The aim of this project is to begin assessing perceptions about the relationship between religious practice and well-being among elderly people living in a cultural context distinct from that of Western societies--the focus of most research on religion, health, and aging to date. Research will be conducted in Japan, where religiousness is organized around instrumental aims or specific forms of ritual activity that are often tied to a participant's age and frequently include requests to Shinto or Buddhist deities for good health, recovery from sickness, or, among older people, a sudden death. Given that, like Americans, Japanese people appear to become progressively more religiously active as they grow older, the instrumental nature of Japanese religiosity and its connection to issues related to both health and dying should provide interesting comparative data on the intersection of religion and health for older people. It also should help use to understand the role of religious activities for those who do not participate in the Judeo-Christian traditions. Three hypothesis will be tested via ethnographic fieldwork in the form of in-depth interviews, focus-group sessions, and participant observation of religious activities. First, religious activity among older Japanese is expected to show age-effects that are, in part, a function of people's roles within kin groups. Successors to the headship of Japanese kin groups and their immediate families are more likely to show strong age-effects in relation to intensity and frequency of religious participation than other family members. Second, positive self reporting of mental and physical well-being and high levels of ritual activity are expected to correspond. However, variation is expected in relation to gender, because older Japanese women tend to be more involved in religious activities than men. Third, increased religious activity among older Japanese is, at least in part, associated with preparation for death and doing what one can to ensure a good death by praying at so-called Buddhist Sudden Death Temples. Fieldwork will be conducted over four month. For comparative purposes within Japan, research will be done in two communities, an agricultural town and a small city.
