The Kansai Modern Japan Group is pleased to announce our July meeting. The speaker is Iza Kavedzija.

Date: Thursday, July 18, 2013
Time: 6:30-8:15
Place: Osaka University, School of Human Sciences, Higashi-kan Room 404. (Directions below) Advance registration is not necessary. Admission is free.

Title: The continuum of care: Support for the elderly in a South Osakan neighbourhood

This presentation outlines the construction of the category of the elderly in Japan and explores the nexus of community welfare relations in a neighbourhood in South Osaka with a particular focus on community care for the elderly. Without trying to create an overly coherent image of local community welfare as a system, I sketch some of the institutions and actors involved and their ties and connections. These actors range from the local authorities and not-for-profit organizations to the private sector, specifically small and larger businesses enabled by the Long-Term Care Insurance
(LCTI) Law of 1999 to provide welfare services covered by the plan. Many of the actors involved in providing certain welfare services, such as volunteer welfare commissioners (minseiiin), helpers or volunteers, are themselves over the age of 65 and so could be considered elderly. I therefore argue that the category of the elderly (kōreisha) is considerably more variable and complex than it might at first appear. It cannot be reduced to an image of frail dependent people, as many older Japanese are involved in support giving and care provision to others and not merely receiving support.

Speaker bio:
Iza is a JSPS Posdoctoral Fellow at Osaka University.
Having recently completed her DPhil in Social and Cultural Anthropology at University of Oxford on aging and ideas of the good and meaningful life in Japan, Iza is now researching ideas of the good and meaningful work among young artists in Osaka. Iza is currently preparing a publication entitled Values of Happiness:
Ethnographic Perspectives on Living Well for Cambridge University Press.

Conviviality at a nearby pub follows the presentation.
We look forward to welcoming many of you on July 18.

Directions:
The School of Human Scinces is located on the Suita Campus of Osaka University. Please see the access map for the Suita Campus at the following link:
http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/
A map of the campus is here:
http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/access/files/map_suita.pdf
The easiest way to reach the School of Human Sciences is the Osaka Monorail. Alight at the Handai Byouin Mae Station, and exit the station, going left down the hill onto the campus. Follow maps and signs to the School of Human Sciences.

Please send questions to:

Scott North
north[at]hus.osaka-u.ac.jp