2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Ethnological research into the transmission of skills and elders' sense of purpose and value in life within the aging society

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520720
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Cultural anthropology/Folklore
Research Institution	National Museum of Japanese History
Principal Investigator	SEKIZAWA Mayumi National Museum of Japanese History, 研究部, 准教授 (00311134)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	民俗学
Research Abstract	Survey interviews on this topic were conducted with elderly people in the Kinki, Tokai, Hokuriku, Kanto, and Tohoku regions of Japan. Specific examples clearly demonstrated that (1) each generation, through its lived experience of a certain era, expressed different values and reasons for living, and possessed a varied range of skills, and (2) people of the generation that came of age in Japan's era of high economic growth and are now becoming elderly, particularly in rural areas, are confronted with serious problems involving the collapse of social relations within regional society and the declining ability of families to provide care for the elderly.