要旨：Japan’s economy faces the challenges of demographic aging, with the aging of CEOs being a significant channel. When a CEO cannot find a successor, the firm may be forced to voluntarily exit the market. This study examines the propagation effects of demographic aging by analyzing the correlation between the voluntary exits of firms and their business partners. We hypothesize that the voluntary exit of a firm could lead to the voluntary exit of its business partners, creating a cascading effect throughout the firm network. Using firm-level data and controlling firm characteristics, industry, and year fixed effects, we find a positive and significant correlation between the voluntary exits of owned firms and their business partners. Furthermore, we observe that these effects are more pronounced for firms located in peripheral prefectures, possibly due to lower firm density and diversity, making it harder for firms to find new business partners after the exit of an existing one. This difference between core and peripheral prefectures is particularly strong for linkages between manufacturing firms , which can be attributed to input specificity. Our findings contribute to understanding the impact of demographic aging on firm networks and have implications for industrial policies aimed at maintaining the viability of firms, especially in peripheral areas.