Decentralization of Production and the Formation of Technology Regions:

There are two steps in Technopolis development: attraction of high-tech industries to the designated areas, and construction of technology linkages between these incoming high-tech plants, existing plants, local universities and government R & Ds. The latter step of Technopolis development is examined in this paper using the example of Koriyama technopolis. Data used in this study are derived from questionnaire surveys and personal interviews with the high-tech plant managers in the Koriyama technopolis area. It turns out that industry-university-government technology linkage formation is not well developed due to the absence of proper information channels and lack of interest from the high-tech plants in the results of technological cooperation. These problems seem to stem from the nature of branch plants and the historical technological development of Japan. Therefore, a long time period is necessary for the formation of technology linkages in provincial areas.