Industrial Structural Changes in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area

The Tokyo metropolitan area is the largest city-region in the world, and is a location where many of the advanced functions in Japan are centralized. This paper overviews changes and characteristics in Tokyo's industrial structure at the metropolitan level, as well as the inner city level. The restructuring of manufacturing industries under the pressures of globalization and a declining population in an aging society has had powerful impacts on the industrial structure of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Most sub-regions within the area are suffering from declining manufacturing industries and wholesale and retail sectors with a depressed construction industry. On the other hand, the number of employees of service industries, such as health care and welfare, has risen in suburban areas. Although the growth rate in Tokyo's inner city became weak during the recession of the 1990s, after the collapse of the asset inflation-led economy, the functions of information services have again become concentrated since the early 2000s. The competitive power of new cultural industries has also been demonstrated in recent years. To enhance creativity and strengthen the international competitiveness of cultural industries, it is important to convert the internal structures of urban areas and to accelerate connections among various industrial agglomerations in the metropolitan area.