- English
Accelerating urban population concentration across the world has both positive and negative social-ecological consequences. Countries facing serious negative consequences like Japan need to explore enhanced deurbanization pathways, e.g., highlighting high quality of life in rural areas, to achieve a more desirable urban-rural population balance. Using a nation-wide survey of urban-to-rural migrants in Japan (N = 1315), public geospatial data and structural equation modelling, we identified five “rural capital” factors affecting quality of life of urban-to-rural migrants, i.e., touristic, rural land, human, urban-type and forest capital, and five “human need” factors, i.e., urban-like services, rural sociocultural benefits, rural subsistence, rural amenity and child-raising needs. A path analysis revealed the pathways in which these factors contribute to change in migrants’ subjective well-being (SWB): Rural touristic capital (e.g., unique natural/cultural capital) has strong positive indirect effects to increase SWB, through the provision of urban-like services and socio-cultural benefits. We also found a significant indirect contribution of forests to SWB through increased rural amenities. The contribution of household income to SWB was confirmed but marginal as compared with these factors. Furthermore, multiple group models revealed significantly different contributors to SWB among people in different demographic and socio-economic groups. These findings have important policy implications, particularly for local governments to developing and implementing rural revitalization strategies. Specifically, placing QoL as the ultimate goal, and understanding and responding to the difference in what constitute good quality of life among people would enable inclusive and effective actions.
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