Abstract
A housing development offering apartments for young families and their elderly parents is one new kind of public housing being provided by some local governments in Japan. Such developments offer an apartment designed for an elderly couple to live independently from their adult children, although the two groups live as neighbors. This type of public housing has been in use since 1972.
From 1977 through 1979, the authors conducted interviews of residents in the apartment buildings managed by thelocal governments of the cities of Fukuoka, Osaka and Kyoto, and of Kyoto Prefecture. The authors questioned the residents on their daily activities, including cooking, having meals, watching TV, doing the laundry and housekeeping, in order to plan better housing to meet the needs of both the elderly and the young.
The interviews indicate that the ability of the elderly couple to live separately and to carry out daily activities largely depended on physical and economic factors, and on prior living conditions.
As a result, the authors feel that public housing should be reviewed, taking into consideration the possibility of changes in the physical and economic situation of the elderly couple, and also of the death of one spouse, some or all of which may occur after the move to the new housing.
