The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of an agglomeration of the food industry in Metropolitan area by 3-digit Japan Standard Industrial Classification data from 1981 to 2001. We measured agglomeration and co-agglomeration indexes (α, C ( r )) as suggested by Devereux, Griffith, and Simpson (1999). The result clearly shows that there was a strong agglomeration in “Sugar processing”, “Animal and vegetable oils and fats”, “seafood products”, “Manufactured ice”, “Soft drinks and carbonated water”. From 1981 to 2001, many industries witnessed decreasing agglomeration. We found that the reason for this was that regional concentration fall below industry concentration. On the other hand, the following industries witnessed increasing agglomeration from 1991 to 2001 : “Soft drinks and carbonated water”, “Canned and preserved fruit and vegetable products”. We observed that industries with increasing agglomeration indices receive demand effect from large market whereas those with decreasing agglomeration indices relied heavily on imported materials. We also observed that co-agglomeration occurred within the food industry, besides between food and non-food industry. Especially, “Soft drinks and carbonated water” and its related industry witnessed strong co-agglomeration. We observed not only single agglomeration of “Soft drinks and carbonated water” but also co-agglomeration of related ones.

JEL Classification : R12, R3, Q13