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This introductory article provides background to an understanding of "Aging in Asia," focusing on the demographics of population aging in Asia. It discusses the differences in the magnitude of the aged population in different parts of Asia and highlights the perennial concerns of care and support facing the aged and their families as Asian societies grapple with the graying population. Globalization is one important factor presenting new challenges as well as opportunities to aging Asia. The introduction substantiates the discussions in this special issue, which range from an examination of broad issues of support for the aged and policy directions in East and Southeast Asia, to specific concerns relating to activity and elderly in Singapore, intergenerational relationships in Korea, and issues concerning caregiving of the old in Singapore.

The plasticity of cultural constructs of dementia is shown in two societies: Japan, and an American Indian nation. By demedicalizing the analysis of dementia, the social and cultural factors that influence recognition of symptoms, help-seeking strategies, caregiving behaviors, and adherence to biomedical and sociocultural coping advice become more obvious. Notably in the Japanese example, motivation toward primary prevention behavior is clear in the context of boke since it is an undesirable condition of frailty and cognitive decline considered to be preventable by remaining active. In the American Indian example, the hallucinatory symptoms are positively valued communications with the "other side" rather than pathologically defined. The findings show the need to extend dementia models beyond the biomedical in order to optimize prevention and management of this complex, chronic condition.

This article explores the intersection between discourses with multiple meanings that relate to the cultural construction of elder identities in South Korea. The authors explore the experiences of elder patients at a free clinic to consider how government policy, attitudes among biomedical professionals, and elders themselves come into contact and influence the experiences of older Koreans within the national health care system. The study is ethnographic, using interview data to examine how the identities of elder Koreans are being shifted from "weak and in need of care" to "potentially problematic consumer" and how governmental policies both stimulate and respond to that shift. By focusing on the situational status of the elderly, this article is intended to represent the voices of some elderly, voices that can be submerged within the process of decision making related to public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general senility in American society is seen through the lens of biomedicine and conceptualized in terms of physical changes in the person. Research on attitudes about senility in other cultures shows that this is not the only way to conceptualize cognitive change in later life. This article explores cultural aspects related to cognitive change in old age by focusing on ethnographic examples from Japan. I argue that in Japan the social concepts related to defining the person are emphasized when thinking about cognitive change in later life, rather than biomedical concepts associated with pathologies of the brain. In part because of this focus, for older Japanese senility is often viewed as being a moral category as much as a category of disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of research has documented the association between various measures of religion/spirituality and physical health outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on this topic. The paper also discusses the mechanisms that are thought to underlie the associations found in the literature. Further, the paper presents several avenues along which future research might proceed in order to advance our understanding of these issues. The paper concludes by making a case for the need for empirical examinations of these issues in countries other than the United States. Particular focus is paid here to religion among older adults in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a research forum to allow scholars the opportunity to present ideas that focus on specific issues related to research on culture and aging in a less fully developed fashion that is normally found in the article. Because the aim of the research forum is to provide a context for discussion of research issues, research notes that appear in this section will be accompanied by a response or commentary from another scholar.