This study examined the nature of the interactions that 75-year-old seniors have with other people for the purpose of developing the assessment guideline of empowerment of elderly constructing the mutual-support networks designed to be appropriate to the local community culture and identifying effective long-term care prevention support services that promote individual and community empowerment. The study examined independent seniors living in A City, Z Prefecture, who had reached the age of 75 in the year the study was conducted. A survey was conducted using home-visit interviews based on self-developed questionnaires. The survey was conducted in September 2006.
The 84 interviewees consisted of 38 men and 46 women. Of these 84, a total of 41 lived with families, 23 lived alone, and 20 were living with only their spouse. First, we classified the purpose of the interaction on two dimensions: whether it was private or intended to fulfill social needs, and whether it was a fulfillment of essential needs for everyday life or a value-added encounter. Based on this, we categorized the interactions into four types: (1) interactions to fulfill private essential needs for everyday life, (2) interactions to fulfill the essential needs related to living in a local community or group, (3) interactions to fulfill private added-value needs, or (4) interactions to fulfill the needs of their local community, or a group, and to fulfill private added value needs. The results revealed seven patterns.
Approximately 30% of respondents engage in interactions aimed at fulfilling social needs, and thus are experiencing community empowerment. An investigation of the need for long-term care prevention needs to be conducted not only from the perspective of assessing the risk factors related to the need for long-term care, but also from the perspective of developing social support networks and promoting the empowerment that occurs in conjunction with those networks. The patterns revealed by the categorization of the purposes of interaction in this study can be used as a method of investigation.

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The purpose of this study is to reveal the themes of people's life stories about health promotion through the lives of members of a self-help group aimed at health promotion through life stories. The 12 participants were members of the same health promotion circle. Using the life story interview technique, participants were asked to talk about their health promotion experience through the story of their lives. The data were analyzed qualitatively.
The life stories of members of different ages, sexes, states of health, and work histories presented various themes. Although the context and content of each of their experiences was different, common themes were family connections, timing, existence of friends, and thorough health care caused by sickness and poor health conditions.
The life stories of the participants confirmed the influence of close relatives and friends on health promotion. The turning point of health promotion came with retirement and the growing up of their children. The sharing of their stories in the circle proved valuable in improving the quality of health promotion and served as a means to maintain health promotion.
In conclusion, to support self-help groups aimed at individual health promotion, it is important to be flexible in one's approach to health. And group activities should be introduced as to help the self-help group fulfill its function as a place of continuous health promotion in which each member is valued through his/her life and where new health-related values are established.

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　The purpose of the present study was to develop dementia prevention classes for urban collective houses in China and Japan, and discuss the meaning of the process of developing studies on cultural nursing in both countries. The process was divided into the following stages: [develop class contents], [conduct and evaluate the classes], and [compare Chinese and Japanese culture in the process of developing such classes]. The content of the classes was developed based on semi-structured interviews with community residents regarding their image of dementia. Interview data were analyzed using the KJ method. The results indicated that Chinese citizens believe demented patients cannot live independently and are in need of full care. Therefore, the Chinese researchers developed classes comprised of basic knowledge on dementia and nursing care assisting the daily lives of dementia patient and providing social support for patients' family members. In contrast, the results indicated that Japanese citizens believe that dementia is part of the natural process of ageing, which leads to the idea that dementia care should be conducted by people who are cable of providing care within the community. However, in Japan, the parent and child relationship is reflected in the difficulty of care. Therefore, Japanese classes included accurate knowledge of dementia, understanding the feelings of both the care receiver and care giver, and methods for supporting people with dementia and their family members. Through evaluation of the classes and a cultural comparison, differences between Chinese and Japanese culture were identified. The present findings demonstrated the significance of using this research method to develop culturally congruent practice.

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A comparison of nursing techniques advocated for sleep enhancement between nursing textbooks from Japan and English-speaking countries revealed that the application of hot footbaths to induce sleep was unique to Japan.
The aims of this study were to investigate the domestic development, and the historical and cultural background that led to the development of the footbath for inducing sleep in Japan.
Japanese nursing textbooks were reviewed chronologically for descriptions of the purposes of footbath care. When the reason for administering footbaths changed to sleep-enhancement for the first time, the possible contribution of other sleep-enhancement methods employing heat and/or stimulation of blood circulation was examined. The background influencing this transition was also examined.
Footbath care was imported into Japan the end of 19th century when modern nursing education was introduced to the country. In 1879, footbath care was described as a means of alleviating congestive headaches by improving blood circulation. However, the reason for administering footbaths changed over time and it was only in 1960 that hot footbaths were described in a textbook as a means of enhancing sleep.
The authors propose that a nurse developed the idea of administering footbaths to promote sleep by integrating the following knowledge: First, the sleep-promoting effect associated with a hot towel massage, initially described in 1951, was combined with the knowledge that footbaths also improved blood circulation, as initially described in 1876. In addition, nurses recognized that footbaths reminded clients of bathing, and that, based on the nurse's own daily experience, evening baths had sleep-enhancing effects. The nurse-client relationship in Japan was considered to be one of the key factors affecting the background development of this new application of footbaths. Nurses were acutely aware of the sleeping patterns of individual clients, and would have been responsible for his/her daily basic hygiene using hot towels and footbaths.

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