Pattern of Circulation of Raw Materials and Finished Products within the Industrial Area around the Seto Inland Sea

Abstract

In the sphere of the study of industrial region, focus has been so far laid upon studies based upon the analysis of static statistics for a uniform region. Although elecidation of the position of each industry and analysis of an industrial region as a functional region are very important; there are so many obstacles that they have not fully been studied. There are caused by the shortage of data, the difficulty in obtaining them: consequently, the method based on dynamic analysis has not yet been established.The industrial region of the Seto Inland Sea was selected for the present writer's study on the industrial region, and papers were written in this connection. This paper is one of the series.The purpose of this paper is to classify the industries of this select region by dynamic analysis of statistics, and to understand the characteristics of the Seto Inland Sea region as a functional region.First, the questions as to where and from what places the main factories of this region brought their fuel and materials, and where they transported their manufactured goods; these factors were investigated.For this analysis, five regions were set up, which are in the western area (Kyushu), the eastern (Hanshin), the further east area and the overseas, and the main movements of materials, and goods between the areas by each factory were picked up and estimated.The fact was discovered that the movement of materials and products were common among similar types of industries, and that there are seven types of movement of materials and products as a whole. These seven types can be categorized into three groups in view of typig their movements and in studying thier development and distribution.One of them is the group which brings in the material from the west and sends out the manufactured goods towards the east, which includes chemical and steel industries. This group deals with the western part of the Seto Inland Sea area, where the industrial belt of northern Kyushu has expanded. The locational conditions of this group become better towards the west.The second group is the one that brings in the material from the east and again sends the manufactured goods back to the east, mostly dealing with cotton and rubber goods, and electric appliances. This group is dominant in the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea area being influenced by the Hanshin industrial center. The various conditions for the group become better towards the east.The third group is the one that has sprung up from this region doing their trading within the region and sends out their goods to the central marketting region of Japan. The two kinds of industry which come within this group are as follows: First, rayon and shipbuilding industries which have been located there without considering other industries in the earlier period before the concentration of the industries in this region. Secondly, the basic iron, the oil-refining and the machine industries. The machine industry built up close to the automobile factories, and the oil chemical industry have all developed as the result of concentration of industries in this region and the increasing purchasing power in the western part of Japan. These three new industries mentioned above will be a driving force for a higher standard of industialization in the Seto Inland Sea area in the future. Locational conditions of these third group industries are not determined by the distance from the nodal places either in the east or west, but are favoued all over the region.