Abstract
This paper explores entrepreneurship and selfrenewal of regional specialization in the traditional craft production center based on a study for Arita porcelain production center in Japan. Arita, successfully diversified its product categories and tried to make progress for the self-renewal of its regional specialization, which were driven by entrepreneurship of a leading group of the frontier porcelain producers and wholesalers that are predominantly family businesses historically. This paper insists that the frontier porcelain producers' and wholesalers' entrepreneurship stimulated self-renewal of regional specialization. It argues the unwritten competition rule, preventing cut-throat competition, served as a catalyst to keep the region as a production center alive.
