Abstract
This study aimed to evaluate the sense of belonging of older adults living in the outer suburbs of Tokyo. In the study area, Ryugasaki New Town in Ibaraki prefecture, most older adults had not lived in Ibaraki before moving into this area to purchase a house. As the first generation of the suburbia, male residents tended to work in central Tokyo, and their spouses were mainly housewives. According to our survey, their sense of belonging largely consisted of social bonds among residents. Female residents have engaged in community and school-support activities since they had moved in, forming friends and co-working neighbors over time. On the other hand, most male residents had little chance to communicate with locals, resulting in temporal or spatial divides within their neighborhoods. However, Ryugasaki’s rich natural environments (e.g., hills, forests, lakes, rivers, and parks nearby) took a role as a “key” to recover their bonds with neighborhoods. Some recalled their hometown when they touched natural environments nearby, others accumulated the sense of belonging through their activities there. As a result of this study, older adults’ sense of belonging was largely connected with their traditional social norms and life course which were typically shared among this generation.
