Empirical Analysis on an “Associated Population” in Contemporary Japanese Society: From A National Level Survey Results

SUGIMOTO Aoi, SUGINO Hiroaki, UEDA Shoko, FUNASAKA Kanako

doi:10.57296/jaczs.33.3_49

<p>ABSTRACT : As a super-aging society is approaching the country, Japan recognizes the urgent need to sustain local communities including farming, forestry, and fishing villages. “Associated populations” have been regarded as one of the potential solutions to tackle this issue and are gaining notable social attention these days. However, few empirical study has been conducted on this phenomenon yet. This study, therefore, aims to show the empirical figures of associated populations and discuss what they mean in the context of contemporary Japanese society. National level survey (N=5,000) showed that 40.4% of sample answered that they have specific community to which they think are “associated”. The most frequently answered association was kinship/life-stage based ones but there were also many other answers indicating non-kinship/life-stage based association through which people are showing high levels of place attachment with the communities. Notably, results also found that there are many people who have very low place attachment with communities based on kinship/life-stage. This study indicated that the people-local communities relations vary from negative to positive regardless of kinship ties. We suggest that it is important to develop the understandings on the “quality” of the relationship between people and local communities rather than pursuing the “quantity” of either residential/associated/touristic population, for the more meaningful policy discussion over community revitalization.</p>

Empirical Analysis on an “Associated Population” in Contemporary Japanese Society: From A National Level Survey Results

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