The purpose of this paper, based on the estimation of work age population in the future and the data from opinion survey to presidents of about 700 Universities all over Japan, is to discuss the socio-economic effects expected by reducing one year of the years for getting bachelor's degree in an aging society with fewer number of children and population decreasing. Although eighteen years old population will continuousely decrease, the number of new students will not decrease in near future because the percentage of students enrolling in universities will be expected to rise up. Therefore, if one-year reduction can be realized, considerable proportion of work age population will be expected to increase, which will make increase in income-tax revenue and rduction of parents' economic burden. Many presidents of universities have negative opinion to one-year reduction of the years for getting bachelor's degree. However, their responses to some questions indicate that it is not impossible to make one-year reduction with maintaining a high educational level.

This study examined the long-term effects of an intervention program employing life review on Tojikomori, focusing on the rate of new care need certification and life prognosis. The subjects were old people, aged 75 or over, living in Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture, selected based on the criteria of the city. The intervention group included 21 old people, and the control group included 63 old people matched for sex, age (± 2 years), priority and district code. The intervention - 60 minutes consisting of health information delivery and life review - was conducted once each week for 6 weeks. During almost 2 years of observation, the intervention group showed a significantly higher rate of new care need certification than the control group (hazard ratio, 3.43; 95 % confidence interval, 1.64-7.20). When it came to mortality, there was no significant difference between the groups. These results suggest that the intervention group included old people in greater need of support but that the group’s mortality was reduced by the availability of services. Further examinations and observations are necessary, including reconsideration of the criteria for selecting subjects.

  This paper focused on the effect of social-network among middle-aged people in their respective communities on future social participation and the sense of community.

  In 2008, a questionnaire survey was conducted in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area and a rural city for probability samples of people in their fifties and sixties. The response rate was 58.9%.

  The sequential step-down Bonferroni test showed that the rate of social participation differed between the dwelling experiences of two periods―childhood and working period. People who resided in their childhood dwellings showed higher social participation rate. People who had both the experiences of attending elementary or junior high school as well as that of working at the same place showed a higher social participation rate than those who had experienced neither. The multiple regression analyses revealed that dwelling experiences and social participation were related to feeling a stronger sense of community.

  These results demonstrated that previous dwelling experiences promote social participation and achieve a strong sense of community. Therefore, many Japanese businessmen who left their hometowns and presently reside in cities may face difficulties in engaging in their community. However, the results suggested that social participation could help them get involved in their community.

Purpose: This study aims to collect materials and information that are useful for collaboration between music therapists and other experts in the senior health and welfare field. Specifically, the study examines relation between psychological independence of music therapists and their collaboration with other experts.

Subjects: The questionnaire was mailed to 138 members of the Japan Music Medical Treatment Society in October 2005. Out of 105 responses 92 provided valid answers. 72 responses received from those who practice in the senior Health and Welfare field were picked up out of 92 valid responses for this study. The study examines relation to collaboration between Psychological Independence of music therapists and other experts in the following four aspects : effectiveness of collaboration ; knowledge of other experts ; information exchange ; information acquisition.

  This study used t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and partial correlation coefficient for the analysis. The study also examines the collaboration in the basic characteristics.

Results: Evident correlation exists between Psychological Independence and knowledge of other experts (r=.374, P<.01).

  Significant correlation was found between Psychological Independence and knowledge of other experts when partial correlation was examined by controlling gender, age, number of hours in practice and forms of practice(r=.452, P<.001).

Conclusion: The study identified correlation between Psychological Independence and collaboration with experts.

  Furthermore it was found that higher the purposefulness the higher knowledge of other experts they have.

Recently, relatives of legal guardians have been decreasing. The main reasons for this tendency and future direction of changes in the legal guardianship system were investigated from the perspective of changes to the system and transformations in the structure and function of the family. The legal guardianship system has changed from maintaining family property to protecting the profits of the guardians, further to protecting the profits of the person concerned, there are two kinds of guardianship aims at protecting the profits of the person concerned. One has characteristics of autonomy of relatives, and the other does not have such characteristics. It now aims to protect the profits of the person without concern for the autonomy of the relatives; therefore legal guardians are not limited to relatives. Furthermore, the increase in the number of households with a single elderly person, or just the elderly couple has made it difficult for a family to function as a welfare facility, or a medial health facility. It is now difficult for just the family or relatives to protect and support elderly people. Decrease in the number of relatives of legal guardians caused by the above reasons is expected to continue. In the future, securing a third person as a legal guardian, as well as investigating the possibilities of corporate legal guardianship would be essential.