Beyond ‘Productive Aging’: An Argument for ‘Happy Aging’

Abstract

This paper critically considers the concept of ‘productive aging,’ maintaining that although the term emerged as an effort to aid older people, it may be normative and potentially coercive. The paper illustrates this premise through an examination of Japan, through analysis of interviews conducted over decades, and, more fully, an analysis of advice books for Japanese seniors over the past twenty years. These advice books show how seniors in Japan are now increasingly urged to find contentment in old age as they themselves see fit, without concern over ‘contributing to society.’ In crucial respects, Japan has been moving from ‘productive aging’ to ‘happy aging’ as a guide for how to age. The paper then considers the judgment inherent in the term ‘productive aging’—are some forms of aging better than other forms of aging?—by examining competing conceptions of happiness, advocating on the basis of this examination that the term ‘productive aging’ be replaced by ‘happy aging.’