This program provides a record of a society in flux, in which the traditional mechanisms for looking after old people—who used to be the most important members of the family—are breaking down. Japanese senior citizens created the economic miracle of modern Japan, only to find that the happy retirement they unquestioningly expected has been replaced by isolation. The program takes place in a Japanese public bathhouse, an ancient institution that has assumed a new role in Japan as a place where the elderly, alienated from society, take up residence and find a kind of permanent impermanence. (45 minutes)