Exploring the Effects of Place Memory on the Willingness to Stay in the Current Neighborhood

Abstract

This study was conducted with an online survey of 595 Japan residents, who were asked to recall their place memories within local areas and rate them on measures of emotional valence, place attachment, and willingness to stay in the neighborhood. Both path and mediation analyses were employed to confirm the fitness of the collected data for the hypothesis model. The results show that the emotional valence of place memory positively affects the willingness through its effects on place attachment. Several practical implications for urban planning in shrinking and out-migration areas were derived from the findings.