The pickle industry in Miyazaki prefecture, which mainly produces takuan (pickles made from daikon [Japanese radish]) has recently developed and is now the largest in Japan. This development is strongly related to technological innovation as well as expansion of the market for new products. This paper aims to study the development process as well as the functional and spatial structures of production of the pickle industry in Miyazaki prefecture, with special reference to innovation, raw material supply and stages of processing. The growing of daikon for pickles started in the early 1960s in Tano town, now one of the most important pickle-producing areas, where kiriboshi-daikon (dried strips of daikon, not used for pickles) had long been produced. Some daikon growers set up small-scale processing enterprises to produce pickles in the latter half of the 1960s, followed by an increase in the number of producers in the 1970s and 1980s in Tano town and other areas in the prefecture. There were also new entries from other industries as well as from outside the prefecture, mainly taking advantage of access to raw materials (fresh and dried daikon). It is worth noting that JA Tano (the Agricultural Cooperative of Tano) established a pickle plant in 1973 and has contributed to price stabilization through its contract cropping system, which was also adopted by other producers, except for a few to which daikon is supplied by wholesalers. Dried daikon is now almost exclusively supplied by the growers in Tano-cho, and fresh daikon is supplied by growers in other areas. Another important factor in the development of the industry is that the producers have been successful in making less salty pickles by adopting refrigerated processing since the mid-1970s to cope with changing consumer preferences. Pickle producers consist of primary, secondary, and integrated producers, according to the stage of processing. The primary producers are small-scale subcontractors supplying half-made pickles to secondary producers, which are large-scale local, non-local, or joint (local and non-local) enterprises located within the prefecture, to maintain the quality of, and to save transport costs on, half-made pickles, because the heat-sterilized and vacuum-packed final products can be transported to distant markets. In conclusion, accessibility to daikon growers and to primary pickle producers as well as innovations allowing the production of less salty pickles and their transport to distant markets have contributed to the development of the pickle industry in Miyazaki prefecture.