AGING AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE FAMILY IN JAPAN

Abstract

Japan's policy for the aging population is currently facing a significant turning point. While it has become more and more difficult to hold a grip on the lives of the elderly within the framework of the family, the reconsideration of Japan's family is under way. It is anticipated that the number of the aging population who will be alienated from both its own family and local community might increase due to the absence of politicaldecision whether the family is a subject or an object of social welfare. Change in the relationship between the family and its elderly members has compelled collectivism, one of the basic problems in Japan's social system,to transform, while bringing to light the issues that surround autonomy and isolation. It is important that gerontological studies in Japan equally focus on the individualization of the family and the socialization of the individual.