SUPPORTING PERIPHERAL ECONOMIES OR INDUSTRIAL-POLICY IN FAVOR OF NATIONAL GROWTH - AN EMPIRICALLY BASED ANALYSIS OF GOAL ACHIEVEMENT OF THEJAPANESE TECHNOPOLIS PROGRAM

Since the early 1980s, R&D-intensive industries have been a major conc ern of economic and technology policy in all highly industrialized cou ntries. This includes Japan where, typically, especially strong econom ic disparities exist between the megalopolis of Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka and the rest of the country. The main objectives of the 'Technopolis' Pro gram of the Japanese national government, implemented in the mid-1980s , were-and still are-the introduction of technology into all sectors o f the national economy and the reduction of the disparities between th e individual parts of the country. On the basis of hitherto unpublishe d data on each one of the twenty-six technopolises, in this paper I an alyse their chances of success and draw conclusions regarding the regi onal-political value of the Technopolis strategy. One of the most impo rtant results of this analysis is the discovery of a strong and negati ve correlation between the success of the twenty-six sites and their d istance from the Japanese core region around Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.