In communities with high population mobility, local rules such as garbage disposal guidelines are often ignored. A research group led by Shiga University has found that this is not simply because newcomers disregard the rules. Rather, communities with high population mobility tend to develop a broader social climate in which local rules are taken less seriously.
As the number of foreign residents grows and lifestyles become more diverse, tensions can sometimes arise between newcomers and long-term residents. However, the researchers suggest that clearly communicating local rules and fostering a shared vision for the community could help ease such tensions and make communities more comfortable places to live for everyone.
A research team led by Professor Kosuke Takemura, a social psychologist at the Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, set out to answer a simple question: Do local rules lose their effectiveness because people who move frequently are less likely to follow them, or because communities as a whole develop norms that place less importance on rule compliance?
Residents' cooperation is essential for activities such as disaster preparedness, crime prevention, and environmental maintenance. At the same time, communities increasingly face the "free-rider problem," in which some people rely on community support during emergencies without contributing to collective activities in their daily lives. Previous studies have suggested that high population mobility can weaken the cooperative norms that help discourage free-riding.
The researchers analyzed data from two existing surveys: one covering about 7,300 residents across 408 communities in western Japan, and another involving about 3,200 residents in 99 communities in the Yasu River basin of Shiga Prefecture. They examined responses on residential mobility, levels of community cooperation, and how residents perceived people who violated local rules.
Both surveys had originally been conducted for separate research projects and were not designed specifically for the present study. The researchers compared communities with high population mobility, such as urban areas and commuter belts around major cities, with rural farming and fishing communities where population turnover is relatively low.
The analysis showed that newcomers are not especially likely to disregard local rules. In fact, newcomers and long-term residents were found to follow rules at roughly similar rates. At the same time, clear differences emerged at the community level. In areas with low population turnover, both newcomers and long-term residents tended to follow local rules. In contrast, communities with higher population mobility showed a tendency for both groups to place less importance on rule compliance, resulting in a weaker overall culture of norm adherence.
The researchers interpret this finding as follows: in communities with many newcomers, the stereotype that "newcomers do not follow rules" may heighten residents' expectations that others will disregard the rules as well. As a result, local rules gradually lose their effectiveness across the community as a whole. In other words, the weakening of community norms appears to stem less from highly mobile individuals themselves than from a community-wide social climate in which rule compliance is expected less strongly.
To illustrate the point, Takemura cites garbage disposal, a common source of neighborhood disputes. "Take Styrofoam, for example," he said. "In some municipalities it is classified as burnable waste, while in others it is not. Someone may throw it away assuming it belongs in burnable trash, only to find that the local sorting rules are different. To long-term residents, that may look like a rule violation. But that person is not deliberately trying to disrupt the local waste-disposal system. They simply do not know the rules. Situations like this are actually quite common in communities."
According to the researchers, when such incidents repeatedly create the impression that people are not following the rules, the community's culture of rule compliance can begin to erode. Residents may come to associate "outsiders" with "rule-breakers," creating a negative cycle in which people become less trusting of one another and less willing to follow the rules themselves.
This phenomenon is particularly visible in discussions surrounding foreign residents. Differences in culture and everyday customs can sometimes fuel xenophobic attitudes, and in some communities have led to serious tensions.
Takemura continued, "When you travel abroad, it is common to see people talking on their mobile phones almost anywhere," he said. "In Japan, however, speaking loudly on a train or in other public places is often considered poor manners. "Even if someone's behavior bothers you, it is important to take a moment and remember that their background and circumstances may be different. If they do not know the local rules, we should be willing to explain them." He added that many problems associated with overtourism may likewise stem from customs and expectations that have never been clearly communicated.
"Whether they are Japanese or foreign nationals, people who move into a community generally do not think, 'It's fine if I don't follow the rules,'" Takemura said. "Most are trying to fit in and become part of the community. That is why it is important for local governments and communities to clearly communicate their rules and make it easier for people to engage with one another."
Going forward, the researchers hope to investigate how extensively local rules have been formalized and how such efforts contribute to community building. By combining objective data with surveys examining residents' preferences for the kinds of communities they wish to live in, they aim to further explore the relationship between mobility and community life.
The study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and funding from the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. The findings were published in the September issue of the international academic journal Cities. Ahead of publication, Shiga University, Tokyo Woman's Christian University, Kyoto University, and Kobe University jointly announced the results on July 2.
Original article was provided by the Science Portal and has been translated by Science Japan.