過疎地域青年の生活意識 : 在都市青年のUターン可能性

われわれは, 先の研究(小川・深田, 1975, 1977)で, 過疎地域から離村して現在都市で生活している在都市青年の村志向的態度が増加してきていることから, 潜在的Uターン群の存在を示唆した。この示唆を受けて, 本研究では, 在都市青年のUターン可能性の問題を, 彼らの生活意識の分析を通して解明することを目的とした。

対象地区は中国山地の過疎地である島根県頓原町, 広島県筒賀村, 吉和村の3地区であり, 19歳以上29歳以下の青年男女, 在都市青年183名とUターン青年72名に対して主として郵送法によって調査を実施した。調査には, 離村時から現在に至るまでの生活意識を問う35項目の過疎調査票を使用した。分析手続きとしては, 在都市青年の離村時と現在の基本的生活態度の組合せから態度変容パターンを求め, 在都市青年の態度の類型化を試み, 都市志向一貫型(都市型, 72名), 都市-村志向変容型(変容型, 71名), 村志向一貫型(村型, 31名)の3類型を見い出した。

生活意識に関して, この在都市群3類型間の比較, および類型別在都市群とUターン群との比較を行い, 次の結果を得た。都市型在都市青年に比べ, 変容型と村型の在都市青年は, 生活意識のあらゆる面において都会生活に対する認知がより非好意的であり, 都会生活に対する感情もよりネガティヴであることが示された。また, 都市型在都市青年はUターン青年と著しく異なる生活意識をもつが, 変容型と村型の在都市青年はUターン青年と比較的類似した生活意識をもつことが判明した。

したがって, 変容型と村型の在都市青年は, Uターンに踏み切るだけの条件をすでにかなりの程度備えており, たとえば郷里で仕事が見つかるとか, 帰村に対する家からの強力な働きかけがあるなどの状況の変化次第で, Uターン行動をとる可能性が相当大であろうと考えられた。しかも, 両在都市青年には, 内地留学的, 郷里再認識的な積極的, 意欲的Uターンを期待することができる。

Our previous studies (Ogawa & Fukada, 1975, 1977) suggested that a considerable number of the young people who had left their home villages to live in urban areas might come back to their homes. This study focused on the probability of U-turn behavior among the young people who had left their native villages to live in urban areas. U-turn behavior was defined as young people returning to their rural villages after having left there to work or study in urban areas.

183 young people, 19-29 years of age, who had left their home villages to live in urban areas were investigated in three depopulated villages, Tonbara (Shimane Prefecture), Tsutsuga and Yoshiwa (Hiroshima Prefecture). All of them are remote and secluded villages in the Chugoku mountains. This group was compared with the U-turn group of 72 young people who had U-turned to their home villages. Present survey was conducted through the mail, using the 35 item Depopulation Questionnaire.

The following results were found. The subjects could be grouped into three different types according to their basic life attitudes both at the time when they had left their villages and when their later urban life was surveyed by us: (a) Urban-Oriented Type, 72 young people who had been willing to leave their native villages and satisfied with the urban life, (b) Urban-Rural Unsettled Type, 71 young people who had been willing to go to urban but disappointed with the urban life, (c) Rural-Oriented Type, 31 young people who had had to leave their home villages for urban areas in order to work or go to school, but not wanted to live there. With regard to life consciousness, each of these three types was compared with the rest two types and the U-turn group. Consequently, it was showed that young people of Urban-Rural Unsettled Type or of Rural -Oriented Type were under such conditions as to motivate them for U-turn behavior, but not young people of Urban-Oriented Type. Finally, it was suggested that many of the young people of the former two types would U-turn to their home villages if the circumstances surrounding them changed, e.g., they could find a job in their home villages; their families badly wanted them to U-turn; etc.