IAFOR > The Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen) > AGen2021 Overview

AGen2021 Overview

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Join us in Tokyo (and online) for AGen2021!

March 28-31, 2021 | Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

Recognising and promoting the inherent dignity of people at all ages represents a foundational goal shared by societies around the world. The desire to identify meaning and value in life underpins inquiries into law and politics, religion and the arts, and it guides the resolution of ethical questions associated with scientific inquiry and resulting innovations. As medical science, public health and technology continue to advance, so lives have grown progressively longer. Increasingly, this leads to new questions regarding the kind of lives we will experience as we grow older. While advances in science and medicine increase longevity, what innovative technologies are emerging that address the changing needs faced by an aging world? Researchers, scientists, and advocates will gather in Tokyo for AGen2021 to discuss these questions and others.

Japan represents a unique location for research professionals to meet and explore the topic of aging. Japan has one of the most rapidly aging populations, which combined with a declining birthrate, represents a compelling example of the demographic transition resulting from increased longevity. The issues and challenges faced in Japan have expanded to other Pacific nations, Europe, Africa, and the Americas as all nations experience the benefits of increased longevity. Worldwide, there is a growing recognition that the kind of life we now give our elders will impact the way we will be treated and cared for as we enter our later years. Because aging is a worldwide phenomenon, the needs and opportunities of an aging world must also reflect and respect cultural and social diversity in developing programs that encourage quality of life at all ages. How do we address the collective needs of the aging population while respecting each person’s individuality? AGEN2021 provides an ideal forum for discussing and debating the many issues related to aging and gerontology. Submissions from a variety of fields and perspectives are welcomed and encouraged. Original research across disciplines, including science and technology, philosophy and politics, sociology, and psychology, will ensure an active and exciting opportunity to expand our gerontological understanding.

Now entering its seventh year, the AGen2021 Organising Committee has seen the conference grow in size and diversity of perspectives as it attracts researchers and practitioners from around the world to address this crucial topic. This year is particularly exciting as AGen will be partnering with The Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences (ACP2021), increasing opportunities for broad multidisciplinary exchanges.

Held in partnership with the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue. This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

In conjunction with our Global Partners, we look forward to extending you a warm welcome to Tokyo in March of 2021. Tokyo has been recognised as the safest city in the world by The Economist and offers unique opportunities for exploration, dining, and collegial exchanges.

– The AGen2021 Organising Committee

Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
James W. McNally, University of Michigan & NACDA Program on Aging, USA
Sela V. Panapasa, University of Michigan, USA
Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan

Key Information
  • Location & Venue: Toshi Center Hotel, Tokyo, Japan (and online)
  • Dates: Sunday, March 28, 2021 ​to Wednesday, March 31, 2021
  • Early Bird Abstract Submission Deadline: November 06, 2020*
  • Final Abstract Submission Deadline: January 15, 2021
  • Registration Deadline for Presenters: February 23, 2021

*Submit early to take advantage of the discounted registration rates. Learn more about our registration options.

Submit an Abstract

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Speakers

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Programme

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Organising Committee

The Organising Committee of The 7th Asian Conference on Aging & Gerontology (AGen) is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Organising Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Advisory Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Organising Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Sela V. Panapasa
    Sela V. Panapasa
    University of Michigan, USA
  • Haruko Satoh
    Haruko Satoh
    Osaka University, Japan

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AGen2021 Review Committee

IAFOR's peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board. Review Committee members are established academics who hold PhDs or other terminal degrees in their fields and who have previous peer review experience.

If you would like to apply to serve on the AGen2019 Review Committee, please visit our application page.

Apply to Join the Review Committee

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IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) – “Innovation and Value Initiative”

The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is housed within Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and in June 2018 the IRC began an ambitious new “Innovation and Value Initiative”. Officially launched at the United Nations in a special UN-IAFOR Collaborative Session, the initiative seeks to bring together the best in interdisciplinary research around the concept of value, on how value can be recognised, and measured, and how this can help us address issues and solve problems, from the local to the global.

Learn more about the Innovation and Value Initiative

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Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the Chairman and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s business and academic operations, including research, publications and events.

Dr Haldane holds a PhD from the University of London in 19th-century French Studies, and has had full-time faculty positions at the University of Paris XII Paris-Est Créteil (France), Sciences Po Paris (France), and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (Japan), as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute in the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France), The School of Journalism at Sciences Po Paris (France), and the School of Journalism at Moscow State University (Russia).

Dr Haldane’s current research concentrates on post-war and contemporary politics and international affairs, and since 2015 he has been a Guest Professor at The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, where he teaches on the postgraduate Global Governance Course, and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre, an interdisciplinary think tank situated within Osaka University.

A Member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for Global Governance, Dr Haldane is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), a Visiting Professor at the School of Business at Doshisha University (Japan), and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the College of Education of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (USA).

From 2012 to 2014, Dr Haldane served as Treasurer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (Chubu Region) and he is currently a Trustee of the HOPE International Development Agency (Japan). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 2012, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2015.

James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

Dr James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. Dr McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Keynote Workshop Presentation (2020) | Aging Data: NACDA & an Open-source Repository

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2019) | Defining and Measuring Resilience in an Aging World
Featured Workshop Presentation (2019) | Locating Data for Research: Data Collections and Resources for Thesis Writing, Teaching, and Grant Development for the Social Sciences and the Environment
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Health Across the Lifecourse
Featured Workshop Presentation (2018) | Locating Data for Research
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Easts Meets West – Healthy, Active and Beautiful Aging in Asia
Sela V. Panapasa
University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr Sela V. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change. Her interests include family demography, race and ethnicity, measuring health disparities and comparative studies.

Haruko Satoh
Osaka University, Japan

Biography

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering Science in charge of CAREN (Osaka University Centre for the Advancement of Research and Education Exchange Networks in Asia) and also lecturer at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she runs MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities. She is also the President of the The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA).

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (eds), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 181-198 (July 2012); “Post-3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (eds), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Professor Haruko Satoh is a member of IAFOR’s Academic Governing Board. She is Chair of the Politics, Law & International Relations section of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Featured Panel Presentation | East Meets West