Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
If, as above, whether or not someone invites you is one of the main motivators for going on a trip, it is understandable that during a time like the economic bubble period when young people travelled prolifically in general, that in addition to people going on trips for internal reasons, there would also be even more people who go on trips because of external reasons. On the other hand, if young people are going on less trips in general, as they are currently, even those who are motivated to take a trip for internal reasons may think, “I would like to go on a trip with someone, but if no one wants to go then I won’t go.” This then may lead to even less people actually going on a trip.

Regarding travel companions for overnight sightseeing trips and excursions, if we look at the percentages by companion type, “School/Work colleagues” and “Friends/Acquaintances” percentages are declining; the percentage of “School/Work colleagues” has especially dropped significantly. From 1991 to 2011, the percentage for overnight trips has decreased from 39.8% to 19.3%, while the percentage for excursions has dropped from 28.5% to 20.7% (Graphic 187, 188). Considering the fact that one of the main motivators for people going on an overnight trip seems to be the receiving of an invitation from someone, if trips taken with work colleagues and people in a university club—where one would go on a trip because of an invitation—are decreasing, then this may be one of the reasons the number of domestic trips taken by young people is declining.

Meanwhile, in recent years, there is a rise in the percentage of people who take overnight sightseeing trips and excursions by themselves. It seems that people who are very interested in travelling will take trips whether or not they have a travel companion. This percentage is especially growing for excursions, and this may be due to the fact that going out on excursions without a travel companion is easier. We mentioned earlier that within the decreasing trend in the number of domestic trips taken by young people, the decline is less significant in the number of excursions than in the number of overnight sightseeing trips. This smaller drop in the number of excursion trips may be due to the fact that for excursions, the decrease in number of trips taken with “School/Work colleagues” is much smaller, and also that the number of excursions people take “Alone” are relatively high.
Graphic 187	Percentages of Travel Companions Type for Overnight Sightseeing Trips (Age: 20's)

Percentages of Travel Companions Type for Excursions (Day-trips) (Age: 20's)

## (Polarization of Trends in International Travel)

Regarding trends in trips abroad, if we look at the departure rates, there are higher levels of departure rates among people in their 20’s and 30’s compared to other age groups. However, if we compare departure rates from 1996 and 2011, the departure rates for people in their teens and people in their late 30’s and older are rising, but departure rates for people in their 20’s and early 30’s are dropping, especially for those in their late 20’s, with the biggest decreasing margin of 5.5%(Graphic 189).

Graphic 189 Trend in Departure Rates

(Note) Departure rate=Number of people departing/total population Source) Developed by the MLIT from: MIC "Population Estimates"; Ministry of Justice "Immigration Statistics"

If we look at the trend in departure rates by gender, and by age group, we can see that there is a difference in trends between men and women. For men, those aged 15-19 years old have the lowest levels of departure rates, but as the age group gets older, from 20-24 years old, 25-29 years old, 30-34 years old, and 35-39 years old, the level of departure rates progressively rises. In comparison, for women, while the trend of those in the 15-19 years old age group having the lowest levels of departure rates is similar to the men, the departure rates rises for the 20-24 years old age group, and then the highest level of departure rates is seen in the 25-29 years old age group. From there, for the 30-34 years old and 35-39 years old age groups the departure level decreases to below the level of women in their 20's, though the level is still higher than the overall average from all age groups. From this we can see that most women travel abroad during their 20's to 30's.
If we look at the long-term trends, for men, from the beginning of the 1990's to mid 1990's the departure rates rose in each age group. Since then though, aside from the 15-19 years old age group, the departure rates have continually declined. In the past few years the rates seem to be recovering, but are still at lower levels than during the mid-1990's. For women, the departure rates rose from the beginning of the 1990's to mid 1990's in each age group, similar to men. However, since then the departure rates for the 20-24 years old and 25-29 years old age groups have decreased significantly, and though the rates seem to be recovering in recent years, they remain at lower levels than in the mid 1990's. In other age groups, though there were temporary drops in 2003 and 2008, the overall departure rates are showing a rising trend (Graphic 190).

Source) Developed by the MLIT from: MIC "Census", "Population Estimates"; Ministry of Justice "Immigration Statistics"

## (Graphic 190)

When we look at the trend in international trips of people in their 20’s by the number of trips, similar to domestic trips, the percentage of those who do not go on any international trips (people who answered 0 times) is continually rising. However, if we look at the number of trips taken out of the people who have gone on international trips, though the number of people who have gone on one such trip is decreasing, the number of those who go on more than two international trips is increasing. We can see from this that there are those who do not travel abroad at all, and those who frequently travel overseas, which results in a polarization of international travel trends (Graphic 191, 192).
Trend in Traveller Rates by Number of International Sightseeing Trips Taken by People in their 20's

(Note) Traveller rate (=total of number of people who took a trip within a year/total population) Source) Developed by MLIT from: MIC "Social Life Basic Survey"

Graphic 192

Trend in Number of International Trips Taken by People in their 20's who have Taken an International Trip

(Note) Population of people in their 20's by number of overseas trips taken/population of people in their 20's who have gone on an overseas trip within a year Source) Developed by MLIT from: MIC "Social Life Basic Survey"

This polarization in the travel trends is thought to be based on travel demand arising from past travel experiences. If we focus on the difference in the items listed by people who have experienced international travel and by those who have not, the biggest difference was seen in people responding, “Do not see the value of international travel for myself.” Regarding this item, there seem to be indicators that suggest that if a person experiences even one trip overseas, they understand the value of that experience, and are more likely to be motivated to plan a next trip (Graphic 193). If we look at people’s travel intentions by the number of times a person has taken a trip, the more a person has had international travelling experience, the higher their intention to take another trip abroad (Graphic 194).

Graphic 193 Deterrents for International Travel

2 Surveyed men and women between aged 15-39 (overall n=4740)

Source) Developed by MLIT from: Japan Association of Travel Agents “Survey regarding Overseas Travel”
International Travel Intentions of Young People (by International Travel Experience)

(Note) Surveyed men and women aged 15-39 years old (Overall n=4740)

Source) Developed by the MLIT from: Japan Travel and Tourism Associaton “Survey regarding Overseas Travel”

If we look at the deterrents for international travel for young people, the top items are things like, “Travel expenses for trips abroad are too expensive,” and “Do not have money to spend on leisure/hobby,” which shows that for most people the lack of funds is the deterrent. There were also a lot of people who replied, “Would rather spend money on leisure activities/hobbies other than trips abroad,” which shows that they do not have a lot of money to spend on leisure or hobbies, or if they do, travel has fallen in the list of priorities for spending money. Another deterrent for taking a trip abroad which many people listed was, “It is difficult to take a long vacation,” despite the fact that allotment for days off have increased for both men and women from 2005 to 2010. However, though the total number of days off may have increased, because the days off must be taken in smaller increments, the reality seems to be that it is difficult to get enough time off in one vacation to take a trip. Furthermore, in terms of the way people are spending their leisure time, both men and women show significant increase in the amount of time they spend online, and this combined with the increase in the percentage of spending on communication expenses such as a mobile phone, we can see that the popularization of the internet and mobile phones has changed the way people spend money, which in turn affects the trends in travel (Graphic 195, 196).

Communication Expense of Mobile Phones and its Percentage in Total Expenditure

(Note) Average yearly mobile phone communication expense and the percentage of said expense out of total consumption expenditure of single person under 34 years old households

Source) Developed by MLIT from: MIC "Household Survey"

Increase and Decrease of Leisure Time, and How Leisure Times is Spent

(Note) 1 Values within the bar graph are average amount of time spent (Unit : Minutes), values on top of bar are total of average times.

2 Each time amounts are average time spent on a single weekday multiplied by 5, combined with average time spent on Saturdays.

3 Internet usage time is calculated time spent for hobby/entertainment/learning, and excludes work-related time.

4 Each time amount may include activities that are done simultaneously, but each time amount is calculated by total time spent on each activity.

Source) Developed by MLIT from: NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute "2010 NHK Japanese Time Use Survey"

## (New Developments related to Travel)

As we saw earlier, the activities of the current generation of young people, whether in regards to domestic or international travel, are less active compared to previous generations of young people. However, there are some new developments related to travel for the current youth which we will introduce below, that have the potential to affect the future travel
trends of young people.

## ① Improved Convenience of International Travel

In May 2012, Peach Aviation Co., Ltd. began to operate a direct flight between Osaka (Kansai) and Seoul (Inchon), which was the beginning of other LCC (Low Cost Carriers) in Japan starting to operate international flights, and the number of other international flight routes and the frequency of such flights are slowly increasing (Graphic 197). As the convenience of international travel improves year by year, with lower costs, direct flights, and more choices in destination cities, there is a possibility that there will be a new travel demand from people who had previously been unable to take international trips due to financial reasons or time constraints. According to a survey conducted regarding intentions to use LCC for future international travel, when analysed by age group, results showed that the younger the age group, the higher their intention to use these LCC services (Graphic 198).

Graphic 197 Direct Flights from Japan that Started Operating after 1990

Source) MLIT

Intention to Use LCC for Future International Travel

(Note) Surveyed population: 2011 overseas travellers via internet survey Source) AB-ROAD Research Center "Survey regarding Satisfaction and Inclination to Use International LCC"
## ② Popularization of the Internet

As seen earlier, the amount of time young people spend online is increasing significantly, with a growing number of people relying on the internet as the main source of information (Graphic 199).

The internet makes it possible to acquire information from all over the world in real time, regardless of one's location, but this seems to have resulted in two conflicting effects upon the behaviour of young people. One effect is that due to the internet becoming popularized, a person can easily obtain information without travelling, which satisfies the person enough so he or she no longer feels the need to travel (Graphic 200). The other effect is that the popularization of the internet makes it easy to find information about many different places, which makes a person want to travel to such places to see them for him or herself (Graphic 201). Currently, as the amounts of time and money young people spend on the internet continue to grow, while international travel decreases, it seems that the first effect is having more impact. However, in the future, as the information obtained via the internet accumulates personally and in society, it is possible that a growing number of people will no longer be satisfied with information found on the internet, and find that they want to see the actual places for themselves.

Graphic 199 Increase and Decrease in the Percentages of People Who Use Media (Year 2005=100)

(Note) Increase and decrease in percentage of people using each media for over 15 minutes a day Source) Developed by the MLIT from: NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute "2010 NHK Japanese Time Use Survey"

Decrease in travel by young people due to ease in obtaining information from popularization of the internet

(Note) Extracted from answers to item stating, “The prevalence of mobile phones and internet usage is the major reason young people do not travel. Entertainment has increased, and one can gain information without travelling.”

Source) Tourism Agency “2008 Survey regarding Travel Behaviour of Japanese”

Because information about many other places can be easily obtained due to popularization of mobile phones and the internet, it made me want to travel to see these places in person

| I feel this way | I kind of feel this way | I cannot say either way | I do not really feel this way | I do not feel this way
Age: 20's-30's [N=3089] | 11.1 | 30.5 | 35.9 | 11.8 | 10.7
Age: 40's-50's [N=496] | 9.5 | 37.1 | 30.0 | 14.7 | 8.7
Age: 60's [N=524] | 8.4 | 42.4 | 28.8 | 10.7 | 9.7

Source) MLIT "Public Awareness Survey"
## ③ Emergence of New Forms of Travel

We mentioned earlier that the decrease in young people travelling may be the decrease in trips taken with colleagues from school or work, or with friends/acquaintances. Recently, however, due to the proliferation of SNS, Note there has been a new outings/travel demand prompted by SNS, such as seeing an attractive place via SNS, or going out to meet friends made via SNS (Graphic 202).

There is also the development of people with shared interests planning “Social Trips” (when a travel plan suggestion is posted on SNS, which a travel agency will create tour for if enough people decide to participate) (Graphic 203). Though the concept of “Social Trips” is currently not very well-known, over 40% of young people surveyed have some slight interest in Social Trips, and there is a possibility that this concept may lead to new travel demand in the future.

Source) Japan Tourism Marketing Co. "Survey on Life and Travel Inclinations of Young People" (2012)

Graphic 203 Interest in Social Trips

Source) Japan Tourism Marketing Co. "Survey on Life and Travel Inclinations of Young People" (2012)
Chapter 3

# Efforts Directed at National Land and Transportation

Chapter 2 analyzes what changes are taking place in the livelihood of present-day youth from viewpoints of their ways of working, living and moving. Seeing that the present-day youth will serve as the core of society in the future, we can say that their livelihood will largely shape the future of Japan. Believing that the way the youth live today has effect on their own livelihood in the future, as well as future society, Chapter 3 highlights the direction in which MLIT policies, head in addition to the measures we pursue to provide people of the present and future alike to live a life of affluence.

## Section 1 Efforts Directed at the Way of Working

As reported in the preceding chapter, the youth is highly oriented toward a job opportunity of long-term employment, but the job separation rate remains high, suggesting that the gap between the employment environment seen ideal by the youth and that of reality impedes their continual employment. Industries related to national land and transportation urge to improve their employment environments in order to offer job opportunities for the sustained employment of young people. In the light of the declining number of young employees and the aging workers in these industries, it is necessary for them to promote the employment of young people and encourage the transition of skills between generations so they may continue to fulfill their roles in sustaining the livelihood of citizens and the national economy.

Although the employment of female workers is on the rise, it is still subject to a number of problems including the low rate of continued employment after childbirth, a growing population of non-regular employees and a though ratio on the rise, the number of women working in management remains low. We see it necessary to forge work environments that are easier and worthwhile for female employees to work through promoting the formation of workplaces where female employees can give birth and raise children without having to quit their jobs, and encouraging the recruitment of women in various kinds of jobs and their promotion to management positions.

## (1) Supporting the working of young people

## ① Efforts directed at the construction industry

As explained in the previous chapter, Japan’s construction industry sees a decline in the number of young people seeking employment in the industry and the progress of aging in the working population. As experienced generations of workers near retirement, the need arises to acquire young workers for senior workers to teach skills and expertise in order to underpin upcoming generations, thus toughening the construction industry.
## (a) Supporting the employment of young people

We are pushing the employment of young people forward by working in conjunction with the Construction Industry Human Resources Securing and Development Promotion Council, which consists of industrial associations, and government ministries concerned. By actively taking advantage of portal sites for sponsoring catered lectures for students to impart the joy of manufacturing to them, inspection tours of construction sites, on-site hands-on training sessions, internships, and aid to the acquiring construction certifications, thereby motivating students to seek employment in the construction industry (Graphic 204).

The construction industry plays a vital role in developing, maintaining and managing housing and social infrastructures, keeping local communities safe and secure in times of natural disasters. Promoting the construction industry to help the youth develop a proper understanding of the construction industry is

Source) Yamaguchi Prefectural Building Contractors' Association

essential to encouraging the employment of young people in the construction industry. To this end, the administrative agencies and industrial associations are committed to deploying strategic publicity campaigns in a unified effort tailored to the audience, including children and general citizens as well as the youth.

## (b) Securing and developing experts and skilled workers

Amid the continuing drop in the number of young workers seeking employment in the construction industry, human resources for becoming expert or skilled worker are diminishing. While laws for require principal contractors to subcontract projects, the Certified Technical Supervisors under 40 years of age account for only 10% of the entire technical population in some professions in the industry. The progress of aging is anomalous creating the dire need to establish an environment where superb experts can be acquired and cultivated (Graphic 205).

To this end, the MLIT has started exploring the possibility of developing an expert database to gain insight into the status of experts. The Ministry now seeks to build a scheme of giving fair assessment to technically competent experts to motivate those construction firms that house these experts to augment their construction capabilities.

Graphic 205 Changes in the Ages of Certificate Holders by Industry Sector

Because the worsening employment environment for skilled workers is considered as part of the reason for the continued drop in the number of young workers seeking employment in the construction industry, efforts will be directed at renovating the employment environment. We will implement further measures aiming to promote subscription to social insurance and other programs and the compilation of information on the qualifications and expertise of skilled workers, such as their training career, to give these workers treatment worthy of their expertise.
## ④ Human resources sought by developing infrastructures overseas

The rapid paces of economic growth and urban development in countries around the world, especially Asian nations, coupled with expanding population mainly in developing nations, global economic leaps and the resultant rises in the income level, increases in the medium-income population and so on, promise bulging demand for the development of infrastructures around the world. An over U.S. $8 trillion worth of demand for infrastructures in estimated for Asia by 2020 (Graphic 208).

Japan’s domestic market continues to shrink amid rapid aging of the population and falling birthrates. Under the circumstances, it would be essential to deploy infrastructures

Source) ADB, ADBI (2009) "Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia."

that build on Japan’s traditions of expertise and experience and thus to assimilate the growths of these individual nations, which should in turn help sustain Japan’s growth. Promoting the overseas deployment of infrastructures should require securing and develop the supporting human resources in a far-reaching collaboration among industry, academia and government, including academic societies and colleges and research institutes at home and abroad, as well as operators in the industries connected with national land and transport. Particularly, securing and developing human resources of global dimensions who have right knowledge to aid in the planning stage, the most upstream process of a project, and in the post-construction maintenance and management stage of the project, a downstream process, is required. These human resources should have a concept of the execution of international contracts in practice, labor management and project financing to facilitate a fully integrated flow of order taking. In March 2013, a program that exchanges human resources between Japan’s construction industry and colleges in France, the U.K., Thailand and the Philippines in a bid to develop human resources who possess international construction capabilities and personal connections with overseas leaders, has been launched.

## (2) Support for female employment

A survey of the industries relating to national land and transport shows that 56.4% of the employees in the lodging industry are female, higher than the industry average of 42.3%. Female employment has penetrated some sectors of the construction and transport industries, like female drivers in bus operations, but the ratio of the number of female employees to the total work forces in these two industries remains low when compared with other industries, at 13.9% and 17.2%, respectively (Graphic 209, 210).

Graphic 209 Number of Female Employees and Its Ratio (2012 Average)

Source) Developed by MLIT from: The “Labor Force Survey (2012)” conducted by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications.