Abstract
Now Japanese industrial development is very striking accompanied by the plant modernization, and the technical revolution; the industrial regions are greatly changing.
The writer tried to investigate the industrial regions in Kyushu and their development as a problem of balancing regional variations from the standpoint of economic geography.
Kyushu, the survey area, has a Japan's principal coal mining region in the north, and wide underde veloped regions in the south.
Most of the industrial regions in Kyushu have been developed on the combination of the domestic coall and the foreign raw materials from Chinese Continent, or Southeast Asia, in the aid of government supra porting colonial policy, which has little relation to national market.
After the Second World War, therefore, they have rather a disadvantage of “mallocalization to west.”
This is the reason why the main industries in Kyushu were limitted to iron industry, chemical industry and cement industry, etc.
As for the distribution of industrial regions, they expand from Kitakyushu to Nakatsu, Ôita and Saeki in the east, and to Fukuoka, Yatsushiro and Minamata in the west. Kitakyushu in which the Yahata Steel CO. LTD. is the biggest work is the center of Kyushu industrial regions.
Nagasaki and Nobeoka industrial districts are isolated.
Recently some industries such as “Pulp” and “Food” processing have been newly established, but as yet there is a tendency also in such new industries for which the combination with “coal” is fundamental, which results in the greater regional variation of economic development. Put it is noticeable that a new industrial combination appeared in Oita district, which has the best conditions of industrial localization, which in any other areas are so unfavorable that they limit the localization of the basic materials industries, to iron-steel industry, oil refinery, etc.
It seems to be unprofitable to establish the basic materials industries any where in Kyushu, and the industry of various types must be selected according to the regional conditions and this is the only practical way to aim at balanceing regional variations of the economic standard.
