Sendai is situated in Tohoku district of northern Japan and with its population more than 500 thousands, Sendai has the position of the local capital of Tohoku district. As its domain has been expanding, the central management functions have been agglomerating in it. In the present paper the author analyses the functions of Sendai, so as to make clear its so-called great-sphere centrality. He points out that its regional centrality has been merely maintained by the local establishments, for instance electric-, construction-, and whole-sale industry as well as some other retail trades.
Among many cities of Tohoku district Sendai is characterized by its dominant wholesale amount, and as shown by its high dependence of whole-sale on the branch business as well as the large share of local whole-sale in the sales amount as a whole, the branch establishments are playing a great role in Sendai. Regarding financial function Sendai has a high position, having more amounts of loan than of deposit. This is, however, not because of much amounts of demand for fund from the local agencies, but because of the existence of three branches of the long-term credit bank.
Thus, the local establishments do not play an important role for the development of regional centrality of Sendai, but its centrality is mostly maintained by agglomeration of the branch offices of national government and enterprises in national scale as well as their activities. In other words, this regional center, Sendai, has the tendency to become a city which develops under the decentralized managements controlled by Tokyo and Osaka. It may be therefore said that Sendai seems to be a typical example of serial city or a city initiated by branch offices.