Ageing with Smartphones in Japan - Care in a Visual Digital Age

Aug 20, 2026

Uploaded by Violet

Ageing with Smartphones in Japan explores how care changes in a visual, digitally mediated environment, following older people and caregivers across multiple social contexts. The book examines experiences of ageing beyond fixed categories, everyday gendered labour and non-retirement, and how social relations sustain mutual care. It also addresses the crafting of smartphone-mediated visual communication, health practices such as self-tracking and warm contact, rural change, and purpose in life through ikigai across the life course.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages311

Reading Time13 h 4 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

List of figures

Preface

Series foreword

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 Experiences of ageing: beyond categories

3 Everyday life: gendered labour and non-retirement

4 Social relations: sustaining mutual forms of care (yui)

5 Crafting the smartphone: visual digital communication

6 Health: self-tracking and warm contact

7 Rural Japan: between decline and rejuvenation

8 Purpose in life: ‘ikigai’ through the life course

9 Conclusion

References

Index

Ageing with Smartphones in Japan Ageing with Smartphones in Japan Care in a visual digital age Laura Haapio-Kirk First published in 2024 by UCL Press University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT [Available to download free:](Available to download free: www.uclpress.co.uk)[ www.uclpress.co.uk](Available to download free: www.uclpress.co.uk) Text © Author, 2024 Images © Author and copyright holders named in captions, 2024 The author has asserted her rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library. Any third-party material in this book is published under the book’s Creative Commons licence unless indicated otherwise in the credit line to the material. If you would like to reuse any third-party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Nonderivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) . This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Attribution should include the following information: Haapio-Kirk, L. 2024. Ageing with Smartphones in Japan: Care in a visual digital age. London: UCL Press. [https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787355767](https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787355767) Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at [http://](http://)[ ](http://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/](creativecommons.org/licenses/) . ISBN: 978-1-78735-578-1 (Hbk) ISBN: 978-1-78735-577-4 (Pbk) ISBN: 978-1-78735-576-7 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-78735-579-8 (epub) DOI: [https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787355767](https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787355767) For Suvi Contents List of figures ix Preface xiii Series foreword xv Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 2 Experiences of ageing: beyond categories 39 3 Everyday life: gendered labour and non-retirement 73 4 Social relations: sustaining mutual forms of care (yui) 99 5 Crafting the smartphone: visual digital communication 131 6 Health: self-tracking and warm contact 165 7 Rural Japan: between decline and rejuvenation 189 8 Purpose in life: ‘ikigai’ through the life course 213 9 Conclusion 239 References 261 Index 283

FAQs

What is the main focus of the book?

The book focuses on ageing and care in Japan in a visual digital age, examining how smartphones and digitally mediated communication shape everyday support and wellbeing.

How does the book connect ageing with everyday life and social relations?

It covers gendered labour and non-retirement in everyday life, and shows how mutual forms of care (yui) are sustained through social relations across the life course.

Which health and community practices are discussed?

The book discusses health through self-tracking and “warm contact,” and it examines rural Japan where decline and rejuvenation are both present.

Aug 20, 2026

Uploaded by Violet