For 27 years Kohei Yamada has worked professionally in different capacities for the Young Men's Christian Association. As a gerontologist deeply committed to community care, he says he looks for quality in the life of the elderly. "In Japan, very often people with good will take care of the elderly, but the elderly themselves lead aimless lives, without meaning. I believe in educating people to be ready for later life, to make their own decisions on how to live, how to die. You have to think about yourselves, not have your family deciding for you." In this connection he sees the YMCA having a leadership role to play that is different from that of others.
The YMCA has a history going back 160 years. Founded in London and expanded worldwide, from the beginning it arranged group activities and citizenship training aimed at character development. It is a lay movement, although as its name indicates it is based on Christian principles.
Yamada, born in Tokyo in 1949, studied political science at Keio University. "I was thinking of working in a trading company, and that is why I went to the U.S. to get my M.A. at the University of Kansas," he said. "In the States I realized that there were many problems in society. I became aware of the handicapped and the elderly. I felt responsible for them. I decided to change my major."