Japan's Dancing Grannies Defy the Aging Routine

By Catherine Makino

WeNews correspondent

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A Japanese mayor put eight elderly women on TV three years ago to promote tourism with their song-and-dance routine. Three years later, they are national pop stars who tap a new, more energetic attitude toward aging.

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A Different Standard

"Adults don't hold children up to the same standards as adults, because they're in a different category," said Takamatsu. "That's how we regard these women. I'm just saying, is this all we can aspire to? To somehow make it through life and survive to finally be regarded with the same but ultimately condescending affection as small children?"

All the same, she hopes the group made a positive impression in Shanghai. GABBA performed at a time when international relations were strained by the collision of two Japanese Coast Guard ships with a Chinese fishing boat near a string of disputed islands known as Senkaku in the East China Sea. The collision left the governments trading accusations about what happened.

"If they can make even one Chinese person feel that maybe Japanese people aren't so bad, then that would be great," said Takamatsu. "Please don't misunderstand…It's only if they are somehow being held up as role models, or sources of inspiration, that I must voice a slightly differing opinion."

While not all Japanese women may have the energy or desire to become pop stars when they get older, they still have plenty to celebrate, says Sandra Mori, a long-time Tokyo resident. After years of child rearing and caring for demanding husbands they finally have time for themselves.

"Age brings freedom in Japan," Mori said. She recalled a country-style wedding where it was perfectly acceptable for mature ladies--Obasans--to get up and dance and sing raucous songs for the fertility of the newlyweds.

"Nowadays though, whether widowed or not, Obasans have also extended their freedom to overseas travel with friends for exploring, shopping or looking for new taste delights in foreign cuisine," said Mori.

She says the so-called silver market is now highly profitable for travel agents and rivals the lucrative travel business provided by young office workers.

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Catherine Makino is a correspondent for Majirox News in Tokyo, Japan. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Time, the Japan Times, The Asian Wall Street Journal and Inter Press Service.