Intro

As people in our country steadily age, they are left with many decisions to make about their care. Although many times elderly people have family or friends to help take care of them, sometimes this is not a viable option. These elderly people are either left to fend for themselves or to reside in a nursing home, cared for by strangers. In countries such as the United States, where the birth rate is holding fairly steady at a rate of around 14.13 births/1000 people [1], there is not much of a concern about having a steadily aging population. However, in other countries, such as Japan, where the birthrate has been decreasing since 2001 and as of 2004 was at 9.56 births/1000 people [2], providing viable healthcare for all elderly people is becoming a problem. According to one estimate [3] by 2050 as much as 36% of Japan's population may be comprised of people 65 and older. This, combined with an increasing reluctance on the part of Japanese women to take care of their elders and the fact that Japanese people have the longest average lifespan in the world (79 years for men and 89 years for women in 2002 [4]) could pose a serious problem for Japan.

One solution that has been proposed, and has already been implemented in some areas of Japan, is to use robots to take care of the elderly. These robots would assist the elderly with everyday household tasks that might be difficult for elderly people to do, as well as provide companionship and security for those whose family was unable to care for them. The robots would thereby relieve some of the burden on a family caring for an elderly person (while not replacing human companionship), or assist elderly people who lack access to family care or a nursing home. The robots would also help fill in in areas where healthcare workers are usually needed, hopefully not replacing jobs. While bringing in foreign healthcare workers is an option in Japan a general anti-immigration sentiment in the country has prevented many workers from entering the country--in the last decade it has only issued 50,000 work visas per year as compared to the 640,000 people who are needed to keep Japan's population from shrinking. [5] This makes robots a more attractive option. But what kinds of things would make such bots viable in the mainstream of society?

There are already some options for elderly people in Japan, but there are limitations to the size and scope of current technology.