Introduction to Gerontology : Application of Gerontology for Daily Life

This article aims at considering the effectiveness and the importance of gerontology to think about happiness and the meaning of life through the class for general people. Japan is a mature society with an elderly population, aged 65 years or over, of 35.58 million accounting for 28.1 percent of the total population. The Japanese government has recognized the importance and the necessity of interdisciplinary research programs such as gerontology in the open lectures at community as well as college and graduate levels. The results show that participants have interests in studying the meaning of life, the real aging process, and death education through gerontology. Although it is important to study the aging field as a knowledge, the participants think that it is more useful to share their ideas and experiences to put their thoughts together. The field of death education, the real aging process, and the tips for the healthy and longer life should be more emphasized to improve panticipants' motivation to study gerontology