Abstract
The purpose of this study is to present the future prospect of local communities within Ryugasaki New Town. We analyzed the process of building social relations at a neighborhood scale, focusing on (1) differences among districts and genders and (2) the roles of neighborhood association in each neighborhood.
As a result, we found a huge gender gap in bonding social relationships in their nearby neighborhoods. Male residents build social relationships at their later ages, while female residents declined the engagement to their nearby communities at their later ages. In the case of pre-retirement residents, the process of building social relationships at the neighborhood scale was suggested to be determined by the conditions of the development period between the 1970s to the 80s, when the horizontal expansion of Tokyo peaked. However, in Ryugasaki New Town, there was a difference among districts in the roles of neighborhood associations in building social relationship, and it affected how male residents engaged in local communities after their retirements. As the problems faced by each local community vary, further case studies are required to create an environment in which people can continue to live at their old age.
