Fukuoka Growth 04 Crossroads of Diversified Talent and Workforce

Information & Strategy Office
In severe financial conditions, many municipalities are attempting to focus on policies for the efficient and effective financial operation. What is the necessary policy for the social and economic development? Municipalities are also expected to engage in marketing. ‘Information & Strategy Office’ was set up in URC as an advisory team serving for Fukuoka City with a mission to contribute to the economic growth of Fukuoka City. In daily operation, it collects and analyzes data and information, consults to city bureaus and the general public, builds up policy options and recommends priorities to support Mayor’s decision making.
Positioning Fukuoka on the global mapUncertain times ahead – We are now living and working in the era of increasing uncertainty. In the last few decades the world has changed (and is changing today) by four key drivers; 1) internet (from 1.0 to 3.0), 2) explosion of world population, 3)advanced mobility of goods and people, and 4) energy revolution (from fossil to green). – To survive and thrive in such an era of uncertainty, the following “nine principles” have been advocated by wise leaders including Kiyoshi Kurokawa: 1) Resilience, instead of Strength, 2) Risk, instead of Safety, 3)Systems, instead of Objects, 4) Compasses, instead of Maps, 5) Pull, instead of Push, 6) Practice, instead of Theory, 7)Disobedience, instead of Compliance, 8) Crowds, instead of Experts, 9) Learning, instead of Education The rise of regional economies – Economic geography has also dramatically changed in the last few decades (and is changing today). While Thomas L. Friedman proposed “The world is flat” in 1999, Richard Florida argues that the world is not flat but rather spiky. Both seem true. – Implications from these argument are that the world economy today is a network of urban regions, as Kenichi Omae argued in his book “The End of the Nation-State: the Rise of Regional Economies” – Global talents and knowledge workers gather in urban regions (and in particular in the city centers). They become part of “ecosystem of innovation” which in turn accelerates sustainable growth of that region. As AnnaLee Saxenian pointed out, a region is a source of competitive advantage of businesses. Positioning Fukuoka – What is positioning of Fukuoka today and in the future on the global map? – “Fukuoka Growth” provides with economic outlook of Fukuoka, aiming to be a basis for policy and economic dialogue among policy makers, business leaders and the general public. It looks into Fukuoka’s strength and opportunities to help the region clearly position itself around its unique value for other regions in the world. – We look forward to feedback from readers. June 20, 2013 Taichi GOTO Head of Information and Strategy Office Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center
Fukuoka Growth Data is the basis for planning. No hypothesis or forecast can be established without logical grounds based on data analysis. Data is related to various fields. To collect and analyze data is an important task. In natural science, accumulated experimental data leads to new discoveries and evolution. In business or policy making, a variety of data supports to build next strategies. Data indicates “fact” at a certain point in time from a certain point of view. In order to plan for the future of Fukuoka, it is important to analyze data from a variety of points of view and to prepare a more certain path for growth. There is a variety set of data indicating the growth potential of Fukuoka city. A series of reports “Fukuoka Growth” is going to be released twice a month. In each issue it will diagnose and discuss the future of Fukuoka city and people by analyzing data relevant to a selected theme. We hope this series of reports will be informative for those who are considering to live, study, work, invest, and start a business in Fukuoka.



Fukuoka Growth 04 Crossroads of Diversified Talent and Workforce (13/08/2013 Version1.0)
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Data
A lot of “workers” gather in Fukuoka city. Fukuoka city has many workplaces and diversified employees. Not only the Fukuoka citizens but also people who live in surrounding Fukuoka Metropolitan Area work in Fukuoka city and produce plenty of values.Every year, more than 100 thousand people move into and move out from Fukuoka city, which explains the nationally distinctive feature of the city with many replacements of residents. The city attracts many people, in particular young generation. Meanwhile, many people move out from Fukuoka city every year, especially the number of university graduates who move out to other prefectures is remarkable, which indicates the talent drain of people who could generate added value in the city. Although Fukuoka city has many female workers, they resign from their permanent employed position and start working part-time or on temporary basis. These trends give us a glimpse of circumstances where the talents and skills of married women are not adopted sufficiently. In Fukuoka city, relatively many people who are engaged in jobs which can be sorted as in “Creative Class” with professional knowledge and skills. If these diversified talents could be adopted sufficiently, Fukuoka city could have a great reserve to generate larger added value. Currently Fukuoka city does not have enough quality jobs to retain diversified talents, however, the city creates new networks and communication by accumulating and mingling many people in the city. The fact that Fukuoka city has many new residents can be considered as a proof of open circumstances where newcomers can easily blend into. As “Crossroads of People” where many people meet and communicate every year, Fukuoka city is expected to capitalize its potentialities generated by merging diversified values, which leads the city to have original power of growth with active regeneration.

[Figure1]	[Figure2]

*Click on the figures to enlarge.
Figure1. Number of Workers by Occupational & Gender classification in Fukuoka City Figure2. Change in Daytime population, Major large cities