Japan’s Bold Steps to Care for Seniors

choi

Ian Marlow, Japan's Bold Steps. Globe and China, Nov 14, 2015.www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in ... on/article27259703/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/g ... on/article27259703/

Quote:

"Roughly 25 per cent of Japan’s population is currently over the age of 65, compared to just 16.1 per cent in Canada. But in Japan, this demographic is forecast to make up a full 40 per cent of the country’s population by 2060, the same percentage as in many rural areas emptied of young people today, such as Asuke

"The absolute number of old people [in Japan] will soon level off in Japan, but the proportion of the population who are young is declining rapidly: The percentage of Japanese younger than 19 years old, who constituted 40 per cent of the population in 1960, will decline to just 13 per cent in 2060. Japan’s total population peaked in 2010 at around 127 million people and has already begun to decline.

"The elderly in Japan, similar to seniors across Asia, are less likely to live with their children, though in Japan this is still quite common (roughly 41 per cent of Japanese seniors live with a child, compared to about 80 per cent in 1960).

"Another reason Japan aged so rapidly is because the country’s postwar baby boom between 1947 and 1949 was extremely short – cut off in part by a 1948 law that gave easy access to induced abortions – and was followed almost immediately by a prolonged period of low fertility. The young population that came from this boom were instrumental in Japan’s remarkable economic recovery, and as the country’s economic reconstruction gained speed, another small baby boom 'echo' ['boomlet' in US] took place between 1971 and 1974, at the height of Japan Inc’s prosperity.  'The government realized it had to change the system,' says Yoshihiro KANEKO 金子 能宏 [male] of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research 国立社会保障・人口問題研究所, noting that the system will come under renewed strain as the second baby boom generation begins to retire.

"Japan chose to supplement its national pension plan with long-term-care insurance (LTCI) 介護保険制度, which was implemented in 2000. Professor Nanako TAMIYA 田宮 菜奈子 [both 菜 and 奈 have 'na' as Japanese pronunciation; 筑波大学], a Japanese health care expert writing in The Lancet, called LTCI 'one of the most generous long-term-care systems in the world in terms of coverage and benefits.' * * * People pay into the system starting in their 40s and are eligible to receive benefits starting at 65, or earlier in the case of illness. * * * The LTCI system covers up to $2,900 a month in services, as opposed to cash payment, and does require 'co-payments' from patients. LTCI co-payments are capped or waived for low-income individuals, and the system saves money by providing options other than full-on institutionalization.  Around six million people are enrolled in LTCI.

choi

Note:
(a) Asuke 足助(町), Aichi  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asuke,_Aichi
(a town, whose 2005 population was 9,699)

The capital of Aichi Prefecture 愛知県 is Nagoya 名古屋(市).

* The Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of 足 are “soku” and ashi,” respectively.

(b) "At a Lawson store in Saitama City, the company created a hybrid store featuring a 'seniors’ salon' with a blood pressure monitor, pamphlets on municipal health care services and nursing homes, and on-staff social workers."
(i)
(A) Lawson, Inc "today exists as a Japanese company [based in Tokyo] and is the second largest convenience store chain in the country behind 7-Eleven."  Wikipedia
(B) An overview of Lawson:

Lisa Abraham, Lawson's stores prosper in Japan; Chip dip still available at local Circle K outlets. Akron Beacon Journal, Jan 13, 2013.
http://cable.tmcnet.com/news/2009/01/13/3910984.htm
("10 years before Consolidated sold off the US Lawson's stores [in 1984], it signed an agreement with Daiei Inc, one of Japan's largest grocery store chains, to operate Lawson's stores there")

* One of the largest supermarket chain in Japan, The Daiei, Inc 株式会社ダイエー started in 1957 as a pharmacy 大栄薬品工業 (大栄 is pronounced 'daiei").
* In 2000 The Daiei had financial difficulty and sold Lawson to Mitsubishi Corp, which now runs Lawson.
* Consolidated Foods Corp in 1956 bought a company known as Kitchens of Sara Lee, and in 1985 renamed itself as Sara Lee. In turn, Charles Lubin named Kitchens of Sara Lee after his eight-year-old daughter, Sara Lee Lubin (later Sara Lee Schupf).
(C) Our History. In About Us. Lawson, undated
http://lawson.jp/en/about/history/
(D) Back to Lisa Abraham's report. Lawson was established in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_Falls,_Ohio
(a city; Cuyahoga Falls is named after the Cuyahoga River [qv, whose map shows Akron] (which flows into Lake Erie) and the series of waterfalls that run along the southern boundary of the city

The City of Cuyahoga Falls is near Akron. That is why Akron Beacon Journal delved into Lawson of Japan.
(ii) City of Saitama is capital of Saitama Prefecture 埼玉県, which is Tokyo's northern neighbor. Thus the entire prefecture is deemed suburbs of Tokyo.
(iii) “seniors’ salon”  

The writing in Japanese is just サロン (katakana for “salon”).
(iv) “on-staff social workers”

staff (n): "[noncount[able]] (US) There are 100 people on staff. [=working as members of the staff]" (brackets original, except the pair bookend “able.”)
Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary, undated
www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/staff

(c)
(i) Japanese English dictionary
* kaigo 介護 【かいご】 (n): "nursing; care; caregiving"
(ii) Japanese surnames:
* Shimamura  島村
* Ikushima  生島
* Nozawa  野沢
* Iwatsuki  岩槻 (槻 or 欅 is a kind of trees)
* Hori  堀
(iii) "Ken KATŌ 加藤 憲, an assistant professor at Nagoya’s Fujita Health University 藤田保健衛生大学 [private; 1964- ]"
(iv) "One of the best examples is a robotic seal called Paro, invented by Takanori SHIBATA 柴田 崇徳, the chief senior research scientist at Tsukuba’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology."

* National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)  国立 (研究開発法人) 産業技術総合研究所 is government-owned and -operated.  The Institute has nothing to do with Tsukuba University 筑波大学 (a national university). However, both AIST and the University are located in City of Tsukuba 筑波市, Ibaraki Prefecture 茨城県.  (So the “Tsukuba’s” in the quotation refers to the City, not the University.


(d) "Professor Shigeki SUGANO 菅野 重樹 of Tokyo’s Waseda University 早稲田大学 [so named because it was established in Waseda neighborhood (full of rice paddies in ancient times) of Tokyo] invented the humanoid Twendy-One トゥエンディ - ワン [katakana for 'twenty one'] robot, which can help seniors out of bed, grab condiments from the fridge and deliver trays of food to elderly people."

"can help seniors out of bed."  The operative word is "help."  See the "Demonstration" in Twenty One's official site.
twendyone.com/demo.html
(the first two video clips)
(e) "Ueda Kaichi, a 32-year-old who founded a non-profit that helps disabled people find jobs, thinks like many young people in Japan, who are increasingly skipping pension payments. He worries that the current system operates solely for the boomers retiring now, and will change for the worse as more Japanese partake of the country’s level of social services. He doubts Japan’s system will be as generous or as affordable when he retires"

I do not know why the report suddenly changes the order of Japanese names. Here, UEDA is the surname 上田. UEDA Ka-ichi may well be 上田 嘉一.