Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects upon the process of elderly care carried out in a depopulated town in Japan, has led to the creation of living places for people from diverse cultural backgrounds and multiple generations. It also explores the meaning of work, developing technologies, and leisure as an element that makes up the time and space in which people gather.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects upon the process of elderly care that is conscious of seniors' well-being, carried out in a depopulated town in Japan, has led to the creation of living places for people from diverse cultural backgrounds and multiple generations.

This paper traces the activities of persons searching for ways to promote new industry in a town located on the island of Shikoku—one that is suffering from progressive aging and depopulation—in a manner that is appropriate to the local environment and that also matches the needs of the senior citizens, aiming to help them continue to live in a community that they are familiar with.

It explores the kind of world discovered by those seniors who have continued to work by taking advantage of both their own resources and those of the community and looks at how the creative ways of supporting those efforts have affected the lifestyle of people of younger generations as well as the very nature of the town.

The paper also considers such questions as how people across different generations and differing cultural backgrounds view themselves, the people surrounding them, and their environment, as they pursue those care-related activities, and how those activities get linked to community design. It also explores the meaning of work, developing technologies, and leisure as an element that makes up the time and space in which people gather. Through that, the paper considers the significance of the way that the wisdom of community inhabitants is expressed and shared.