Functional changes within large factories in the Tokyo metropolitan area: Case study along the Tokaido line

Abstract

Large old manufacturing plants located in the Tokyo metropolitan area are prized assets of major Japanese companies. Because of the high land value of these facilities, they can be sold to private land developers to gain new capital investment Many such factories have already been closed to construct office buildings and condominiums. However, some core factories still exist, although their role has changed from manufacturing to conducting R&D. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes in land use, employment, and functions of such large factories. The focus was on the old industrial area along the Tokaido Line in the southwestern suburbs of Tokyo about 15-50 km from the city center. The landscape of this area has changed dramatically. To understand this change, we investigated the changes in land use of 165 factories along the line from 1974 to 2010. The results indicated that although about half of these factories had been closed, the rest were surviving in some areas. To determine changes in employment, we examined the restructuring processes of 26 companies using securities reports, newspaper articles, and company histories. The number of blue-collar workers has decreased in most of the surviving factories since the late 1970s. On the other hand, the ratio of R&D employees has been increasing because of new R&D departments established in the 1980s and 1990s. To clarify such functional changes within these large factories, we interviewed representatives of 10 surviving companies from September to November 2010. It was found that given the intense global competition, major Japanese companies have adopted a new location strategy to strengthen their competitiveness. They have concentrated their R&D facilities and mother factories in their home base and decentralized mass-production plants in developing countries. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, they tend to establish new R&D facilities within their large old factories. The reasons for their reinvestments can be summarized in the following three points. 1) Some companies, such as Bridgestone and Sumitomo Electric, evaluated the co-location of their R&D and production functions and proximity to the center of Tokyo, since their location facilitates intra- and intercompany face-to-face communications. 2) Other companies, such as Morinaga and TOTO, built additional laboratories aimed at user-oriented innovation. 3) Other companies, such as Yamatake, NOK, and Takeda Pharmaceutical, integrated their previously dispersed R&D functions into new R&D facilities. It was expected that this fusion of different types of R&D unit would enable their activities to become more efficient and to create synergy effects.