The Gift of Generations is a comparative study of aging and the social contract in Japan and the United States. By using original, systematically comparable data collected in these countries, the book explores the different cultural definitions of vulnerability and giving, and the ways they shape and constrain the social strategies of routinizing helping arrangements. The book succeeds in interweaving the theory and practice of the social contract by developing the concept of symbolic equity.

1. Introduction: the social designation of deserving citizens
The private discourse: expectations of vulnerability - the public discourse: responsibilities for intervention - values, interests, and symbolic equity: a framework of analysis
2. Two communities - two societies: West Haven - Westside Odawara - comparing communities
3. Rights and responsibilities in the public domain: entitlement, obligation, and equity - individual, family, and state
4. The practice of protection and intervention in the private domain: inside the household - outside the household - family and network - the recognition of vulnerability
5. The Japanese viewpoint: the protective approach
6. The American viewpoint: the contingency approach
7. Cultural assumptions and values: trajectories of need - conditions of security - intergenerational equity - primary bonds of affection - units of self-sufficiency - visions of resource affluence
8. The social regulation of interests: credit, debt, and mutual interests - rights, responsibilities, and collective interests - the logic of symbolic equity - distribution of symbolic resources: empowerment and disempowerment - social and cultural constructions of support - vulnerability and security - entitlement and obligation - reciprocity and dependency - failures and costs
9. Conclusion: Reflections on diversity and change.