Recognition and Interpretation of Community Formation History: A Case Study of a Japanese New Town

From the 1960s, “new town” development flourished in Japan, reaching its peak in the early 1970s. In these newly developed areas, it was necessary not only to construct buildings but also to create connections and form communities among people. At the time, Japanese sociology placed a strong focus on community formation; however, today, half a century later, new towns are gaining attention as regions facing challenges such as aging populations and vacant homes.

This report analyzes the process of community formation from a historical perspective, focusing on a specific new town in Japan. First, analysis of a half-century of monthly newsletters reveals that community formation can be divided into three phases: generation, disruption, and maturity. Second, analysis of oral histories from 20 elderly residents shows how these individuals, who experienced the disruption phase, perceive their community activities as failures. This perception leads to an interpretation of a certain “disconnect,” suggesting that their experiences in workplaces and families are unrelated to their activities within the community.

The newsletters and oral histories underwent text mining with co-occurrence analysis and self-organizing mapping, which revealed the different trends each year. This approach of using computational techniques to identify key themes and cases for deeper analysis, followed by qualitative analysis, draws on the methods described in S. Weller et al.’s book Big Qual.

The report also touches on the differing interpretations of "community" by sociologists and local residents in each phase. Through examining the historical development and reinterpretation of this new town over fifty years, the report reflects on the challenges of community formation in the present day. Particularly, it is crucial to understand how the younger generation, who are now the primary leaders of current community activities, interpret the history of the new town they live in.