Recently the competition among retail activities has become severer in Japanese local regions. It is mainly due to the deregulation for large store locations and the changes in shopping behaviors of consumers. The decrease in small stores and the decline of shopping centers in the local cities have brought about the deterioration of living standard and the loss of economic vitality in surrounding areas. The rehabilita tion of retail activities is now a key issue in Japanese city and regional

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... nning. This paper aims to propose two analytical methods to examine the relationship between the accumulation of retail activities and the shopping behaviors in local municipalities. The first method decomposes the vitality of retail activities into four factors: the density of stores; the average size of stores; the average service ratio by the employee; and the labor productivity. The second method estimates the attractive ness of municipality as a shopping place by applying a linear regression model based on the Huff model. The methods have been applied to identify the trends in retail activities and shopping behaviors in 78 municipalities of Okayama prefecture.