ENDO Kimiko, YAMAMOTO Masaki, KASHIMA Hiroshi, FUJITA Kazufumi, ODA Hironobu
Annals of the Association of Economic Geographers, 70(3) 203-227, Sep 30, 2024
In this paper, with Nagai City, Yamagata Prefecture, as a case study, we clarify the form of the manufacturing industry after the withdrawal of branch factories. We also discuss how independent and stable development can be achieved in a small city in a rural area. From the perspective of industrial diversification, the paper analyzes not only the transition of businesses and production items of electrical companies, but also the trends of craft industries such as sake brewing, toy woodworking and textiles, as well as the regional basis for entrepreneurship training. <BR> The case firms have achieved technological sophistication and expanded into various fields. For example, one of the companies has changed its main business from electronic cover assembly to electronic component assembly, and then to processing of automobile parts. In the craft industry, it is clear that they are actively implementing new strategies, such as building overseas sales channels, and participating in recyclingoriented regional development and tourism projects. Nagai i-bay, an incubation facility, has realized new businesses in a variety of fields, such as mechanical design and modeling.