Kochi University of Technology Academic

ABSTRUCT: Regional disparity is one of the most serious social issues in recent Japan. To develop local businesses for encouraging regional economy, there are many barriers, such as lack of natural resource, human resource, investment, technology, and so forth. In many stagnated local areas, resource deficiency is a large obstacle for development. However, even in such local areas, most of the local people have some intangible asset on human relationship through historically cultivated joint-mission, indicated as a sense of solidarity, hometown feeling, social responsibility, or some kinds of common ethics. Such human relationship is itself a significant local asset to establish regional business. This paper compares three different scaled communities, to clarify the importance of joint-mission to establish business platform in local regions and to discuss about how to utilize such a platform for a business scheme. Case 1 Tourism business in Taketomi island: The sense of solidarity in the small island was an indispensable factor for their business success. Case 2 Managing local hospitals in Kochi city: Chikamori-Kai has established close communication and tight linkage on medical services with many personal clinics, based on the local city community, and it was a key element for their business success. Case 3: Vegetable grocery connecting Kochi and Osaka areas: Tosa-Senri, established a strong linkage with many farmers in Kochi and also with many customers in Osaka, and could sell many items to realize superior sales amount. The three cases imply that human network and joint-mission shall be a significant basis for establishing platform of local business and prosperity of local areas.