International Relationship

ILC-Alliance Session in the 18th Congress of the International Association of Gerontology -Do Health and Longevity Generate Wealth?-
(Jun. 26-30.2005)

ILC-Alliance held a session in the 18th Congress of the International Association of Gerontology in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through June 26 to June 30. The presidents of 6 countries, the US, Japan, France, the UK, Dominican Republic and India, made presentations for about 15 minutes each, highlighting present status, challenges and future perspectives in each country, under the common topic "Do Health and Longevity Generate Wealth?" This symposium has resulted in one of the most significant ILC collaborations, following the same sort of sessions titled "Cultural Perspective on Longevity" in the 17th Congress of the International Association of Gerontology in Vancouver, Canada four years ago and the symposium "Who Cares? -International Comparison of Family Care-" in the 20th International Conference of Alzheimerユs Disease International Kyoto 2004.

Mr. Morioka, President of ILC-Japan made a presentation under the sub-title "The Dilemma in My View." He explained Japan's status quo and problems based on the figures and tables including the visions of the government advisory committee on economy and finance. He insisted that it is too optimistic to conclude "Health and longevity leads a nation to prosperity" because it is difficult so far to accurately prospect the influence of low fertility outstanding especially in Japan upon long-term economy. This theory of his was taken very persuasive.

In France, promotion of elderly employment was pointed out as a key to generate wealth both on the levels of the individuals and economic activities. In the UK, it was concluded "the concept of 'healthy aging' does not apply equally across the population," whereas it is proved that investment in health and longevity generate wealth. The representatives fruitfully discussed on the common theme about the status quo and challenges in each country, and the session was very instructive and attracted a lot of attention.

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