Policy Research Domains (Major Policy Research Domains) II. Promoting Innovation and Strengthening International Competitiveness

Study on Industrial Clusters (joint research with Kyoto University)

Overview

2006

For Japan's economic growth strategy the formation of industrial clusters is becoming increasingly important, both for enhancing innovation capabilities and for invigorating regional economies. In our research we will use prior research findings concerning the TAMA (Technology Advanced Metropolitan Area) project in the western part of the Tokyo metropolitan area, which is regarded as a model case in METI's Industrial Cluster Program, and will engage in activities such as research in the Kyoto region, where there is an industrial agglomeration of high-tech firms and leading universities, with the objective of putting forward suggestions concerning the desirable manner in which industrial clusters are formed. Specifically, by means of a questionnaire survey of manufacturing firms in the Keiji district, which stretches from Kyoto and its suburbs into the southern part of Shiga Prefecture, we will identify SMEs that excel in product development, and study the possibilities for the development of linkages between large enterprises and these product-developing SMEs. Based on this we will study measures and policy issues concerning the development of industrial clusters as effective regional innovation systems, including the implications for the country as a whole.

Major Research Results