The automobile-industry agglomeration in the Kyushu-Yamaguchi area, located in the South-West of Japan, has increased its production output in spite of the restructuring occuring in the national Japanese car industry. But as we will discuss in our paper, there are serious structural problems. At first, we analyze the internal structure of this agglomeration through a case-study of Toyota Motor Kyushu, Inc. and its first-tire supplliers. In our interviews we found that Toyota Motor Kyushu itself and its suppliers are simple branch plants without supporting departments such as sales, purchase, R&D, etc., and that their local linkages in the Kyushu-Yamaguchi area are weak. Secondly, we realize that those two characteristics are related to several information-related problems. One problem derives from the facts that the supporting departments are spatially separated from the branch plant (namely Peripheral-Japan), and that the management in those departments is of course not almighty. Since the decision-making function is therefore separated from the branch plant, the latter can not effectively utilize local informations related with potential customers and suppliers. This fact causes a second problem, since the function for gathering local information is absent, the branch plant is not able to realize potential customers and suppliers, For these reasons, the local linkages of the branch plant are more weaker than those of a plant which is directly attached to supporting departments. Thus, a regional agglomeration made up by many branch plants faces the problem of weak repercussion effects in the area. This situation is inhibiting the future economic growth of the whole area. Finally we suggest that when we make judgements about whether a regional agglomeration in a pheripheral area would experience structual changes, a quantitative analysis of linkages should be complemented by a analysis focusing on organizational, i.e., the managerial aspects within locational units.

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The spatial structure of retailing is studied at the macro-scale level and the micro-scale level. The urban retailing system is a main theme at the micro-scale level. At the macro-scale level, the purpose of many studies is to find factors caused the differences in the retail structure of countries, prefectures or cities. In each of their areas, total sales of retailing are approximately equal to total shopping expenditure. The purpose of this study is to review empirical studies on the spatial structure at the macro-scale level in Japan. Geographers have not concerned studies at the macro-scale level. The studies at the macro-scale level are divided into three types. The first is on the international comparison of retail structure, the second is on the classification by prefectures or cities in terms of their retail structure and the third is on the identification of factors affecting the retail performance and the retail structure. Until the 1980's, many studies on the international comparison of retail structure contended that the Japanese distribution system is inefficient. The reason for the backward state of the Japanese distribution system is that the growth of large stores was prevented by Large Store Law and mass consumption economy was created very quickly in Japan (Tamura, 1986). But in the later 1980's and the 1990's, many studies contended that the Japanese distribution system is not inefficient but adjust to the Japanese distribution environment and culture (for example, Maruyama, 1992 ; Tamura, 1998). In Japan, there were a few studies on the classification by prefectures. Variations of the results in these studies may arise from differences in the data sets chosen as indicators of the retail structure. Studies on the classification by cities neglected to identify determinants of the retail structure except Kometani (1980). There were many studies attempted to identify the important determinants of the retail performance differential among prefectures or cities. The concern with these studies is to identify the main elements in the retail environment and the retail structure affecting the retail performance. Most of researchers in the field on retailing study adoptd the productivity in retailing as a measure of retail performance. These studies revealed that the increase in productivity of retailing was caused by the increase in demand, the increase in outlet scale and the decrease in shop numbers in Japan. There were a few studies attempted to identify the important factors affecting the retail structure differential among prefectures or cities. The concern to these studies is to examine the relationships the retail environment and the retail structure. These studies revealed that the increase in population and the number of large store led to the decrease in the number of retail shop in Japan. The analytical framework in studies on the spatial structure of retailing at the macro-scale level may be useful to geographical studies and to studies on the spatial structure of retailing at the micro-scale level. Little attention has been given to find any difference among analytical units in studies at the macro-scale. Therefore, geographical approaches at the macro-scale level concern with making a comparison of different analytical units retail structure. And the geography on retailing at the micro-scale level has to rest not only on concepts of centrality but also on considerations of the retail environment, the retail structure and the retail performance.

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In recent years, due to the Deregulation of the Large-Scale Retail Store Act, Large-scale retail stores locating mainly in the suburbs of local cities have had wide trade areas. For this reason, small-scale retail stores in the main commercial areas of local cities have gradually lost their trade areas and fallen into decline, a serious problem encountered by local cities in Japan. Furthermore, the number of large-scale retail stores located in towns and villages is on the increase. Thus, the author proposes two hypotheses as follows. First, because the trade area of local cities includes many towns and villages surrounding the city, newly located large-scale retail stores in these surrounding areas should have a wide affect on the commercial function and trade area of local cities. Second, from the standpoint of the industry in towns and villages, which in some cases is quite fragile, such new large-scale retail stores can lead to industrial and regional development. Therefore, in this study, the author attempts to clarify how location of the spatial large-scale retail stores affects the dynamics of trade within region. For this purpose, the author uses Kashiwa village as a case for this study. Kashiwa village verges on Goshogawara city that is the center of the Seihokugo district. The large-scale retailer AEON Group located the Regional Shopping Center (RSC) there in 1992, and many large-scale retail stores have located in the neighborhood of the RSC since then. Thus, spatial agglomeration of large-scale retail stores has been built up over time. In the first part of this paper the author examines the structural transformation of a trade area, by analyzing the shopping behavior for daily and yearly purchased goods. In the second part of the paper, the author examines the change of employment structure, industrial production and tax revenue in Kashiwa village to clarify the effect of the large-scale retail stores on the local economy. The results of the study outline the following : 1) The structural transformation of a trade area It was found that spatial agglomeration of large-scale retail stores in Kashiwa village changed the structure of the wide trade area into two trade areas consisting of tow commercial centers. Especially considering the trade area for yearly purchased goods, the level of commercial centrality of Kashiwa village is higher than that of Goshogawara city. It follows from this that it has a great impact on the commercial function of local cities, though large-scale retail stores are located in the village, which has only small population. That is to say, hierarchical structure in retail systems has not necessarily in conformity with that in urban systems. 2) The local economic effects on Kashiwa village a) The spatial agglomeration of large-scale retail stores in Kashiwa village employs a young adult jobseeker, migrant workers and the surplus workers from farms. As a result, it has had a considerable effect on depopulation within the area. b) Owing to the spatial agglomeration of large-scale retail stores, production of retail goods and services in Kashiwa village has increased rapidly, and this effect has spread to other industries, such as : construction, real estate business, and so on. It is reasonable to suppose that the retail sector is the major industry of Kashiwa village. c) The tax revenue of Kashiwa village has increased rapidly. Especially, increase of property tax contributes it, moreover the half of increase of tax revenue was paid by AEON Group. Though the tax revenue has increased, it doesn't change the situation, that finance of Kashiwa village depends heavily on public expenditure.

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