This volume provides a broader picture of how elder care is defined at a time when ageing is becoming increasingly defined as a social problem. It is a valuable source for researchers in health and welfare, social policy and gerontology.

Introduction Susan O. Long Assuring Care: Government Policies and Programs 1. Cultural meanings of 'security' in ageing policies Akiko Hashimoto 2. The socioeconomic context of Japanese social policy for ageing Daisaku Maeda 3. From the new deal to the new millennium: bridging the gap in US health and ageing policy Brett R. South and Douglas D. Bradham 4. Changing meanings of frail old people and the Japanese welfare state John Creighton Campbell 5. Critical issues in health care for the US elderly: beyond the millennium Douglas D. Bradham Providing Care: Professional Caregivers 6. We live too short, and die too long: on Japanese and US physicians' caregiving practices and approaches to withholding life-sustaining treatments Michael D. Fetters and Marion Danis 7. Difficult choices: policy and meaning in Japanese hospice practice Susan O. Long and Satoshi Chihara 8. Policies and practices near the end of life in the US: the ambivalent pursuit of a good death David Barnard Assisting in Care: Non-Profit Organizations and Volunteers 9. The development of social welfare services of voluntary organizations in Japan Kiyoshi Adachi 10. The accountability dilemma: providing care for the elderly in the US and Japan Yuko Suda Coordinating and Caring: Family Caregivers 11. Variations in family caregiving in Japan and the United States Ruth Campbell and Berit Ingersoll-Dayton 12. Recognizing the need for gender-responsive family caregiving policy: lessons from male caregivers Phyllis Braudy Harris and Susan O. Long Facilitating Care of Self 13. The creativity of the demented elderly: the use of the psychological approach in a Japanese outpatient clinic Yukiko Kurokawa 14. Visible lives: life stories and ritual in American nursing homes Thu Tram T. Nguyen, Joal M. Hill and Thomas R. Cole 15. Disclosure, decisions, and dementia in Japan: maximising the continuity of self Masahiko Saito 16. Concepts of personhood in Alzheimer's disease: considering Japanese notions of a relational self William E. Deal and Peter J. Whitehouse Epilogue 17. Downsizing the material self: late life and long involvements with things David W. plath