This study examined the effects of short-term intergenerational program on elementary school children’s perception of the elderly.

The senior volunteers instructed the 6^th grade elementary school students how to read picture books to other students in seven periods of integrated study. The students were 84 boys and girls of an elementary school in Kawasaki.

We used the SD（Semantic Differential）method for the survey of children’s perception of the elderly and conducted the same survey before and after intervention. Also, we used factor analysis and extracted two factors, which were 6 items in subscale for “evaluation” and 3 items for “potency / activity”. Moreover, we used analysis of variance for means of two factors and 9 items. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the means of SD scores which were 3 items for “potency / activity” and one item for “weak - strong” were significantly improved after intervention.

This short-term intergenerational program showed that it can be effective for improving the perception of the elderly on the elementary school students. Although an intergenerational program should be regular and continuous in order to expect any effects, this study suggests that a short-term program might also have some effects.

The state of peripheral social relationships of elderly people living in a housing complex was investigated. Their acquaintances were classified into three categories depending on the degree of familiarity. The number of people in each category was counted. Furthermore, personal attribution factors that would be related to the numbers were analyzed. A questionnaire survey was conducted with elderly people living alone（N=250, from 65 to 84 years old）. The number of valid responses was 139（55.6%）. Multiple regression analysis was conducted with the amount of peripheral social relationship as the dependent variable. The results indicated that people had many social relationships with others not friends. People going out often, people with children living separately at a short distance, and people living for a long time were acquainted with many people whose address and name were recognized. People with children living separately at a short distance, and people living for a long time were acquainted with many people that were recognized by name only. People with a high educational background, people living for a long time were acquainted with many people that were recognized by sight only. Studies of peripheral social relationships are also important in the isolation problem of elderly people living alone.

As an increasing number of older people use the Internet, their social activities and relationships are also expected to change drastically. This study aimed to examine how the old-old urban corporate retirees regard the Internet in their activities and communication through narratives by eight old-old males who had started using the Internet in middle age.

The results show that the respondents start “creating social roles” after the retirement by utilizing the knowledge of and experiences in ICT. Moreover, they use the Internet as “convenient and objective information sources” to broaden their interests and knowledge base. The Internet is also used as means to “pursue their intellectual curiosity and life-long learning,” to “maintain and strengthen the existing relationships”（e.g. children and friends）, and to “acknowledge their own thoughts and knowledge.” Regarding “creation of social roles,” as the respondents recognize their own aging, they have found new meanings, such as restructuring of the way they are involved in activities. As a result, they see the “potential which looks ahead to the old age” in the Internet.

This article aims to show whether generational conflict exists or not and to what extent is the conflict, if the conflict exists? The author analyzed the attitude toward national budget allocation for each generation based on the data of 1,361 males and females aged 20 and over obtained from the mail survey for 3,000 adults selected by random sampling. The results obtained from multivariate analysis of variance were as follows. There was no statistically significant difference in the attitude between generations. This means that each generation does not have profit-oriented attitudes for own generation. The author found that interaction effects of socio-economic status such as income and academic career as well as gender and feeling of economic space were significantly related to the attitude. This implies that we should pay more attention to intra-generational conflict.