2023 Volume 59 Pages 63-75
New analytical indicators are created based on new research propositions, having a new focus or problem awareness, to solve specific problems, verify hypotheses, or conduct exploratory studies. Regarding developments related to regional population studies in Japan since the 2000s, population decline and population aging with declining birthrates have been progressing with regional differences. Therefore, there is a demand to understand the characteristics of the state of each region’ s population. Moreover, the e-Stat system has made it easier to obtain macro-statistical data. New demographic and family problems are emerging, such as the population concentration in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the outflow of young people from the regional areas, changes in suburban regions of metropolitan areas, and changes in family formation behavior contributing to the declining birthrate. New analytical indicators are being created to consider these issues. This paper focuses on analytical indicators and analytical perspectives in regional population studies in Japan and reviews these studies from the 2000s in addition to their predecessors. The reviews are divided into three categories: １） the analytical indicators that capture the substance of migration, ２） the perspective of interregional comparison that considers the impact of migration, and ３） the analytical indicators that consider detailed intergenerational relationships.
Research reflects the expertise and analytical perspective of the researcher. Each researcher has a research proposition based on their perception of the issues and perspectives. Creating new analytical indicators to approach such propositions involves numerous trials and research activities. Therefore, the findings obtained from the new analytical indicators and the process of creating them have academic significance.
