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Like many other developed economies, Japan’s population is aging rapidly. Towns and cities outside the main metropolises of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya are rapidly depopulating as the young move to the cities for work, leaving behind the elderly, among whom loneliness is rising. Japan’s reluctance to reform her immigration and labor laws means that the number of healthcare and municipal workers in the rural areas are decreasing even as demand is soaring in tandem with an aging population.
In Saijo City, Ehime prefecture, NEC Corporation worked with the municipal government to rent out its PaPeRo i communication robot to elderly residents residing alone. These robots are programmed to interact with the elderly, send updates to the local social care office, and transmit messages and photos between their wards and their family living elsewhere. This enables city workers and family members to check in on the elderly remotely, while increasing social contact and alleviating elder loneliness.
Over time, production costs should decrease as technology in this field advances, reducing prices and raising its affordability. In the meantime, cities that are interested in trialing this technology should work with developers to raise awareness among citizens such as by converting and deploying them for use in more public locations such as hospitals and pharmacies. Further, initial trial subsidies could be introduced, as Saijo City did, to create local buy-in and support.
