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Conférence

Transaction Network and Industrial Agglomeration: Otsuka Iron Works in Meiji-era Tokyo

Mme Asuka Imaizumi 今泉飛鳥 (Maître de conférences à l’Université de Saitama, Japon, chercheuse invitée par Patrick Fridenson au CRH) donnera une conférence dans le cadre du séminaire collectif du Centre Japon.

Abstract

« This lecture describes the transaction network of a machinery factory to explain the relationship between interfirm networks and geographic industrial agglomerations.
Previous studies elaborated on the history of the machinery industry in the Meiji era by explaining that suppliers were stratified, with a few big companies supplying relatively high-quality products and others supplying cheap, low-grade products (Sawai 1990[i], Suzuki 1996[ii]). However, although numerous machinery factories (regardless of their size) were agglomerated in Tokyo in that period, the existing studies do not sufficiently discuss how these firms took advantage of such agglomeration and whether the economic environment was favourable.
Therefore, I focus on the industry in Tokyo and study the case of a medium-sized factory to contribute to the literature on both industrial agglomeration and the development of the machinery industry. First, I examine the location of factories in Tokyo, and then, describe how they were interrelated with each other in the region. Finally, I consider the relationships between industry, agglomeration, and metropolitan areas.

[i] Sawai Minoru (1990), “Kikai Kogyo” [Machine Industry], in Nishikawa Shunsaku and Abe Takeshi (eds), Nihon Keizaishi, IV: Sangyoka no Jidai Jo [Economic History of Japan IV: The Era of Industrialization, Volume One], Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.
[ii] Suzuki Jun (1996), Meiji no Kikai Kogyo [The Machine Industry in Meiji Japan], »