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Japanese older people experienced drastic changes in family structure and values after World War II at different life stages by birth cohorts. We examined how linkages between different types of social ties and life satisfaction (LS) vary across cohorts, in conjunction with age and survey year differences. Data from face-to-face interviews conducted in 1987, 1999, and 2012 with a nationally representative sample of older Japanese (N = 4,917) were analyzed. The participants were members of 4 birth cohorts (C1: 1901-1912, C2: 1913-1924, C3: 1925-1936, C4: 1937-1949), categorized into 6 groups based on cohort and age at time of measurement (young-old [YO]: 63-74; old-old [OO]: 75-86): C1OO, C2YO, C2OO, C3YO, C3OO, and C4YO. Effects of social networks on LS among the 6 groups were compared simultaneously and separately by gender using the Amos software. There were significant cohort variations in the linkages between family network and LS. The positive association between being married and LS was stronger for later cohorts (C3, C4) among men, whereas that of co-residence with a child and LS was stronger for the earlier cohorts (C1, C2) among women. Moreover, the positive association between meeting with nonfamily members and LS increased from 1987 to 2012 among women, indicating a period effect over a cohort effect. The effects of being married and participation in community groups on LS also changed with age. Our results suggest that linkages between social relations and LS should be interpreted within the context of individual and social changes over time.

This article introduces the reader to present conditions and suicide prevention measures in Japan. The suicide rate has increased gradually since the early 1990s, reaching a postwar peak in 1998. The number of suicides has remained at about 30,000 every year since 1998. Middle-aged (55-59 years) and elderly men have especially high suicide rates. In 2002, The Council of Learned People on Measures Against Suicides (organized by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare) released its report on national suicide prevention strategies. Although national suicide prevention strategies have just begun to be established, some prefectures or regions have undertaken unique suicide prevention measures.

It is important for health-care providers to assess in detail the status of the disabled elderly considering both their household composition and care level in planning and providing assistance for them.

Ageing is a global concern with major social, health, and economic implications. While individual countries seek to develop responses to immediate, pressing needs, international attention and collaboration is required to most effectively address the multifaceted challenges and opportunities an ageing global population presents in the longer term. The Ageing, Longevity and Health stream of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU-ALH) was built on a solid foundation of first-class interdisciplinary research and on innovative outreach and communication centres. This interdisciplinary network conducts projects that span biology, medicine, social sciences, epidemiology, public health, policy, and demography, and actively engages with the public and other societal stakeholders. Here we posit that such international interdisciplinary networks are needed and uniquely placed to address major challenges related to health and ageing and ultimately will produce new understanding and knowledge to promote the awareness of healthy ageing and encourage societal change via novel, science-informed interventions. Global interdisciplinary research presents great potential and opportunities to accelerate our understanding of human ageing and to produce new, more effective solutions to a pressing, complex problem. However, more focused, strategic efforts and investments are required in order to deliver on these potentials and reap maximum benefits for individuals and societies. IARU-ALH members are determined to contribute, in collaboration with others, to delivering on this vision.

This study explores whether cross-level interaction between individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with social trust. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with 4123 randomly selected people aged 20 years and older from 72 districts in the city of Kashiwa in 2009, and 1720 questionnaires were analysed. People of low SES tended to have higher trust in the national government and lower trust in neighbours as residential district SES increased. By contrast, people of high SES had relatively constant levels of both general and local aspects of social trust, despite local district SES. We found that perceptions of trust among people of low SES are more likely to be influenced by district-level SES than among people of high SES. This highlights the importance of considering the cross-level interaction of individual and neighbourhood SES as this interaction can either raise or lower social trust in communities.

Although retirement age is increasing in aging societies, its impact on individuals and communities is unclear. This study examined how age moderates the linkage between transition into retirement and participation in productive and non-productive social activities after retirement, using a nationwide longitudinal survey with a probability sample of Japanese aged 60 and over ( n = 3,493). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to predict changes in volunteering and hobbies/learning during 3–5 years of follow-up and their participation level at the follow-up. The significant interactions between change in work status (remained working as reference, full/partial retirement, remained not-working) and age at baseline showed that fully retired persons were more likely to increase these activities than remained workers only when they retired by their early seventies. Thus it is important to encourage engagement in social activities before retirement and remove psychological and environmental barriers that hinder starting new activities at old age.