Maintaining a young, well-educated labor force is an important strategy for regional economic development and social vitality. Based on a comparative study of China and Japan, this article aims to elicit 1) the factors that affect college students’ employment migration preference; and 2) the differences between migration preferences of students from the two countries and the possible explanations for such differences. With the use of survey data from approximately 2,000 college students in the two countries, this study identifies region of origin as a key determinant of employment migration choice in both countries. The region of origin functions as a critical point differentiating primary and secondary labor markets for individuals, whereas the first-tier region in each country is a popular work destination. A one-way bottom-up migration from lower-ranking to higher-ranking regions is revealed in our regional hierarchy model. Findings suggest that Chinese students were oriented to employment opportunities and economic well-being while Japanese students were more inclined to consider personal lifestyle and local amenities. The findings imply that reducing regional disparities in economic development and income levels in China and enhancing urban service facilities in Japan may encourage college graduates to remain in their home regions.

Background and Objectives: Aging in place (AIP) has been adopted as a key strategy to cope with the global public health challenge posed by population aging. The current study aimed to understand the association between older adult’s AIP preference and various social and physical environmental factors at different scales.Research Design and Methods: Following the ecological model of aging, this paper conducted a questionnaire survey of 827 independent-living older adults (60 years old and above) from four big cities in China’s Yangtze River Delta region and employed a structural equation modeling method for analysis.Results: Older adults from more developed cities exhibited a stronger preference for AIP than those from less developed cities. Individual characteristics, mental health, and physical health had a direct impact on AIP preference, whereas the effect of the community social environment was not significant. The perceived and objectively measured community-built environment indirectly affected AIP preference via mediation and chain effects.Discussion and Implications: Complex paths affecting AIP preference were identified. At the city level, the social environment had a stronger influence than the physical environment on AIP, and the opposite pattern was observed at the community level. Mental health and physical health had opposite effects on AIP preference. Although physical health was negatively associated with AIP, age-friendly communities with compact, diverse, and accessible built environments have a positive impact on older adults’ physical health and therefore should be promoted.

Introduction: Online food shopping has a profound impact on people’s food acquisition behavior, the current study aims to understand how online food shopping may affect the accessibility of the local food environment and further influence the health equity among different populations.Methods: Taking 8512 traditional and online greengrocers in central Shanghai as an example, this paper uses Gini coefficient, location quotient and spatial clustering method to compare the equality and equity of food environment between physical and digital food outlets.Results: It finds that spatial equality is more significantly improved as a result of online food stores than are population equality and social equity of the food environment; older populations are not disadvantaged in terms of healthy food access but lower-income people are; the impact of online stores varies for different regions and different types of stores; depot-based stores have the most positive impact on health equity.Discussion: Policy implications are discussed to promote the environmental justice of healthy food accessibility.

Exploring the relationship between leisure walking and the built environment will provide an improvement in human health and well-being. It is, therefore, necessary to explore the most relevant scale for leisure walking and how the association between the built environment and leisure walking varies across scales. Three hundred volunteers were recruited to wear GPS loggers, and a total dataset of 268 tracks from 105 individuals was collected. The shortest possible routes between starting and ending points were generated and compared to the actual routes using the paired T-test. An improved grid-based buffer approach was proposed, and statistics for the grid cells intersecting the paths were calculated. Grid cells were calculated for six scales: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 500 m, 800 m, and 1600 m. The results showed that the actual paths were on average 24.97% longer than the shortest path. The mean, standard deviation, and minimum and maximum values of the built environment variables were all significantly associated with leisure walking. The most relevant spatial scale was found to be the 100 m scale. Overall, the smaller the scale, the more significant the association. Participants showed a preference for moderately compact urban forms, diverse options for destinations, and greener landscapes in leisure walking route choice.