**1. Introduction**

Green areas, including parks, gardens, agricultural lands, and forest lands, provide various ecosystem services—provisional, regulatory, and cultural [1–3]. Agricultural areas and forest lands, including urban spaces, provide us with services, such as food and water. As for the regulatory services, they regulate water and thus help in controlling floods in urban and rural areas. Green areas, including parks, serve residents culturally, as they inspire visitors and provide recreational opportunities. As for the betterment of the ecosystem, appropriate management of green areas and their networks can contribute to urban and rural biodiversity conservation if local governments seek national and international collaborations [4–6]. Despite these fundamental characteristics, citizens who access such services tend to be relatively limited to only certain socioeconomic statuses and environmental contexts [7–10]. Those on a higher income level easily access green areas, while those on low income levels face difficulties due to lack of transportation (including car ownership), time constraints, and entrance or membership fees for such areas [11]. Thus, the socioeconomic status can have an impact on accessibility for certain low-income citizens, as can education level. Furthermore, the environmental

context also influences accessibility and use of green areas. For example, properly allocated urban agricultural lands can facilitate agricultural activities [12]. In most areas, even if locals wish to access green areas, it is difficult to do so without proper environmental management and green infrastructure [13]. As fundamental environmental elements that can provide ecosystem services, management of green areas is necessary to enhance the quality of life, for environmental conservation, and to reduce disaster risk in urban and rural areas [14–18].

Basic social attributes such as age, gender, and number of children in households also influence the accessibility of green areas [19,20]. These attributes reflect the regional culture and structure of families and society at large. For instance, in a society with an active aging population [21], the ratio of elderly citizens who use green areas tends to be higher compared with other profiles. As another example, the ratio of females who use green areas might correlate with the number of children in a household in a society with a relatively high ratio of housewives. These societal and cultural contexts need to be considered when developing and implementing green area management. As an infrastructural element of society, green areas need to be supported by the residents. To enhance their ownership and facilitate the citizens' participation in the management, understanding these contexts is essential to establish appropriate policies and actions.

In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, trends of access and use of green areas have changed globally [22–24]. National governments have requested that citizens adopt the so-called "new normal" lifestyle to facilitate the changes, including measures such as home offices to avoid crowds in traffic and workplaces. Owing to the lockdown of municipalities to control the spread of infection, access and use of green areas have been restricted. Residents tend to avoid public spaces, and social distancing is required in green areas, especially public parks. The severity of lockdowns differs in various contexts, and Japan was relatively relaxed compared to Europe, China, or India in terms of the strictness of countermeasures and by requesting voluntary cooperation. However, precautionary measures were taken in Japanese parks, including playgrounds, by limiting the facilities. There were social disputes and confusion regarding the extent and perceptions of lockdowns, and some residents made police reports that parks were crowded (the municipalities later asked citizens not to report such incidents, as they were neither urgent nor relevant police tasks).

However, the situations during the COVID-19 pandemic did not necessarily result in negative impacts on residents. For instance, citizens can visit green areas to reduce their COVID-19-related stress issues [25,26]. The circumstances created by COVID-19 can propel the understanding, reexploring, and rediscovering of the meaning and value of green areas. Although green area management in the "new normal" is still in the developing phase, residents' awareness can be enhanced by visiting such areas during this crisis period.

The existing studies tend to analyze the overall number of visitors, but have less data for the visitors' attributes. There need to be more detailed analyses as to "who are the actual visitors?". Given the negative and positive impacts of COVID-19 on green areas, management of such spaces in the "new normal" needs to reflect the socioeconomic attributes and environmental contexts of the residents using them. The influences of these attributes and contexts on the access of green areas during and before the pandemic remain rather unexplored. The purpose of this study is to identify the influence of the socioeconomic attributes of citizens and environmental contexts of their residential areas on the access and use of green spaces. The results can serve as evidence for policymaking to facilitate the safe and equal use of green areas during the pandemic. As for the survey and analysis, the status of access and use of green areas during the time of the COVID-19 crisis is examined using the results of a questionnaire survey. The following sections describe the analysis of the relationships between the access and use of green areas with the socioeconomic attributes of residents and their environmental contexts.
