Tottori city

Tottori city is blessed with agricultural, forestry, and fishery resources backed by a rich natural environment. It produces many wonderful foodstuffs such as "20th century pears," "matsuba crabs (snow crabs)," "Tottori Wagyu," and "sakyu rakkyo (sand dune scallions)," and has abundant forest resources. Forests and agricultural land, which covers 84% of the city, have multifaceted functions such as headwater conservation, landslide prevention, curbing greenhouse gas (CO2) emission, and excellent landscaping that serve as tourism resources.
The city provides convenient transportation and serves as one of the leading logistic bases along the Sea of Japan with well-developed land (railways, expressways), sea (ports), and airport infrastructure. Access to the Kansai region via the Himeji Tottori Highway, which is a free expressway, is excellent. We are working to attract companies with our incentive programs tailored to companies' needs and one-stop support.
Tottori City has developed mainly in the manufacturing industries of electronic components and devices and electrical machinery. The opening of the Himeji Tottori Highway has triggered an increase in companies expanding into the city, creating new jobs in various fields, including food, automobiles, and aircraft-related industries.

Tottori city provides a subsidy to cover 10% of the investment in fixed assets and 50% of the first-year rent for a company that does not have an existing business office and builds or expands a new facility, such as a plant in the city.

There are requirements for the investment amount and employment.
For SMEs: an investment of at least 100 million yen and employment of 3 or more full-time workers
For large companies: an investment of at least 1 billion yen and employment of 10 or more full-time workers.
Maximum subsidy amount: 200 million yen

The eligible company can use this program in combination with the Tottori Prefecture Industrial Growth Support Subsidy (large-scale investment) and receive a subsidy to cover 20% of the investment in fixed assets, up to the amount of 700 million yen.

This program subsidizes expenses incurred by information and communications-related companies after establishing or expanding businesses in Tottori City. It covers 1/6 of rent for up to five years (up to 10 million yen per year) for companies in the information processing, information service provider, natural science research institute, software, designing, machine design, and internet-related businesses that establish or expand facilities in the city.
The eligible company can use this program in combination with the Tottori Prefecture subsidy to create next-generation software industries and receive a subsidy to cover 2/3 of rent (up to 20 million yen for five years).

The city offers assistance for considering office relocation and new construction and provides financial support for relocation and new construction expenses to highlight Tottori's superiority as a satellite office site.
A subsidy to cover 1/2 of the travel expenses (transportation, accommodation, and facility usage fees, etc.) for staying in the city on a trial basis for inspecting the office environment or experiencing Tottori Work is available for businesses considering to relocate to or establish an office in the city (50,000 yen per person and 0.5 million yen per company).
The city also provides a subsidy to cover 1/2 of the cost of tenant renovation, purchasing equipment, and moving for businesses that relocate or newly establish headquarters or a satellite office in the city (up to 10 million yen).
It can be used in conjunction with the Tottori Prefectural system. When used in conjunction with the prefectural subsidy to attract and develop pioneering laboratories, the cost of tenant renovations, etc. can be subsidized by up to 15 million yen.

Tottori City has developed mainly in the manufacturing industries of electronic components, devices, and electrical machinery. However, the restructuring of a major consumer electronics manufacturer in 2012 severely affected its employment and the regional economy, such as loss of businesses by local companies in the city.
Therefore, the city needs to build a resilient industrial structure through industry diversification and upgrade by efficiently increasing the region's value-added output.
Accordingly, priority is being given to supporting new business development in collaboration with local companies and research institutes, attracting companies in a wide range of industrial fields, and creating new value by traditional industries.
In particular, the city strives to attract companies in diverse fields that lead to local development and the elimination of employment mismatches. It aims to enhance the agriculture, forestry, and fishery industries into the "sixth industry."

Tottori City is promoting the Smart Energy Town Concept to develop the energy industry. The city cooperates with "Tottori Citizen Electricity Co., Ltd.," established for encouraging local production and consumption of energy, and "Tottori Energy Alliance LLC," founded to create a new regional energy industry. The city runs a subsidy program to promote the environment and energy industry within the region.
It also promotes the application of academic research work to industries through financial support for the R&D of new technologies through joint research with academic research institutes and entrepreneurial efforts through industry-academia-government collaboration.

The city aims to attract job-creating IT companies and office work companies to entice young permanent residents and eliminate employment mismatches. In recent years, technologies to utilize information by sensors and other transmission devices over the internet, such as IoT, mobile payments, fintech, and cloud-based household registers, have developed rapidly and disseminated in various fields. The city endeavors to attract businesses using these technologies to improve IT technologies and resolve the city's digital divide problem.
While labor shortage is becoming prominent in the city in general, the ratio of job offers to applicants in clerical jobs remains low. The city aims to attract companies to eliminate these mismatches.

Tottori City is renowned for its rich nature, comfortable living, and useful measures to support a wide range of age groups. In 2020, Tottori City won second place in the large cities category in the "most desirable countryside to live rankings" conducted by the magazine "Living in the Country" (Takarajima Co., Ltd.), a country life specialist magazine. The city has ranked in the top 10 for the eighth consecutive year. In the "most desirable countryside for raising children rankings," the city won first place.
The city strives to provide information in multiple languages and develop consultation systems so that foreigners can live and visit with peace of mind. We are also working to provide printed materials and signs that are friendly to foreigners, disseminate information through our website, SNS, train Japanese language volunteers, enhance contact points for public facilities, etc.

Tottori City is playing an increasingly important role in economic and disaster prevention in the formation of the Sea of Japan national land axis, which functioned as an alternative to the Pacific side logistics routes in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The Tottori Sand Dunes Conan Airport is mainly responsible for airlift in the eastern part of the prefecture. It serves eastern and central areas of the prefecture (with approximately 0.3 million people in the area of use) and the northwestern part of Hyogo Prefecture.
Tottori Port has been designated as a major port, with an anticipated increase in usage.
The JR Sanin Main Line is becoming faster, and Chizu Express and Wakasa Railway have been established as third-sector railways. They provide means of commuting to work or school, promote exchanges between regions, and strengthen collaboration for wide-area tourism. Bus routes and other services are also playing an important role as social infrastructures that support the travel of residents within the region and the secondary transport of tourists.
In addition to contributing to an increase in attracting companies from outside the prefecture, securing employment, and increasing residents, the completion of the Himeji Tottori Highway contributes to the promotion of tourism, efficiency improvement of logistics, and ensuring redundancy in the event of a disaster through the development of the surrounding expressway network.

Air: Approx. 70 minutes from Haneda Airport to Tottori Sand Dune Conan Airport, Approx. 15 minutes from airport to the city center.
Land: About three and a half hours by railway from Kansai International Airport to Tottori Station.

In fiscal 2016, Tottori City formulated the "Tottori City International Exchange Guidelines" and has promoted various measures to become a "Tottori, an international exchange city open to the world." Tottori City is working to create foreigner-friendly living conditions, encourage exchanges with foreigners, and enhance the Tottori City International Exchange Plaza functions.
Specifically, we have set four primary goals:
(1) support for foreign residents who have difficulties in communicating in Japanese by assisting in learning Japanese and providing information in multiple languages;
(2) consultations on matters related to welfare, disaster prevention, education and housing, and resolving problems of not enrolling for schools;
(3) provision of opportunities for exchanges with foreign residents, such as international understanding courses and multicultural exchange events; and
(4) division of roles, collaboration, and cooperation aimed at realizing a symbiotic multicultural community.