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| Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement | |
|---|---|
| Name | Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement |
| Acronym | JSTAR |
| Country | Japan |
| Launched | 2007 |
| Discipline | Gerontology |
Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement is a longitudinal panel study initiated to examine aging, retirement, health, and socioeconomic change among older adults in Japan. It builds on comparative initiatives and interacts with international projects to inform policy and comparative research across Asia, Europe, and North America. Launched with academic, governmental, and international institutional support, the project connects scholars and policymakers across institutions in Japan and abroad.
The study aims to track microdata on retirement behavior, health trajectories, labor market transitions, and household finances to inform debates centered in institutions such as Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, United Nations, and academic centers like National Institute of Population and Social Security Research and Hitotsubashi University. Objectives include analyzing relationships among pension systems exemplified by Employees' Pension Insurance (Japan), medical systems like National Health Insurance (Japan), and demographic shifts documented by Statistics Bureau of Japan, with relevance to comparative cohorts in Health and Retirement Study, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, and Korea Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
The design follows a panel architecture similar to models used by University of Michigan, University College London, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, and International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health (INDEPTH), employing harmonized questionnaires and standardized protocols. Methodological elements incorporate sampling frames derived from municipal registries like those of Tokyo Metropolitan Government and population registers used by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japan), stratified sampling strategies used in studies at National Bureau of Economic Research and longitudinal analytic techniques common in work from Columbia University and Harvard University.
Recruitment targeted community-dwelling adults aged 50 and above drawn from metropolitan and regional sites including Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Aomori Prefecture to capture urban-rural gradients studied in research by Keio University and Tohoku University. Cohorts were constructed to permit comparisons with birth cohorts studied by Shinzo Abe-era demographic initiatives and with pension reform cohorts studied at University of Tokyo and Osaka University. Follow-up waves paralleled cohort refreshers used by RAND Corporation and cohort linking methods from Princeton University.
Measures include self-reported health metrics aligned with instruments from World Health Organization, cognitive assessments comparable to those used at Johns Hopkins University, biomarker collection protocols influenced by National Institutes of Health studies, and detailed financial modules referencing parameters from Pension Fund Association (Japan), Bank of Japan, and household surveys used by International Labour Organization. Data collection modalities combine face-to-face interviews modeled after protocols at Japanese Red Cross Society, telephone follow-ups used by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and linkage to administrative records held by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan), National Tax Agency (Japan), and local ward offices such as Shinjuku City.
Findings published in outlets associated with The Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Demography, Journal of Health Economics, and regional journals connected to Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health include results on the interplay of functional limitation trajectories reported in studies at Keio University School of Medicine, cognitive decline patterns investigated by Riken, retirement timing influenced by reforms attributed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi-era policies, and pension adequacy analyses paralleling work at International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank. High-impact working papers have circulated through networks at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Stanford University.
Evidence from the study has informed deliberations at policy venues including Diet (Japan), advisory committees convened by Cabinet Office (Japan), and international policy dialogues involving G20 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Outcomes influenced design considerations for local initiatives in municipalities like Yokohama and service delivery adjustments in institutions such as Japan Medical Association, with comparative implications cited by analysts at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
The project collaborates with international repositories and research networks including Health and Retirement Study, International Network for Comparative Longitudinal Studies, and academic partners at University of Michigan, Peking University, Seoul National University, Australian National University, and Sorbonne University. Data access procedures mirror practices at Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and require agreements consistent with regulations from Personal Information Protection Commission (Japan), enabling secure linkage to administrative datasets held by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) and local governments such as Sapporo City.
Category:Longitudinal studies Category:Gerontology