Foundation of UEDA DREAM WORKS

　Since a shift from competition and rivalry to cooperation through alliances and partnerships had become more important than ever in order to secure a future for the manufacturers, the economic organizations (Ueda City Trade Association, Ueda Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Sanada Trade Association) and the organization for promoting cooperation between the industry, academia, and government (commonly known as AREC or ASAMA Research Extension Center) in Ueda City established groups of manufacturers operating in the same fields in order to expand the development of business operations across various fields and provide a broader range of services and products. They established two groups representing the most widespread industries in the Ueda region, namely the metal processing group and the resin processing group. The two groups were given a common name – Ueda Dream Works.

Historical Background of the Industrial Development in Ueda Region

　From the Meiji period to the end of the Taisho period, Ueda prospered as the leading region in sericultural industry. The city developed its industry by exporting raw silk, one of the key products in Japan at the time, to Europe and America. In the Showa period, however, the flourishing sericultural industry started to decline due to a worldwide crisis and dramatic changes in the global market brought about by the popularization of synthetic fabrics and cheaper products from developing countries. As a result, the number of silk factories was drastically reduced by the end of the Pacific War.
　Although the silk industry was in decline, the machinery industry and wartime factories that emerged during the war spurred the post-war industrial development and drastically changed the industrial structure of Ueda region.The accumulated technologies fostered by the silk industry and a technological shift to peacetime industries focused on electric industry, machinery industry, and metal processing. That coincided with a period of high economic growth in Japan, which allowed Ueda to grow strong as an industrial city.
　After the war, the Ueda region expanded its core industries including electric industry, machinery industry, and metal processing to new fields such as electronics and plastic processing in Showa 30s. This resulted in a large number of diverse small and medium-sized enterprises.
　Approximately 35% of the working population in the present-day Ueda region is employed in manufacturing industry, with electric industry, machinery industry, and metal processing accounting for approximately 70% of all the products shipped from there. Therefore, Ueda region can be described as an industrial city with a focus on electric industry, machinery industry, and metal processing.
　It has evolved from a city with a leading role in the silk industry into a place with diverse manufacturing capacities including electric industry, machinery industry, and metal processing. Through a century-long process of accumulating technologies and through an endless source of ideas and endeavors that have always kept pace with the times, Ueda has continuously played a pivotal role in the development as an industrial city with deep roots in the region.
　The potential of the city lies in its long history of industrial pioneering and growth. It has nurtured its manufacturing spirit and provided the region with an innovative capacity to achieve coexistence with the environment and a technological revolution that has created an information-oriented society. The city can now utilize this potential in the future.

Overview