Cross-sectional Research on Investigations and Diagnoses of Regional Development: Findings from a Questionnaire Survey of Commerce and Industry Associationsin Rural Areas on Regional Development Projects

Abstract

We compared examples of management diagnosis and region diagnosis across the country and analyzed many factors that influence regional economy. The results suggested that commerce and industry associations conducted various activities for regional activation and that social and economic condition varied from region to region. Concretely speaking, although there were few associations that conducted diagnosis of city center revitalization and tourist area revitalization in the past five years, there were many associations that conducted diagnosis of consumers’ purchase trend and members’ management trend as support for small-scale enterprises and a certain number of these associations estimated the diagnosis was useful. Besides, effective measures against regional activation were predictably conservation and utilization of festival and traditional event, formation of industrial clusters and industrial park, attraction of sports event and international conference, and especially various activities with a core of local-community vitalization aids.