Parkin has been identified as a causative gene of the autosomal recessive juvenile parkinsonism (AR-JP). In this study, we determined the genomic structure of the Parkin gene and identified a core promoter region based on the DNA sequence of 1.4 Mb. The 5'-flanking region contained no apparent TATA or CAAT box elements but several putative cis-elements for various transcription factors. The GC- and CpG-rich regions were observed not only in the 5'-flanking sequence but also in the 5'-part of the first intron of Parkin. We identified an exact starting point of Parkin transcription. A core promoter region was determined by transfecting a series of deletion constructs with a dual luciferase reporter system into human neuroblastoma cells. Furthermore, we located a neighboring novel gene in a head-to-head direction with Parkin with only a 198-bp interval.