End of life care in the United Kingdom and Japan - intersections in culture, practice and policy (The Mitori Project)

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In this project we will bring together an innovative team of academics from Japan and the UK to work together on one of the most pressing matters of our time. The Mitori Project will use the perspectives of social science, the humanities, and ethics to address a range of end of life issues that are of growing importance. We will examine how care of people at the end of life is currently organised in the UK and Japan. We will explore how this has been shaped by relevant cultural, demographic, professional and policy factors. Our focus will be on how two post-industrial societies - with ageing populations, heavy demand on health and social systems and changing social expectations about dying, death and bereavement - are responding to the challenges they face. We will also consider the wider discourses about the end of life that exist in the two countries, examining cultural responses, debates about assisted dying, and the representations of life and death that occur when life-threatening illness trajectories become extended, erratic and unpredictable. The Mitori Project will take a 'watching' brief on end of life issues in the two countries. It will enhance our understanding and adopt innovative approaches to shape a new agenda for research, knowledge exchange - and ultimately for social change and societal improvement.