Long-term care policies and social representations of dependency in ageing societies

A comparison between France and Japan

Abstract

Population ageing raises important questions about how dependency and loss of autonomy among older adults are understood and addressed in public policy. While long-term care policies are often analysed through institutional arrangements and welfare-state configurations, less attention has been paid to the cognitive and normative dimensions that shape these systems. This article proposes an integrated analytical framework combining social representations theory, the cognitive approach to public policy, the sociology of policy instruments and the social care perspective. Drawing on a qualitative documentary comparative analysis of France and Japan, based exclusively on legislative texts, institutional reports and peer-reviewed literature from the 1990s to the present, it examines how institutionalised representations of ageing, dependency and care interact with policy paradigms and welfare-state arrangements. The findings show that France and Japan have developed distinct configurations in response to similar demographic challenges. France institutionalises dependency through a medico-functional framework centred on standardised assessment and universal financial entitlements. Japan, by contrast, has developed a community-based logic grounded in subsidiarity and a quadripartite normative framework articulating individual, community, societal and governmental responsibilities. In both countries, long-term care arrangements tend to render invisible the gendered dimension of care work, which remains disproportionately performed by women. The article also introduces the exploratory concept of a care representational regime as a heuristic device for examining how relatively stable configurations of meaning concerning dependency, autonomy and responsibility for care become embedded in policy paradigms, instruments and institutional arrangements. Empirical validation through methods drawn from social representations research remains a priority for future research.