Can Youth Secure a Place to Stay in the Local Community, Under Individualization Society?

In this presentation, following problems are discussed while being based on a case of Japanese local community, problems how youth leaves the local community, and why they cannot return to the hometown. The youth have to leave a local community to get opportunities of better education and work. When youth leave a hometown once, it becomes difficult for them to come back. It is caused by the fact that opportunities of work in their hometown are hard to be provided, and the fact that it becomes difficult to find a place to stay in their hometown. In this discussion, a place to stay, the approval from others, individualization are keywords. In current Japanese local community, depopulation, low birthrate and aging, marginal village have become major serious difficult issues. The background of problems is depopulation of the Japanese whole society. Because depopulation decreases, the maintenance and management of sociality have become difficult. Because opportunities of work in their hometown are hard to be provided, youth’s life maintenance tends not to be possible, and not to come back. In addition, the posture to receive youth is thought to become another important problem. It is not paid its attention so much, but it is important serious problem. In other words it is a problem of human relations and intermediate group, the places to stay of the youth as the social consciousness in the local community. A youth has intention to want to live in a hometown, but, on the other hand, tends to avoid the human relations of the community. Under the present conditions, the human relations of the community do not become social capital. In addition, parents, the family does not want to let youth return. Neither the family, relative, nor the community as an intermediate group, could take care of youth.