japanese car industry
Post on 06-May-2015
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What factors affect the distribution of the Motor Vehicle
industry in Japan?
Syllabus
1. What factors influence the distribution of the industry?:• Map to show location• Relate to location of steelworks and ports• Consider also labour supply, market and land
reclamation for sites
2. Understand the nature of the industry – production techniques
• There are a few highly automate capital intensive assembly plants
• There are more smaller, labour intensive component manufacturing plants
• Just – in – time technique
Car manufacturing is an assembly industry• Components such as
are put together at an assembly plant
An automated car assembly plant (Nissan Motor Co.)
Huge TNCs dominate world car production
TNC = Transnational Corporation – large firms which own businesses in many countries
Where are Japanese Assembly
plants located?
Tokyo - Honda
Nagoya - Toyota
Kobe – Osaka and Hiroshima - Mazda
Case Study – Mazda
CAR FACTORY
SITE - Large areas of flat land for long assembly lines
Mazda has 2 large component and assembly works in Hiroshima covering 2.3km2.
Two assembly plants at Hofu 130km west of Hiroshima covering 1.3km2
MARKET
RAW MATERIALS
COMPONENTS
POWER
LABOUR
TRANSPORT COSTS
Steelworks have been built at Hiroshima –
•Deepwater port Sheltered Inland Sea
Iron ore from Australia and Coal from China loaded into blast furnaces
Car factory is located next to steelworks to reduce costs
Component factories located nearby – ‘just in time’ process
Located next to port – exports (60%)
Components built in SE Asia where labour is cheaper. Assembly plants at Hofu are next to port to import parts but near HQ for other parts and management
Electricity is available everywhere
Hiroshima has 1.1 million people – skilled labour
Home
Abroad - Europe
Tasks
• Read and complete handout –Q 3 & 4
• Complete Q3 a-d page 176
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