This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the use of patient-/person- centred communication in providing healthcare for ageing populations through an ethnographic approach to physician in-home medical consultations in Tokyo, Japan, alongside interviews with physicians. It focuses on illustrating how linguistic dimensions of person-centred communication work by citing examples of case studies, as well as the sociocultural differences between the US, the UK, Japan and other societies in which person-centred communication models are employed. The author uses her own framework, which takes into account face and politeness theory, and makes recommendations for future training.