Industry (Manufacturing Industries)

The mild climate and the crossing of eastern and western marine traffic routes this area, historically has favored shipbuilding in this area, mainly in the region of the Inland sea of Japan.
In the 19th century Japan's oldest dock, the Katsura-ga-Hama dock, was built in Kurabayashi. Later, in 1912 the British Hunter and the Japanese Ryunosuke Kimura built together a modern dock in Innoshima.
After the war a major American shipbuilding industry occupied the former navy arsenal and developed here the block construction method for ships, while simultaneously preserving the traditional techniques. These activities formed the basis of Japan's current shipbuilding technology.
Associated the with the development of this industry branch small to intermediate size prefectural shipbuilding yards gradually switched from the building wooden to steel ships.
Extraordinary measures for a rationalization of small to intermediate size prefectural shipbuilding yards established since 1959, the enactment of two structural improvement measures following 1974 were designed to rationalize and modernize the facilities and improve the used technologies, became known as "the shipbuilding prefecture Hiroshima" concept.
Yet, the high value of the Yen against the dollar and the depression in the shipbuilding industry after 1985 had an adverse effect on the industry and led to a cutdown in personnel and restructuring of the industry to promote rationalization even in large shipbuilding yards. Later, the industry as a whole started to implement structural improvements to modernized shipbuilding under the motto "meeting social needs".