Possibilities for change toward universal design: Japanese housing policy for seniors at the crossroads

Japanese government policies for seniors have long assumed that informal care by their families exists for them. The rapid aging of Japan is eroding the basis for this assumption. It is now necessary to include barrier-free design concepts in the basic requirements for dwellings to be used by everyone, not just seniors, to support independent living. Essential requirements in proposed guidelines are already in effect in the design and construction of publicly operated rental housing. But at this time, only the schemes of the Housing Loan Corporation of Japan for additional loans are being used, in cases where some design requirements for senior users are being met. The Housing Loan Corporation's loan system has long been seen as a policy on the part of government to boost the economy, particularly during recessions, but assistance for construction of higher quality dwellings has been lacking. This article discusses the basic philosophy of design guidelines and practical ideas to be considered in dwelling design and the merit of model dwellings constructed by housing manufacturers in Japan. It also discusses potential strategies to implement the basic ideas of design guidelines. It then proposes some possible methods to realize life-span dwellings, or dwellings designed for everybody.     

How Does Education Affect Political Trust?: An Analysis of Moderating Factors

This article aims to understand the correlates of political trust by delving into the multiple interactive effects of education in democratic states throughout the world. It asks whether education raises political trust by increasing the stakes of the citizens in the system and whether education diminishes trust as a result of being abler to evaluate the existence of corruption in a given country. It also taps into how post-materialism as an individual-level factor affects this equation by activating critical judgments toward political institutions. The findings show that, indeed, the effect of education on political trust is very context-dependent. Political trust and education are positively correlated in more meritocratic countries and negatively correlated in the more corrupt ones. Post-material values, combined with educational attainment, tend to lower political trust to a certain extent yet this effect is surpassed by the presence or absence of meritocracy or political corruption. We also find that the effect of education on political trust becomes more pronounced as the level of education increases, with university graduates being the most susceptible to the effects of meritocracy and corruption on their trust levels.