Agglomeration of Private Research Institutions in Tsukuba Science City

Abstract

The construction of Tsukuba Science City, located 60 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, began in the early 1970s. It started out as a national project to form an agglomeration of more than half of the major central government research institutions. Since that time, Tsukuba has also attracted 79 private research institutions, mainly during the 1980s, to form one of the largest agglomerations of private research institutions. This study geographically analyzes these private research institutions to identify the development of the agglomeration, its labor market, the regional pattern of its workers' residences, the flow of goods in the agglomeration, and its research relationships with other institutions. Except for three firms, all private research institutions in Tsukuba were established after 1980. The majority of the construction occurred after 1985, when Tsukuba Science Exposition took place. Sixty of the 79 institutions occupy six research parks developed by such public offices as the prefectural government. The institutions emphasize basic research in high technology industries. The majority of workers are researchers, who are young and highly educated. Women make up only 17 percent of the workforce ; few of them are researchers. Both researchers and administrative staff are from everywhere in Japan. However, some companies actively look for new administrative staff in national research institutions. They also seek graduates of the University of Tsukuba as researchers. The institutions whose head offices are in the Kansai District or overseas have tried to develop a new labor market. Whereas the majority of female workers live in the surrounding rural communities, young male researchers reside in company dormitories within the city. Many of the elder male workers have bought houses outside the city because land prices in Tsukuba are too high. The commodity flow of these institutions is relatively small. Each company's connection with its factories is not strong in terms of commodity flow. Although some institutions are located close to their factories, they do not usually collaborate in manufacturing and testing, only in clerical work. The relation with related businesses differs according to the kind of service offered. Whereas office and laboratory supplies are available within the city, such services as experiments, data processing, and trial manufacturing depend upon offices or factories that are located mainly in Tokyo. The majority of the institutions seek information from central government research institutions. They also do collaborative research with government institutions. The abundance of co-authored publications indicates that some private research institutions have already established strong joint research relationships with government researchers. Whereas the communication among private research institutions is limited, one notable exception is the Tsukuba Research Consortium, which was established by eight private companies to encourage joint research. © 1992, The Human Geographical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.