Japan's Elders Pushed Aside

This is exactly how you would expect the elderly to be doing in Japan: enjoying themselves in a culture that for centuries has revered age and wisdom.

And modern Japan boasts having the longest-lived people on the earth.

But being elderly in Japan is not what it used to be, CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen reports.

Years ago in the 1950s and 1960s, the Japanese men and women were told to sacrifice all to rebuild Japan after World War II flattened its cities.

They dedicated themselves to their company, not to their families.

Today, as they grow old and retire, the family they ignored now cares little for them.

David Slater is an anthropology professor at Tokyo's Sophia University.

"Now they find themselves out in the cold, they find themselves, their wisdom, their status no longer valued the way they expected their sacrifice to be valued," Slater says of Japan's elderly.

Here's an example of changing Japan: an old folks home.

Professor Takanori Shibata developed a robot that looks like a baby seal. He did it just for the elderly. The professor says the robot makes older folks, "happier."

The technology works. But a generation ago these people would have spent their days involved with their own families. Now, their mental stimulus comes from a clever creature that is, in the end, just mechanical.

The changes happening in Japan, here in China and across Asia, are not just about the elderly, it's also about the kids. A new generation is living the Western lifestyle and because of that, likely won't live as long.

Fast food is now a fact of Asian life.

Smoking is common and unlike America, Asian governments do little to stop it because they want the tax revenue.

In adults, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, the diseases of the Western lifestyle take an increasing toll daily.

The elderly in Asia still practice the secrets that kept them alive and well like exercise.

Or a diet that is more about vegetables than it is about pizza and pepperoni.

Or getting out every day and chatting with friends.

And they have lessons to teach the next generation about respect for the wisdom of old age about staying healthy by practicing self-discipline lessons that the oldest generation once passed on.

But, Petersen cautions, for the first time in history, the next generation no longer cares to hear.