高齢者の地理学 : 研究動向と今後の課題

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This paper represents the first Japanese review of gerontological geography and its primary emphasis is on American and British studies during the later part of the 20th century.As the Japanese population has been aging, some geographers, including the authors of this article, have become drawn to the study of the spatial aspects of aging societies and the aged. In spite of our efforts, however, geographical studies about the aging society and the aged have received less attention in Japan than in Western countries. One of the reasons for this is that most Japanese studies have been undertaken on an ad-hoc basis. We need to be conscious of the framework of this field of study as a whole. An overview of American and British studies, two of the leading countries in this field, would greatly assist in the enhancement of a geographical contribution to aging societies and to the aged in Japan.The outline of the history of this field is as follows.In the 1970s, geographers and non-geographers undertook studies on the spatial aspects of aging society and the elderly. Numerous studies from a positivistic viewpoint were published. At the beginning of the 1980s, Warnes, one of the first reviewers of this field, categorized research into five areas: demography and distribution, migration of the elderly, socioeconomic and housing characteristics of the elderly, access to and delivery of services and facilities and activity patterns and mobility problems.From the 1980s to the present, gerontological geography has experienced remarkable progress not only in quantity but also in quality. One of the changes was the introduction of a humanistic approach. Researchers like Rowles tried to describe the relationships between the elderly and their environments. Other changes can be seen in traditional positivistic studies. Researchers in this field noticed the necessity and expectation to make a contribution to policy.In the 1990s, new approaches in social geography-feminism, political economy and postmodernism-were adopted, and that is why the "rethinking of gerntological geography" was initiated. Traditionally, the aging population was only a main concern for advanced countries, and not for developing countries. However, recently, it has become a major concern for both groups of states. Because of these changes, the urgency to study more about the aging population of third world countries has increased and comparative studies among all these countries are necessary. Clearly, gerontological geographers, especially in Japan, should make more progress in terms of research quantity and quality. We need to refine research and to gather data that are directly connected to policy making and evaluation. It is equally important to be sensitive to the concept of the welfare state and to the new paradigm.
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高齢者の地理学 : 研究動向と今後の課題

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