Proposal of township restructuring in consideration of at-home care of senior citizens and revitalizing local shopping areas - An argument based on examples of two shopping districts

According to data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Respect for the Aged Day in September, 2007, the number of aged people (over 65 years) in Japan is 27.44 million, a figure estimated to be 21.5% of the total Japanese population. This figure and percentage are the highest ever recorded. At the same time, due to the influence of the shift of residential areas to the suburbs and more automobiles, there are many large shopping malls with spacious parking lots operating mainly in suburban areas. In addition, Internet sales and catalog mail orders are increasing in popularity. On this basis, in local shopping areas, there is less traffic and a trend of slowing business that cannot be stopped. However, as places where daily necessities can be bought, local shopping areas are a lifeline for aged people who cannot drive. In this paper, we discuss the policy to maintain local shopping areas as a lifeline for vulnerable people such as aged, and revitalize local shopping areas. This is based on questionnaires to visitors of two local shopping areas in Tobata-ku and Wakamatsu-ku in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, which is referred to as the gateway to Kyushu.