In this article I explore ideas of a good and meaningful life in older age, based on ethnographic
research with older Japanese people in the city of Osaka. Some of my interlocutors and friends
in the field spoke about their approaching end of life. When speaking about the time remaining,
many expressed their sense that the future ...
In this article I explore ideas of a good and meaningful life in older age, based on ethnographic
research with older Japanese people in the city of Osaka. Some of my interlocutors and friends
in the field spoke about their approaching end of life. When speaking about the time remaining,
many expressed their sense that the future will work out “somehow” (nantonaku). This
statement of quiet hope acknowledged change, and encapsulated a desire to support others;
it also shifted emphasis away from the future. This is not to say that the experience was, for
my interlocutors, primarily marked by an orientation toward the past, through reminiscence
and recollection. Inhabiting the moment was equally important. While reminiscing and
narrating past events comprise a form of meaning-making, how does dwelling in the moment
contribute to maintaining a meaningful existence? I will argue it allows for the cultivation of an
‘attitude of gratitude,’ which lends meaning to life. This attitude of gratitude binds together
both reflections on the past and attention to the present moment in its fullness. It also, I
suggest, opens up space for a particular kind of hope, one grounded in the moment. Thus, the
sense of a good and meaningful life that these elders conveyed encapsulates an attitude of
gratitude as a way of inhabiting the present, rather than dwelling in the past or leaping toward
the future.
