Abstract: Faced with the increasingly severe pressure of elderly care, time banks, as a mutual-aid social elderly care model, are gaining growing attention. Japan has actively explored the operation mode of time banks since the 1970s and gradually integrated them into the social elderly care system. After years of development, Japan’s time banks have become increasingly mature in terms of organizational forms and activity designs. It is particularly noteworthy that NALC(Nippon Active Life Club), as the largest time bank in Japan, has accumulated valuable experience in its development process and in addressing challenges, which holds significant reference value for the sustainable development of time banks in China. Specifically, NALC once faced multiple issues in its development, such as insufficiently close network connections among members, inadequate relevant rules and regulations, and a relatively weak foundation of mutual trust. To effectively tackle these challenges, NALC successfully realized the transformation and utilization of social capital by actively building close social networks, establishing scientific reciprocal norms, and forging a profound foundation of trust. The aforementioned strategies have significantly enhanced the resilience of its organization, further updated its maintenance system, and provided a practical and valuable reference solution for solving similar development problems. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of NALC’s operational mechanism and maintenance system is conducive to extracting effective paths for the sustainable development of time banks and laying a foundation for the innovation and improvement of social elderly care models.

Key words: time bank, NALC, social capital, aging, social elderly care, sustainable development