Can Creative Industries and Occupations Drive Regional Growth? Evidence from Local Employment Multipliers in Japan

The traditional economic base model in regional science argues that tradable industries promote regional development by earning income from outside the region and generating multiplier effects within the local economy. Within this theoretical framework, manufacturing has long been considered the primary export base. However, following the influential work of Moretti and others, recent empirical analyses demonstrate that industries fostering innovation and creative activities also exhibit substantial employment multipliers. This suggests that industries and occupations engaged in creative and intellectual activities can serve as new drivers of regional growth. This study focuses on municipalities in Japan, where the tertiarization of industry has advanced. Using industry and occupation classifications from Census data, we define “creative industries and occupations” and estimate their local employment multiplier effects through regression analysis. The empirical results confirm that these creative sectors exert a positive and statistically significant multiplier effect on regional economies, indicating their potential contribution to regional economic development. These findings demonstrate that promoting creative industries can complement traditional manufacturing-oriented strategies. They also provide empirical evidence—based on Japanese municipal-level data—to support the international discourse that knowledge- and creativity-based industries drive regional transformation.