Multimedia and Internet business clusters in Central Tokyo

This paper discusses the concentration of multimedia and Internet businesses in Central Tokyo. The multimedia businesses producing various digitized materials and the other businesses related to the Internet can be identified as a business domain referred to as "the multimedia and Internet industry." Tokyo is the location of the largest concentration of multimedia and Internet businesses in Japan. Several industrial clusters of such businesses can be identified in Central Tokyo through the locational analysis of the firms utilizing GIS techniques. Among these clusters, Kanda, the largest one with its tradition of IT related technical and publishing/printing businesses, contains a number of software design and application service firms. In contrast, Shibuya, the second largest cluster without any pre-existing industrial tradition, specializes in multimedia and Web content business. Shibuya, which is popularly called "Bit Valley," has grown rapidly correspondence with the expansion of the demand for multimedia and Web content products on the bases of its denser industrial relations compared to those in the other clusters and of few disadvantages in the competition for human resources for creative workers employment due to a distinct local labor market.