## 4 Conclusions
### Summary of Study and Applicability of Findings
However, for encouraging the U-turn migrations of the members of these groups, it was necessary to enhance the living conditions in their hometowns or fill the gap between their evaluations of the current residences and those of hometowns. These results suggest that spontaneous U-turn migrations can improve population disparities, but these cases do not easily occur under the present circumstances in Japan. Especially for hometowns in rural provincial areas or in smaller cities, it is necessary to secure an appropriate size and composition of the population. To encourage people's U-turn migrations through the development of living conditions in hometowns, it is important to clarify the target groups, as well as to determine the living environments that need development. In addition, planners need to understand the current conditions of living environments in their own locations, and in the cities in which potential U-turn migrants now live, especially if the selected living environments depend on city size or geographic characteristics as their centerpieces to development. However, thus far, it has been difficult for planners to select the appropriate conditions that they should be developed. It was also difficult to judge in what cases they should consider the living environments of other cities. This is partly because of the variety of the living environments and the preference of individuals. This study contributes to a systematic analysis of the relationship between people's U-turn motivations and their evaluations of living environments. In addition, we assessed the attributional characters of respondents in each group. If the attributions (e.g., gender, age, family type) of potential return migrants are determined for promoting U-turn, as we have attempted to do here, the results will provide local governments with useful information for planning and developing attractive living environments. As a result, some local governments in smaller cities may need to develop those living environments in the current places of residence and hometowns that influence the U-turn motivations. It is important for them to further assess if and how the evaluation of these living conditions may depend on the character of the city. To this end, realistic policy making must bridge the current gap between both regions. Our findings also help determine the conditions that must be met for the targets groups to conduct their spontaneous U-turn. According to analysis in this study, the evaluation of three kinds of living environments (i.e., transportation, shopping, visiting ancestral graves) tended to depend on city size, while the evaluations for climate tended to depend on the geographic characteristics (e.g., heavy snow fall). If these living environments are included in the people's requirements for U-turns, the local governments can estimate the scale of improvements to living conditions and intervene accordingly. From these findings, local governments can also gauge the feasibility of meeting these requirements. Estimation and feasibility studies can be conducted by selecting particular living environments as priority candidates for development and understanding the current places of residence of potential U-turn migrants. On the other hand, if local environments consider the living conditions not related to city size, such as attachment to the region, policies to enhance their evaluations will be useful countermeasures against the attractions of large cities, while taking advantage of smaller cities' unique features. However, it is noteworthy that local governments should not concentrate only on the living environments as problems. In this study, we determined two types of living environments that were important factors for people's return migrations. One consisted of the living conditions that should be enhanced through more development, while the other included living conditions that should be maintained at their present levels.