• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.627-648
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• 2011

The study analyzed a diachronic distribution, social meanings and social evaluations of ROOJIN. 'Headline Database of Newspaper Articles' and 'Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese' by KOKKEN were used as research data. There were 305 newspaper articles (About 0.2%) which contained the word ROOJIN at 'Headline Database of Newspaper Articles'. The number of newspaper articles related to ROOJIN started to increase in a rapid rate in 1972 and 1973. They were also increased in 1976, from 1981 to 1987, 1992 and 1993. The reasons of increasing of newspaper articles related to ROOJIN on those 4 periods of time could be summarized as follows. Firstly, there was a increasement of ROOJIN who are lonely, are not able to move about freely or live alone. Secondly, the understanding of a symptom of aging called BOKE was necessary. Thirdly, there were negative evaluations in a society towards ROOJIN. There were 453 cases which contained the word ROOJIN at 'Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese' on the data since 2000. The most frequently used words were ones that are related to senior care facilities. There were 109 cases (24%) which contain those words. '~SISETSU', '~SENTA-', '~HO-MU' were presented as words related to senior care facilities. Among them, 78 cases contained the word '~HO-MU' which was similar to a home with family members. The second most frequently used words were ones that are related to 'welfare for the aged' and they are led by 'medical care for the aged'. They occupied about 8%. Institutionalization of medical care for the aged, medical expenses, nursing were presented as words related to 'medical care for the aged'. Words that were related to 'welfare for the aged' led by 'senior care facilities' and 'medical care for the aged' occupied about 32% of research data. As mentioned above, problems of the aged in Modern Japan such as negative evaluations in a society towards ROOJIN, ROOJIN who are lonely, are not able to move about freely or live alone, BOKE could be identified by analyzing the data. Also, The frequent usage of words such as 'Home for the aged', 'medical care for the aged' and 'nursing' could be identified. The outcome of analysis suggested that a family traditionally had a function of solving problems of the aged but that function was reduced in modern Japan. It also suggested that there was a tendency to outsource problems of the aged as much as possible.