Mita Philosophical Society Lecture
Event Date
Event Venue
Various Aspects of Elderly Care in Java, Indonesia
2020/01/07
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Date and Time | Thursday, January 30, 2020, 18:00–20:30 |
Venue | Room 312, Graduate School Building, Keio University Mita Campus https://www.keio.ac.jp/ja/maps/mita.html |
Eligibility | No prior registration required. Admission is free. |
Lecturer | Sachiko Gochi (Junior Fellow, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies; Visiting Researcher, Institute of Asian Cultures, Toyo University) |
Co-organizer | Keio University Anthropological Society |
Summary: In Japan, where the population is rapidly aging, the shortage of elderly caregivers has become a serious problem. To compensate for this,
the government is strengthening its acceptance of foreign care workers, mainly from Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, the situation
of elderly care in their home countries is not well known. This lecture, based on research conducted to date,
will introduce the state of elderly care in Java, Indonesia. Previous studies have presupposed the act of care
and analyzed the relationships of the people involved by focusing on which relatives are responsible for it, or through the medicalized
relationship of "caring" and "being cared for." In contrast, this research focuses on the situation of sharing a space, or "being there"
(*soba ni iru*), which is highly valued by the Javanese people. The relationship between the elderly and their families and society is a series of
connections that involve a wide range of changes, not limited to elderly care in the narrow sense. By examining people's mutual relationships
within a broader social context from the perspective of "being there," this study considers the way of life of the elderly within a series
of connections, without isolating the act of care itself. This lecture aims to provide a clue for deepening the understanding of cultural
differences in elderly care.
Profile: Junior Fellow at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and Visiting Researcher
at the Institute of Asian Cultures, Toyo University. Her specializations are Indonesian area studies and cultural anthropology.
Since 2009, she has been conducting research on elderly care in Yogyakarta, Republic of Indonesia.
Major publications include "Elderly Care and the Modern Javanese Family: The Social Dynamics of *Nganchani* (Being There)"
(2019 dissertation, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), "Re-examining the Norms of Supporting Elderly Parents: A Case Study of Elderly Welfare Facilities in Java,
Indonesia" (in *The Potential of Care in Southeast Asia: The Practice of Life's Connections*, edited by Yoko Hayami, Kyoto University Press, 2019),
and "The Birth and Potential of Professional Caregivers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Through *Pramurukti* Training"
(in *Southeast Asia: History and Culture* 44: 101–119, 2015), among others.