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“Voting with their Feet?”: Satisfaction and Preferences of Quality of Life in Forty Districts in Tokyo, Japan

Living on the Boundaries: Urban Marginality in National and International Contexts

ISBN: 978-1-78052-032-2, eISBN: 978-1-78052-033-9

Publication date: 28 May 2012

Abstract

Tokyo is the most populated urban area in the world, with a population of 36.5 million. The sheer number of people creates a wide variety of living environments for its residents to choose from. Using a questionnaire survey dataset with 4,120 respondents, this chapter examines the impacts of individuals’ attributes on their preferences to various quality of life (QOL) factors, as well as whether the actual choices of residential districts reflect their preferences.

Individuals’ attributes such as sex, age, marital status, the number and ages of children, and income affect the emphasis that they place on choosing a place to live. Although parents with school-aged or smaller children place a greater emphasis on childcare/school services, natural environment, public services, working communities, and moderate consumer price in local shops; young single white-collars tend to trade safety and environment for shorter commute and therefore select places high on access-related attributes.

For QOL factors such as the public transit, access to work, natural environment, and clean air/water, satisfaction levels show clear geographical patterns and access-related factors earn high scores in the city center, whereas the nature-related factors are higher in the suburb. In these attributes, correlation between city residents’ emphasis on these attributes and satisfaction scores are high, suggesting that people can successfully choose the place of living according to their emphases.

For other factors, such as childcare/education and other public services provided by the municipalities, residents’ preferences for, and the city's offerings are rarely aligned. One possible reason is that the information on the level and availability of these services is difficult for prospective residents to know. Therefore, public resources should be targeted to solve this mismatching problem through (1) raising the quality of services in areas where the need is prevalent but the satisfaction level is low and (2) providing more information on the level of services that each municipality is offering, to allow prospective residents to choose the right place that meets their need.

Citation

Tajima, K. (2012), "“Voting with their Feet?”: Satisfaction and Preferences of Quality of Life in Forty Districts in Tokyo, Japan", Camp Yeakey, C. (Ed.) Living on the Boundaries: Urban Marginality in National and International Contexts (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 535-562. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-358X(2012)0000008026

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited