Issues and challenges in comparing carers’ quality of life in England and Japan: lessons from developing the Japanese version of the ASCOT-Carer

Improving the quality of life of carers is the ultimate goal of carers’ policy and support services. This paper discusses issues and challenges in conceptualising and comparing carers’ quality of life in England and Japan, based on developing a Japanese-version of the self-completion Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for Carers (ASCOT-Carer). Since supporting carers in employment is a key concern in both countries, we particularly focus on this group of carers.