Dr. Iza Kavedzija recalls spending 14 months in Japan for her doctoral research and how this experience gained her close relationship with a group of older people from Japan.
Nick: So you spent quite a few years in total in Japan, doing research and interviewing the elderly. So how much time in total would you say you spent in Japan specifically doing that?
Iza: For the research that you mentioned, that was my doctoral research, I've spent 14 months with the same group of people. So I was lucky enough to find a community cafe in the south of Osaka.
So first, I thought maybe I would find some older Japanese who live in their own homes, whether with their families, or independently. I was very interested in working with older people, but not those who are necessarily in an institutionalised context.
I wanted to do work with people in their own homes and then I realised that of course, entering homes isn't a simple matter. So I found this fantastic local NGO, and they were kind enough to allow me to volunteer there.
So that meant that I've spent over a year coming to the same place; almost daily, almost weekly, and established a very close contact over the year with a group of older people who frequented it, some came there more regularly, and some came only once a week.
Of course, I also went to several other places while I was there, and I went to another such NGO in a different part of the city. But this was my core field side. This was my home when I was in Osaka for the first time in 2009.
And ever since whenever I come back to Japan, I always go there. So I think there's been kind of an ongoing relationship for quite a few years now.
Nick: I didn't realise it was such a long time with the same people, so I imagine they became dear friends and you became a dear friend to them.
Iza: I think there was a sense of closeness, they got quite used to me. There were some nice situations of this, I was rather young at the time.