The location of manufacturers' head offices in the city of nagoya.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the locational pattern and locational process of manufacturers' head offices giving due consideration to the relation between head office and plants. The study area is the city of Nagoya. Generally speaking, offices are agglomerated in the central business district of cities. In the case of the manufacturing industry, however, head offices have to control their plants as actual work-sites. Therefore it is better for the head offices to be located with their plants than separately. On the other hand, it is advantageous to locate head offices in the CBD to obtain information related to their business. That is to say, the locational pattern reflects each firm's decision. In this paper, manufacturer's head offices are divided into two locational types, head offices which depend on their plants (D-type head offices) and head offices which are independent of plants (I-type head office). The findings are summarized as follows: 1. In considering the location of manufacturer's head offices, it is significant to classify the office into two types (D-type and I-type head offices). 2. Concerning the locational pattern, it is true that there are many head offices in the CBD, but many are also located in a wider area of the city. In the CBD, I-type head offices are predominant. And it is evident that the ratio of D-type head office goes up with distance. 3. The ratio of I-type head rises with magnification of their scale. Although the ratio of I-type head office rose between 1972 and 1992, more than 40% of head offices still are located with their plants. 4. The firms whose head offices are I-type have allocated their plants more widely in Japan than those whose head offices are D-type. 5. In the latter type of firms the plants located with head offices still perform an important role in their production activities. © 1994, The Human Geographical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.