## 3 Results and Discussions
### The Structure of U-Turn Motivation and the Demographic Characters of Each Respondents' Group
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Whole** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** & **Node** \\  & & **3** & **5** & **7** & **9** & **11** & **12** & **13** & **15** & **18** & **19** & **20** \\ \hline  & N & 474 & 23 & 28 & 101 & 57 & 26 & 11 & 22 & 18 & 55 & 44 & 89 \\ \hline Age ***\({}^{1}\) & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline \(<\)30 & & 5.7 & 8.7 & 3.6 & 7.9 & 1.8 & 7.7 & 0.0 & 18.2 & 0.0 & 3.6 & 2.3 & 6.7 \\
30-39 & & 17.1 & 30.4 & 10.7 & 20.8 & 14.0 & 15.4 & 45.5 & 18.2 & 0.0 & 7.3 & 13.6 & 21.3 \\
40-49 & & 29.3 & 21.7 & 25.0 & 34.7 & 31.6 & 34.6 & 18.2 & 18.2 & 38.9 & 40.0 & 13.6 & 27.0 \\
50–59 & & 22.4 & 17.4 & 21.4 & 17.8 & 21.1 & 23.1 & 36.4 & 18.2 & 16.7 & 32.7 & 36.4 & 16.9 \\
260 & & 25.5 & 21.7 & 39.3 & 18.8 & 31.6 & 19.2 & 0.0 & 27.3 & 44.4 & 16.4 & 34.1 & 28.1 \\ \hline Gender & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Male & 52.3 & 43.5 & 67.9 & 47.5 & 45.6 & 46.2 & 72.7 & 50.0 & 55.6 & 63.6 & 56.8 & 49.4 \\ Female & 47.7 & 56.5 & 32.1 & 52.5 & 54.4 & 53.8 & 27.3 & 50.0 & 44.4 & 36.4 & 43.2 & 50.6 \\ \hline Family structure ***\({}^{1}\) & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Unmarried & & 21.9 & 26.1 & 32.1 & 19.8 & 10.5 & 34.6 & 9.1 & 22.7 & 16.7 & 16.4 & 31.8 & 24.7 \\ Married and living with a child, children & & 46.4 & 21.7 & 39.3 & 52.5 & 54.4 & 42.3 & 72.7 & 31.8 & 50.0 & 54.5 & 22.7 & 50.6 \\ Married but not living with a child, children, or no child & & 31.6 & 52.2 & 28.6 & 27.7 & 35.1 & 23.1 & 18.2 & 45.5 & 33.3 & 29.1 & 45.5 & 24.7 \\ \hline Whether the respondent is the eldest son & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Eldest son & & 38.2 & 39.1 & 50.0 & 34.7 & 36.8 & 30.8 & 63.6 & 31.8 & 22.2 & 54.5 & 38.6 & 32.6 \\ Others & & 61.8 & 60.9 & 50.0 & 65.3 & 63.2 & 69.2 & 36.4 & 68.2 & 77.8 & 45.5 & 61.4 & 67.4 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* *: \(p<0.05\); no sign: not significant (Chi-square test).  
\end{table} 
Table 6: The distribution ratio of the demographic characteristics of individuals in each group. On the contrary, in Node 5, the ratios of unmarried people and those over age 60 were higher. Only their attachment to the regions influenced their U-turn motivations. Most respondents had low motivation toward U-turn migration due to stronger attachment to their current regions of residence. A previous survey [48] showed that, in Japan, older people generally lived at their current residences longer than the younger generations. Another study indicated that continuing to live in the same place was one of the reasons for forming an attachment to the place [49]. Such a strong attachment to the current residence reduced respondents' U-turn motivations. In addition, it is also assumed that the respondents paid less attention to other living conditions such as convenience and family factors due to their ages and single marital status. Many respondents at Node 9 also demonstrated low U-turn motivation. While the evaluations of their attachment to their hometowns were almost the same as those for their current regions of residence, a poor shopping environment in their hometowns reduced their U-turn motivations. In this node, approximately 90% of the respondents were married, and included more women than men. In Japan, women commonly shop for daily commodities, and more so after marriage. This result suggests that their shopping behavior is directly related to their motivations toward return migration. For the nodes discussed above, the living environments related to comfort and convenience of the regions, or attachment to the regions were important factors for U-turn motivation. However, they were not decisive factors for many respondents at Node 15. These respondents seemed to not consider these conditions as critical problems in either their hometowns or current places of residence. For them, family property or relationships (e.g., ease of supporting parents and visiting ancestral graves) were decisive factors.