Abstract
Modern Japanese society faces the serious issues of an increasingly aging population and a low birth rate. The risk of intractable diseases, including cancer, increases with age. When patients live longer lives, they have their share of hard times as well as good times. The desire to happily live out the rest of their life is tempered by the inevitability of death. The aim of doctors who attend to patients at this late stage of their lives is to help them overcome any feelings of despair, allowing them to feel as though they were wholly immersed in visual pleasure with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. In this regard, I feel that the insights of a Western-style or an Oriental-style philosopher may reflect those of a medical doctor who treats older patients, in that both may ponder deeply about happiness as a final goal in peoples’ lives.
