The population of local City A is around 85,000. Together with suburban agricultural areas, the city has many housing estates for families whose householders commute to Tokyo. Local communities of residents who have limited access to shopping facilities are located mainly in suburban agricultural areas (Fig: bottom); areas where undernourished elderly people reside are found in both suburban agricultural areas and the city center (Fig: top). The latter are categorized as low social capital areas. The stations of mobile sales wagons are located mainly in residential areas with relatively poor food access; however, they do not completely cover the residential areas of elderly people at high risk of undernutrition. Support projects for disadvantaged shoppers should be reconsidered from the viewpoint of food desert studies.
(Koichi TANAKA, Nobuyuki IWAMA, Nobuhiko KOMAKI, Masashi IKEDA and Tatsuto ASAKAWA)
