JETRO Invest Japan Report 2017 (Summary) 5. Foreign Investment for Revitalization of Local Economy

- Attract Foreign-affiliated Companies Taking Advantage of Regional Characteristics

Efforts to attract foreign investment to Japan’s local regions

Items Local governments Efforts Case example of company entering the region Factors for setting up a base in this region
1 Fukushima Prefecture Aims to develop industrial cluster of medical equipment and expand business of local enterprises AT-OS Japan (Italy, medical device）
  1. 1.

    Partner company having a business base in Koriyama

  2. 2.

    The cluster of parts suppliers

  3. 3.

    A wide range of investment support subsidy programs prepared for foreign companies

2 Greater Nagoya Initiative (GNI) Industry-government-academia initiative to attract foreign investment into the Greater Nagoya region, a leading manufacturing center of Japan UL Japan (US, independent safety science company）
  1. 1.

    The cluster of automobile industry located between Toyota and Nagoya cities

  2. 2.

    Short distance to customers

  3. 3.

    Expectation for acquiring highly talented human resources

3 Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture Attracting foreign investment with the concept of “teleworking on the beach” Salesforce.com（US, cloud-based customer relationship management）
  1. 1.

    The excellent internet environment with the wireless mesh network of NICT

  2. 2.

    Shirahama’s “resort ambience” that fits the corporate culture and working environment for young employees

  3. 3.

    Dedication of local government staff to support settlement after the entry

4 Tokushima Prefecture Attracting satellite offices taking advantage of its high-speed optical broadband environment Space-Time Engineering (US, communication technology）
  1. 1.

    The existence of its partner company’s business base in the town

  2. 2.

    The high disaster awareness of the prefecture

  3. 3.

    Less competitiveness in finding human resources to secure talent compared to Tokyo

Top 10 prefectures where foreign-affiliated companies are based

Rank Prefecture No. of manufacturing companies No. of non-manufacturing companies Total no. of companies Ratio
1 Tokyo 256 2,040 2,296 67.3%
2 Kanagawa 102 234 336 9.9%
3 Osaka 33 144 177 5.2%
4 Hyogo 31 64 95 2.8%
5 Aichi 22 51 73 2.1%
6 Saitama 31 38 69 2.0%
7 Chiba 15 49 64 1.9%
8 Fukuoka 5 25 30 0.9%
9 Shizuoka 19 7 26 0.8%
10 Kyoto 6 14 20 0.6%
NA Other 109 115 224 6.6%
Total 629 2,781 3,410 100.0%

[Source] "50th Survey of Trends in Business Activities of Foreign Affiliates (2016)"
(Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)

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