Japanese Perceptions of Climate Change and their Behavioral Intentions of Visiting Cherry Blossom Festival

Ryo Sakurai¹*, Naoya Komatsu² and Hiromi Kobori²

¹Japan Society of Promotion of Science, Postdoctoral Researcher/Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences Bldg. 4. Room 206. 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan

²Faculty of Environmental and Information Studies, Tokyo City University, 3-3-1 Ushikubo-nishi, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 224-0015, Japan

*Corresponding Author E-mail: ryo223sak@gmail.com; Phone:81-90-3801-3212; Fax: 81-48-469-0976

Accepted 29 May, 2014

Abstract

We surveyed visitors to Japanese cherry blossom festivals to examine perceptions of climate change, blooming times, and future intentions to visit festivals under flower timing. We distributed questionnaires to visitors at three festival sites. Among 266 respondents, the majority (>60%) thought that global warming was occurring while less than 30% thought that global warming was affecting the flower timing of cherry blossoms. Thirty percent of respondents wanted to visit the festival even if the cherry flowers started to fall during the festival period. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the closer visitors’ residences to festival site, the more likely they responded that they would visit festivals even if cherry blooms were finished (p<0.05). As global climate change continues and flowering times advance, future Japanese cherry blossom festivals might become more localized with a smaller number of visitors.

Keywords: behavioral intention, cherry blossom festival, climate change, Japan, perception, visitor