Higashi-Osaka is a city of innovative manufacturing where there is a concentration of manufacturers of various products and technologies. However, in recent years, due to competition with lower priced goods manufactured overseas and large Japanese corporations relocating production to various other Asian countries, the market in Japan is shrinking. In order to survive, the crucial task at hand is to provide even higher quality products while focusing on new markets, especially markets abroad.
According to a survey conducted by East Osaka in 2004 on overseas market expansion, 9.7% of companies who are currently not exporting goods are interested in exporting. If one examines these survey results by each company’s number of employees, 12.8% of companies with 4 to 19 employees demonstrated the most interest in exporting. Furthermore, if one sorts the data of companies currently engaged in export activity by their number of employees,in contrast to 24.1% of companies with more than 20 employees, only 12.1% of companies with 4 to 19 employees are involved in exporting activities.
With this in mind, the East Osaka Industry Promotion Program was formed at Creation Core Higashi Osaka (a facility established to support innovative manufacturing) to provide comprehensive support of everything from product development to market expansion for small scale companies. The program aims to promote the development of value-added manufactured goods and increase the number of exporting companies.
The Higashi-Osaka Municipal Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Promotion Association (HSPA) is at the center of operations with Creation Core Higashi Osaka as its base. The sub-cluster managers (market specialists) and cluster manager are the key players of the program in assisting innovative companies with product and market development.
The program is organized under a partnership with the Neo Cluster Project, the driving force behind the Kansai Front Runner Project (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Industrial Cluster Project), and in cooperation with governmental institutions such as the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Osaka Prefectural Government, the business academia collaboration coordinators of the 13 universities that occupy the Creation Core Higashi Osaka facilities, JETRO, government financial institutions, commercial banks, public testing laboratories, Higashi-Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Product and Market Development Research Society organized by various businesses.
The Higashi-Osaka Municipal Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Promotion Association utilizes the 2005 New Business Support Project Expenses Government Subsidy to fund
The East Osaka Subsidy will also be utilized to
