Sustainable Regional Development: New industrial clusters and division of functions

In light of the state of affairs brought about by the Great East Japan Earthquake, we will undertake research from the following two perspectives with a view to realizing risk-resistant, sustainable regional development. The first approach involves an analysis and observations from a predictive perspective on what changes in regional industrial structures and regional economic systems of Japan, particularly of northeastern Japan, will undergo through the process of recovery and reconstruction from the catastrophe of the earthquake. Another approach involves an analysis and observations from a normative perspective on what industrial clusters and interregional input-output structures bring about regional autonomy and sustainability, while also being desirable for the future of Japan.

A sustainable regional economy is construed as the sustenance of an autonomous regional economic system where goods and services are created in a region by the effective utilization of its resources and shipped outside the region in order to bring in money, with money acquired being circulated in the region to prevent an outflow of money. Greater risk-resistance is construed as the transition of each region into such a state.

Under the first approach, a positive simulation analysis based on a certain normative standard will be conducted on economic systems after the earthquake, focusing on trends of multiple economic areas of Japan, while confirming the states of regional economies. Based on that analysis, the preferable division of roles by economic areas will be examined, including the city-size distribution. Our research will also consider what policy instruments are conceivable for bringing about desirable systems in regional economies. Under the second approach, the states of regional economies will be quantitatively described by introducing normative criteria into the first approach. By deducing conditions for approaching an economic system satisfying those criteria, policy implications will be presented.

July 12, 2011 - June 30, 2013