Well-Off American Seniors and Hardscrabble Japanese Counterparts

choi

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(1) In US.
(a) Haya El Nasser, Life Is Good for Older Americans, Poll Finds; Despite national groom, seniors are largely content, optimistic and financially secure. USA Today, Aug 8, 2012 (front page)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nat ... tirement/56860194/1
("Why are seniors so upbeat when many other Americans are not in a very happy place?  'People in retirement have dodged a bullet,' says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. 'They've gotten to the promised land in time to avoid all the bad stuff.'  This generation of retirees, including the oldest Baby Boomers, who turn 66 this year, are more likely to enjoy the fruits of their life-long labors than future retirees, Frey says. They stopped working before employers pulled the plug on pension plans, before companies stopped matching contributions to 401(k)s and before Social Security and Medicare finances hit the crisis stage.  As a result, today's retirees could be the last wave of happy seniors")

Note:
(i) The Muslim surname Nasser is from an Arabic personal name based on na?sir ‘granter of victory’.
(ii) Fort Mill, South Carolina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mill,_South_Carolina
(iii) bocce (n; Italian plural of boccia ball, from Vulgar Latin *bottia boss)
www.m-w.com

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocce
(iv) National Council on Aging
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_on_Aging

(b) Susan Page, A defining gap: Seniors for Romney, Millennials for Obama. USA Today, July 31, 2012.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/pol ... election/56595240/1

My comment: The generation gap in this report is political rather than economical. There is no need toread the text (title said it all).


(2) Disaster and demography in Japan | Generational Warfare; Young and old have different ideas on how to rebuild tsunami-stricken communities. Economist, Aug 4, 2012.
http://www.economist.com/node/21559932

Excerpt in the window of print: Generation Gap and Japan's Slow Rebuilding From Last Year's Calamities

Note:
(a) Onagawa, Miyagi  宮城(県) 女川(町)
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%B3%E5%B7%9D%E7%94%BA
(section 3.1 女川町の由来: 平安時代、安倍貞任の軍勢が隣村・稲井（現在の石巻市稲井）の館に寄り、源氏方の軍と戦ったとき、一族の婦女子を安全地帯であった安野平に避難させた。このことから、ここから流れ落ちる小川を「女川」と呼ぶようになった)

translation: In the Hei-an period, in preparation for a battle against Genji army 安倍貞任 sheltered local women and children at 安野平. Because of this, a creek flows through the place was called 女川.
(b) Toshiaki YAGINUM
(c) Reconstruction Agency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Agency
(復興庁; an administrative body of the Cabinet of Japan established on Feb 2, 2012 to coordinate reconstruction activities related to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster)
(d) Hiroshi SUZUKI/ Fukushima University  鈴木 浩/ 福島大学