新型コロナウイルス感染症の影響による 国内移動（モビリティ）の変容

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抄録

　The COVID-19 pandemic impacted local communities in various ways, including restriction on people’s movement. This study aims to reveal how the pandemic influenced people’s mobility in Japan. To this end, I present four case studies, focusing on mobility between urban and rural areas and the relational population to describe how mobility practices have been affected.

　“Relational population” was first deployed in 2016 to refer to individuals who engage unconventionally with local communities; they are “more than sightseers, but less than long-term residents.”’ In the context of mobility between spaces, the relational population can be characterized into four categories: visitors, Kaze-no-Hito, dual residents, and non-physical interactions.

　The four case studies clarify two trends in how mobility practices have changed. The first trend concerns local communities’ focusing on the relational population residing within the same prefecture. Communities that usually welcome the relational population residing outside the prefecture for continued projects accepted only those within the prefecture following the pandemic. Second, a shift to online and digital communication was made to involve the relational population. Some local communities continued their projects with the relational population by relying on online communication, regardless of whether the relational population lived in or outside the prefecture. In other words, based on the above relational population characterization, the first trend suggests increased proximity to visitors, while the second trend indicates an increase in non-physical interactions among people in urban and rural areas.

　Increased non-physical involvement is desirable because it allows for more choices for the relational population to engage with local communities. For instance, purchasing goods produced in local communities through e-commerce websites cannot be seen only as consumption but also as support for these communities based on their built relationships. Therefore, some municipalities consider the pandemic an opportunity to offer more options for people to engage with local communities.