A Study on the relationship between a local industrial complex and a local society in the process economic restructuring

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This research project examines machinery and metal manufacturing factories located in Tohoku region in order to explore how the long economic slump after the Babble Economy has been affecting the manufacturing sector, particularly small- and medium-sized factories. The main conclusions which we draws from the project are as follows :(1) The manufacturing sector in Tohoku region has developed as a branch-plant, which specialize in the mass assembly function. The flexibility which is based on the sexual division of labor is a driving force of the manufacturing system. In the declining process of the manufacturing sector after the Babble Economy, its systemic flexibility enabled the Japanese economy to avoid high unemployment. We observe, however, that the structure which supports the sexual division of labor in itself is gradually, but steadily, changing and the risk of the emergence of the high unemployment society is increasing. The branch-plant system in the Keiretsu-like subcontracti … More ng relationship, of which mother-plants are located in Tokyo area, began to shake and the subcontracting factories are trying to build the more autonomic inter-firm relationship, particularly at a local level.(2) Although it has been pointed out that the networking among small- and medium-sized enterprises is effective in order to activate local manufacturing complexes, there remains a problem of whether policies can generate such networking processes. We explore that in Kitakami and Hanamaki area of Iwate Prefecture, which has spontaneous networks at a local level, the coordinators who mediate cooperation among enterprises play such an important role as the function of matching, trust-complement, translation, and incubator and enhance the inter-firm processes of organizational learning. On the other hand, we identify that in Koriyama area of Fukushima Prefecture, in which such networking activities are less outstanding, public technological institutions become a catalyst of inter-firm organizational learning at a local level and their commitments prompt the networking of local firms. Less