Introduction: Death issues in 21st century Japan

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Notes

The surveys are as follows: (Makki iryo ni nozomu ishi no arikata [The physicians approach to terminal care], Nihon ishikai [The Japan medical association] 1992. Songenshi ni tuite [On death with dignity], Nihon gakujutsu kaigi [The Japan science conference], 1994; and a 1998 government sponsored survey on terminal care.

These research results might be usefully compared with those of similar surveys conducted in Britain and the USA. For example, Field and Wee, 2002: Dickinson and Field, 2002.

On the issue of euthanasia in the Netherlands, the reader is referred to the questions raised recently by van der Geest and Niekamp (2003) on ageism and euthanasia, and the analysis of trends evident in Dutch patients' requests for euthanasia in Marquet et al. (2003).

The question of trust between patient and doctor looms large in the issue of cancer disclosure in Japan. Recent analyses from the cancer disclosure perspective include Elwyn et al. (1998), Seo et al. (2000) and Elwyn et al. (2002).