The Effect of New Technological and Organizational Infrastructure on Urban and Regional Development The Case of the Japanese Technopolis Policy

Japan has undertaken the unique effort of a concerted nation-wide policy for the decentralisation of technological innovation and territorial restructuring. The major strategic effort towards this end was the Technopolis policy formulated in 1983 in the context of which, during the following :five years, 25 decentralized "Technopolises" were established over the entire length of the country. These Technopolises essentially provide new technological and organizational infrastructure in deconcentrated, sometimes even peripheral locations to promote technological innovation and urban/regional growth also in more remote parts of the country. The present paper sets out to evaluate the local and regional effects of this policy, on the basis of disaggregated time-series data of local and regional economic performance before and after the establishment of individual Technopolises. These data refer to total new plant and new high-technology plant formation in individual Technopolises, to changes in production (shipments), value-added, productivity and employment at the local and Prefecture levels. These data are related to number and type of specific technological and organi zational facilities
offered by individual Technopolises as well as to other variables proceeding from an original survey of 25 Technopolises undertaken by the senior author. The results are based on research and :field work undertaken by the senior author in the course of two extended sojourns in Japan during the past years. in deconcentrated, sometimes even peripheral locations to promote technological innovation and urban/regional growth also in more remote parts of the country. The present paper sets out to evaluate the local and regional effects of this policy, on the
basis of disaggregated time-series data of local and regional economic performance before and after the establishment of individual Technopolises. These data refer to total new plant and new high-technology plant formation in individual Technopolises, to changes in production
(shipments), value-added, productivity and employment at the local and Prefecture levels. These data are related to number and type of specific technological and organi zational facilities offered by individual Technopolises as well as to other variables proceeding from an original
survey of 25 Technopolises undertaken by the senior author.
The results are based on research and :field work undertaken by the senior author in the course of two extended sojourns in Japan during the past years.