Activity Reports：Japan-South Korea Exchange Program for 2007 Korea and Japan's Approach to Aging Society - Dialogue over a Movie "Oriume"

Asia and Oceania Div.

As a part of Japan-Korea exchange, Asia and Oceania Div. in Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange Dept. hosted a project entitled Korea and Japan's Approach to Aging Society - Dialogue over a Movie "Oriume" in Seoul in March 2008. Against the backdrop of this event, both Japanese and Korean society face rapid aging of the population and they must take measures to meet this situation immediately.

In Japan, the population over the age of 65 years reached 26.6 million, accounting over 20% of the total population, in 2006. Korea is also one of the countries where the population is aging most rapidly in the world, and it is said to be a super-aging society in 2029.

In this situation, both countries must take measures against problems caused by aging society and in Korea, elderly care insurance system, based on ones in Japan and Germany, will be newly introduced in July 2008. In Japan, the latter term medical-care system for the elderly was introduced to provoke various response and controversy across all levels of civil society. We believed that it is very meaningful for experts from both countries to exchange views on various problems and their solutions concerning elder care under such circumstance.

For this project, Hisako Matsuii, a movie director directed "Oriume" depicting an elderly lady with Alzheimer's dementia and her family, and five experts who work for elder care in Japan were dispatched to Korea. They visited a care center for the elderly in Seoul, welfare center for the elderly and other nursing homes, showed "Oriume," and exchange views on measures taken in both countries. Moreover, a symposium in which Japanese and Korean expert staff working for elder care exchange views was held.

The movie and the symposium attracted many people in spite of their rather minor, serious theme. The movie, in particular, had over 460 people, more than our expectation. On the second day, we provided a special screening for audience who could not enter the theater, using a monitor set outside of the site.

The Japan Foundation, planned and carried out this exchange project, is more than happy if it made a contribution to network-building for people working for elder care in Japan and Korea.

Asia and Oceania Div. will carry out project to enhance dialog and mutual understanding among experts in Asia and Oceania with a timely theme.

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