A STUDY ON EMBEDDEDNESS OF BRANCH PLANTS IN TOHOKU REGION, JAPAN

Research Project

Project/Area Number	10680075
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Human geography
Research Institution	TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator	HINO Masateru GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, TITLE OF POSITION:PROFESSOR, 大学院・理学研究科, 教授 (30156608)
Project Period (FY)	1998 – 1999
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1999)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000) Fiscal Year 1998: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	Tohoku Region / branch plant / the 1990s / Tokyo metropolitan area / female worker / Kitakami City / 工業
Research Abstract	The employment in manufacturing had largely decreased in Tohoku Region since 1991. This was largely owing to female unemployment in manufacturing. In particular, female workers in age group between 45 to 59 had remarkably decreased. This means the close down of subcontract factories that were characterized by cheap labors of female, low level of capital investment and low productivity. On the other hand, the male workers in the professional and technical occupation had continued to increase during the 1990s. As a result, the added value per capita Had increased. Kitakami City in the northern area of Tohoku Region is known as the new industrial area characterized by the agglomeration of small and medium-sized factories in addition to the branch plants of large firms. A large part of those small and medium-sized factories had been branched out from the Tokyo metropolitan area. For a long time the large number of young people had migrated from Kitakami City to the Tokyo metropolitan area. However, since 1993 Kitakami City has continued to get an excess of immigration to emigration in relation to Kanagawa Prefecture, the largest industrial area in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In addition, although manufacturing firms headquartered in Kanagawa Prefecture had decreased their workers in the prefecture, they had increased ones in Kitakami City. Those phenomena suggest that the shift of production functions from the Tokyo metropolitan area to Tohoku Region have continued even in the 1990s.