Abstract
Kawaguchi City in Saitama-Ken, adjoining Tokyo to the north, forms a part of the KEIHIN Industrial District (Tokyo and Yokohama) . The feature of the industrial activity of Kawaguchi City is in its foundry industry which dates back to the early Edo period of the 17th Century.
It is the purpose of this report to clarify the regional structure of the foundry industry as an economic base of Kawaguchi City. In order to collect materials for this analysis, the writer called upon 303 foundry plants, or approximately 60% of the total number of foundry plants, and a total of about 50 machine and wooden pattern making plants in the city.
The summary of the findings are as follows:
1. The foundry plants in Kawaguchi City are highly concentrated in the southern part of the city, i. e. in the vicinity of the Kawaguchi Railway Station. In this area, the foundry plants are intermixed with the machine, wooden pattern making and metal plants, thus forming a fairly large industrial agglomeration. Beginning around 1960, this area has changed to be a dormitory of workers to Tokyo and its population has increased. But housing developments are not to be seen in this southern part which is the area of the in-dustrial agglomeration and, in fact, the population of this area has slightly declined.
2. The foundry plants acquire most of their materials within this southern part of the city. Most of the subcontracters are also concentrated in the same area. Also, within the area are found business firms dealing with various materials of the foundry industry, such as raw materials, wooden and metal patterns, and machines. They all have contributed in estalishing a large industrial agglomeration with the foundry industry as a major core. Most of the products are supplied to the machine plants located in Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama. In other words, Kawaguchi City plays an important role as a sub-center of the larger belt of Tokyo-Yokohama machine industry.
3. The majority of the proprietors of the foundry plants are those who were born in this area. Most of them had succeeded to their fathers' occupation. Others used to be former workers of foundry plants, but have become independent. Workers are practically all male. Wages were paid daily or on quota basis. Both proprietors and workers live near their working sites. Many of their families have been employed in other occupations within the same city. This regional agglomeration of the industry in the southern part of Kawaguchi City can be considred as an industrial community containing both places of work and residence within itself. This community differs from that of the northern part of Kawaguchi City where farmland has been converted into housing area, and that of the middle zone of the city where factories and residences have been dispersed irregularly.
