Japanese Inter-prefectural Input-Output Table: Construction Method and Main Results for 2011

         
Author Name ARAI Sonoe (RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. January 2022 22-J-003
Research Project Refinement and Analysis of the Regional-Level Japan Industrial Productivity Database: Analysis of Regional Industrial Linkages and Productivity
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Abstract

As supplementary information for the R-JIP database project, two years ago we prepared and published a 2005 inter-prefectural input-output table connecting 47 prefectures, which made it possible to focus on the existence of production factors, production technology spillovers, and the resulting interregional division of labor as determinants of income distribution and productivity disparities among prefectures. We have now newly compiled the 2011 Inter-prefectural Input-Output Table. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in the year 2011, we can analyze the changes of industrial structure among prefectures before and after the earthquake comparing the 2011 and 2005 tables.

The basic method for compiling the inter-prefectural IO table is the same as that used in the 2005 table; we unified the tables for each prefecture into the same concepts and sectors and connected them to create the inter-prefectural input-output table. As for the activities of headquarters offices, we set up the same divisions as in the 2005 table. This makes it possible to analyze the flow of headquarters office services. It is also possible to analyze how the structure of the division of labor among regions in Japan has changed in recent years, and whether this has had the effect of narrowing the gap in productivity among regions.

It is unfortunate that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) stopped compiling interregional tables after 2005, so the 2011 Interregional Input-Output Table is the only data available for analyzing interregional transactions in the Japanese economy. The Great East Japan Earthquake had a significant impact on the Japanese economy, which was recovering from the burst of the bubble economy and its aftermath in the 1990s, especially on the regional economies. While the 2011 National Input-Output table provides an analysis of Japan's economic structure as a whole at that time, our newly compiled 2011 Inter-prefectural Input-Output table provides a more detailed analysis of the impact on Japan's economic structure across regions.