HERMAN BOUMA AND GERONTECHNOLOGY—A VIEW FROM JAPAN

Kazushige Suzuki, Ph.D., Executive Director of HQL/Research Institute of Human Engineering for Quality of Life, Osaka 530-0003

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It is a great honor for me to take part in this very special occasion. I would like to thank the organizers who planned this wonderful party for Professor Bouma.

I have known Professor Bouma for only a few years, but we have met in person three times during such a short period of time. In fact, we met in Osaka at the beginning of this month, and today makes our fourth meeting. In Japan, when two people meet frequently by chance, they are thought to have something called "En." This means that their paths have crossed many times, which is the case with Professor Bouma and I. It seems to me that I have become involved in Gerontechnology partly through this affinity.

Now, I would like to begin my discussion on the current trends of Gerontechnology in Japan.

In Japan, elderly people, meaning those who are 65 years old or older, presently make up 15% of the total population, and some estimate that one out of every four Japanese people will be elderly by the year 2020. It is a well-known fact that the population in Japan is aging faster than any other nation in the world. To cope with this aging society, the Japanese government recently launched a new health care system that takes into account the needs of people who have to take care of their elderly family members at home.

My first topic is a new Japanese national project called "Behavior-based Human Environment Creation Technology." This project, which was commissioned by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (called MITI), will be conducted from fiscal 1999 to fiscal 2003.

The objectives of the project are to develop technology that will make it possible to scientifically analyze human behavior, and to gain a better understanding of this behavior in order to support the design process for products and the environment. The project also aims to develop a system that is capable of warning people when it detects unusual human behavior under specific conditions, and the capability to change itself in response to individual human needs (which is called a ‘Personal Fit’ characteristic). Such systems are expected to help improve the safety levels of cars, construction sites, and so on. They will also be useful for observing the daily activities of elderly people living alone or with an elderly spouse, by warning their children or distant relatives that they need help when problems occur.

HQL is working with 15 private companies that are preparing proposals for this national project.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the need for compiling data and scientific knowledge on elderly people’s characteristics. We call this data and knowledge an ‘Intellectual Infrastructure.’ A universal design concept for manufacturing products and creating environments that satisfy the needs of everyone, including the elderly, would naturally open up new markets. For Japanese companies, especially the small- and medium-sized companies that are experiencing an unprecedented economic recession, this could be a very attractive field to enter. However, these companies are often short of the technical, human and informational resources necessary to do so. To help them, HQL is constructing a database that will provide a variety of data on the elderly. This database will be on the web, open to the public, at the end of this month.

Incidentally, Dr. Molenbroek of Delft University of Technology gave me a book entitled ‘Design-relevant characteristics of aging users’ when he visited HQL with Professor Bouma at the beginning of this month. The book has impressed me a lot, and I am very pleased to know that Dutch experts are conducting research based on many of the same concepts that we are using.

The third topic I would like to mention is a contribution to international standardization in Gerontechnology. Although Japan has provided financial support to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), we have not contributed enough to the efforts toward drafting development activities nor to technical secretariat work. Japan is participating in ISO’s Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO), and is taking the initiative to prepare guidelines for developing products suitable for people with special needs, such as the elderly and disabled.

We will try to make greater contributions in the future, not only in drafting the development activities of ISO/TC 159 Ergonomics but also in other fields.

Those of us who are working in Gerontechnology must establish measures that will allow us to meet the pressing needs of aging societies. In reality, researchers from different countries often conduct similar studies independently. Japan has spent a lot of time and effort in preliminary experiments and discussions aimed at deciding on a measurement method, for example. I assume that other countries have done the same, and it's probably happening in the development of design methods as well as measurement methods.

All of us gathered here should collaborate on common issues such as these. In this regard, the International Society for Gerontechnology that Professor Bouma and his colleagues have founded is playing, and will continue to play, an important role in facilitating international cooperation.

In conclusion, I would like to express my sincere hope that Professor Bouma will continue to take the leadership in Gerontechnology in the 21st century, so that his invaluable insight might be passed along to those who will follow him. I would also like to wish Professor Bouma the very best in health and happiness.

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