Courses & Events

Innovation Salon: Robots Won’t Save Japan – An interview with author James Wright

Wednesday, Jun 21, 2023

12:00 pm - 01:00 pm

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**Zoom-only program**

Registration: https://www.usajapan.org/event/robots-japan-james-wright/

In 2014, Japan’s METI estimated that Japanese nursing care robots would grow to ¥391 billion by 2025. That same year, SoftBank introduced Pepper, the world’s first humanoid robot able to recognize human faces and basic emotions, and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced the Robot Revolution Initiative. It seemed apparent that Japan would lead the charge in creating robots for care. But have robots lived up to their promise in helping Japan face the dual challenge of an increasing aging population and staffing shortages?

Japan is not alone in dealing with the trials that come with an aging population. Many countries around the world face three major issues associated with their aging societies: a declining population, an increasing proportion of seniors, and an increasing number of single-person households. Here in California, for instance, the government issued a Master Aging Plan in 2020 to help direct resources as California’s senior population increases.

In February 2023, author and researcher Dr. James Wright published Robots Won’t Save Japan: An Ethnography of Eldercare Automation, drawing on his ethnographic research in senior living facilities in Japan. Wright joins us June 21 for a special discussion of the research behind his book, and his conclusions about the limitations of robots in caregiving settings.

Agenda:

• 12:00 – 12:05pm Opening Remarks, Jon Metzler | Board Member, Japan Society of Northern California & Lecturer, UC Berkeley Haas + Board member, Japan Society of Northern California
• 12:05 – 12:10pm Fireside Chat by Dr. James Wright | The Alan Turing Institute, Ethics, Research Associate in Intercultural AI Ethics
• 12:10 – 12:20 Dr. James Wright | The Alan Turing Institute, Ethics, Research Associate in Intercultural AI Ethics
• 12:20 – 12:30 Fireside Chat by Dr. James Wright | The Alan Turing Institute, Ethics, Research Associate in Intercultural AI Ethics
• 12:40 – 12:55 Q&A
• 12:55 – 13:00 Closing Remarks, Steve Pollock | President, Japan Society of Northern California

The Innovation Salon is part of the Innovation Awards program produced by the Japan Society of Northern California in cooperation with the US-Asia Technology Management Center. The 2023 Japan-US Innovation Awards Symposium will take place July 20th at the Arrillaga Alumni Center at Stanford University.