
Japan is embracing nursing-care robots - prostoalex
https://www.economist.com/news/business/21731677-around-5000-nursing-care-homes-across-country-are-testing-robots-japan-embracing?fsrc=scn/tw/te/rfd/pe
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sgdesign
A lot of Japan's embrace of robots is not so much due to what robots do, but
due to what they represent: modernity, luxury, precision, etc.

For a nursing care facility, being able to tout a robot nurse is great for
marketing. Whether or not the robot is useful is almost secondary.

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rm_-rf_slash
It is my understanding that Japan has a horrific birth rate and ratio of
elderly to working-age adults, necessitating nursing care robots.

In many Western countries, the answer to these problems has been immigration.
However, Japan is famously insular; a prospective immigrant cannot hope to
naturalize as a Japanese citizen they way one could in, say, Canada or
Germany.

So Japan is otherwise stuck with three options: let the elderly wither and die
with little care or dignity, commit a vast portion of Japan’s relatively
scarce workforce to take care of its elders, or robots.

Japan picks robots.

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lovemenot
I don't understand why you excluded immigration as one of those choices.

In fact, nurses have been trickling in from Philippines and elsewhere. This
program could be expanded considerably soon, as we have already seen with
retail, construction and other sectors.

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ilamont
_Many of its firms see great potential in “carerobos” that look after the
elderly._

I'm skeptical, and it's not just because of the long history of western news
organizations reporting on supposedly transformational public-facing robotic
inventions in Japan that fail to pan out (1).

Caring for patients requires several skills that robots cannot handle well,
including manual dexterity and interpersonal communication. Yes, these things
will surely get better over time but it won't be soon enough for the
demographic crisis now facing the nation.

I think the biggest potential for transforming nursing care in Japan and
elsewhere lie in technologies and inventions outside of robotics - better
drugs, mobility tools and prosthetics, treatments and devices to improve
vision and communication, and monitoring systems.

1\.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2009/may/08/1](https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2009/may/08/1)

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flor1s
The types of robots used in Japan are very diverse. HAL Lumbar Support is an
assistive device that helps caregivers to lift patients / objects more easily
(it is also being tested in other areas such as construction work). Paro is a
seal "stuffed animal robot" with minimal sensing and actuation, but it's very
cute nonetheless (if you ever visit Tokyo, go to Miraikan in Odaiba, you can
touch it there). Pepper (made by a French subsidiary of SoftBank) is a
humanoid shaped robot on a wheel base that is mostly good for voice/gesture
communication.

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pdkl95
Katsuhiro Otomo[1] explored the idea of robots providing elder care in the
1991 animated movie _Roujin Z_ [2].

(for a short overview of the movie and the issues it explores, I recommend
this[3] essay by _Pause and Select_ )

[1] most well-known for writing the manga "Akira"

[2]
[https://myanimelist.net/anime/2000/Roujin_Z](https://myanimelist.net/anime/2000/Roujin_Z)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufiv4U_Lczg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufiv4U_Lczg)

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tmnvix
The dystopian Halo Ice Cream ad immediately comes to mind:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4IFNKYmLa8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4IFNKYmLa8)

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rsbartram
Children's Hospital Los Angeles is already using VR to help train hospital
staff. As automation coupled with new technology increases we will see an
increase in the health related verticals adapting to new cutting edge tech.
[https://latechnews.org/childrens-hospital-la-vr-
technology/](https://latechnews.org/childrens-hospital-la-vr-technology/)

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MollyR
So they are already starting to use automation to address the labor shortage
from a decreasing population.

This should be the way forward rather than importing foreign populations,
because a gradual decrease of human populations is necessary for preserving
more our natural resources.

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petard
I wonder how the lack of human social interaction will impact the the well
being of the ones taken care of.

~~~
geomark
Might be better than the current state of affairs in which a growing number of
elderly die of neglect alone in their homes. Cleanup of these situations is a
growth business [1].

[1]
[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/07/21/national/cleanu...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/07/21/national/cleanup-
after-unnoticed-death-now-a-growing-industry/)

~~~
natecavanaugh
Sadly, can confirm. I've seen or overheard far far far too many conversations
where someone was in pain and neglected, or verbally abused by nurses.

If Im lucky enough to feel old one day, I'll take an impersonal robot over
real life versions of online trolls.

I haven't seen how it's handled outside of the US, but I would love some
examples of nursing care done right, but it's just a tough situation all
around. I wish there were some way to align all of our incentives.

Edit: In relation to the comment, I meant that to mean that neglect is
happening in both obvious neglect, but also abandoning people at nursing
homes, without realizing that this can take a fragile person's mental state
from "holding on" to completely broken.

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mosselman
Javascript paywall? I disabled javascript through the development console and
could read the article. Maybe a bit off-topic, but this could be solved
better.

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magic_beans
Some marketing person probably forced a front-end developer with no back-end
permissions to create a paywall on a short timeline.

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harmlessposter
Rather than make robots, why don't they import millions of folks from Central
America to Do The Jobs That The Japanese Won't Do?

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mc32
SEAsia have Indonesia and the Philippines as their equivalent. They have tried
Philippine nurses, but they tend to complain they don't pick up their culture
well enough.

~~~
ilamont
Japan also has very strict licensing requirements for certain health
professions, most of which require fluency in Japanese.

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yipopov
[http://archive.is/z9iUE](http://archive.is/z9iUE)

