Cross-Cultural Comparison on Age-Friendly Cities: Akita, Japan and Columbus, Ohio

Abstract

Reason: This research will help bridge the cultural gaps in aging studies. Japan is on the forefront of our aging world and we need to take this opportunity to learn from their experiences. This research will primarily focus on the differences in our approach to a similar problem and how that may be affected by differing cultures.
Problem: Lack of comparison material on the international approaches to Age-Friendly Cities.
Methodology: Compared Baseline Assessment Reports from each city for their interview questions and methods. Then compared how the results affected their priorities in each domain. Lastly, an interview with a cultural expert was conducted to clarify any cultural significance.
Results: Columbus’s focus went primarily to actions that could be solved through city environment changes because that’s where they found the greatest need. However, Akita had few concerns about housing and transportation in comparison. This drastic difference is affected by the cultural difference in priority of the group versus the individual.
Implications: This research can help interpret how action items in each city’s Age-Friendly Initiative may or may not be culturally translatable.



Author Information
Alexandria McBride, The Ohio State University, United States

Paper Information
Conference: AGen2023
Stream: Built Environment

This paper is part of the AGen2023 Conference Proceedings (View)
Full Paper
View / Download the full paper in a new tab/window


To cite this article:
McBride A. (2023) Cross-Cultural Comparison on Age-Friendly Cities: Akita, Japan and Columbus, Ohio ISSN: 2432-4183 The Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology 2023: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 39-46) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4183.2023.4
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2432-4183.2023.4


Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Research

Posted by James Alexander Gordon