著者

鈴木 禄彌

出版者

日本学士院

雑誌

日本學士院紀要 (ISSN:03880036)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.57, no.1, pp.1-15, 2002

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As the elderly increase in the Japanese population, the government, on the one hand, has enacted a series of statutes to provide care for the elderly. Adult Guardian Laws, passed in April 2000, are typical examples of the statutes of this kind. On the other hand, however, the restoration of fiscal balance, the primary objective in the present policy of the Japanese government, causes marked reduction of the budget for elderly care. Perceiving this change of governmental policy, a recent Senryu* verse goes as follows:“Ye elderly, die please-for the sake of thy country”. True to this verse, the elderly will not be able to sustain their lives, if the contemporary fiscal policy is pushed further. One may even say that this policy seeks the demise of Japanese elder generation. How would the government answer this criticism? How should we, the seniors, cope with this present situation? In this paper, I would like to ask this question to my colleagues. *Senryu is a traditional Japanese satirical verse of 17 syllables the genre of which in Edo era.