Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study explores how Japanese, who are geographically separated from their elderly parents, support their elderly parents living in Japan. The study use in-depth interviews with Japanese temporary residents who are living in the San Francisco Bay Area and have parents over the age of 65 living in Japan. With globalization, an increasing number of people are living and working far from the places where their parents reside. These changes in the economic landscape are re-working traditional patterns of care for the elderly. Such social patterns are likely consequential to the quality of care that elderly persons receive. However, there is little data on how people who live far away from their parents conduct care-giving. This paper seeks to address these important questions in order to promote policies for the elderly, which take into account the changes that globalization is bring about. The data shows that participants are engaging in what I am calling indirect care-giving by using the telephone, visiting, and supporting the primary caregiver. In the processes of indirect care-giving, participants assess their life, their goals, and their parents’ emotions and conditions in order to support their parents as much as they can do. By engaging in indirect care giving, participants’ ultimate purpose is to assist the primary caregivers emotionally and practically.