Table of Contents

1. Facts and Discourses 2. The Problem of Generations and the Structure of Society 3. Social Networks 4. The Lonely Child 5. Women and Men at Work 6. The Socialisation of Care 7. 'Mature' Customers 8. Longevity Risk and Pension Funds 9. Government of the Elderly, by the Elderly and for the Elderly 10. Limits to Ageing? 11. Foreigners Welcome? 12. Population Ageing and Social Change

About the Author

Florian Coulmas is Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tokyo, Japan. He also holds the chair of Japanese studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He has published widely on Japanese society and culture, and his publications, in English, German and Japanese, include several monographs, two textbooks, dictionaries and an encyclopaedia.

Reviews

'a thoughtful and stimulating analysis of Japan's hyper-aging society; a serious book about a critically important subject.' - Jeff Kingston, The Japan Times'Methodologically, this book is a good reminder that for learning how things work, it is hard to beat a good old-fashioned ethnography.' - John Creighton Campbell, University of Michigan, The Journal of Asian Studies, Fall 2008"...this is a well-organized and clearly written book about the social consequences of rapid population aging." - Chikako Usui, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Journal of Japanese Studies, 35:2 (2009)