An increasing elderly population combined with a decreasing birth rate poses urgent problems for the future of Japan. To what extent can social services, technological innovations, and out-of-the box thinking help alter a perilous course?
At Tokyo University of Science, inside Professor Kobayashi’s lab, is a lightweight apparatus that belongs to a burgeoning field known as wearable robotics. In this particular case, the apparatus is a hip exoskeleton. For those who could use a bit of muscular boost, like those getting up in age, it can be a game-changing device. Potentially painful and dangerous activities—like lifting a sack of groceries or moving a flower pot across the yard—become safe and manageable. Kobayashi, an expert in mechanical engineering, designed the device to give the elderly more independence and mobility—not to mention peace of mind.
From families and communities to cities and nations, looking after the elderly has never been an easy task. Even in the case of Japan, a country known for revering its elders, taking care of its rapidly aging population has become a complex and even dire situation. Issues surrounding aging have become increasingly pressing topics for both the country’s government and 120 million citizens.
In a 2020 documentary called Coping with a Super-Aging Nation, journalist Yumi Akari examines how Japan has been dealing with a confluence of three major factors: a precipitously low birth rate, a declining workforce, and a rapidly aging population. While Japan’s circumstances are extreme, they’re not entirely unique. Countries like Italy, Greece, South Korea, and Thailand also find themselves in similar straits. And with birth rates around the world continuing to fall, many other nations are likely to end up in the same boat.
Low birth rates, however, are just one of Japan’s pressing issues. One of the many eye-opening statistics that Akari draws our attention to is that nearly one-third of Japan’s population is over 65. That percentage is made all the more stark when considered in the context of another statistic: the average life expectancy is 84. Many Japanese, of course, live well beyond that. It’s fitting that one of the many people Akari talks to in this laidback but informative documentary about aging is a nimble-minded octogenarian app developer. A sign of the times, indeed.
Coping With a Super-Aging Nation, which is part of a 4-episode series called Deciphering Japan, gives viewers a brisk but helpful introduction to some of the many intertwined problems Japan is facing. Akari visits rural and metropolitan areas, speaks with young and old alike, and considers how specific instances of technology, volunteerism, and government initiatives have tried to help steer things on a better course.
The documentary’s first segment is perhaps its most energetic. Akari meets with a woman named Keiko Watanabe, a recent sexagenarian who’s found meaningful connection with a group called Bamboo Shoot. With its combination of activities that include hip hop and dance, it’s not exactly the kind of social circle one expects from people of retirement age. But between the exercise, chances to express themselves, and socialize with members of their peer group, members of Bamboo Shoot are taking a decidedly proactive approach to staying both young at heart and physically fit.
For some, Bamboo Shoot and similar groups may help fulfill what they’re looking for. But a prominent message of Coping With a Super-Aging Nation is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. As with any demographic, the needs and wants of an aging population can vary dramatically. Various factors, like finances and location to physical mobility and mental acuteness, can play a major role. While some may seek avenues for socialization, others may crave more stimulation for the mind.
The aforementioned app developer, whose name is Masako Wakamiya, took it upon herself, beginning when she was 81 years young, to design an app specifically for her age group. While there’s plenty of apps designed to help foster a sharp mind, games that are tailored to one’s familiarities can go a long way in increasing the satisfaction of using them. With that in mind, Wakamiya not only learned to code but went on to develop an app called Hinadan. Centered on a festival known as Hinamatsuri (dating back to the 17th century), players put particular dolls in certain locations. “The arrangement of Hinadan has stayed the same since the olden times,” says Wakamyia, “and elderly people know it by heart.” The game quickly gained popularity.
Hinadan is just one app (a very popular one, to be sure) but Akari sees Wakamiya’s creation as having an even broader significance. “The Hinadan app acts as a gateway for the elderly to the world of tech,” she says, “built around something that already feels familiar to them.”
Her observation is on point. Despite the increasing proliferation of technology, if a sizable percent of a given demographic doesn’t engage with some aspect of it—for whatever reasons those might be—there’s something greatly left to be desired about how we understand the role of technology. As Akari rightly says, “All the technological aging solutions in the world are pointless if the elderly themselves don’t actually use them.”
Along with technological innovations, Akari explores the role that volunteers can play in the lives of the elderly. There’s a really pleasing segment that involves a man named Seichi Hirumu, a long time denizen of Murayam Danchi and who for decades has owned a store in the shopping district. While Hirumu is hardly young himself, he’s nevertheless made it his purpose to look after those even older. It’s partly thanks to him that there’s a place like the Elderly Care Advisory Center, where older people can receive various kinds of support: from help with prescriptions, to filling out forms, or even just having a place to go and enjoy a cup of tea. There’s no doubt that all of those things have helped provide considerable peace of mind to many elderly people.
Towards the end of the documentary we see Akari visit a town called Okutama, which she describes as “teetering on the edge of oblivion.” There, she visits with Kazutaka Niijima, the director of the Youth Revitalization department. When Akari is told that there are less than 20 children born each year in a town of 5,000 people, she seems genuinely taken aback—and with good reason. She tells us that “the average global birth rate for a town of Okutama’s size is 93.”
With a statistic like that, it’s no wonder that Akari has some doubts how effective certain programs can really be, like the “vacant housing scheme” designed to repopulate towns by essentially offering houses for free given certain requirements. While the idea seems well worth trying, if the young people who move into the homes ultimately have only loose and fleeting commitments to the area (owing in part to lack of opportunities for education and employment), “Won’t Okutama just end up back at square one?” asks Akari. The mission that Kazutaka Niijima has been tasked with is clearly not an easy one.
Coping With a Super-Aging Nation, though it’s focused on a single country and a very specific set of problems, feels highly relevant to so many aspects of modern life. As we head further into a decade which has already seen extraordinary landmarks in artificial intelligence, we are faced with a host of heavy questions. One of those, surely, is this: How can we utilize the latest technologies without losing sight of all the incredibly rich and indescribable offerings that we have to give to one another.
Sometimes—perhaps most especially near the end of life—what’s needed more than ever is a fellow human being at the bedside.
Spectatio 