Thus official emphasis remained firmly upon family care, with older hospital patients seen as financial burdens rather than victims. If you go to this link, go to the very bottom of the page, and select "Contact Us", you will land on a page to request brochures. Having someone meet you at the airport and get you set up with rail pass and hotel information would be so perfect for jet-lagged minds.

Children during Heian were not recognized as officially gendered before genpuku, and were said to have remained near the gods as "children of the kami". Experts were shocked that four per cent of Japan's older people were bedridden, about twice the European rate, and the exposure of domestic Obasuteyama challenged conventional depictions of family care and the stigmatisation of public residential care. Public residential care, family neglect and hospitals are not alternatives to positive family care but options of last resort, revisiting Obasuteyama. It then considers current issues, briefly exploring the new social care reform, and challenges vague assumptions concerning Japan's care of older people, thereby adding to current policy discourse on feasible aid for ageing populations.This represented at best discretionary, charitable assistance; ostensibly mutual support driven by compassion but deterring requests for relief and associating these with shame and stigma.

The results of this study indicate that the phenomenon of "rejuvenation" is occurring among the new generation of Japanese older adults, and the importance of this older population as a social resource in the super-aged society should be reacknowledged. While more than 50% of high school students, minors, and new adults answered that attractions such as concerts by singers were necessary, half of them also answered that introductions of guests such as mayors and politicians were unnecessary. Post-1963 nursing home provision represented a move towards needs-based, specialised care, but compulsory assessments still featured, with limited places confined to the most needy elderly who lacked financial means and family support, thereby sustaining the stigma associated with Obasuteyama and public assistance. I'm a 60 year old female from Australia, who over the past few years has travelled "solo" since my husband died.During the Muromachi period, a period set within the Age of the Samurai, genpuku gradually spread from the samurai class to include men and women of lower ranks. More positive indicators of government commitment to elderly care are required than economy measures and the downsizing of public sector provision, above all, in avoiding the problems of care-giving hell and social hospitalisation. Girls engaged in genpuku as well, although the particular ceremonial rituals were more commonly referred to as mogi. During the last three decades, Japan has become one of the world's top countries for longevity, and the increase in average life expectancy is accompanied by a sharp rise in older population 65 years of age and above to ∼28%.