Abstract
In Japan’s aging society with a declining population and a low birthrate, as has been stated in the national land plan since 1998, not only the government’s but also the residents’ participation in the supply side of public services as the main actors in community development is keenly anticipated. Encouraging social involvement such as neighborhood association and volunteer activities is expected to enhance each resident’s contribution to the local community. In this study, we newly defined activities with relatively significant contributions to the local community as “community contribution-type activities.” After the coming out of the importance of community contribution-type activities, the social situation in Japan changed considerably with social affairs such as decentralization of government, financial pressure, and the Great East Japan Earthquake. Along with those changes, workstyle and the values among the people have also got more diverse. In considering the future creation of community contribution-type activities, we traced the chronological changes of the residents’ participation in community contribution-type activities over 15 years using a total of 4 consecutive large-scale nationwide surveys conducted every 5 years. As a result of factor analysis, we revealed that the factors affecting the participation in community contribution-type activities did not change markedly, and the keys are age and frequency of learning and self-development activities. Focusing on the forms of participation, it became clear that the number of those who engage in activities without joining any community groups such as neighborhood associations has been decreasing gradually. In addition, we clarified the relationship between participation in community contribution-type activities and the life stages such as the child-rearing period by age-period-cohort analysis.
