Abstract
This research was intended to provide a method to improve competitiveness, based on the integration of basic municipalities by assessing changes in their population and local industry Municipalities were integrated based on the addressing system 市(Shi), 町(Chome), 村(Village) of Japan. As a result, an actual increase of the population could not be seen in the new municipalities formed by the integration of the basic municipalities. It is also found that the shipping volumes, number of companies, and the number of people employed by local industry, attracted by such municipalities, has steadily decreased. However, even though the proportion of industry-sharing in the local municipalities is not significant, it was found that the number of tourists has increased. Therefore, it is concluded that the strengthening of the connectivity between local industry and the tourism industry can be one of the principal methods to strengthen the competitiveness of these municipalities. In addition, it has been found that scientific research from a variety of perspectives and verification of data related to the effectiveness of integration of local municipalities is necessary.