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Giorgia Feltrin
Matrikelnummer 108022239219

JAPANESE SILVER MARKET
AND
TECHNOLOGY FOR ELDERLY CARE

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Gender, Technology and Wellbeing
Individual Report for 6CPS

INDEX
1

Introduction to Robotics and Japan’s Silver Market
1
...
2 The Creation of Society 5
...
1 Classification of Robotics by Application
2
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Introduction to Robotics and Japan’s Silver Market
The Japanese Silver Market is a successful example of innovation for its implementation of Robotics to
overcome contemporary society’s problematics
...
Nowadays, the field has greatly
advanced with the exploitation of new technologies and has expanded its range of application, contributing to
the creation of Japan’s Silver Market
...
With this, the thought of serving – for a single firm – the whole industry became infeasible
...

The Silver Market is considered a new market for two reasons: first, the products are labelled as new whether
they include small changes to already existing products or distinctively novel changes; second reason is related
to the target group – differing from the already existing “Gerontological” Market for disabled elder people, it
includes also healthy consumers
...

o Luxury goods for wealthy seniors, not exclusively age-related
...

And the end-products of the industry include:
o Specialized products from relatively low-tech to high-tech devices
...

o Universal designs (UD), exploitable by people with and without special needs
...

o Previously existing technologies combined with other products
...

The expression Quality of Life Technologies is used to describe novel technologies specifically designed to
affect the life of those who use them, whether to maintain or enhance the physical, cognitive, social, or
emotional functioning of humans
...
Hence, technologies for elderly are a
subset of QoL technologies that (a) take into account life-span developmental changes in sensory-motor
functioning, cognition, and motivation, and (b) address issues of major concern, namely health, autonomy, and
psychological well-being
...

Addressing two types of autonomy – social autonomy enhancing communication and physical autonomy – is
generally possible with Robotics; in financial autonomy, however, the devices are akin to luxury for most
families, especially for those individuals who need them most, not receiving any external help from relatives
...
For this and other reasons, despite a general
enthusiasm, in Japan the current implementation in elderly care is small and mainly limited to healthcare
facilities
...
This, assuring being able to identify which products

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3

will meet the most needs of customers
...
Something that
may ease the reluctance of adopting these devices in private household is the feeling of shame from receiving
help or care from others, which one would not feel towards a robot, whose existence is also easier to hide
...

1
...
Japan is considered a forerunner in the Silver Industry, the idea of exploiting robots in the care of
elderly has spread with the rising concerns for the population’s progressive aging and the lack of young people
to take care of them
...
While aging-related issues are a
common problem of developed nations, comparison studies between 2000 and 2008 showed how Japan would
have suffered the heaviest consequences in the upcoming years, given that at the beginning of the century its
citizens were already more over-aged than other OECD1 countries, and the 22% of the population in 2009
consisted of 65-or-more-year-old people, expected to raise up to 34% before year 2035
...

In 2007, Japan was already labelled as chokoreika shakai, hyper-aged society; Europe and the USA, on the
other hand, were bound to be facing similar aging problems soon after and slowly started to invest – even if
never as much as Japan – in the field
...
44 million people, the 11th most populous State in the world
– presented a total of 35
...

From the surveys conducted for the publication Care Personnel’s Attitudes and Fears Toward Care Robots in
Elderly Care: A Comparison of Data from the Care Personnel in Finland and Japan by Kangasniemi, M
...
Taking part on
the questionnaire were 200 Finnish and 86 Japanese care workers, with average ages respectively of 43 and 41
years, and with 12 years of experience in the field
...
Japan’s percentages, on the contrary, maintained an average of 80% positive
answers, decreasing only in the last aspect, which still encountered a 45% of favorable responses
...
The majority of both, however, think a robot could enhance the
safety of older people in their households (80% in Japan and 66% in Finland), remind them of their medicines
and upcoming appointments, and in being guides for physical exercise
...
Finally, the
last statements, shared by both almost equally, regarded the possibility of their jobs being endangered
...
Indeed, these characteristics can only partly explain
Japan’s continuous embracing of new technologies in domestic life and working society; government support
and contribution played a major role
...
More specifically, calling for more efforts in ‘priority research
areas’, namely nano-handling technology, Kansi interfaces4, robot vision, mobile technology, and advanced
manipulation
...
Said shortages were
expected mostly in the healthcare and nursing sector, but also in public security, therefore additional efforts
had been placed in the development of Humanoid Robots, with human semblances and communication abilities
...
Honda, Sony,
and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are registered as the major firms to have invested in this field and these
changes and investments have been highly supported by the government, because the Robotics Market was
expected to be worth 6
...
Accordingly, financial subsidies for care facilities to
4

According to Innovation Nation (Holroyd, C
...
2007, in “Robotics in Japan”), “technology for interpreting
human behavior, simulation systems and virtual reality
...

1
...
0
“Human-centered society that balances economic progress and resolves social problems with systems that
integrate cyberspace and physical space
...
0
All these investments were meant to create Society 5
...
0, already a system interconnected by technology and information networks
...
Society 5
...
The creation of this safe cyber and physical
environment should then allow women and elderly to abandon their rather passive role in the community, not
only avoid general demographic issues
...
Society 5
...

Government’s fundings started in 2013 and showed results five years later, where the Shintomi Nursing Home
in Tokyo hosted 20 different models of caregiver robots – from cute animals and babies to humanoids and
lifting robots
...
Following surveys showed how 80% of the Japanese population would gladly welcome the help of
robotic caregivers in their households (fig
...


2
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1 Classification of Robotics by Application
As already mentioned, Japan has been leading worldwide for a long time in the manufacturing and employing
of Industrial Robots, before expanding its supremacy to commercial and domestic spheres
...

The origin of Industrial Robots was already strictly connected to aging issues and labour shortages, the first
introduction in manufacturing processes dating back to the 1960s
...
According to the UN
Economic Commission for Europe, by the end of 2004, the total worldwide stock of industrial robots
approximately amounted to 1 million and about 356,000 were of Japanese property
...

Based on this definition, a starting distinction can be made regar
without the use of names or accordingly to preferences
...

The philosopher Martha Nussbaum developed the Capability Approach focused on social justice and inviolable
dignity, in order to define what is necessary for a life to be considered worthy of its definition
...
With this in mind, she highlighted ten
central capabilities: (1) life, of a worth-living length; (2) bodily health, with adequate nourishment and shelter;
(3) bodily integrity, as being able to move freely from place to place, secured from assaults; (4) senses,
imagination, and thoughts, in freedom of expression and religious practice; (5) emotions, to feel for other
people and things; (6) practical reason, to engage in critical reflection about one’s own life; (7) affiliation,
engaging in social interactions while maintaining bases of self-respect and equality; (8) other species, living
with concern for animals, plants and nature; (9) play, to enjoy recreational activities; and (10) control over
one’s environment, being able to engage in politics, or to hold property rights, or again enter the working
industry
...

Another ethical concern in this aspect is that often the use of technology and robots to take care of people,
whether elderly, disabled or babies, is actually exploited to caregivers’ benefits more than that of the person in
actual need, just for the amount of work and costs reduction
...
Patients themselves have stated that doing things independently is
incidental to their self-worth and they may actually prefer the assistance of a robot over a real person
...
If
necessary, there is always the possibility for a trained operator to run the robot and, for more complex situations,
a could use them to remotely interact with the patient
...

The second category, revolving around the monitoring of behaviors and health, fully utilizes all the benefits of
remotely controlled telepresence
...
, a
talking robot equipped with cameras and microphones, designed to interact with family members (actually
distinguish ten different users by faces and voices, and recognizing about 650 words), walk around and dance
autonomously, developing its own personality over time through interacting with humans; or CareBot from
Gecko Systems Internation

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