The prevention of long-term geriatric nursing care is an urgent task for Japan, a country which is about to become a super-aged society. The number of people certified as being in need of longterm care (or support) was 2.18 million in 2000 when the government of Japan began enforcement of the Long-Term Care Insurance Act, and that number had nearly tripled by 2015, reaching 6.3 million 1 . Under these circumstances, preventive care services managed by local municipalities should bear the

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... ibility for curbing the increasing trend in the number of elderly citizens who are certified as being in need of long-term care (or support) 2-4 . These community-supportive preventive care services, introduced after a revision was made to the Long-Term Care Insurance Act in fiscal 2006, changed forms to become general preventive care services in fiscal 2015 following a series of legal amendments requiring care preventive services to be provided in a combined manner without separating out fragile elderly people, who are subject to secondary prevention, from healthy elderly people, who are subject to primary prevention 5 . Regarding general preventive care services, local governments are required to set up places throughout each municipality where both healthy and fragile elderly citizens can get together and continue to take part in preventive care activities managed by community initiative. In order to develop and