<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi All </div><div><span class="Asgive ng" style="border-style:none;background:none">FYI article</span> on providing technology to seniors in Japan</div><div><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/26/texas-japan-seniors-technology-monitoring-devices/?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid">https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/26/texas-japan-seniors-technology-monitoring-devices/?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid</a></div><div><br></div><div><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">TOKYO — In Shibuya, home to one of Tokyo’s busiest train stations and shopping destinations, <a href="https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kenko/koreisha-seikatsu/koreisha-zaitaku/mimamori_sa-bisu.html" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">seniors can choose a monitoring service</a> and the city will install it and pay for the service subscription for up to a year.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">They can pick <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBiWrhjlYc" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">Hello Light</a>, an LED lightbulb that autonomously sends text messages to caretakers when the light hasn’t been turned on for a while.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">Or, <a href="https://mimamori.novars.jp/" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">MaBeee</a>, a battery that powers TV remotes, lights and other small devices and alerts family members when they are not being used.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">There’s also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJhBE_39Qo" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">Bocco</a>, which can store medication reminders, transmit weather alerts and tell when the home is too hot or too cold. A nod to Japan’s affinity for anthropomorphic packaging, the messaging device is shaped like a small snowman.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">“One of the biggest problems we have in Japan, in this [elder care] industry, is the gap between the demand and the supply because there are a growing number of elderly people but we are understaffed,” said Masaru Yamaoka, general manager of <a href="https://news.panasonic.com/global/press/en251215-4" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">Panasonic’s Smart Aging Project</a>, one of many divisions housed within Japan’s corporate brands focused on technology for the aging population.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">Finding sustainable, low-cost ways to care for the elderly population is a problem Texas is all too familiar with and Japan, home to the world’s largest over-65 population at <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/16/japan/society/japans-elderly-population/" style="box-sizing:inherit;background-color:initial;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(34,34,34);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(161,210,223)">36 million</a>, is beating Texas in solving.</p><div class="gmail-wp-block-group gmail-is-style-shadow gmail-newsletter-cta gmail-is-style-default gmail-has-background" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px;background-color:rgb(251,251,251)"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group__inner-container gmail-is-layout-constrained gmail-wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 gmail-wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="box-sizing:inherit"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group gmail-alignfull" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:32px 0px 0px;padding:0px 30px 30px"><span style="background-color:transparent">Chronic workforce shortages along with rising costs to care for a growing older population have prompted Japan — from companies to local governments — to heavily invest in technology to make it easier for family members to remotely monitor the elderly. The country’s aim is to keep aging residents in their homes, rather than in an expensive nursing home, for as long as they can.</span></div></div></div><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">Texas shares the same goal. Keeping older Texans healthier in their own home not only costs both the healthcare system less, but most people prefer it.</p><p class="gmail-wp-block-paragraph" style="box-sizing:inherit;margin:32px 0px;max-width:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"PT Serif",Georgia,"serif";font-size:20px">“I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Gee, I hope I end up in a long-term care facility,” said Karen Fingerman, director of the Texas Aging and Longevity Center at the University of Texas at Austin. “If you’re going to have all this technology, which most of us have some, at least, wouldn’t it be better if it were more usable and it were designed as you get older to have the ability to help you stay in your own home?”</p><div class="gmail-newspack-popup-container gmail-newspack-popup gmail-newspack-inline-popup gmail-newspack-lightbox-no-border" role="button" tabindex="0" id="gmail-id_220250" style="box-sizing:inherit;border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;clear:both;padding:0px"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group gmail-is-style-shadow gmail-newsletter-cta gmail-is-style-default gmail-has-background" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(251,251,251)"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group__inner-container gmail-is-layout-constrained gmail-wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 gmail-wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="box-sizing:inherit"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group gmail-has-background" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-bottom:32px;margin-top:0px;padding:0px;background:linear-gradient(90deg,rgb(52,128,148) 0%,rgb(161,210,223) 53%,rgb(52,128,148) 100%)"><div class="gmail-wp-block-group__inner-container gmail-is-layout-constrained gmail-wp-container-core-group-is-layout-efdcd2e1 gmail-wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained" style="box-sizing:inherit"></div></div></div></div></div><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Glenn McKnight, MA </div><div>Virtual School of Internet Governance </div>Chief Information Officer<div><a href="http://www.virtualsig.org" target="_blank">www.virtualsig.org</a> </div><div><b>YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION </b></div><div><b><span class="Q6ibn ng" style="border-style:none;background:none">Mobile </span> 437-237-4655</b></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>