Abstract
Stimulated by the rapid growth of the international economy, advanced technology, and liberalization of foreign trade, the distribution of industrial establishments has entered a new stage yielding remarkable influences upon cities. As a result, the Pacific Coast Industrial Belt has come into being, and the pattern of distribution of local cities is undergoing a change. The industrial development of the San-yo Coastal Region (in Yamaguchi Prefecture), however, has been very slow in the last several years.
The purpose of this study is to find out facts about this situation and to clarify the causes for it. The following is a summary of the study.
1. In the San-yo Coastal Region there are twelve industrial cities, forming three clusters, i. e. Ube, Shunan, and Iwakuni. These three clusters of industrial cities together with adjoining areas constitute the San-yo Coastal Industrial City Chain, with its own characteristics and structure although in some respects similar to those of the North Kyushu Industrial Region.
One of the characteristics is that within this region there are large-scale industries such as chemical (which produces 30.7% of the prefecture's production, and 6.6% of the national production), petroleum products (22.4% and 17.3%), and iron and steel industry (15.6% and 2.4%). These dominant industries form the core of the local industrial structure attracting a large number of other industries. In all the three industrial city clusters the petro-chemical industry constitutes their hard core. Therefore, the level of industrialization is highest in the Shunan Industrial City Cluster (139) as compared with Ube (81), and Iwakuni (55).
As for commercial structure, none of the three clusters has its commercial core yet, and they have no well-developed wholesale trade structure, nor they have an established consumer economy sphere.
2. The San-yo Coastal Industrial City Chain was formed in about 1960, some time after the three clusters were formed (Ube in 1942, Shunan about 1955, and Iwakuni about 1955). This was due to the petro-chemical complexes and the iron and steel industry (in Hikari). Thus those industries that turn out semi-finished products prospered, but such established industries as foodstuffs, textiles and pulp, began to decline completely.
3. The San-yo Coastal Industrial City Chain was very acitve up until about 1960, when the city culsters were formed, but it has since become very stagnant. The reason for this is that contrary to the nation-wide trend, here the small- and medium-scale industries were located near the sources of raw materials (ceramics, stone and clay products, lumber, paper, foodstuffs).
4. The second reason is that due to a change in conditions for attracting industries, i.e. because of the inadequacies in industrial structure, undeveloped transportation networks and the absence of other enticing conditions, this region was unable to receive the industries that wanted to leave the already congested industrial centers elsewhere. Therefore, the industrial development in the industrial cities and the three industrial clusters within this region became stagnant.
To sum up, since about 1935 the San-yo Coastal Region has been developing as a frontier of the North Kyushu Industrial Region. But the eastward movement of Industrie which started in about 1950 led to the formation of the three industrial city cluster and then the San-yo Coastal Industrial City Chain. This means that the industrial center moved from Shimonoseki to Tokuyama city. This is a manifestation of the branching off of the North Kyushu Industrial Region. Thus in the San-yo Coastal Region there can be found an example of formation and distribution of industrial cities due to the shifting of an industrial center. (Part of a Ministry of Education scientific research grant for 1966 has been used for this study.)
