The Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen) is run in partnership with The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) at the University of Michigan, USA, the Center for Social Research and Data Archives (SSJDA) at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and the Centre for Ageing Research and Education (CARE) at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
The growth of the aged population has been an issue of interest for almost 40 years. The aged have been referred to as an epidemic, a tidal wave and as a crisis. There is no specific reason why any of these polemics is an effective description of the aging transition. The growth of the world’s population over the age of 60 is merely the natural outcome of reducing mortality, particularly childhood mortality. While this population momentum has built up over time it has never been a “tidal wave” – merely the expected and predictable result of improved worldwide health. It is only a crisis in so much as governments and policy makers have chosen to ignore these obvious changes in their respective populations. Like any issue, you can transform a process into a crisis by the simple act of ignoring its existence.
This multidisciplinary conference examines international issues relating to the aging population worldwide.
Previous Speakers
The speakers below, among others, have presented their research at IAFOR's social sciences conferences.
Yozo Yokota, internationally renowned human rights lawyer and former UN Special Envoy to Myanmar; Don Brash, former Governor of the New Zealand Federal Reserve; Dr Michael Cusumano, Sloan School Professor of Management at MIT; Sir Kenneth Calman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, England and Wales, and Chairman of the World Health Organization; Arthur Stockwin OBE, Founding Director of Oxford University’s Nissan Centre, sits on a panel with London JETRO Director General Jun Arima; Drs Amy Szarkowski and Yuki Komine of Harvard University, USA; Andrew Staples, Director of the Economist Corporate Network, Japan; Dr Barry Bozeman, Arizona Centennial Professor of Public Policy, Arizona State University, USA; Professor Hiroshi Ishida, former director of the University of Tokyo’s Institute for Social Sciences and AGen Organising Committee member; Linda Toyo-Obayashi, Senior Mediation Officer at the World Bank, Washington DC. Nobuo Sato, Executive Director of Harvard Business School’s Japan Research Center.
IAFOR Conferences in the Social Sciences
- The Asian Conference on the Social Sciences (ACSS)
- The European Conference on the Social Sciences (ECSS)
- The Asia-Pacific Conference on Security and International Relations (APSec)
Ways to Get Involved
IAFOR depends on the assistance of a large number of international academics and practitioners who contribute in a variety of ways to our shared mission of promoting international exchange, facilitating intercultural awareness, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion and generating and sharing new knowledge. We are grateful for the time, effort and expertise donated by all our volunteer contributors.
Here are some of the ways you can get involved:
If you have any questions, or if you would like to suggest additional ways in which you could contribute to IAFOR’s interdisciplinary activities, please feel free to email agen@iafor.org.