The Influences of "Seto Gigantic Bridge" on the Regional Structure of National Economy

“佐藤巨桥”的开通使本州和四国之间的客流发生了很大变化，但由于通行费较高，对货运的影响并不特别大。运输公司不会让他们的卡车通过这座巨桥，除非他们的货物相对于它们的重量来说很贵。许多卡车仍在渡船上穿越内海。这座巨大的大桥吸引了来自全国各地的大量观光者，香川县楚山区、松山市及其郊区爱美县和冈山县南部的许多旅游景点也挤满了往返大桥的游客。但那里周围的许多其他旅游景点或多或少都有所下降，游客被更著名、更有装备的景点带去了。也就是说，他们受到了巨桥“后向效应”的影响。朝日、读卖等大报社在香川县巨桥附近设立了印刷厂，从那时起，他们就通过巨桥将印刷的报纸送到中部地区的读者手中。一家运输公司在大桥脚下的货运中心建了仓库，并向印刷厂供应了几卷纸。如此一来，巨型大桥正助力着“信息创新”，也在一定程度上引发了一种空间分工的重构。

The Opening of "Seto Gigantic Bridge" has changed heavily the flow of passengers between Honsyu and Shikoku, but has not particularly affected freightage because of its high toll. Transport firms do not make their trucks cross the Gigantic Bridge unless their cargoes are dear for their weights. Many trucks still cross the Inland Sea of Seto aboard ferry-boats.The Gigantic Bridge has attracted a vast mass of sightseers from around the country, and many tourist spots in Chusan District of Kagawa Prefecture, Matuyama City and its suburbs in Ehime Prefecture and south part of Okayama Prefecture have also been crowded with travelers who visited there on the way to and from the Gigantic Bridge. But many other tourist spots around there have declined more or less, being taken their visitors by more famous and equipped spots. In the other words, they have been affected by "backward effects" of the Gigantic Brige.Such large newspaper firms as the Asahi and the Yomiuri established printing factories near the Gigantic Bridge in Kagawa Prefecture, and since then, they have delivered the printed papers by way of the Bridge to the readers in Chugoku District. A transport firm built storehouses in the Freight Circulating Center at the foot of the Bridge, and have supplied rolls of paper to the printing factories. Like this, the Gigantic Bridge is contributing to the "information innovation" and partly causing a kind of restructuring of spatial division of labor.