BASIC ANALYSIS FOR UTILIZATION OF EMPTY STORES IN NEIGHBORHOOD SHOPPING DISTRICTS : Examination of shop scale for utilization of empty stores

Abstract

In the sluggish Japanese economy today, Japanese businesses, particularly neighborhood shopping districts with strong roots in the community, are in a state of decline, with the numbers of empty shops continuing to climb. This paper focuses on the problem of empty shops and analyzes the current stage of shop scale and new shop development for the purpose of contributing to the vitalization of neighborhood shopping districts by effectively utilizing these empty shops. The results of this study revealed growth in new types of business shops not belonging to existing categories and the concentration of shop floor space at the two extremes. These results were used as the basis for estimating the suitable scale in the utilization of empty shops.