Abstract
As a characteristic social phenomenon in the late modern era, we can point out the existence of social acts to cope with risk through consumption, namely “anti-risk consumption.” Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Baumann depict the social mechanism that evokes concerns about risks to consumers and that anxiety drives people into “anti-risk consumption.” In this paper, we explore by analyzing the quantitative research data collected in the Tokyo metropolitan area about the relationship between health anxiety, which is one example of “anxiety about physical care” exemplified by Baumann, and health consumption related to eating habits.
The results of the analysis are as follows. First, if we focus on health consumption related to eating habits, we must be cautious about assuming a one-way mechanism between health anxiety and health consumption as anti-risk consumption. Secondly, it can be pointed out that in the late modern era where risk individualization is occurring, the composition of households plays a definite role in reducing health anxiety.
