Introduction

This chapter considers the situation of working carers of older parents in Taiwan and Japan. Both countries are deeply influenced by Confucian thinking, which views the care of older people as a family responsibility and frames care as an invisible, private and family issue rather than a public matter. The chapter explores similarities and differences in these countries’ changing systems of care for older people and analyses the processes involved in securing carers’ rights through a struggle between the state and the women's movement in which shifting carer subjectivities are shaped by discourses of rights and duties.

These countries’ similar demography, ageing populations, shrinking family structures and rising female employment were described in Chapter Two. In Japan, among the world's most rapidly ageing societies, traditional family-based eldercare is often no longer viable. Living apart from their extended families, many older people either live alone or rely for support on their aged spouse (Cabinet Office, 2010). Changing residential patterns and an increasing number of women working outside the home have made caring for older family members a social issue. Taiwan's demographic circumstances are very similar: its population is still younger than Japan’s, but in barely two decades, it has moved from an ageing to an aged society and in 10 years’ time, it will be a ‘super-aged’ state (CEPD, 2011). Ageing faster even than Japan, it has had very little time to establish the infrastructure needed to cope with these changes. As discussed later, Taiwan looks to Japan as a reference point for public policy on eldercare, particularly its policy on Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI).

Definitions and support for working carers of older people

In line with the Confucian values of filial piety and respect for elders, the Civil Codes of both countries define care as a family responsibility. Thus, under Taiwan's Welfare of Older People Act 2009, adult children can be penalised for abuse, neglect or leaving an elderly resident in a nursing home without paying fees, and in both countries, governments tend to view the family as the natural source of care for older people. This has the effect of rendering caring invisible and of constraining the development of carer support.