The unemployment rate is rising over 5% in Japan, and social interests on labor problems are increasing in policy and also in academic disciplines. Economic geography in Japan has focused its concern on regional industrial structure and local labor market as other social sciences, i.e., labor economics, studies on small and medium-sized enterprises. There was a discrepancy between urban studies and labor researches in Japan that may be contrast to urban and regional economics in other advances countries. Now, new nexus between regional employment policy and community development should be pursued in economic geography. We examine unemployment rates and labor demands in national perspective, and then review three empirical researches in Gifu pref.; the corporate policy on human resources, the consciousness of workers in large establishments, and job search behavior of unemployed and job seekers. In ordinary life, male workers have less concern on community activities than labor conditions within firm and family affairs. Local labor market exists within commuting distance, and female and elder workers seek jobs nearby their home. If unemployed gather information on jobs, they sometimes contacts friends within human networks. Japanese government is slightly changing its labor policy from flexible labor markets and deregulations to the work-sharing and the equalization between permanent workers and part-time workers in labor and social welfare. It should be stressed the importance of the regional safety-net and the education and training policies.

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In the process of economic stagnation, hollowing of domestic industries and transformation of industrial structure, the job situation has been deteriorating and the unemployment rate has been rising with regional differences caused by the regional economic and industrial structure in the Japanese economy. This paper tries to make clear the relationship between the regional economic and industrial structure and the regional employment structure and labor market, and to survey a sustainable regional economy. Gunnai district, which has been showing a higher employment rate, is taken as an example survey field. The main industry of Gunnai district had shifted from the textile industry to the machine industry during 1970 s and 1980 s. Stimulated by local governments, large companies of machine industry set up their branch factories and small- and medium-sized firms started business in clusters including conversion from textile businesses. Gunnai district became a peripheral part of the Metropolitan machine industry region. The service and retail industries developed as well, backed by increasing number of tourists from the Metropolitan area. Most of labor force which had left the textile industry were absorbed into small- and medium-sized firms of machine industry, civil engineering and construction industry, and service and retail industries. Relatively abundant new graduates were employed mostly in large companies of machine industry and service and retail industries. After the collapse of the overheated economic activities at the beginning of the 1990 s, the employment structure and employment conditions in Gunnai district have been changing. The labor force discharged by large companies under their restructuring schemes has mostly been employed as low-waged part-time work force by small- and medium-sized firms of machine industry, civil engineering and construction industry, and service and retail industries. Small and intermediate sized businesses of machine industry have not cut their employment in large scale and tried to survive by means of curtailment of operation and development of new technology. Civil engineering and construction industry have tried to tide over the reduction of public works by making efficient use of temporary labor force. Service and retail businesses seem to replace full-time workers by part-time workers. Textile businesses have shifted to new businesses which require high level of R&D and created new jobs for young workers. The employment of new high-school graduates who had played an important role in the Gunnai labor market has been reducing because of decreasing number of children and rising ratio of students who wish higher education. In order to maintain and develop local economies the following are indispensable : to create and maintain the diversity of industries and businesses in terms of size, to encourage new businesses of high-technology, to construct the network of information on technology and market demand among local businesses, and to provide desirable living conditions and public infrastructure which enable people to make a U-turn to their home town and bear and raise their next generation.

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The employment system which had characterized long-term employment has been changing recently. In the past, within Japanese corporations which had been known to have deep internal labor market, women who on average had shown less degree of stability in the corporations had frequently experienced a treatment which was different from that for men. The issue to be addressed in this paper is that the on-going change of the restructuring of the employment system can possibly have some influence on the structure of women's work. First, with respect to the employment management in the internal labor market, the growth of the equal employment opportunity was flat or in a declining trend in 1990's. However, it was deducted from the outcome of the analysis that equal employment management helps increase the level of stability of female workers within the corporations and enhances the percentage of female staff in managerial positions. In particular, the relationship between the equal employment opportunity and stability of female workers in corporations, and that between the stability of female workers in corporations and the percentage of female staff in the managerial positions was reinforced in the latter half of the 90's. It can be analyzed that such phenomena represents the intake of women's career into internal labor market. With respect to the change of the employment management in conjunction with the rapid expansion of non-regular worker, I conducted the case studies with 50 corporations. As a result, it became clear that the expansion of non-regular workers came with the qualitative change that the core job was transferred to non-regular workers. Such transition is referred to as "transfer to core work". We can observe the movement to reinforce the effort to select workers among non-regular workers, and take excellent level of non-regular workers into internal labor market. I think that the result of the above analysis indicates that a certain multi-layer labor market structure is being formed through the interaction of the development of the career of women which approaches the career of men, and, at the same time, the development of the career of non-regular workers which overlaps the career of the regular workers. In conjunction with this change, how women develop their career has become more diversified than before, suggesting the possibility that the perspective of their career would expand. The problem to be solved will be improvement of fairness in employment management in diverse work patterns.

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This article discussed plans for regional cooperation corridors on the 3-bridges linking Honshu and Shikoku. T-TAT cooperation corridor, Nishi-nihon central cooperation corridor, and Chu-shikoku cooperation corridor are the case study areas. This article's aim is to illustrate the planning process, the actual situation and the reasons for increasing cooperation and regional characteristics of each case study area and of the larger area of interaction constituted by the regional cooperation corridors. Exchange and collaboration activities are most lively and cover the widest scale in the Nishi-nihon central cooperation corridors. On the other hand, exchange and collaboration activities are not lively, and their fields of activity are limited around the bridges linking Honshu and Shikoku on T-TAT cooperation corridor and Chu-shikoku cooperation corridor despite of support by the concerning prefectures. Principal growing causes of regional cooperation corridors are investigation by ministry of land, infrastructure and transport, transport infrastructure, financial support for exchange and collaboration activities, existence of a nucleus, existence of key actors, and existence of a good secretariat. After construction of the 3-bridges linking Honshu and Shikoku was completed, a sphere of interaction on a large scale has been planned. This is formed through 3 regional cooperation corridors. Exchange and collaboration activities have previously started in this sphere of interaction on a large scale. The knowledge and skill of exchange and collaboration activities in regional cooperation corridors has been transferred to those in the sphere of interaction on a large scale. Regional cooperation corridors and the sphere of interaction on a large scale are creative plans. Such activities in regional cooperation corridors and in the sphere of interaction on a large scale create administrative and economical effects, which cannot be created in the sphere of daily life.

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