DISTRIBUTION OF CHEMICAL PLANTS IN JAPAN

Abstract

The geographical distribution of Japanese chemical plants operated by the corporations whose capital stock is over 1, 000, 000, 000 can be summed up as follows from the viewpoint of added value indexes. The plants for productive goods falling under Group No. 1 such as fertilizer, sodium, and vinyl are spreading all over the country, whereas those for direct consumption goods such as medicine, paint, end pigment are mostly located in Tokyo and Osaka areas. During the initial period of development of the industries of Group No. 1, these city areas were within easy access to cheap village labour and coal fields and, what was more, they could supply surplus electric power at night to these industries, whose advantageous features, however, are no more available. Despite this, chemical interests in these city districts are still expanding their production facilities by addition of new plants and by enlar gement of existing ones. This phenomenon is due to close interdependence among chemical industries for the supply of raw materials. A large chemical company is characterized by the self-sustenance of materials, producing its whole requirements in its component plants, which is true especially in the recent petroleum chemical industry. They can be grouped into several classes according to holding companies, but interests owned by the private banking institutions in the city are by no means small in volume. Since the chemical industry has very small outside jobs and since its finished goods are mostly turned out from factories in city areas, its production activities have almost nothing to do with its neighbourhood, excepting the procurement of labour. Explanation of Tables and Figures. Table 1. (a) Geographical distribution of the nation's chemical plants shown by value added. (b) Geographical distribution of the operatives employed in the chemical plants in each prefecture shown by value added. Table 2. Chemical plant combination. Table 3. Chemical ;plant combination of Group No. 1. Fig. 1. Location of the nation's chemical plants. Fig. 2. Sketch showing interdependence among the chemical plants for materials. Fig. 3. Geographical distribntion of the petroleum chemical plant. Fig. 4. Structural sketch of a petroleum chemical plant.