climate, natural landscapes like rivers, jungles, and springs of mineral spas is attended to by domestic and foreign tourists in 2006, this county had a population of 34333. And 9800 households. The main motivation of tourists taking trip to this area is nature tourism. Moreover, there are second homes established almost simultaneously with overnight tourists. The establishment of flows of mass tourism dates back to the mid 1991's, and ever since the growth of tourism development has been on a continuous rise. The Methodology is based on using questionnaire. Statistic population divided to three groups including household service and trade sector and officials therefore it used stratified sampling with 354 samples. In this research, tourism development is as independent variable and negative and positive impacts of economic and environmental aspect and level of support of host community as dependent variable. In order to analyze variables it used statistical method includes correlation regression and nonparametric statistic with SPSS software. Findings show rural areas located in Golijan County are at different level of tourism development. So that rural areas close to coastal line have experienced more growth than ones distantly coastal line (table 3). In this respect, Man Whitney test confirms significant difference of level of tourism development between two groups of rural area (P = 0.000). The results indicate that tourism development brought about positive economical impacts and consequences including job creation, income increase and so on. Despite positive effects and impacts, mass and spontaneous nature of tourism development in combination with inefficient management, there have also caused negative economical, social and environmental effects and impacts like Increase of goods and services price, Pressure on recourses more than their capacity and so on. In this respect, inhabitants of rural areas close to coastal line with level of higher tourism development have perceived negative impacts stronger than rural areas distantly coastal line. In general, inhabitants in under study area have positive attitude and perception toward tourism development. Result of two variable regression between job dependents toward tourism sector and level of inhabitant support show that variable of job dependents toward tourism sector as independent variable interpret ate 0.247 of change of dependent variable that is level of inhabitant support. In this region, business owners with more dependence to tourism sector were more supportive than inhabitants to tourism development. On other hand, Level of support of inhabitant from tourism development is affected by level of tourism development. So that Result of two variable regressions shows that variable of tourism development explain 0.119 of changes of level of inhabitant support toward tourism development. Increase in level of negative impact affected by tourism development in comparison with acquired advantages will gradually decrease the level of host support. On the basis of that coastal rural areas with higher level of tourism development and stronger understanding from negative impact and consequences of tourism development have had less support than rural areas distantly coast line.

Sistan is located in the east of Iran. The surface water inflow in the area is nearly completely coming from Afghanistan. In view of the very small amount of average annual rainfall and limitations in the formation of water table in Sistan, droughts of the region must be attributed to the effects of shortage or absolute lack of water in the Hirmand River, which has repeatedly occurred in this region's history and has endangered the social and economic lives of Sistan's villages. In the last few decades, control and excessive use of waters of Hirmand River in Afghanistan have multiplied the effects of recent droughts in Sistan's villages. In the present research, in the course of comparative study of reduction effects in the flow of Hirmand waters upon agricultural activities of villagers, the role of underground water has been also taken into account. Research was carried out by use of traverse method from autumn 2007 to summer 2008 in the course of which 101 villages, out of a total of 808 in the region, were surveyed and 260 persons from the Village Islamic Councils or local experts were interviewed. Therefore conclusions are partly based on observations in the field, partly on the quantitative analysis that has been carried out. The result of the water limitation evaluation shows that approximately 75% of the sample villages suffer from severe or extremely severe limitation which goes to show the critical conditions in Sistan's rural areas. With the decrease in the flow of Hirmand water, its first affect is appeared on the surface under cultivation. Because, with the limitation of water, farmers can only a little part of their ground keep under cultivation. The study about the scale of decrease of the ground under cultivation in sample villages and comparison of the situation before and after the drought 1998-2005, shows that in 57 villages (in total of 101) at the top of this drought the agriculture activities have been stopped completely. Activities of stockmen the same as activities of planters are dependent on water undulations of Hirmand. Because with the decline in the Flow of Hirmand Water, canebrakes of Hamoun wetlands and it's margin pastures, provender plants, reminder of wheat, grain and etc, should be changing. This is cause to serious difficulties in providing food sources of farm animals and affects them. The study of decline of the farm animals in drought of 1998-2005, shows that from 101 villages in 79 of them more than 80% of its animals have been decreased. On the other hand, the study of abundance of villages in dividing of the percentages of household with gardening activities shows that these activities in 71 villages are diffuses. In drought of 1998-2005, these activities have been completely stopped in 61 villages. The study of abundance of villages in dividing of the percentages of household with quarry and hunt activities shows that these households in 17 villages near the Hamoun lakes are diffuse. With drought of 1998-2005 and atrophy of lakes, there were not the aquatic migrant birds and with the stop of quarry and hunt activities, Sistan's hunters and jaegers lost their jobs. With the severe decline or stop of water flow of Hirmand to Sistan and the decrease of livelihood activities, major parts of families lost their income sources and caused to increase 59% in population under the aid of the auxiliary Organizations from 1996 to 2002. The result of this study shows that in 16 villages of 101, more than 40% of households are under the aid of Imam Khomeini community or social welfare Organization. Also with the result of this study in the last critical drought (1998-2005) in the 46 villages of 101, some of people worked inevitably for their life in other states seasonally. These are shown in the decrease of their welfare and incomes. On the other hand in the late decade the number of villages with negative growth of population has increased. The result of the study about these villages shows that from west to east in Sistan plain, the number of the villages with negative population growth decreased. Thus it is a relation between better available water sources and the favorite situation of live in east parts. In this way, the correlation analysis between “the scale of available water of shafts” in sample villages and “the scale of the population growth” in these villages(using correlation coefficient of Kendall's tau-b) shows that there is a positive and significant relation in these two variants. The results obtained from the research indicated that during the droughts, while agricultural activities partly continued in a limited number of villages in the eastern half of Sistan (with favorable approaches to underground water), such agricultural activities had been greatly reduced or totally stopped in other villages of the region. However rural sustainable development in Sistan's villages depends on a complex series of actions. It depends on increasing the flow of the Hirmand's water through cooperation of Afghan government, the water storage and optimum utilization of the accessible water resources.

Cities have numerous tourist attractions and always attract tourists. So, sustainable tourist development and its deliberate management need planning. This research used survey methods and quantitative analysis. In this research, Isfahan city is selected because of its numerous tourist attractions, its high importance at national and regional level and its multi-function role. The period of study was from March 2008 to February 2008. The results can be used for the management and planning of tourist attractions. A review of literature shows that there have been attempts to classify different tourist attractions, considering tourist behaviors. In 1981, Copper’s study showed that there are differences in tourist behavioral pattern considering their life cycle and their socio-economic status. Copper found out that tourist with lower level of incomes just visit major tourist attractions and tourists with higher level of income visit places that are seen less often. Most of the similar researches are conducted on small cities. Cities studied have been mostly tourist destinations with single function. Multifunctional cities have not been studied. Shavel and Raveh classified tourist attractions in Jeruselem and Tel Aviv, using three variables: percentage of visits, average number of visits. Four clusters of tourist attractions were found. A study by Chadefaud, divided tourists into two groups: (1) Group tourists and (2) Individual tourists. The result of his study showed that the group tourists visit mostly major attractions and more inner parts of cities. While, individual tourist visits outer parts of the cities. Chadefaud, suggests two explanations for his results that tourists coming as an organized groups are usually older and it is more difficult for them to discover the city. But individual tourists are younger. In 1998, Pearce did a study of the characteristics of the three tourist attraction areas in Paris. This research used survey and field research as the method of data collection. Five hundred questionnaires were filled in Isfahan from individual tourists. The characteristics of the tourists were found. About 43 percent of tourists stay in Isfahan for 4-7 days. About 57 percent of the tourists have visited Isfahan for recreation and spending their leisure time. Sixty five percent were male. About 42 percent had university education. About 40 percent of tourists had visited Isfahan three times or more. About 35 percent were staying in a hotel. Their sources of information were brochures, guidebooks and internet. Education, average length of stay and average number of visits are explanatory variables for their visits to tourist attractions. Isfahan is the heart of tourist attraction in Iran. It is a suitable city for tourism studies since it is functioning as the major tourist attraction and as a multi functional city. Butler‘s model was used to analyze the situation in Isfahan. He presents a model for the evolution of tourist activities in a city. The first stage is exploration stage. Tourists explore a city. Their numbers are not a lot, and have low impact on the destination. Infrastructure and facilities are not developed at this stage. In this stage, when tourists return to their origin, they encourage others to visit the place. As a result, the number of tourists increases. Gradually, the host community tries to adjust to the situation. The second stage in the cycle is created which is called the involvement stage. The third stage is development stage, when investments are made. There is local control and advertisements to promote tourism. The next stage is called consolidation, which is empowering the tourist activities. At this stage, tourists come from long distances. The destination gets to the peak of its capacity to accept tourists. The next stage is called stagnation when there is a over-saturation stage. There is deterioration in the quality of facilities and services because of the high number of tourists. This is the stage where the city of Isfahan is stands. According to Butler, three possible stages happen after this. (1) Rejuvenation, (2) Continuation of stagnation, (3) Decline. The results of study show that the existing infrastructure and facilities do not have the needed capacity to accommodate the increasing numbers of tourists and are at the development stage. The host society and tourists are realizing the negative impacts of tourism without enough preplanning. The results of study also show that there is a need for creating the culture of acceptance of tourism in the host society.

In various political and managerial units, there is a meaningful relationship between the type of administrative system and the Sustainable development. As the administration of affairs became more complicated, the definition of the duties of governments and the participation of people in the political processes, and administrative and managerial structures underwent some changes from the traditional models to some sort of planning and acceptance of responsibility to enhance the process of development. In this regard, for the purpose of better management compatible with the needs of new circumstances, quantitative and qualitative organizing of space and the division of land to geographical (administrative and political) units was set on the top of the agenda of governments. The adoption of a model of centralized or extensive, decentralized or federal, and policies of deintensification, decentralization, transfer of powers and autonomy in accordance with the geographical territory, the cultural and ethnic structure, topographical details, land management and the type of the dominant legal and political system founded the basis of approach taken by the political units. The purpose of this research with such an approach is to study the theories, the experiences of developing countries, the dominant processes in Iran’s political system and to explain the relationship between decentralization and Sustainable development in Iran. To do this, an analytic and explanatory method and accumulation of data and the existing literature have been adopted to carry a library and document based research; and in some cases some interviews with experts have been added. The findings suggest that in order to overcome the incompetence, many experts insist on the minimization of the government and transfer of the power to people and local authorities. Taylor, for example, observes decentralization of the central government as a necessity. Putnam points out to the role of decentralization in the formation and increase of human capital as a pivot of development. Ivans and Skocpol believe that the transfer of powers in both horizontal and vertical levels would create appropriate circumstances for human pivot development. Experts such as Fokoyama believe in the implementation of human capital for economic development, and Amartya Sen insists on the constructive role of democracy in a dynamic economy. The experience of the developed countries is indicative of this point. In line with the expansion of details of government responsibilities, these countries have embarked on various methods to transfer the affairs in order to create a sort of balance among the abilities, powers and responsibilities. Most importantly, transfer of powers and taking parts in decision makings will settle the ethnic regional disputes and enhance the convergence and the participations. Quite the contrary, insistence on the centralization of administration of affairs will end in more divergence and escape from center. The communal administration in the United States in the form of federalism which makes for a desirable and successful administrative system can be seen with some changes in Switzerland and Germany. The transfer of powers to provinces in the Western Germany went well in removing the regional disputes. Further, for the purpose of amending the center_ suburb structure the decentralization has been one of the main goals of the national development in France. Some researches and studies have been conducted by foreign experts in some projects such as Torsion, Bethel Memorial and Styrene and “the Islamic land management project” and “the general plan of country divisions” have been carried out by domestic organizations and researchers in Iran, too. And the related changes to centralization and decentralization have been surveyed out in all administrative, economic, financial and political dimensions and their skeletal effects. In line with decentralization and transfer of affairs to people and the regional and local authorities in order to minimize the central administration, the legislation have passed some articles to depart from this state of affairs and focus the attention of the government on its main duty to guide the development process. Prior to 1978 revolution, the third, fourth and fifth development plans emphasized on the administrative reform and enhancement of decentralized system in the structure of the constitution. Following the revolution the first to the four development plans underlined the decentralization. The last legislation relating to the issue was article 73 in the land management of the fourth development plan. Accordingly, the government was bound to prepare an inclusive plan for the division of the country into the appropriate provinces with a decentralized approach, and for the transfer of power to local authorities and to strengthen the role of governors to offer to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Much more important is the fact that the legislative body has rendered the creation of the new levels dependant on the above article; however these obligations have been neglected by the government. Though some obligations have been imposed on the governments, they have not been duly fulfilled; or the reproduction of centralized power in a different form has led to imperfect divisions of the country. Formation of 2438 sub districts, the increase of districts from 497 to 929, and the number of townships from 190 to 368 and the number of provinces from 24 to 30 from 1978 to 2009 indicates the point. Thus, against the above facts, government in Iran has become more voluminous, swollen and inefficient. The only way to overcome the situation is to adopt a decentralized approach, and to transfer the affairs to private sections and to increase the powers of regional and local authorities.

This study investigates spatial structure of frontier cities in Western Azarbaijan and effective factors on it by taking into consideration population, social, economic, cultural, health, infrastructure, transportation, and communication and body indices. A brief look at literature on applied and theoretical issues in developing borderline cities indicates three approaches location traditional approach, cross- border cooperation approach, people approach. christaller, losch, Giersch, Perrouy, Friedman are included among those who has dealt with the first approach. The second approach was integrated into economic geography from 1990. This approach does borderline analysis with regard to global city theories, globalization, confidence, cooperation and unity. Based on this approach views borderline areas the same from different aspect like geographical features, history, ethnic groups, and economic chances. This approach confirm that its only political and governmental affairs that cut off the two areas. The third approach views borderline areas as integration. Scholar analyze borderline areas and its stability with regard to birth and increase in population. Methodology is descriptive-analytical and co- relational. Qualitative planning models such as Top sis multi-criteria decision-making, Entropy, dispersion coefficient, are used for ranking, and neural network, regression analysis, route analysis and variance analysis are used to analyze data. Based on administrative – political division province of west Azarbaijan included 36 cities among them we find 13 borderline cities. Borderline Cities are those cities located less than 50 km the border. The result shows that among the 13 cities of Western Azarbaijan, based on political - administrative division in 2007, Piranshahr, Sardasht and Oshnavieh cities which comprise 67/8 percent of population of frontier cities are classified as developed frontier cities. Cities of Siah cheshmeh, Avajigh, Gardan keshaneh, Tazeh shahr and Poldasht which include 18/7 percent of population in frontier cities are classified as semi-developed and Mir abad, Silvaneh, Bazargan, Rabt and Sarv cities which have 13/5 percent of population in frontier cities are considered as under-developed cities. Dispersion coefficient shows that the highest difference among indices is related to cultural index and the lowest one is social index. According to the results of route analysis, cultural section has had the highest and infrastructure section has had the lowest effect on spatial structure of frontier cities. Neural network analysis shows that infrastructure section with a rate of 100 percent and population section with a rate of 8/8 percent have had the most and the least significance in spatial structure of frontier cities. Degree of inequality (difference) between rank of cities with respect to different sections was examined through multi-variants analysis and the result showed that the development of cities in different indices have not been equal. Therefore application of urban development strategies resulting from statistical analysis models based on rank order of cities seems necessary.

Energy security, a relatively new term in international relations jargon, implies states of securing adequate and reliable energy supplies at stable prices. In a world of tightening markets for oil and gas animated by new superpower’s explosive economic growth, the energy dimension of economic giant's rivalry appears increasingly salient. More than any other commodity, today energy as a strategic commodity has become political and is in a direct interaction with international system. The vital fuels such as oil, which is at times used as a political instrument, enjoy a special place in the economic policies of the producing countries and the security-economic strategies of the consuming countries. A better understanding of the impact of energy on Chinese and Japanese foreign policy requires a more comprehensive approach with an in-depth examination of their interactions over energy related matters with other countries. This paper is an effort in addressing the role of energy in the wider context of Japanese and Chinese foreign policy in the Central Asia region from a comparative perspective. The first section is dedicated to the Central Asian's energy reserves and its position in the world energy markets, and the second and third sections deal with energy policies and strategies of China and Japan in this region. The final section discusses the differences between the patterns and frameworks of Japan’s and China's foreign policy making process in this region to attain their interests. The authors have analyzed the both countries goals and policies in the Caspian region by using a comparative approach. Securing energy resources is the case for old main consumers such as Japan before the Second World War and is also the case for new-comer energy consumers such as China today with its huge growing energy demand. Although Japanese energy consumption is among the highest in the world, the country lacks significant domestic energy resources and most imports include substantial amount of crude oil, natural gas and other energy resources, including uranium for its nuclear power plants. Japan has by far the second largest oil importer in the world; as well as LNG imports that reach roughly half of the entire world’s total. Imports of both oil and gas flow heavily from the Middle East, where Japan gets nearly 90 per cent of its oil and around one third of its gas. On the other hand, according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2002, oil imports for developing countries in Asia are expected to increase dramatically from 4.9 Mbd in 2000, to 24 Mbd in 2030. In particular, net oil imports for China alone are expected to jump from 1.7 Mbd in 2000, to 10 Mbd in 2030. After China adopted the policy of reform and opening up during 1980's, China’s economy has developed with a high speed. With the development of economy, the consumption of oil increases dramatically. In 1993, China became a net importer of oil and in 2003, with a daily demand of 5.5 million barrels per day; China surpassed Japan to become the second largest international oil consumer after the United States. Clearly, China and Japan have interests in Central Asia beyond energy. For China, involvement in Central Asian energy industries is one way to shore up influence in what is very much its backyard. More broadly, working cooperatively and occasionally competitively with Russia, China would like to exclude “outsiders” from Central Asia, particularly Western actors. Japan’s non-energy interests are narrower. Aside from a genuine normative edge to its foreign policy towards Central Asia, there is an element of hard competitive calculation in maintaining a presence on China’s western borders. Nevertheless, focusing on oil, gas and uranium is justified by the direct interest of Japan and China in these resources and the effect that control of these resources has on Central Asian politics. However, Japan’s and China’s expanding global outreach is not entirely the result of their growing reliance on imported oil and their efforts to secure supplies globally. Rather, it is consistent with both countrie's overall economic growth and enhanced political standing. The build-up of closer ties with the developing world and China and Japan’s growing presence should be seen in the context of Beijing and Tokyo’s expanding economic interest's world-wide and growing international political influence, not simply as a symptom of their pursuit for energy. In short, energy has influenced Chinese and Japanese international behavior but not transformed their foreign policy. This paper presents the argument that while energy is an important factor in Japanese and Chinese foreign policy, the impact of their energy needs on their international behavior is only one dimension, and must be analyzed in the context of their multiple and competing policy priorities.