Inside Japan’s long experiment in automating elder care

Japan has been developing robots to care for older people for over two decades. The national government spent hundreds of millions of dollars on research and development for such devices. The reason for racing to roboticize care seems obvious. Birth rates are below replacement levels, the population has begun to shrink, and in 2000 there were about four working-age people in Japan. The cost of caring for older people is going up fast. The shortage of care workers is expected to get worse over the next 10 years. There is little doubt that many people in Japan see robots as a way to fill in for missing workers without paying higher wages or confronting difficult questions about imported labor.

There are different shapes and sizes of care robot. Some are meant for physical care, such as machines that can help lift older people if they are unable to get up by themselves; assist with mobility and exercise; monitor their physical activity and detect falls; feed them; and help them use the toilet. Others aim at engaging older people socially and emotionally in order to manage, reduce, and even prevent cognitive decline; they might also provide therapy for lonely older people, make those with dementia- related conditions easier for care staff to manage, and reduce the number of caregivers required for day- to day Most of the robots have been marketed towards residential care facilities.

A growing body of evidence is finding that robots tend to end up creating more work for caregivers.

The problem of elder care in Japan is thought to be solved by robots. The country leads the world in humanoid robot research. Many Japanese people seem to like the idea of interacting withrobots in everyday life. Commentators often point to religious and cultural explanations for this apparent affinity, including an animist worldview that encourages people to view robot characters as having spirit of their own, and the huge popularity of robot characters in Manga and animation. Care robots will relieve the burden on human care workers and become a major new export industry for Japanese manufacturers. The title of the two books written by Nakayama Shin and Kishi Nobuhito is "robots will save japan"

The popularity of robots in Japan is dependent on decades of relentless promotion by the state, media, and industry. Accepting the idea of a robot is one thing, but being willing to interact with them in real life is something else. Their real-life abilities are behind the expectations shaped by their hype. Despite the publicity, government support, and subsidies,robots don't really feature in any major aspect of most people's daily lives in japan

Out of a sample of people who provided home care, only 2% had experience with a care robot, while a major national survey of over 9000 elder-care institutions in Japan showed that only 10% had introduced any care robot. There is evidence to suggest that when a robot is purchased, it is usually only used for a short time before being locked away.

The promise of carerobots and their actual use have been the focus of my research. I have spent more than 18 months conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Japan, including time at a nursing care home that was trialing three of them: Paro, a robotic seal, and Pepper, a humanoid robot. In order to prevent care workers from having to manually lift residents, Paro to offer a robotic form of animal therapy, and Pepper to run recreational exercise sessions so that staff would be freed were all part of the plan.

Paro is an animal therapy robot.

Problems quickly came to light. The staff stopped using Hug after a few days because it was time consuming and cumbersome to move from room to room. Only a small number of them were able to use the machine.

Paro was liked by both staff and residents. When people pet and talk to it, it can make noises, move its head, and wiggle its tail. Care workers were happy with the robot at the beginning. There were difficulties soon emerging. One resident tried to "skin" Paro by removing its outer layer of synthetic fur, while another refused to eat or sleep without it by her side. It didn't seem to reduce the repetitive behavior patterns of those with severe dementia when staff kept a close eye on Paro.