Large city-regions are becoming a leading force for the national economies as globalization deepens Increased intra-regional trade, capital and people movements within Northeast Asia due to economic liberalization as well as the rise of China are considered to intensify inter-city competition and cooperation. Given this background, this report attempts at finding out how the selected metropolitan economies have evolved, how regional competitiveness has changed over time by what factors through a comparative analysis. (The rest is omitted.)