On July 27th, 2009, Cabinet Office and Japan NGO Council on Ageing (JANCA) jointly held “Aged Society Forum 2009 in Tokyo.” This event started in 1999 (the Year of Older Persons) as “Seminar on an Aging Society.” Recognizing the progression of aged society and needs of active older persons, we have changed the title of the event to “Aged Society Forum” this year and held an additional forum in Fukuoka City on October 1st.
The theme of this year’s forum is based on one of the major issues in aged society “promoting senior citizens’ social participation” and titled “Active Seniors Shape an Era.” The following summarizes the forum in Tokyo.
＜Plenary Session (AM)＞
l Opening Remarks: Mr. Tsutomu Hotta (Co-Chairperson, JANCA; President, Sawayaka Welfare Foundation)
A few days ago, a famous someone said something like “Work is the only thing older persons are capable of.” As an effort to create places for older persons to work, it was a very nice recommendation. Yet, is work “the only thing” they are capable of? That is my question. It is really wonderful to see a growing number of active older persons in various social activities, including tourism, life-long learning and making recommendations.
It has been 18 years since I founded Sawayaka Welfare Foundation to build a new “Fureai” society (or a close-knit community). It is encouraging to see older persons spreading supportive activities throughout the country. Lately, so many children are discouraged to do anything, even to live, because they are pressured to “study, study and study” all the time. It is our fellow senior citizens who reach out to these children, teach them about joy of life, invite them to have fun together and help them regain their energy.
I am not too worried about older persons, except for those who used to be white-collar workers (e.g., ex-government officials and those who worked for big companies). They may be able to stay active, but they are “too shy” to put it nicely or “too proud” to put it another way. It is harder for them to join activities to create an enjoyable society together. Nonetheless, older persons in general are the great supporters of a society. Children are also regaining their energy. Outside of traditional “studying,” they are beginning to enjoy playing while thinking and learning little by little.
Working people are the ones I am most worried about. They are losing their energy. They do not have a place in their families. If they do not have a place in their families, there is no way they can have a place in their communities. So they have no tie with their communities. Then, after retirement, people call them “wet fallen leaves” and “nuclear waste (meaning there is no place to go).” In fact, this sad process already starts at working age when they had no tie with communities and families.
In response, Sawayaka Welfare Foundation has launched the “2-side business card” initiative. That is, we put our identities on both sides of our business cards. Working people, males in particular, use business cards all the time. But they only put the name of their organization and title at work. What a waste. If we use business cards so often, why not make the most use of the other side and put another identity in our private lives? For example, we can say “This side explains my title at work, but the other side explains my NPO activities.” Or we can also say “I belong to JANCA” or “I teach math to children who cannot go to school.” Then people will start asking about those activities, which may be the great PR. It will also help us understand each other more deeply.
Now that you have learned about this initiative, I would like you to put “JANCA” on the other side of your business cards. Or you can say “JANCA Partner.” You do not have to spend a lot of time in the activity. You can also be a financial supporter. The important thing is for you to send a message that you are supporting such and such things. Please print a lot of cards and tell people about your thing.
l Keynote Speech “Roles and Determination as the First Generation of Longevity Society: Ms. Keiko Higuchi (Co-Chairperson, JANCA; President, The Women’s Association for the Better Aging Society)
──Sailors of the Ship “Centenarian Society”
We are living in a difficult time in so many ways, including not only restructuring social security and the national budget but also rethinking where this society is going.
Young people know that they will eventually grow old. They also know that the government is tightening the budgets on medical and long-term care. How can they possibly feel safe about becoming old in such conditions?
Those who are already old are no exceptions. They are not feeling safe either. So they try to hold their children close to them. Now, Japan has one of the highest rates of unmarried people. Why is that? Perhaps we have created such a society in these 60 years after World War II. Now is the time to spread the idea of “Work-life balance” and let young people leave work at 5 p.m. about 3 times a week so that they can have time with their boyfriends, girlfriends and families. The sad reality tells me it is almost impossible, but I think this is what it takes to make fundamental changes in this country.
We should learn from our mistakes as the first older generation to fulfill long lives of 100 years. We should be grateful to be the first group of sailors of the ship “Centenarian Society.” It may take a while, but soon or later the whole world will become the longevity society. We are honored to be the world leaders of this centenarian society.
It has been only 50 years since the majority of people became able to enjoy longevity. Now Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world. To be more exact, Japanese women have had the highest life expectancy in the world in the last 24 years, and Japanese men are the 4th. In 1945 when Japan lost the War, the average life expectancy was 23.9 years for males and 37.5 years for females in this country. We started from there. How did they long for lives! The World War shortened our lives particularly in developed countries. However, Japanese women are now expected to live for 86 years. It may be more accurate to say we live in the time of “90 years of life.” But I want to be generous and therefore keep using “centenarian society,” and I have no plan to stop using this phrase.
So, how do we build the longevity civilization? I use “civilization” rather than “culture.” Culture is the way of people’s lives in a given time and environment. On the other hand, civilization is more systematic and technological, reflecting people’s wills on how to build suitable social systems for longevity. When I say “technology,” I mean not only scientific technology but also social engineering.
Our ancestors had only 50 or 60 years to live. In the long human history, now is the first time the majority of us can enjoy longevity. But it is only happening in developed countries. As global citizens, we should not forget that life expectancies are less than 50 years in some countries and regions in Africa. Each of us can enjoy life both materially and spiritually. Then more and more people throughout the world can live longer. This is our ultimate wish. Asian countries will be aging as fast as Japan. As the world leader of longevity, what can Japan do to build the longevity civilization?
We are the first generation to build the longevity civilization. We are the pioneers of the longevity civilization. We should keep trying, and we should not be afraid of making mistakes.
──Building the Longevity Civilization: Our Duties
As the first generation to build the longevity civilization, what is the first thing we should think about? JANCA has already started taking action. We believe that it is fundamentally important to leave better and sustainable environment for the next generation so that the whole world can become the longevity society. Through our experiences after the War, we know what poverty means. Yet, we are also enjoying prosperity and longevity. We would like to pass this gift of longevity to the next generation. In order to do that, we should not waste our precious resources. We should change things for the better.
Mr. Hotta just talked about men who are too proud to be involved in a community. But I do not think so. They do not have a pride as individuals and therefore hang onto the old title of “ex-government official.” I hope they will start trying many things and fill both sides of their business cards.
Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian, wrote a famous prayer. “Oh God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what should be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.” While agreeing with him, it is very hard to have courage to change what should be changed. But the least we could do is to have courage to accept what is changing in this world.
Of the 2 co-chairs of JANCA, I am making a keynote speech this year as a female representative. So what I am about to say might sound spiteful for some men. Gender equality suits the centenarian society. Despite backlash, I have kept saying this.
For example, women used to account for 90% of family caregivers in Japan, of whom over a half were daughters-in-law followed by wives. Now, 28% of primary caregivers are men. The proportion is unlikely to hit 50% due to a difference in life expectancies, but the increase from 10% to almost 30% is a huge change, like a crustal movement.
So why are more men involved in caregiving? First, more husbands play roles of caregivers because of a growing number of couples-only households. A wife becomes sick or frail, and a husband takes care of her.
Another common case is a son taking care of his mother. There are quite a few sons who can be the only pride for the mother, except one thing that they do not have a wife. The mother aged over 80 devotes herself to her son and keeps cooking for him. But one day the mother becomes too sick or weak. Until yesterday, the son had been taken care of. But now he needs to cook for himself, go to work and take care of his mother. Who wouldn’t be panicked?
According to a study with 16,000 people on elder abuse, women aged 80 and over are more likely to be abused, while sons are most likely to be abusers. I was surprised to see the result. I thought spouses, wives in particular, would be most likely to be abusers because a number of wives are caregivers and a lot of them have years of resentments toward husbands. But the results tell us otherwise. I think experts are analyzing the causes, but my interpretation is that wives are too old to have energy to abuse their husbands.
On the other hand, daughters-in-law are less and less likely to be caregivers. One reason may be that a growing number of people prefer not to be taken care of by them. But another explanation is that daughters-in-law have to take care of their own parents due to the decreasing number of siblings.
Nonetheless, I was born before World War II and grew up in the traditional Japanese society. So I have never told my daughter that she would not have to take care of me. It may be a burden for my daughter, but I have devoted my heart and soul to raise her, and she must see me off. Although I cannot force her, I believe it is children’s responsibility to see the last moment of those who gave birth to them. That is the least they can do.
What I like to emphasize is creation of the longevity civilization. We have made a lot of mistakes and broken our society. But we only had 50 or 60 years to live and may not have had time to fix problems. As a result, we have made the same mistakes again and again. As the world (developed countries at least) attains the almost universal longevity, it is our duty to teach and learn with young people about the tragedy of wars and how to fulfill our lives.
When historians in the 22nd century look back, I hope they will say “People have finally come to their senses and started creating the longevity civilization in the beginning of the 21st century.” Let us, JANCA, be the one to start changes.
l Description of Measures for the Aging Society: Ms. Norie Honda (Director, Policy on Aging Society, Cabinet Office)
As with last year, Ms. Honda at Cabinet Office gave a summary of “Annual Report on the Aging Society 2009” this year.
A partial summary of the report is already available at JARC web site (http://www.jarc.net/int/?p=271); therefore, this page does not contain the sections on status of population aging and the elderly and on measures for the aged society.
In addition, Ms. Honda introduced case examples in dealing with the aged society and some columns which are included in the Annual Report. The columns introduce a dark side of population aging, such as Kodokushi (meaning “lonely deaths”), older persons with dementia and aging of criminals. Also, one of the columns is about how older persons think of “older persons.”
<Section Meetings (PM)>
l The afternoon session consisted of the following 5 section meetings.
Ø Section 1: Building safety networks in local communities
Ø Section 2: Cooperating with social welfare councils
Ø Section 3: Working in the welfare field: Utilizing career experiences
Ø Section 4: Senior citizens’ social participation: Recommendations by women
Ø Section 5: Senior citizens’ social participation: Recommendations by media, recommendations for media
l Concluding Note: Evaluation of Aged Society Forum 2009 in Tokyo
The Aged Society Forum 2009 in Tokyo was a one-day program. Almost all of the registrants (capacity: 200 people) actually participated in the program, and it turned out to be very successful.
Among the forum participants, 156 people responded to the forum satisfaction survey, and the results are very encouraging. For example, 46.8% of them reported the program content was very good, and additional 46.2% reported it was somewhat good. These numbers seem very favorable for this type of event. Moreover, 67.3% reported the forum was very meaningful, and additional 30.8% said it was somewhat meaningful.
In particular, the section meeting 1 (building safety networks in local communities) brought the highest number of people among the 5 sections. The participants came to this session mainly to gather information (47.4%), to learn about how to take action (21.1%) and to solve problems (15.8%). Coordinators and panelists are particularly happy to see the very high satisfaction level among the session participants, with 45.9% reporting they were very satisfied and additional 45.9% reporting they were somewhat satisfied.
Although people have been emphasizing the importance of social participation among older persons for a long time, the actual number of active seniors is still small. Some reasons for this sad fact include voluntary (civic) activities that are not well-established as well as fragmented NGOs and NPOs in a hierarchical society. These factors make it harder for older persons to have access to the groups and activities. JANCA is an organization which builds loose connections among those NGOs and NPOs, so that they can promote collaborative activities through building horizontal relationships in this vertical society. The goal of JANCA is indeed “promotion of social participation among seniors,” and the country, being aware of this goal, is effectively utilizing the passion and energy of senior leaders in JANCA. I believe this is one of the major accomplishments of this forum.
Shigeyoshi Yoshida
Chair, Aged Society Forum Steering Committee
Executive Director, Japan NGO Council on Ageing
