Life and Care in Comparative Cultural Perspective towards creating the international research network

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The dawn of the 21st century represents the beginning of re-conceptualization of culture of life and care. The aim of this project has been to search for the ways of care most suitable for the Japanese cultural climate, which is characterized by its inclination to take balance between individual's self-decision and social support. The different views of life and death between the East and the West are frequently discussed. In such discussion the most important is not the assessment of superiority, but the mutual understanding and influence between the rational analysis and instinctive synthesis. In this field, internationalized perspective is crucial ; we are to avoid easy typology, fixation of things ‘Asian' or ‘Japanese' and narrow-minded nationalism, but to comprehend the types of care in various countries with their long history and their recent developments. This globalizing century requires of us a candid and fair attitude and a standpoint of comparative cultural studies to consider this problem. Indeed, our international symposium enabled us to examine our view and learn from the international participants.The clinical approach team has pointed out the settled trend from institutionalization toward home care. Here there is a marked growth in importance of the community care and the spiritual care.In bioethical education of the future generations, we emphasize the importance of realizing the vitality, beauty and confidence of human beings through admiration of various forms of art and knowledge. In science education, for example, we need programs to deliberate over the social influence of scientific knowledge and its technical application, referring to practical cases, as well as to pass fundamental grasp of nature and universe.We have made the output available to the public on our website, in the books, in the open campus lectures and in the regular classrooms.