[Chapter-delegates] Seniors and Technology

[Glenn McKnight]

Hi All
FYI article on providing technology to seniors in Japan
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/26/texas-japan-seniors-technology-monitoring-devices/?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid

TOKYO — In Shibuya, home to one of Tokyo’s busiest train stations and
shopping destinations, seniors can choose a monitoring service
<https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kenko/koreisha-seikatsu/koreisha-zaitaku/mimamori_sa-bisu.html>
and
the city will install it and pay for the service subscription for up to a
year.

They can pick Hello Light <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBiWrhjlYc>, an
LED lightbulb that autonomously sends text messages to caretakers when the
light hasn’t been turned on for a while.

Or, MaBeee <https://mimamori.novars.jp/>, a battery that powers TV remotes,
lights and other small devices and alerts family members when they are not
being used.

There’s also Bocco <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJhBE_39Qo>, 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.

“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 Panasonic’s Smart Aging Project
<https://news.panasonic.com/global/press/en251215-4>, one of many divisions
housed within Japan’s corporate brands focused on technology for the aging
population.

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 36 million
<https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/09/16/japan/society/japans-elderly-population/>,
is beating Texas in solving.
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.

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.

“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?”



Glenn McKnight, MA
Virtual School of Internet Governance
Chief Information Officer
www.virtualsig.org
*YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION *
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