As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly pressing public issue. While the cost and delivery of medical services tops the list of concerns, Japan's changing demographics require solutions to problems stemming from the social effects of the changes as well.
Public administrators find themselves faced with questions of how to pass on cultural traditions, how to inculcate the young with empathy for the elderly, and how to prevent elderly people living alone from becoming isolated or abandoned. In response, municipalities -- and private businesses -- have proposed and carried out a number of community-building events and activities in pursuit of an often elusive goal: "fureai," or contact and meaningful interaction between people, in this case, between the young and the old.
Several efforts are also going on at the institutional level, and one of these, the focus of the ethnographic study comprising this book, is Kotoen, the oldest age-integrated facility in Japan. Located in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, the 14-year-old Kotoen building houses a nursery/day-care center for 80 1- to 6-year-olds, a nursing-care facility and an elderly residence, all integrated into a single facility. As a case study with potential application in a variety of cultures and countries, Thang presents her investigation of Kotoen, where she spent 10 months as a "volunteer" and field researcher.