'essential reading for welfare historians, social gerontologists and those who wish to understand the historical perspective behind today's arrangements for residential care. Policy-makers with the responsibility for the provision of care for older people should read this account in particular.' Medical History 'a novel and welcome addition.' Social History of Medicine 'Hayashi has written the first comparative study of the urgent issue of the residential care of older people in Britain and Japan. Surveying experience in comparable regions in each country since the 1920s, she valuably dispels the deeply entrenched belief that older people are much more respected and cared for in Asian countries such as Japan, than in Western countries such as Britain.' Pat Thane, King's College London