It is important for studies of Japanese urban systems to investigate the present features of firm activities in cities of each hierarchical order. Particularly, branch offices of firms play an important role within firm activities of provincial and prefectural capitals in non-metropolitan regions. In this paper the author attempts to examine the functions and roles of branch offices of wholesale trades and producer services located in Hiroshima City as a case study by analyzing about 530 postal questionnaires answered from these branch offices. The main results are summarized as follows:1. Most of the branch offices located in Hiroshima have their headquarters in Tokyo or Osaka. The firms of wholesale trades were mainly established in the period before or just after World War II and set their branch offices during the period of high economic growth (1960 to 1973) in Hiroshima. On the other hand, many branch offices of producer services were established after the 1980's, while the firms they belong to were founded dominantly during the 1970's and 1980's.2. Although the firms of both types identify Hiroshima as the provincial capital in the Chugoku District, many of them regard the future development of Hiroshima as stagnated or slightly declining. At the same time, many branch offices of wholesale trades consider that the future development of Hiroshima depends on the development of Mazda, Inc., an automobile company headquartered in Hiroshima which has recently suffered from severe damage in the business depression. On the other hand, they expect the future development of rival city Okayama in the Chugoku District. But even if Hiroshima were to slightly decline and Okayama were to be developed in the future, few firms have said that they will move their branch offices from Hiroshima to Okayama.3. The main reason why most firms have established their branch offices in Hiroshima is due to its being the provincial capital with the largest service area in the Chugoku or the Chugoku and Shikoku District. And then-branch offices of wholesale trades refer to“a large amount of trade within Hiroshima”as the second most frequent answer, while those of producer services mainly point to the“favorable situation for managing the Chugoku District”.Branch offices of both types are concentrated in the four old wards including the city center (57.0 percent of 2, 134 branch offices in total). This is because of the favorable accessibility and the better conditions of face-to-face contact. Added to large opportunities for business in the city center, this accounts for about 70 percent of total answers. Although the location movement of offices from city centers to suburban areas is developing considerably in metropolitan areas of Europe and North America, branch offices do not act in such a way in Hiroshima. If such a phenomenon would occur, they would suffer not only from teir unprofitable businesses because of less accessibility but also from a shortage of labor because of unfavorable commuting conditions.4. The managing areas of branch offices in Hiroshima mainly consist of the Chugoku District or its western part (Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Shimane Prefectures); 66 percent of branch offices in wholesale trades and 59 percent of those in producer services occupy the whole area or western part of the Chugoku District as their managing areas, respectively. But in some cases not only the Chugoku but also the Shikoku District belong to their managing areas. They consist of somewhat larger areas compared to the trade areas before the period of the rapid economic growth. Most branch offices usually carry out their intensive business activities within smaller areas than their managing areas, especially in the main urban areas.