Paper short abstract:

Aging may lead to an increased need for support. This in turn requires attention to the question: Who to depend on? In answering that question older Japanese harbour an attitude of hope and enact a particular mode of citizenship, one that relies on cultivation of a nexus of interdependence.

Paper long abstract:

Unprecedented life expectancy and associated demographic changes have led to widespread anxieties about aging on the national level, in the local communities, as well as on the personal level. Communities and individuals respond to the challenges of aging and care in older age in various and imaginative ways, crafting networks of support and strengthening a range of social ties. In this paper I present the case of a community in South Osaka, chosen for a high proportion of elderly population, and describe some of the networks of support in the neighbourhood, focusing particularly on a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) providing services for the elderly. I describe the beginnings of the organization which started as a 'tasukeai' or a mutual aid network inspired by the ideas of well-known social activist Hotta Tsutomu. I focus on the activities and motivations of people involved in the networks of support, many of whom are themselves elderly or concerned about aging. In doing so I explore the organizational and broader social context within which hope arises and move to explore the motivations of the people involved, outlining what I term an 'attitude of hope'. I argue that for the people involved in the community activities and support networks hope is not a form of passive resignation, but rather an active attitude and a form of citizenship. In the words of Paolo Freire: 'hope as an ontological need, demands anchoring in practice… just to hope is to hope in vain' (1994:2).