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In this chapter, we introduce Japanese food desert (FD) issues and their socioeconomic backgrounds. In a broad sense, FDs can be defined as ‘specific areas where many (socially vulnerable) residents’ healthy eating habits have deteriorated greatly because of the declining quality of living environments (local factors).’ However, for a strict definition of FDs, we must consider living environments carefully. We have researched many locations, such as central Tokyo, other large cities, dormitory suburbs, smaller cities, remote agricultural and mountainous areas, and disaster-stricken areas. Then, we narrowed the current definition of Japanese FDs according to the following two conditions: (1) many socially vulnerable people (especially the elderly) live there and (2) there is a marked deterioration of shopping environments (a decreasing number of nearby grocery stores and declining food access) and/or the dilution of local ties with families and neighbors (decreased mutual assistance and decline of local social capital).

The purposes of this chapter are (1) to verify the existence of urban food deserts in central Tokyo and (2) analyze their characteristics. The case study area is Minato Ward in central Tokyo. The average income of Minato Ward inhabitants is the highest in Japan. Minato Ward is generally considered as a celebrity area free from social exclusion, such as food deserts. Many luxury grocers exist in these districts. However, we found that many elderly residents suffer from high malnutrition risk. This study clarified that personal attributes, such as sex (women) and age, have a statistically significant relationship with healthy eating habits. In addition, the ties with families and neighbors, and family income also have a strong influence on healthy eating. Urban city centers, such as central Tokyo, are at serious risk of urban food desert issues expanding widely among isolated elderly persons.

We will verify the food desert (FD) issues in a small city. This city is a satellite city in Tokyo and has two distinct districts: a residential district and an agricultural district. In addition, we assessed the mobile selling vehicle service operating in the city. We found that shopping destination blank areas are largely located in the eastern agricultural areas of this city. However, high malnutrition risk old people live not only in these poor food access agricultural areas but also in the city centres which maintains good food access. Our surveys suggest that there are two main living environmental factors which exacerbate old residents’ healthy eating habits: local level social capital and food access. The mobile selling vehicle supports disadvantaged old residents’ daily lives. For some old residents, this service is their lifeline. However, the vehicle stops do not fully cover high malnutrition risk elderly people’s residential areas. The usage of the mobile selling vehicle is high not only in the areas where there are many old people with difficulty in going out on foot (low food access areas), but also in the areas where there are many elderly who suffer from isolation and poverty (poverty areas and low social capital areas). We should consider shopping support service again from the viewpoint of FD issues and improve this problem.

In this chapter, we explain the socioeconomic background of Japanese FDs in terms of the increase in the number of socially vulnerable people and their distribution in Tokyo. Japan has the most rapidly aging society in the world, and its declining birth rate is also remarkable. The elderly person are main sufferers of Japanese Food deserts (FDs). Changes in the environment associated with retailing and distribution have a significant influence on FDs. The diversification of the population structure in central Tokyo also deteriorates elderly person’s living environments. The elderly residents of central Tokyo share their living environment with this variety of people. In these areas, it is difficult to construct a mutual assistance system. These are major factors in the expansion of the FD problem in this gigantic city.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, we hypothesized that food access (i.e. the distance between homes and the nearest grocery stores) and local social capital (SC; i.e. ties with family and neighbors) are the most important factors in the occurrence of food desert (FD) issues in Japan. SC plays an especially important role in urban FDs. Food access and local SC (discussed below) are geographical (i.e. living environment) factors, and FD is a geographical issue. To identify FD locations, we must measure factors statistically. In this chapter, we introduce how to measure food access (Sect. 3.1) and local SC (Sect. 3.2).

In this chapter, we verify the existence of urban food desert issues (FDs) and analyse their conditions. The case study area is the centre of prefectural government city. Many elderly people with a high risk of malnutrition live near the central shopping street. This area is close to grocery stores, and there seemed to be adequate access to food. We analysed the main factors that worsen the eating habits of the elderly people. As a result, not only their personal attributes (such as degree of independence, sex, etc.) but also social factors (factors related to local social capital such as daily habits—eating meals with others, joining local activities) are also very important. Then, we classified 57 neighbourhood associations according to the above factors and extracted five clusters. Among these five clusters, two were characterized by the poor eating habits of elderly residents. We classified these two types as food deserts. These clusters are mainly located in city centre. The above research indicates that urban-type food deserts exist in the centre of this city, and social capital is a very important cause.

In this study, we analysed the factors that disrupt the healthy eating habits of the elderly in a suburban city centre in Japan. It was estimated that 49% of the elderly residents in the study area, many of whom were concentrated in the city centre, had poor nutritional condition. Our multilevel analysis indicated that weak ties with family and the local community had a strong effect on a large proportion of the nutritionally depleted elderly residents. Previously, the issue of food deserts was considered to be mainly a problem that affected areas where small neighbourhood shopping areas had closed, thereby making shopping physically difficult for people without private cars. However, our study shows that reduced intimacy in people’s relationships also increases the risk of the presence of food deserts.

Japan is turning into an aging and low fertility from the age of urbanization and population increase at a rate that is without precedent. Under such circumstances, Japanese cities have experienced drastic changes. This chapter examined how Japanese cities have changed since the 1950s onward by analyzing (1) national urban planning policies and their effects on the demographic character of the country, (2) changes in Japanese metropolitan areas, and (3) the distribution of large, corporate offices.

The metropolitan area has been regarded as a functional structure in sphere of daily activity level. This paper attempts to analyze the functional structure of the Tokyo metropolitan area by both commuting and consuming movements that are important behaviors of daily life.This study uses the person-trip survey because its data is one of the most suitable for daily activity analysis. First, the concentrated commuting or consuming movement zone is selected as “central nucleus” by the value of trip, and those by commuting is named “commuting nucleus” and those by consuming is named “consuming nucleus”. Second, those selected zones are grouped into seven categories by urban functions. Finally, commutation and consumer areas drawn by commuting and consuming nucleus are classified into four groups by thoselocations.The main findings are summarized as follows:1) The commuting nucleus tends to aggregate in the CBD and central place of suburban. In particular, the aggregation at central place is remarkable. On the other hand, those of consuming nucleus tend to disperse in the study area, and the aggregation like commuting nucleus is not appeared.2) When considering the rate of urban function at each central nucleus, those in the CBD tend to have much business functions and those in the suburb tend to have much residential functions. In addition, the rate of sum of business and residential functions occupies over half, and the relationship between them is symmetry.3) The large-scale commutation area whose nucleus locates in central place appears in terms of the commutation areas. In addition, the commutation areas whose sphere is relatively large appear in the suburban area. Thus, commutation structure is over concentrated and multipolar. About the consumer area, meanwhile, those scales are similar, and each area tends to be independent. Therefore, the consumer structure is independent and dispersed.