Elderly Japanese people living in small towns reflect on end-of-life issues

This article, reporting on selected data from a larger study, discusses some responses to end-of-life questions that elderly Japanese people who were living in small towns gave in a questionnaire survey. Japan is now the country with the largest number of elderly people in the world and confronts numerous social and economic questions concerning how best to cope with its older population. Although it is a highly urbanized society, Japan also has large semirural areas. The focus here is on the questions in the survey that sought responses to ethical dimensions of end-of-life issues. The findings demonstrate the strength of traditional values that still exist throughout small towns in Japan.