Determinants and policies of native metropolitan young workers' migration toward non-metropolitan areas in Japan

Japan faces unprecedented depopulation issues within an aging society. The numbers of young people in non-metropolitan areas are decreasing, rendering these places less sustainable. Other Asian countries will face the same problems in the near future. Given these circumstances, increasing the number of young people in non-metropolitan areas is important. The development of information technology allows people to work from anywhere, with many now choosing to live in rural areas. In this study, we target native metropolitan young workers whose hometowns are in metropolitan areas (N = 678) and investigate the effectiveness of policies for promoting migration toward non-metropolitan areas by comparing respondents who have migrated (N = 352) with those who have never migrated (N = 326). The results show that job opportunities, educational environment (such as university) and marriage are important determinants of native metropolitan workers' migration, as commonly observed in international and other patterns of migration. The study highlights the influences of tourism (previous visit and emotional attachment) and occupation (information technology and financial industry workers) on migration intention behavior. The information that helps to determine migration differs depending on socio-demographics. We also illustrate the effect of financial support for housing on migration behavior.