Tourists leave receipts. Migrants leave an address. Between them is a growing class of people who revisit a place, know residents, buy from producers or contribute work without moving there. Japanese policymakers call them kankei jinkō—literally a “relationship population.” Beginning September 25, a rail operator, two NTT companies, a city and a travel business will test whether that relationship can be deliberately built rather than merely discovered.
A Two-Stage Experiment, Not Just a Rural Tour
The five parties are East Japan Railway Co. (JR East), NTT DOCOMO SOLUTIONS, NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS, the City of Nasushiobara and JR East View Tourism & Sales. The project runs through the end of February 2027 under JR East’s WaaS Co-Creation Consortium.
The online phase targets people aged 50 and older in eastern Japan. JR East plans a September 25 email survey to members of Otona no Kyujitsu Club, its travel and lifestyle membership program for people over 50. On October 5, the NTT side plans an advertising questionnaire for d POINT CLUB members. Respondents will preview “Nasu ni Sunde,” a portal about living, communities and relocation in the Nasu area, and answer questions about interest, concerns and intention to act. The online study is scheduled to close in mid-October.
The field phase is much smaller. Two overnight tours, on November 4–5 and November 12–13, will each accept roughly 10 Otona no Kyujitsu Club members on a first-come basis. The price is ¥9,800 per person. From Nasushiobara Station, participants will visit Meiji no Mori Kuroiso roadside station and the Shiobara Onsen area, help with woodland conservation and old-trail maintenance, meet residents and earlier migrants, visit local sites and take part in interviews.
NTT Is Designing Behavior, Not Installing a Network
Calling this simply a JR East–NTT regional tour misses the division of labor. NTT DOCOMO SOLUTIONS is the project lead within the consortium. It will set the evaluation direction and key performance indicators, design a user experience intended to move the “pre-senior” population toward action, develop and conduct field interviews, and analyze the results.
NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS will use two marketing and research products built around the d POINT membership base: the questionnaire promotion service di-SCHOP and a more detailed “Premium Panel” intention survey. JR East supplies the Otona no Kyujitsu Club field, the consortium and the regional experience. Nasushiobara provides content and coordinates local hosts. JR East View Tourism & Sales designs, markets and operates the tours.
The commercial logic is as important as the policy logic. A communications company can identify interest at scale; a railway can turn interest into movement; a municipality can turn movement into contact with a place. The hypothesis is that separate customer systems can become one pathway from message to repeated behavior.
The Policy Category Between Tourism and Migration
Japan’s official definition distinguishes relationship population from both permanent residents and the “exchange population” of tourists. The category can encompass repeat visits, work, learning, volunteering, donations, purchasing from producers or maintaining personal ties. It is intentionally broad because attachment does not follow a single ladder toward relocation.
A 2025 Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism survey estimated that about 22.63 million people—more than one in five residents aged 18 or older—had a continuing and varied relationship with a specific place outside their daily living or commuting area. That is an estimate produced under the ministry’s survey definition, not a market-size calculation for Nasushiobara. The ties range from hobby and consumption visits to work and community participation.
The concept gained force because a shrinking nation cannot produce population growth in every municipality at once. The ministry says explicitly that not every region can increase its permanent population. In November 2024, an amended regional-revitalization law took effect to support housing, livelihoods and community contact for dual-location residents. The national conversation has therefore shifted from celebrating a flexible lifestyle to building the practical systems that sustain it.
Late 2010s — Relationship population becomes an established national regional-policy concept.
April 2023 — JR East establishes the WaaS Co-Creation Consortium.
November 2024 — An amended law supporting dual-location living takes effect.
July 30, 2026 — Nasushiobara and JR East’s Tochigi office sign a comprehensive agreement.
September 2026–February 2027 — Online and field testing runs.
A City With Net In-Migration Still Plans for Decline
Nasushiobara has unusually favorable ingredients for the test: a Tohoku Shinkansen station, hot-spring districts, agriculture and accessible natural settings. The city reports eight consecutive years of net in-migration. Yet its own long-range plan says a 2020 population of about 115,000 would fall to roughly 98,000 by 2040 under the trend projection. Positive migration alone does not necessarily offset natural decrease and aging.
For the city’s 20th anniversary in 2025, it adopted the civic purpose “Suki o, Amu.”—“weaving what we love.” Its July agreement with JR East organizes regional engagement into three stages: wanting to visit, wanting to become involved and wanting to live there. The larger plan includes markets for local products, JR East’s Hakobyun train-freight service, short work-and-travel placements, side jobs, gathering places and local transport and government digital services. This experiment sits at the entrance to the second stage.
Why Start With People Over 50?
The target is partly strategic and partly practical. Otona no Kyujitsu Club gives JR East a direct channel to people already inclined to travel by rail. Many in their 50s are beginning to rethink work, housing and time as retirement approaches, making a second base plausible. Matching the d POINT sample by age and geography lets the partners test similar propositions across two established membership pools.
It also sharply limits what can be learned. Younger adults, families with children, nonmembers and people who ignore digital promotions are outside the main design. The tour group is self-selected, pays for an overnight experience and is admitted first-come. Participants are likely to begin with more interest in travel or regional life than a random urban resident. A higher post-tour intention would not show that the same program works for the wider population.
The Difference From Tourism Is Work and People
The itinerary is designed to move beyond sightseeing. Participants will contribute to woodland conservation and trail maintenance, then speak with local residents and people who have relocated. The work exposes a local need; the conversation gives the need names and relationships. Interviews will probe regional understanding, intention to revisit and the elements that might lead toward a second base.
An intense weekend can nevertheless produce event satisfaction without an ordinary relationship. Once home, participants need a person to contact, a defined next task, a feasible date, affordable transport and somewhere to stay. Hosts also incur costs in coordination, explanation and safety. A model that increases “relationship population” by increasing unpaid local labor will exhaust the people it claims to help.
Measuring the Distance From Interest to Action
At minimum, the online phase should distinguish page viewing from information retained, anxiety reduced and intention changed. Field evaluation should look beyond satisfaction toward observed actions: a repeat visit, another work session, buying from a producer, a donation, a side job or a search for housing. Attrition—who did nothing next, and why—is as useful as a favorable testimonial.
The region needs its own measures. How many staff and resident hours did hosting consume? Did local people want the new relationship? Did outside participation actually fill a labor or revenue need? The railway may gain trips and membership value, while the telecom businesses may develop targeting and research services. Evaluation should state where municipal, resident, participant and corporate benefits align and where one party carries another’s cost.
Member-based promotion also raises a method question about data. The announcement identifies the services and corporate roles, but not the exact flow of individual data, retention periods or whether survey responses and later website or travel behavior will be linked. A credible public report should explain consent and privacy alongside conversion rates.
Success in February Is Not a Migration Count
It would be unreasonable to judge the experiment by asking how many of 20 visitors moved to Nasushiobara. Dual-location life depends on housing, work, family, health care, transport cost and a role in the local community. Demanding an address change within months would erase the middle category the project is supposed to study.
The better questions are whether information made uncertainty manageable, whether work and personal contact produced a second visit, whether hosts retained value and whether the pathway can be adapted to other generations and regions. JR East knows how to sell movement. The NTT companies know how to locate and measure interest. Nasushiobara has a real place ready to receive people. The test is whether those capabilities form a relationship that lasts after the Shinkansen pulls away.