This paper is a literature review of factors that influence family-centered caregiving for frail elderly parents in modern Japan from a historical perspective and in the context of an aging society. The meaning of family caregiving in Japan is affected by many sociocultural and historical factors and is changing together with societal changes and developments. These factors include: (a) Japanese cultural background and its current changes, (b) the value of dependence and how it affects the caregiving process, (c) the nonmutable nature of frailty, (d) the value of privacy and the stigma associated with long-term institutionalization, and (e) the devaluation of unhealthiness. Implications for clinical nursing practice are addressed.