ILC-Japan conducted telephone interviews with 35 older adults in urban and rural areas, asking them what their daily lives were like and how they felt during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While media tend to emphasize negative aspects, interview results showed the resilience of older adults, including their wisdom, innovative ideas, energy to try new things, and strength to survive each and every day.
The booklet summarizes the voices of these older adults under four themes: health, social connection, community activities, and ICT. It also has a section on the lives of older adults in other countries during the pandemic, based mainly on interview data.
At the end of the booklet, we also introduce the real voices of the respondents based on several categories we have created from the responses.
In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 started spreading across the globe, and many countries decided to lock down their cities. Around that time, in April 2020, ILC-Netherlands launched the international comparative study with 8 other countries.
The project mainly aimed to understand the resilience of older adults by listening to their voices on the meaning and effects of the COVID crisis.
ILC-Japan jointed the project in May 2020, and conducted interviews with 35 older adults twice. The first round was in June and July 2020, and the second round was in February and March 2021.
The results of the first interviews were published in an academic journal, Japanese Journal of Gerontology. We also published a summary of the results in English in March 2021.
We have published a data book on people aged 75, who were becoming the old-old in 2015. We are looking at them from various aspects and illustrating them with data.
Chapter 1 will show the era in which the current 75-year-olds have lived. Chapter 2 will illustrate those aged 75 (and over) from various aspects, including their income, daily living, health, medical care, end-of-life care and long-term care.
Chapter 3 will make international comparisons among those aged 75 (and over) in Japan, USA, Germany and Sweden based on a study by the Cabinet Office.
Japan is setting the pace among the aging societies of the world. People aged 65 and over now make up over one-fifth of the population and in twenty years will reach one-third. How are individual older people faring in this “longevity society?”
“A Profile of Older Japanese,” prepared by the International Longevity Center-Japan (ILC-Japan), is a compilation of data from various ministries of the national government and other sources, along with brief interpretations.It is organized into eight sections: “The Aging Population and Aged Society,”“Living Arrangements,”“Housing”,“Health Status,” “Family and Long-Term Care,”“Economic Status,” “The New-Old and Social Participation” and “International Comparison”.
ILC-Japan hopes this information will be helpful in understanding the implications
of population aging in Japan and in general.
This booklet has been published every once a year since 2009.
Copyright © International Longevity Center Japan All rights reserved.