Techno-Arc Report
By Kyle Moore

Many people know little, if anything, about the business center on the north side of Matsue.Opened in the fall of 2001, and with many parts still under construction, the Techno-Arc is the heart of Shimane’s new Research Business Park.

The Techno-Arc is a cluster of eight connected buildings in the shape of an octagon with a smaller, ninth building populating its center. The total cluster consists of two office use buildings and seven laboratory buildings. The office buildings house several businesses such as the Shimane Intellectual Property Center, the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation Shimane Branch, the Shimane Institute for Industrial Technology and the Shimane Industrial Promotion Foundation. With the exception of the Industrial Promotion Foundation, these businesses focus on the needs of Shimane’s manufacturing enterprises as well as supporting materials research and development. The Industrial Promotion Foundation aims to be a onestop consulting shop for small and medium sized businesses, regardless of industry.

One of the most hi-tech facilities is the Digital Content Production Studio, where Hi-Vision (HDTV) content is mastered. DVDs can also be produced, and the facility features a stunning array of super high quality audio/visual equipment. These rooms and other equipment are available for rent. Some sample fees include (all prices are hourly): HDTV editing room: \10,390, Computer Graphics creation room: \2,540, DVD authoring room: \1,740, Sony Professional DV Camera: \12,610. Contact the Shimane Information Center for details: 0852-60-5117. Other interesting features of the two office buildings include a full service restaurant, exhibition hall, meeting and conference rooms and the“incubation”rooms, where small businesses may lease furnished office space with full access to office machinery and the Techno-Arc’s high-speed fiber-optic data connections. Incubation rooms are approximately 20-34m²at \500 per square meter per month. The remaining seven buildings house laboratories and experiment testing facilities.

Other buildings surrounding the Techno-Arc feature larger rental offices for larger, somewhat established companies. Rental offices in the south building are 46m² and cost \92,000 per month. Also, Shimane University has a Cooperative Research Center where student researchers may work alongside and collaborate with industry professionals.

Despite these current installations, the main focus of the Research Business Park is to attract new business from the private sector. Wacom IT, maker of PC input devices, has a small office building on the premises. Bell System 24, a publicly-held Japanese company, is currently constructing round-the-clock customer service call center on one of the many vacant lots in the park. Initially this facility will bring a few hundred jobs to the area and is expected to rise above 1,000 employees after one year of operation. In addition to the relatively low price of land in Matsue, the prefecture is offering many tax incentives and loan subsidies to encourage businesses to relocate or open new offices here. For details, contact the prefectural Industrial Promotion Division 0852-22-5295.

Analysts the world over agree that the bulk of industrial manufacturing in Asia will shift from Japan to China over the next decade or two. Despite little help from the national government, individual prefectures are shifting their focuses to research-driven economies. Shimane is now poised to attract businesses to spur the local economy and create many new jobs.