Living arrangements of the elderly in Japan are examined in comparison to the United States. Historical and cultural factors related to the changing pattern of the elderly's living arrangements are discussed, with an emphasis on the effect of industrialization. Decline in the number of families conforming to the stem family arrangement in Japan implies that policies about the care of the elderly based upon the notion of filial responsibility will have decreasing basis in that country over the long view and thus suggests that in the United States, where there is little history of the stem family, such policies have little basis for success.
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