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This paper evaluates the driving forces of urban shrinkage, focusing on transportation infrastructure using a conceptual framework. Employing a difference‐in‐difference approach, this study explores the impact of the high‐speed railway on local shrinkage by focusing on implementing the bullet train in the Kyushu Shinkansen region of Japan. Our results show that after the introduction of the bullet train line, remote peripheral regions suffered population loss while suburban areas near the metropolitan area experienced population growth. Further analysis verifies that the bullet train had a particularly significant negative impact on local employment and establishments in the service sector in remote regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study how related variety influences firm sales. We apply an instrumental variable method (as well as the most recent plausible instrumental variable method in robustness tests) to analyze more than 600,000 firm observations in all of Japan's 47 prefectures. We find that related variety, as a kind of regional industrial structure, has a U‐shaped relationship with firm sales. This finding enriches the related variety perspective by supplementing micro‐level evidence, revealing that the "related variety–firm sales" relationship is not linear, as most prior studies have suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the field's interdisciplinary nature, regional scientists come with a wide spectrum of backgrounds. In this paper, we study the contributions to regional science made by scholars from Japan. First, we briefly examine how Japanese regional scientists came to develop a keen sense towards urban problems. Second, we identify the most influential authors and papers via a citation analysis. The results indicate that scholarly outputs in regional science are reaching a wider audience beyond scientists, while maintaining the order of impact among them. Lastly, we focus on the new economic geography where Japanese scholars have made a significant contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses an extended case study of Japan to illustrate how surnames, or family names, can be used as a basis for regionalization. We undertake a comparison between inductively surname regions of Japan with areal geographies based upon both contemporary and historical prefecture (administrative) units. The work is seen as using highly disaggregate framework data to evaluate the integrity of the areal units that are used in regional science. It also is relevant to understanding population distributions, past and present, and the consequences of local, regional and national residential mobility and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the location choice of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China, shedding special light on the role of agglomeration of same-nationality firms. We examine how this role differs according to firms' productivity. Furthermore, we compare the location choice of Japanese and Taiwanese MNEs in China, taking into consideration that Taiwanese MNEs experience less uncertainty in investing in China due to Taiwan's linguistic and cultural advantages. When considering firms' productivity, we find that less productive Japanese firms prefer to locate close to larger same-nationality agglomerations while there are no differences in location choices in the case of Taiwanese firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional agglomeration theories cannot explain Japan's sustained reduction of regional disparities. This study employs stochastic frontier analysis to investigate the role of inter‐regional networks in improving productive efficiency using the concept of "borrowed size." Improved inter‐regional networks are a driving force for strengthening local economies and converging regional disparities. Borrowed size from large city agglomeration was highly effective in local areas. The development of transportation networks has enabled local areas to catch up to large metropolitan areas. The results suggest that the development of high‐speed transportation networks can help to reduce regional disparities in the Japanese economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]