The Definition of Japanese Food Desert Issues

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).