Elderly Japanese people living in small towns reflect on end-of-life issues

This article, reporting on selected data from a larger study, discusses som e responses to end-of-life questions that elderly Japanese people who were living in small towns gave in a questionnaire sun ey. Japan is now the coun try with the largest number of elderly people in the world and confronts nu merous social and economic questions concerning how best to cope with its o lder population. Although it is a highly urbanized society, Japan also has large semirural areas. The focus here is on the questions in the survey tha t sought responses to ethical dimensions of end-of-life issues. The finding s demonstrate the strength of traditional values that still exist throughou t small towns in Japan.