Maizuru urban area (舞鶴都市圏)
Maizuru urban area collectively means an economic zone surrounding Maizuru City. It is also called Maizuru economic area.
It embraces Maizuru City, which is the core city of Kita Kinki (Northern Kinki) region in center, whole area of Oi County (also referred as Reinan) in Fukui Prefecture, a part of Ayabe City, a part of Miyazu City and so on. The urban area has a population of about 120,000. It is the economic urban area with a population of 70,000 in the densely-inhabited district.
Characteristics
Maizuru City, the center of the urban area, has a few educational institutes including high schools, that is only one national high school (Maizuru National College of Technology), two public schools, and one private school, and consequently the daytime population is not necessarily large in statistics. Still it is the center of administration and judicature since it holds Kyoto Prefecture Chutan wide area Promotion Bureau which controls Chutan region, Kyoto Prefecture, the only social insurance office in the north of Kyoto Prefecture, Kinki Finance Bureau, prosecution review commissions, and Kyoto District Court Maizuru Branch is the only court among four branches in north which handles cases judging by collegiate court system in the district court and juvenile delinquencies of family court.
In addition, there locates one of the large scale plants of Japan's leading heavy, thick, long and large industries such as shipbuilding and glass production, to make up Urban Employment Area (UEA). At the same time, as a medically advanced region, it has large hospitals, such as Maizuru Medical Center (former national Maizuru Hospital), Maizuru Kyosai Hospital, Maizuru Red Cross Hospital, Maizuru Municipal Hospital, and Self-Defense Forces Maizuru Hospital that result in a big population flow not only from the vicinity towns and villages but from a wide range of area on the routine basis.
Characteristically, it also has Maizuru Port which is a naval as well as international trade port, and maritime organizations to control and supervise a wide area of the Sea of Japan such as Maritime Self-Defense Force Maizuru District Headquarters, Maizuru Ports Office of the Eighth Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, and Kinki Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The Current Trend
Maizuru City which is the center of the urban area has long been positioned as the central city for military and administration, and recently has been developing as a commercial city. As of 2008, large commercial centers have been built, including 'La Port' (open in 1995) which is the largest scale of general shopping center in Kita Kinki (floor space: 15,932 square meters), 'Bazaar Town Maizuru' (floor space: 11,874 square meters, open in 2000), and Sato, Maizuru (floor space: 7,703 square meters). Also around the road commonly called 'Kyoto Prefectural Road 28 Kokura Nishi Maizuru Line' and National Route 27, numerous shops have been built, such as large suburban shopping centers including Best one (an appliance store) Maizuru store (floor space: 2,396 square meters, open in 1996), and 100 man volt (an appliance store in 3Q Group) Maizuru store (floor space: 1,589 square meters, open in 1996), and road-side stores including Yofuku no Aoyama (a men's clothing store, Aoyama Trading Co., Ltd.), Autobacs Seven Co., Ltd. (an auto-supply shop), and AKINDO SUSHIRO CO., LTD. (a sushi restaurant), and they also lead to an increase in a population flow from nearby including Fukui Prefecture and Tango region.
From a viewpoint of commercial statistics, its annual sales of the retailers is the largest in the northern prefecture and the third in Kyoto Prefecture following to Kyoto City and Uji City. Thus we can see it has an aspect of not only administrative urban area but also commercial urban area.
As for manufacturing industry, the bright topic is that Kenko Mayonnaise Co., Ltd. branches out the western Japan factory in Kuratani Industrial Park, while DAIWABO CO.,LTD. discontinues its production at Maizuru factory. Thus industrial output in the industrial statistics is ever-changing. In the future industrial development should be hurried with Maizuru Port as an international trade port in center.
Industry
It is an area of heavy industries centering around Maizuru Port, which is one of the Japan's leading international trade ports on the Japan Sea side. The total industrial products of the Maizuru City amount to approximately 220 billion yen.
A Change in the Urban Employment Area (UEA) (10 percent commuting area)
It is the urban area proposed by Yoshitsugu KANEMOTO and Kazuyuki TOKUOKA. The full detail is in accordance with the Urban Employment Area (UEA).
The general definition for urban area, see the section of the Urban area.
Other Urban Area of Kita Kinki
Kita Kinki region extends over three prefectures, namely Hyogo Prefecture, the Sea of Japan side in Kyoto Prefecture, and Reinan region in Fukui Prefecture, thus transverse communication across the prefectural border is quite poor. Because of this, other than the Maizuru urban area, there are some urban areas including Fukuchiyama urban area trading in Fukuchiyama City, and Toyoka urban area trading in Toyoka City, which is the center city of Tajima region in Hyogo Prefecture. These two urban areas maintain their trade areas independently each other.