Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Rural Residents of Japan and Their Interactions with the Outside World

In this study, we clarified the impact of the pandemic on the daily lives of rural Japanese residents who experienced the pandemic and on their attitudes toward relationships with people in the broader world. From July to August 2021, an anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted in three rural and fishing community districts (Oshio, Sugane, and Ozushima) in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, among the residents of each district. We found that the survey respondents had decreased their frequency of engaging in activities that were not essential to daily life. During the pandemic, people consciously avoided visitors from outside their districts, but after the pandemic restrictions were lifted, many people welcomed visitors the same way they had before the pandemic; indeed, people welcomed migrants who would increase their populations. As long as COVID-19 infections are under control, residents of the three districts have one thing in common: they want to interact with people outside their districts. It is necessary to consider how to continue community activities under the pandemic so that rural Japanese citizens can maintain interactions with the outside world after the pandemic.