OLD AGE AND AGEING IN JAPAN AND ASIA
SPRIRITUAL CONDITIONS AND SOCIAL REALITY PAST AND PRESENT
                September 22-24, 1994
                 Vienna, Austria


The section for Japanese Studies in the Research Institute for
Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy
of Sciences has been engaged for several years in a research
project on old age in Japan, which aims at describing, from the
viewpoints of both social history and the history of ideas, the
values and norms that existed with regard to old age, ageing and
the elderly in the different periods of the history of
pre-industrial Japan, i.e., before the massive encounter with
Western culture in the second half of the 19th century.
In accordance with the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
objectives of the organizing Institute, this conference will
attempt to relate the results of this research on Japan to
analogous findings on other Asian cultures and societies, from
India to China, in order to ascertain possible influences and
parallels, as well as differences between these various cultures.
The conference will thus deal with the meaning and valuation of
old age, ageing and persons of advanced age within the great
spiritual traditions of Asia, such as Hinduism, Buddhism,
Confucianism, Taoism and Shinto, with their respective historical
and regional forms, as well as with the living conditions, both
past and present of the elderly in the countries of this region.

The organizers invite all interested scholars to participate in
the conference. The length of papers should be 30 to 45 minutes.
Applications, including a one-page abstract are requested to be
sent no later than November 30, 1993, to the address mentioned
below. It is planned to publish the papers as a symposium volume
in the course of 1995.
(Source: Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese
Studies 37 (1993) June, p. 34)

For further information contact:
Research Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of
Asia
P.O. Box 7/4/3
A-1010 Vienna
Austria