An alternative direction for maintaining the vitality of Japanese regional cities in the transition stage

In Japan the rapid growth of regional cities mainly due to the agglomeration of branch offices of nation-wide companies is a characteristic of urbanization in the latter half of the 20 ^th century. However, the branch office agglomeration in regional cities began to decrease since the late 1990s. The reduction in employment at branch offices of large enterprises was a main immediate reason of the decrease in the branch office agglomeration in regional cities. This phenomenon was caused by fundamental factors such as globalization, information technology, falling birthrate, and the aging of the population, in addition to long-term economic stagnation in Japan. On the other hand, producer services industry is one of a few growing industries in regional cities. However, the differentiation in the growth of producer services in regional cities seems likely to increase in the future. Therefore, it is necessary for regional cities to look for a new developmental direction instead of the previous growth model characterized by hierarchical differentiations and connections between cities. It is thought that regional cities should form and strengthen their horizontal direct connections with cities in other regions or foreign countries as a strategy for sustainable vitality.