論文の公開元へFood Access Condition and Residents' Evaluation on Daily Shopping in a Regional Metropolis: A Case Study Based on a Web-based Survey in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture
概要
Ensuring food availability is essential for a healthy life and reducing food access insecurity is one of the most urgent social challenges. According to Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PRIMAFF; 2011), food access problem refers to ‘the situation where older people face inconvenience or difficulty in accessing food’, and as of 2015, 24.6% of those aged 65 and above and 33.2% of those aged 75 and over nationwide have been categorised as ‘food access difficult population’ facing food access problems (Takahashi, 2020). This term covers other similar terms, such as shopping refugees, food deserts, and household food. Thus, the food access problem is comprehensive as it covers problems regarding physical and social access to food 1. Although the problems and corresponding terms have similar conceptual schemes, their contexts differ depending on the country. For instance, in G7 countries, which are the major global leading sovereignties, the study’s focuses largely on the poor, who are insecure about their socioeconomic situation resulting from the sex, race, ethnicity, or occupation. The research focuses on the analysis of economic rather than physical access insecurity associated with the ageing of the population, as is the case in Japan 2.
Food access problems can be broadly divided into two factors: supply and demand-side. Supply-side factors refer to circumstances wherein no individual directly commits to its change such as store closure and/or withdrawal and the condition of infrastructure. Demand-side factors include personal conditions such as individual attributes, the decline in mobility due to ageing, and the weakening of connections with family and residents. These problems negatively impact the nature of the local community, such as living infrastructure and food intake, which is an extension of food procurement 3. However, Yakushiji (2015) pointed out that even those aged under 65 years, who are not the main focus of food access problems, experience inconvenience and difficulties during shopping, similar to those who are over 65 years, specifically, in metropolises. The research suggested that the breadwinner’s occupation, the presence of a nearby family member, and that of a certified carer in the household influence food access conditions of those under 65 years.
Since people under 65 years have been compared to older people in previous studies such as PRIMAFF (2011), Takahashi (2020), and Yakush iji (2015), the characteristics of those under 65 years and mechanism(s) of why they could face food access problems have not been discussed sufficiently. Moreover, regarding ‘metropolis’, which is an area where the food access problems occur for those und er 65 years, case studies examined in the previous stud ies were limited to Tokyo. For depicting a more detailed picture of food access problems in metropolis es, more case studies targeting regional metropolises (chihou ch u̅su̅ toshi: 中枢都市) should be added. Therefore, the study aims to examine a case study in a regional metropolis in Japan, analyse the current circumstances and occurrence factors of food access problems based on the residents’ evaluations, and capture more characteristics of young residents.
