In this policy brief, journalist Tomoko Sakota examines the challenges that Japan has overcome as a country that experienced rapid population aging and how its systems to address its older population have been built and improved over time. In particular, she explains how, after a process of trial and error, Japan landed upon the concept of “community-based integrated care.” It is hoped that Japan’s experience in shifting away from a focus on medicalizing aging and building nursing homes toward a focus on integrated care that allows older people to age in place can offer useful insights for those Asian countries that are now aging at a rapid pace as well.