Anxiety about ageing and related factors in Japan

Abstract

Introduction In Japan, the world’s most super-aged country, 30% of the population will be 65 years old or older by 2025 [1]. The government program ‘Promoting the Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens’ calls on the elderly not to retire but to remain active [2], thus requesting them to play a continued active role in society and increasing interactions among generations. According to a meta-analysis by North and Fiske [3], East Asians take a more negative attitude towards the elderly than Westerners, South Asians, or Southeast Asians. A study of ageism compared attitudes towards the elderly in the UK and Taiwan [4]. The Taiwanese showed an ambivalent attitude towards the elderly: their admiration, envy, contempt, and active harm scores were greater than those of the UK residents. Vauclair et al. suggested that a possible reason for this ambiguity is the result of mixed feelings: cultural deference towards the elderly combined with negative views of older generations due to their refusal to transfer power or due to the burden of pension expenses [4]. Japan is in a similar state. Studies have suggested that negative attitudes towards the elderly that lead to ageism are caused by anxiety about ageing [5-7]. However, there have been few studies investigating anxiety about ageing in Japan. Lasher et al. called anxiety about ageing ‘a possible mediating factor in determining attitudes and behavior toward the elderly, or as a factor in adjustment to aging as an adult developmental issue’ [8]. They developed the Anxiety about Aging Scale (AAS), a multidimensional instrument to assess anxiety about ageing [8]. They Abstract