Is There a Policy Framework for Robotization of Elder Care?

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In 2007, under Shinzo Abe, the Japanese government published a document called innovation 25. It imagined what Japan would look like in the year 2025 with all of these like high tech devices, including robots. And it definitely kind of evokes that kind of Jetsons 1950s, futurism and actually was later published as a kind of manga comic book in Japan. But I do have to admit, you know, with COVID and with a lot of remote learning and like telehealth and everything is not actually that far from what has actually happened.

Paris Marx is joined by James Wright to discuss Japan’s efforts to develop robots to care for its growing elderly population, what the government hoped to achieve with that plan, and why it hasn’t worked out as planned.

James Wright is a research associate with Turning Institute and a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He’s also the author of Robots Won’t Save Japan. You can follow James on Twitter at @jms_wright.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Paris is visiting New Zealand and doing a number of events through the latter half of March. Find all the dates and details here.
James wrote about Japan’s efforts to automate elder care for MIT Tech Review.
Jennifer Robertson spoke about the gendering of robots to cement conservative gender norms.

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