When I arrived in Vietnam I was already in my fifties. Back in Tokyo my classmates were working actively in leading positions. It took me sometime to adapt to the new Vietnamese life and after a while I got accustomed to it. But, then, I got a little scared. People around me started to treat me with great respect. I had become a "senior citizen." Many of those over 50 year old were retiring from their jobs and seemed to lead pleasant and peaceful lives. They could still work without any problem, but I thought that societies allowing that are wonderful.

As different from Japan, in Vietnam I did not meet people advanced in age, that were not in control of their lives. Vietnamese enjoy a tradition of great respect to elders. It is interesting to note that, according to some research done, there are practically no senior citizens in Okinawa prefecture suffering from "senile dementia." In a book "The Philosophy of Senile Dementia," the author introduces the thinking of "Happy senile dementia" that claims that Okinawans are very open to alien cultures and their deep respect for elders does not create stress in senior citizens and no matter the predisposition to changes in their brains, senior citizens are lightly affected.

When I read the book I remembered that, about 20 years ago, when the Vietnamese Boat People stayed in the refugee camps in Okinawa they felt as if they were living in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese language has also a word "ran-chi" to mean forgetting things. It can also be written in Japanese characters with the meaning of "wisdom getting astray." Again there is a Vietnamese word "mat-chi" for senile dementia that means to lose wisdom. Will there be no possibility of a society that does not produce stress, where we could survive in a state of "happy senile dementia"?