論文

Hosting behaviours and experiences have gradually been acknowledged as influential factors in visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel. However, the challenges facing VFR hosts while hosting VFR travellers have not been well researched, especially for VFR hosts who are migrants from different cultural and language backgrounds. This study aims to explore the challenges of hosting friends and relatives who have different cultural and language backgrounds to the destination country using the case of Japanese migrant VFR hosts in Australia. Qualitative analysis revealed 12 challenges, which were grouped into three areas, leading to some hosts being reluctant and inactive in receiving VFR travellers. These challenges were rooted in communication difficulties, including the language barriers of their VFR travellers and the social obligations of VFR hosts. This study also suggests socio-cultural differences and living environments between VFR hosts living in the migration destination and VFR travellers living in the home country, making these challenges even greater despite sharing cultural backgrounds. Further research is required to uncover the patterns and impacts of each challenge based on the host and traveller types and to support the design of measures to develop the VFR market.

ドローンを他のデジタル技術とともに活用して社会の問題発見・解決を行える社会を「ドローン前提社会」とし、その実現に向けたドローンの利活用について論じた。まず、さまざまな産業分野における小型無人機・無人航空機の利用現状や、自律走行車両などとの統合活用について紹介する。次に社会受容性と安全運行管理、人材育成、都市への影響など、社会的に議論すべき論点を提示した。さらに、法規制の緩和や実証実験の在り方についても考察した。現在、我々が扱う小型無人機や無人航空機のみならず、自律航行や自律走行に関する技術全般をターゲットとした制度設計や実証実験を進めるのが望ましい。

© 2018 Morita et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Introduction: Demographic changes as a result of evacuation in the acute phase of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster are not well evaluated. We estimated post-disaster demographic transitions in Minamisoma City - located 14-38 km north of the nuclear plant - in the first month of the disaster; and identified demographic factors associated with the population remaining in the affected areas. Materials and methods: We extracted data from the evacuation behavior survey administered to participants in the city between July 11, 2011 and April 30, 2013. Using mathematical models, we estimated the total population in the city after the disaster according to sex, age group, and administrative divisions of the city. To investigate factors associated with the population remaining in place after the disaster, a probit regression model was employed, taking into account sex, age, pre-disaster dwelling area, and household composition. Results: The overall population decline in Minamisoma City peaked 11 days after the disaster, when the population reached 7,107 people - 11% of the pre-disaster level. The remaining population levels differed by area: 1.1% for mandatory evacuation zone, 12.5% for indoor sheltering zone, and 12.6% for other areas of the city. Based on multiple regression analyses, higher odds for remaining in place were observed among men (odds ratio 1.72 [95% confidence intervals 1.64-1.85]) than women; among people aged 40-64 years (1.40 [1.24-1.58]) than those aged 75 years or older; and among those living with the elderly, aged 70 years or older (1.18 [1.09-1.27]) or those living alone (1.71 [1.50-1.94]) than among those who were not. Discussion: Despite the evacuation order, some residents of mandatory evacuation zones remained in place, signaling the need for preparation to respond to their post-disaster needs. Indoor sheltering instructions may have accelerated voluntary evacuation, and this demonstrates the need for preventing potentially disorganized evacuation in future nuclear events.

© 2018 Institute for Tourism. All rights reserved. The visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market is one of the largest and most rapidly growing global tourism markets. Although much research has been carried out on this market since the early 1990s, these studies have largely been in the Western context, with Asian VFR travellers receiving little attention. To extend our understanding of the international VFR market, this study focused on Japanese international students studying in Australia. Through a series of in-depth interviews with 26 students, their roles and experiences as VFR hosts and the behaviours of the VFR travellers who visited them were explored. The results show that the majority of the students not only played important roles in motivating their friends and relatives to visit their study destinations but also recognised these roles. A number of unique behaviours on the part of Japanese VFR travellers, such as accommodation use and information searches, were also observed. The study's findings extend our understanding of the VFR market. The study suggests that international students are important resources for tourism practitioners because they can trigger international visits by friends and relatives.