Changing Attitudes towards Elderly Dependence in Postwar Japan

Abstract

There is a stereotypical view that East Asian cultures value familism and filial piety, regarding elderly dependence on children as morally desirable. The present study, examining postwar Japan as a case, shows that the social changes this country has undergone have transformed people’s attitudes such that more and more people are seeing elderly dependence on children as less desirable. It is suggested that in order to understand attitudinal changes towards intergenerational relationships in postwar Japan, two research frameworks are necessary: one that takes public welfare systems into consideration as a context where such relationships are placed, and another that distinguishes financial dependence from dependence for personal care. Examining surveys conducted in the last four decades, it is argued that attitudes towards finance changed far earlier than those towards personal care did, and that these attitudinal changes are closely related to the extent to which public welfare systems have developed.