Outcomes and issues on the local government support for citizen-operated communication sites for elderies in privately owned space: A Study on measures in small local municipalities

Recently, Social isolation and homebound elderlies are emerging issues in Japan, so municipalities support and encourage citizen operated communication sites in privately owned space. This paper aims to investigate the outcomes and issues of the local government support for such sites in small size municipalities. The paper conducts a questionnaire survey to 100 small municipalities, an interview survey to local government officers (n=8) and to operators of sites (n=8). Results shows; 1) numbers of sites increase where local government officers accept feedback from site operators, 2) There are three types of sites based on the purpose and the characteristics, 3) local governments acknowledge many advantages of sites. To increase the number of citizen-operated sites, it is effective to enhance communication between governments and operators.