Urban Food Deserts in Japan

ISBN-13: 9789811608957 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Nobuyuki Iwama;Tatsuto Asakawa;Koichi Tanaka

Opis

This book introduces the Japanese urban food desert (FD). Currently, Japan has the most rapidly aging society in the world, with a shrinking population and food desert issues in connection with the isolation of the elderly people from their families and local communities. The types of food deserts that Japan is currently facing are likely to occur in many other countries under similar circumstances in the near future. This book serves as a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers who are working on FD issues in Japan as well as in other countries. The book consists of 8 chapters, with each chapter covering a different aspect of FD, and it also includes case studies, one of which is the FD in Tokyo.

Spis treści

Chapter 1   The definition of Japanese food desert issues

1　What are food desert issues?

1.1  The isolated elderly people who live in big cities

1.2  The definition of Food desert

2　The structure of food deserts

2.1  Declining nutrition of elderly residents

2.2  The increasing number of socially vulnerable people

2.3  The expansion of spatial holes (spatial factors)

2.4  The expansion of social holes (social factors)

2.5  Regional differences in main causes of FD issues

3　Kaimono-nanmin (shopping refugees) and food desert issues

4　Overseas research on food desert issues

5.　The dimensions of urban food desert studies

 

Chapter 2   The background of Japanese Food Desert Issues

1  Characteristics of the Japanese Food Desert issue

1.1  The increasing elderly population

1.2  Environmental changes associated with retailing and distribution

1.3  The expansion of poverty

1.4.  The weakening of families and local communities

1.5  The diversity of residents

2  Population aging and the diversification of the population structure in central Tokyo

2.1 Changes in the population structure with a declining birthrate and an aging population

2.1.1  Changes in population by age group

2.1.2 Changes in age structure

2.2. Aging and the dilution of family relationships in the generation of demographic transition

2.2.1 The generation of demographic transition

2.2.2  Moving to a big city

2.2.3  Movement within metropolitan areas

2.3  Diversity of the population structure in the city center

 

Chapter 3 Food access and social capital

1  Measurement of food access and making food access maps

1.1  Measuring food access and creating a map for people with limited access to shopping facilities

1.1.1  Statistical data on people with limited access to shopping facilities

1.1.2  How to create a map for people with limited access to shopping facilities

(1) Simple method using map and pen

(2) Method to compare Census of Commerce data and population data based on area-wide mesh (grid square)

(3) Method based on road distance

(4) Method using kernel density estimation

1.2  Comparison of food access maps created by different methods

1.2.1  Four methods

(1) Distance methods (buffering)

(2) Area-wide mesh (grid square) method

(3) Kernel density estimation method (poor food access map)

(4) Comparison of three methods

1.2.2 Summary

1.3  Conclusion—toward the utilization of food access maps

Additional note: The introduction of web maps related to FDs

1 Food access map (Research Institute for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry) [http://cse.primaff.affrc.go.jp/katsuyat/]

2. Food Desert Locator (United States Department of Agriculture)

2  Procedure for measuring social capital from the viewpoint of health

2.1  What is social capital?

2.2  The fear of a ‘Muen-Shakai’ (isolated society)

2.3  Relationship between local social capital and health

2.4  Measurement method for SC: 1) measuring respondents’ interactions with neighbours

2.5  Measurement method for SC: 2) comprehensive measurement

2.6  Outline—considerations for SC research

 

Column 1

 

Chapter 4  Case Study 1 (Central Tokyo)

1  Introduction

1.1 Characteristics of food desert area in central Tokyo

1.2 Organization

1.3 Food diversity

2  Distribution of urban food deserts in Tokyo and Minato Ward’s characteristics

2.1 Tokyo food access maps

2.2 Minato Ward’s shopping environments

3  Residents and elderly persons’ poverty

4  District A case study

4.1  Method

4.2  District A outline

4.3  Questionnaire survey results (simple totaling)

4.4  The relationship between elderly persons’ eating habits and group participation (e.g., club activities, neighborhood associations)

4.5  The relationship between eating habits and social networks

4.6  Unfavorable factors for elderly persons’ eating habits

4.7  Living environment for elderly persons in District A

5  District B case study

5.1 Method

5.2 District B outline

5.3 Questionnaire survey results (simple totaling)

5.4 Elderly persons’ unhealthy eating habits

5.5  Living environment in District B

6  Summary

 

Chapter 5  Case study 2 (a prefectural government city)

1  Introduction

1.1  The purpose of this chapter

1.2 Outline of this chapter

2  The survey method

2.1  the survey method

2.2  The food diversity investigation

2.3  The outline of questionnaire survey

3  The living environments of elderly people in city center of City C.

3.1  The outline of the city

3.2  Food access analysis

3.3  Questionnaire responses and map of low dietary diversity scores

4   Analysis of factors that disrupt healthy eating habits

4.1  Analysis procedures　

4.2  Direct effects model

4.3  Interaction model

4.4   Summary 1

5  The geography of FD areas and their characteristics

5.1 The survey method

5.2 The grouping of the neighbourhood associations

5.3 The characteristics of each cluster and the identification of food desert districts

5.3.1 The characteristics of the clusters

5.3.2 he geography of FD areas

6  Summary of this chapter

 

Chapter 6  Local City

1  Introduction

1.1  Purpose of this chapter

1.2  An outline of this chapter

1.3  The survey method

1.4  An outline of the questionnaire survey

1.5  The survey of mobile selling vehicle service

1.6  An outline of City D

1.7  Food access

2  The factors which impede elderly people’s healthy eating habits

2.1  Questionnaire’s responses

2.2  Investigation of the factors which impede elderly people’s healthy eating habits (logistic regression)

2.2.1. Basic attribute model

2.2.2. Basic attribute + spatial factor model

2.2.3. Basic attribute + spatial factor model + social capital

2.2.4. Mutual interaction model

2.3  The verification of the FDs in City D

3  The evaluations and the tasks of mobile selling vehicle service

3.1  Outline of the service

3.2  The usage condition of the mobile selling vehicle service

3.3  The distribution of high malnutrition risk in the elderly and the outline of the mobile selling vehicle service

3.3.1. The distribution of the mobile selling vehicle’s stops and the residents’ dietary diversity scores

3.3.2. The spatial characteristics of the areas where the elderly need the mobile selling vehicle service

3.4  The evaluation to the mobile selling vehicle service in City D

4  The outline of this chapter

 

Column 2

 

Chapter 7 　Measures to address Food Desert Issues

1  Support services for disadvantaged shoppers

1.1 The classification of support services for disadvantaged shoppers (FD measures)

1.2 Classification by management

2  Remarkable case studies

2.1  [EB / CIGSLC] A mobile sales vehicle service operated by an alliance of local people, retailers, government, and scholars: co-op Hureai-bin (Ushiku city, Ibaraki prefecture)

2.2  [RV] Grocery shop managed by residents—the Kurashi-Kyodo Kan Nakayoshi NPO (Hitachi-naka city, Ibaraki prefecture）

2.3  [EDI] A railway company mobile vending vehicle at Tama New Town

2.4  [WB] An innovative approach by a mobile supermarket business: Adachi Company (Hino Town and Kofu Town, Tottori Prefecture)

2.5  [NB] A personalized delivery shopping service business expanding across urban areas of Japan: Family Network Systems Co., Ltd. (Osaka City, Osaka)

2.6  [NB] Travel for elderly people on a free shopping bus service: Kurukuru Bus (Fukushima city, Fukushima prefecture)

3  The possibility of volunteer taxi passenger transportation by private vehicle

3.1  The expansion of areas with poor public transportation and volunteer taxi passenger transportation

3.2  The history and outline of volunteer taxi passenger transportation

3.3  Examples of volunteer taxi practices in depopulated communities

 

Back matter

1 Knowledge from this book

1.1  The elderly population of urban areas and the risk of isolation from local society have increased (Chapter 2)

1.2  The dimensions of social capital in food deserts (Chapter 3)

1.3   The conditions of urban food deserts (Chapters 4–6)

1.3.1 Districts A and B in central Tokyo (Chapter 4)

1.3.2  The central area of Prefectural Governmental City C (Chapter 5)

1.3.3  Regional city D (Chapter 6)

1.4  New food desert maps based on food access and social capital (Chapter 5)

1.5  The introduction of noteworthy countermeasures against food deserts (Chapter 7)

2  Future countermeasures against urban food deserts

2.1  The necessity of paying attention to urban areas

2.2 Share a common recognition that food desert countermeasures are unprofitable and improve their sustainability

2.3 Methods of supplying fresh food (Co-operation with local residents, private companies, and local governments/promotion of healthy dietary education)

2.4  Sharing of the database by industry, government, and universities

 

O autorze

Nobuyuki Iwama is a professor of Ibaraki Christian University in Japan. He has worked closely with governments and local communities. In the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, he was the chairman of the conferences on poor food access issues, and he has been closely engaged in countermeasures of those concerns in Japan. Because his university is located in a declining and aging population area and he is a director of the Global and Communication Center of Ibaraki Christian University, he has a strong interest in revitalization of local communities and development of sustainable living environments. He also manages development programs in many declining and aging population areas. He has published several books and papers on Japanese food desert issues.

Tatsuto Asakawa is a professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences of Waseda University, Japan. He is currently the general affairs director of the Japan Sociological Society. His research interests include social structure and spatial structure in urban society, the social atlas, the food desert, disaster research, urban space, and disparity research. He has published several books in the field of urban sociology.

Koichi Tanaka is a professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ibaraki University in Japan. He is also a guest professor in the Center for Spatial Information Science at The University of Tokyo in Japan. He works largely on themes dealing with human mobility, transport geography, and economic geography using GIS. His main scientific interests include the quantitative evaluation of spatio-temporal accessibility and evacuation behavior during disasters.

Midori Sasaki has been a professor since 2014 at the Faculty of Human Environmental Studies at Hiroshima Shudo University in Japan. Her research expertise includes agricultural geography and environmental geography with a focus on sustainable agriculture. In recent years, she has been working on the production environment of rice, oilseeds, and cotton in relatively new continental populations such as those in Australia and the U.S., and its dynamics in management and international markets.

Nobuhiko Komaki is a professor of Aichi University in Japan, and he has worked closely with local communities and governments. His research interests include the relationship between retail and urban planning, community development of local cities, the spatial structure of metropolitan areas and spatial analysis using GIS. He has published several papers in the field of urban geography and GIS.

Masashi Ikeda is an associate professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Takushoku University in Japan. His research interests include the geography of food, the distribution system for fruit and vegetables, e-commerce, and mobile supermarkets. He has published several papers on the restructuring of the Japanese distribution system.