JAPAN: Elderly Changing Society

TOKYO (The Japan Times), Oct. 21, 2007: Once upon a time in Japan, youth culture was in the vanguard. Young people started new trends in eating, fashion, slang and leisure that shifted viewpoints and attitudes all through the culture. Nowadays, though, with the graying population, the elderly may have a newfound power. Within a decade, there may not be a large enough percentage of young people in Japan to start any new trends. The elderly already wield influence that extends into the daily life of Japan. This goes beyond garnering the traditional Asian respect for the aged. Many of their attitudes and interests have already sunk into customs and mind-sets. These cultural changes will only accelerate as the population ages. The supremacy of youth culture may be at an end. This shift from young to old is worldwide; Japan has, out of necessity, taken the lead. Fashion, for example, used to be made by teenagers throwing off the conformity of school uniforms. Nowadays, older people have cornered casual dress. If you see someone wearing tennis shoes and carrying a backpack, they are more likely to be retired than in school. Loose pants, walking shoes, silly hats and camping jackets may be the new "cool" for the majority of society. Whatever they wear, the elderly suddenly appear more relaxed than the younger "half" of society. And they are not sitting at home alone in these comfy duds. They are getting out and traveling. Look around Narita Airport and you will see "mature" travelers embarking for parts unknown. Inside Japan, temples, flower gardens and mountain paths bustle with over-60s. The unpretentious approach to leisure time, whether enjoying a quality bowl of noodles or demanding easy-to-use cell phones, counterbalances the impetuous need of youth for exciting trends and brand new gimmicks. The slow, simple life is gaining new popularity as older people lead the way. Actually, for many it is not that slow. Fitness clubs are filled with yoga, aquatic and weightlifting classes for the elderly. If you go for a workout in the afternoon, be ready to compete for space with retirees. Special discounts encourage this, but the sheer numbers of exercise fanatics among the elderly is striking. Physical activities like walking backward are said to help avert weak memories, slow reactions and fuzzy thinking. Of course, all that healthiness works for anyone at any age! The elderly are exercising more than just their bodies, using mind games and brain-training games like "sudoku," which is already part of the culture. While people of all ages engage in this pastime, it has entranced many elderly players with the promise of keeping their minds keen longer. Considering the other number and quick-reaction games available, not to mention shogi and go, it is clear that a spectacular range of entertainments aimed at avoiding mental decline, while just enjoying oneself, have firmly established themselves. Older people are using their freshly polished brains and bodies for many purposes. These days all sorts of second careers have been taken over by older workers. Taxi drivers, for one, seem just as likely to have been born in the early Showa era as not. Service jobs are increasingly filled by workers who have retired from one job already. You get plenty of good, solid conversation with the service, too. Earning power may decrease in quantity with age, but the quality of human interaction remains high. Anyone striking up a conversation in public these days will probably be talking with someone over the age of 60. Maybe young people seem to be racing through life too fast to talk about it. Social civility and neighborly conversation now seem to be the province of elderly people. Public conversations are the lifeblood of any lively society and indicate a sense of community beyond just where one sleeps. While these changes are not enough to be called a revolution, the elderly's influence is greater than many people imagine. Someone once said if you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart, and if you are not a conservative by the time you are old, you have no brain. That may well change, too, as demographics continue to shift. It remains to be seen whether older people will fight for issues outside their immediate interests, but if these trends continue, it seems likely they will impact more and more areas of life. In the coming decades, the nexus of cultural and political change may originate from those people already done with careers and raising families. This trend may be one of the most significant in human history, with benefits that have not been found before. The benefits will hopefully turn out to be greater than the often-mentioned drawbacks. Other countries aging a little more slowly than Japan, which has the highest life expectancy in the world, will be watching closely. The elderly are just getting started. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved