[10-6] Care and the child-grandparent relationship in children’s picturebooks in Japan
Presentation language：English
In many ageing societies concerned about the growing demand for care, the health of older people has become a significant issue with profound economic and social implications, promoting the perception of old age as a time of ill health and dependency and in some cases, creating generational tension.
With their unique mixture of didacticism and aestheticism, children’s picturebooks can play a vital role in interrogating and re-shaping the limited cultural perceptions of ageing. Bringing together ageing studies and the childhood studies, we explore subjectivity, autonomy and dependency through the connection between the child and the older adult depicted in Japanese picturebooks from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Specifically, the presentation will analyse books where ageing and associated changes, such as increased frailty, threaten to upset generational roles that are organised around care. These books emphasise the relationality between child and grandparent that stands upon both their dependency and autonomy. Situating these texts within the cultural context of contemporary Japan, we suggest that the model of relationality and responsibility that emerges in these books, whilst undoubtedly contextually related, offers a way of rethinking subjectivity, health and our understanding of the temporality of the lifecourse.