抄録
It is a big issue for local communities to survive in the trend of low-fertility and population aging. Local communities in Japan have been confronted with population aging not only in depopulating rural areas but also in downtown and suburban areas. Nowadays, urban communities are aware of densely inhabited area of older persons, but they cannot deal with population aging effectively, because of weakness of social capital. Urban people tend to depend on the market system or the government system too much. Japanese Long-Term Care Insurance System is such an example as depending on the political economy. Almost people it will substitute of the long-term care by family care givers, although it was only a complementary system for family care. For establishing the social well-being, it needs to combine formal care with informal care for the frail elderly. Then, we should revitalize the social capital in urban communities. In America, naturally occurring retirement communities (NORC) are targeted of supportive service programs (SSPs) since 1980s. The NORC-SSPs are possibilities for thinking about the social capital in urban communities. We will learn the paradigm shift from old type of aging services to new type of NORC-SSPs.
