Toward a society of maturity and harmony - a new plan for achieving longer and healthier life expectancies in Japan.
Because of its rapidly increasing older population, Japan urgently needs sound and rapid progress in gerontology in order to create a new society, in which both young and old can live their active and creative lives in harmony. In order to establish such a society of maturity and harmony, the Japanese Government has begun a major national project, heralded by the establishment of a National Research Center of Gerontology. This center will begin functioning in 1995 in Nagoya, with the combined support of the National and the Aichi Prefectural Governments. This center will consist of a newly constructed research institute of 8000 m(2) with an attached animal facility, and a geriatric hospital with 500 beds for patients with dementia, those in a bed-ridden state, as well as those with various geriatric diseases. The close collaboration of the hospital and the research institute is expected to facilitate further progress in gerontology as well as in the education and training of specialized geriatricians and future leaders in gerontological research in Japan. In order to promote rapid progress in gerontology, a new foundation, the Japan Foundation for Aging and Health, has already begun its activities including the financial support of gerontological research, an international exchange program for scientists in gerontology, and the holding of international symposia in various fields of gerontology. With this accomplishment of the new Institute in 1995, activities for international collaborations will be dramatically expanded. This paper briefly covers the history as well as some future prospects of gerontology in Japan in conjugation with the establishment of the National Research Center of Gerontology.
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National Chubu Hospital, 36-3, Gengo, Morioamachi, Obu-shi, Aichi Prefecture 474, Japan.