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3rd Futures Session
Active Senior Life!
Thu 15th November 2012
Overview
Issue of concern
One of the soc ia l cha l lenges fac ing
developed countries is an aging population
exacerbated by a declining birth rate.
Against this backdrop, Japan is drawing the
attention of other countries as one of the
“most rapidly aging societies” . Domestically,
the working-age population is expected to
expand upwards as some companies try to
extend the ret irement age or adopt a
system for continued employment. If, for
example, Japanese companies increase the
retirement age from 65 to 75, how would
working styles and lifestyles change? And
what would companies need to do to
respond to such changes?
The third Futures Session was themed
“Active Senior Life”, with Kao Corporation
(hereafter “Kao”), who are also concerned
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about issues relating to an aging society,
participating as the main sponsor. Sugamo,
an area dubbed “Harajuku for Grandmothers”
was chosen as the venue for the session.
About 50 people from various sectors,
including private corporations, NPOs and
social entrepreneurs participated in the
session.
Process of the Futures session - Taking advantage of Japan’s position as one of the most rapidly aging societies
Session programme:
Introduction:Presentation of the session’s theme by Kao
Inspiration:Talks on the theme by Japanese and British guest speakers
Fieldwork:Fieldwork and lunch break on the Sugamojizou-dori shopping street
Café:Shar i ng and summary o f t he inspiration talks and fieldwork
Dot Voting:Selection of “10 keys to enable older people to continue working actively”
Scenario :Drawing up of “scenarios for a world where people can remain connected to society and continue working until aged 75”
Closing:Evaluation of the scenarios and review of the whole session by Kao
The following section represents a summary
of the session and its outcomes.
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INTRODUCTION
As the main sponsor of the session, Kao
gave a presentation explaining why it chose
the session theme “Active Senior Life”. The
presentation showed that “Japan is drawing
the attention of other countries as one of
the most rapidly aging societies”, and that
“Japanese elderly people are growing even
older”. Kao also talked about “three points
that they believe important when regarding
older people” (Table 1) and its philosophy:
“We would rather think with various people
about new working styles than rush into
planning new products.”
INSPIRATION
The following three guests described the
background of their organizations and
specific examples of their activities: Shizuka
Kuwahara, a representative of “BABA Lab”,
which is a studio producing goods designed
by grandmothers to help grandmothers care
for their grandchildren; Masayuki Matsuda,
head of the Rokugatsudashimo community
council, where all households engage in
activities to reduce CO2 emissions, in Izumi
City, Kagoshima Prefecture; and Darren
Balcombe, former staff member of Nesta, a
British charity that supports innovators to
develop new responses to tackle difficult
social and economic challenges.
Shizuka Kuwahara (Representative of BABA Lab)
— BABA Lab is a studio producing goods
des igned by g randmothe rs t o he lp
grandparents care for their grandchildren.
I ts bus iness concept is “ to create a
manufacturing workplace where employees
can work until the age of 100”.
— Child care products on the market were
not easy for grandparents to use when
looking after their grandchildren.
What inspi red Ms Kuwahara and her
colleagues to establish the studio was the
realisation that the items parents (younger
generation) used when caring for their
c h i l d r e n w e r e n o t a l w a y s e a s y f o r
grandparents (older generation) to use.
— A system allowing all employees to play
a role and earn money enables them to
enjoy and continue working.
The studio divides work into small units and
pays wages by the unit, so that workers
never fail to find a job, whoever they are
and whatever their abilities.
Masayuki Matsuda (Head of Rokugatsu-dashimo Community Council in Izumi City, Kagoshima Prefecture)
— The community encourages all households
to make efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.
All households in the community engage in
eco activities. Since 2006, the community
has worked to reduce CO2 emissions and
has achieved its target of a 10% reduction
every year.
— They make sure that everyone enjoys their
activities, rather than pursue short-term
outcomes.
To ensure that residents enjoy what they
do, they give every household a report card
o n e n e r g y c o n s u m p t i o n a n d h a v e
introduced the Eco-Master system as well.
— T h e y w o n s e c o n d p r i z e o f t h e
Environment Minister’s Award in the Low
Carbon Cup 2011. They have now begun to
deal with the issue of abandoned farmland.
Darren Balcombe (Former staff member of Nesta)
— Nesta is an independent charity with a mission to help people and organisations bring great ideas to life.— Mr Balcombe considered that apart from heal th and finance what needs to be considered to age well. “Can you participate in society?” “Can you make a contribution to society?” and “Can you lead an active life?”— He suggested that aging is framed through the lens of need, dependency, decline and loss. This needs to change. Services, environments, infrastructures and activities that allow people to stay more connected and contributors for longer are required.
Table 1: “Three points that Kao believes important when regarding older people”
Three key points Explanation
Do not think of all old people in thesame way.
Do not regard people aged 65 or older simply as “theelderly”. They are much younger and more energeticthan imagined.
Think about their ties with other people.
Think about how to live a purposeful andmeaningful life.
It is important to pay attention to their ties with family andsociety. For example, when company employees retire at 65,their human relations change dramatically.
Even people young at heart cannot resist aging andgrowing physically weak. You should consider thisreality as part of your own future.
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FIELDWORK
Divided into small teams the participants
carried out fieldwork and took lunch on the
Sugamojizou-dori shopping street. The
fieldwork consisted of visiting shops with
prearranged appointments to conduct
interviews, though some teams dropped in
on several shops without notice.
Tokyo Sugamoen : A restaurant whose specialty is “good luck” bean jam salty rice cakes.
Kifukudo: A bakery whose specialty is bean-jam buns.
Meganekoubou Kubota / Tokeikoubou Kubota : A watch shop run by a father and an optician’s shop operated by his son, reflecting their own particular values.
ALPS Café : An Italian café run by the owner and his parents, renovated in 2001.
Tokiwa Shokudo : A popular restaurant serving set meals at two locations on the shopping street.
Teuchisoba Kikutani : The predecessor was a tai lor but now a buckwheat noodle shop is operated by the current owner.
CAFÉ
Each team reviewed the results of their
fieldwork and compiled a “user board”. The
user boards described those people who
had left an impression on the participants
during the fieldwork. The teams then did a
“world café” activity to share their user
boards with each other. Finally, by reviewing
what they had observed and learned, each
team came up with “five keys to continue
working actively” (for the elderly and their
families). These were the intermediate
outcomes of the session.
DOT VOTING
Following a review of all the “keys” each
team had come up with (75 in total), each
participant cast five votes based on their
own evaluation of the “keys to continue
working actively”. The “keys” with the most
number of votes were selected to represent
the “10 keys to continue working actively”
(Table 2).
Table 2: 10 keys to continue working actively
Fieldwork and took lunch on the Sugamojizou-dori shopping street.
Title Description
Follow the Sugamo rule. Be hospitable, converse with your customers, and value“slow” time.
Retain a sense of excitement.
Maintain affection.
Even if you are 75 years old, do not lose the desire to meetpeople or to fall in love.
Love yourself, your community, your job and your family.
Create a mix of roles of differentgenerations.
Multiple generations need to coexist with each other, each playa different role; for example, the elderly give advice and theyoung add something new.
Build communities you can be proud of. You need to have great affection for your community, as inSugamo.
Pursue sustainability instead of growth. Be determined to make a contribution to your community byshopping at local stores as often as possible.
Give and take. Shops (local people) and customers (tourists and othershoppers) need to engage in relationships to lift each other upand to exchange information.
Do not “limit” communication. Small talk and long conversations are viewed as positive; shopowners are reminded that they exist because of their customers,while customers can negotiate a discount for example.
Just be yourself. Do not try to do what you cannot. Just do what you can doeach day. People born in the community and people fromother places need to live in harmony. A community needs thewarm atmosphere of a large family.
Permit some degree of meddling. Neighbors need to be close, and some degree of meddlingshould be allowed, such as giving advice to children next door.
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SCENARIO
Based on the “10 keys to continue working
actively” and fieldwork experiences, the
participants divided into nine teams and
drew up “scenarios for a world where
people can stay connected, continue to
contribute to society and work actively until
age 75”. When doing so we kept in mind
that the scenarios represented stories about
“ideal societies” that would materialise if the
A society where people can experience a second adolescence (or can relish the taste of adolescence again).When shop owners retire and an offspring takes over, they continue to do what are able to, and what they are good at, instead of handing over the whole business to their child. This will allow them to remain healthy while rejuvenating the shop at the same time.
A society where everyone plays a part in contributing.If shops can put aside efficiency to spend enough time communicating with their customers, a new relationship is more likely to develop beyond the shop-customer one.
A society where you can cultivate new talents.Workers at retirement age will be re-employed and be allowed to attend customers at a slower pace. This means they can develop new talents as a contact point connecting people in the community and can assume a new role.
A society where people of different generations are connected through conversations.Menus or lists that do not show prices create more situations for communication between shop staff and customers. The importance of dialogue between people of different generations is incorporated into the business.
A society where careers can be maintained and businesses handed down to the next generation.When a child takes over his/her parent’s shop, the parent can take care of existing local customers, while the child takes charge of cultivating a new customer base beyond the local area. This will create a stable business base and the child can adapt as the times require.
A society where people can play a main role no matter how old they are.The owner of a long-established shop developed a new product hoping that culture would be passed on to the next generation, but the product failed. But advice by a customer led to successful sales overseas. Ideas that embrace modern times can create new opportunities for success, regardless of age.
A society where being able to work no matter how old you are is the norm.A “community-based job placement agency” will be founded where job seekers are offered jobs selling a large variety of goods in small quantities in the community. In such a society, people can work no matter how old they are.
A happy “sharekobe” society where if you love, you will be loved.Work while loving your community, your job and your family. Care about younger generations and think about the progress of society even after your own death. This will help create and hand down an environment in which affection can be shared across generations while keeping your business strong.
A “feeding” project to create “slow” time.Shops will create an “eat-in” space to allow customers to spend relaxed time. Shops will recruit young employees for customers to enjoy communicating with younger generations. This will revitalize communication in the community.
10 keys were achieved, and also stories
about “how to make such societies happen
through the power of business and innovation”
(Table 3). The compiled scenarios were
presented by each team in the form of
improvised plays.
CLOSING
As the main sponsor of the session, Kao
evaluated the scenarios from the viewpoint
of a business operator. In the evaluation,
Kao’s employees decided which scenarios
they would like to invest in, using cheques
issued by Futures. The main evaluation
criteria were (1) scenarios matching Kao’s
image of society in the future, and (2)
projects that Kao as a corporation would
invest in to bring about a society based on
the future scenarios.
The session ended after participants shared
thoughts about how their future behavior
might change as a result of participating in
the session.
Table 3: Future scenarios - Continuing to work and be actively connected to society until aged 75
Spotlight
The theme of this session was “Active
Senior Life: Building a society where older
people can stay connected, continue to
contribute to society and work actively”.
Through discussions and group work, the
participants came up with ideas about what
a society described in the theme would be
(visions for the future), what the process
leading to such a society would be, and
what schemes and systems would be
needed to make such a society to come to
fruition. The session enabled us to see
important perspectives about how older
people can continue to be active.
“Pay attention to what each person can do, unlock their potential, and then create opportunities for them to do it”
We gained an appreciation of older people
as contributors to society and key players in
creating a better society. We also realised
the importance of paying attention not only
to what the elderly have trouble with and
what they cannot do, but also on how to
“unlock what they can do (their wisdom and
potential)”. In addition, we shared first-hand
knowledge such as “looking closely at the
elderly as individuals, instead of thinking of
them as simply old people” and “creating
an atmosphere and environment where the
e l d e r l y c a n e n g a g e i n a c t i v i t i e s
comfortably”.
“There should always be abundant opportunities for people of different generations to interact and communicate with each other”
T h r o u g h o u r f i e l d w o r k o n t h e
Sugamojizou-dori shopping street, we
d i s c o v e r e d t h a t o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r
intergenerational interaction exists in our
daily lives, as exemplified by interactions
between, for example, a current store owner
and his predecessor; a current store owner
and his successor; a university student
part-time worker and elderly customers;
and the father of a shop owner and the
children of a neighboring shop’s owner.
These examples made us aware of the
inherent value of such relationships. We
also realised that communication based on
these relationships should be conducted at
a slow and relaxed pace, and that our daily
lives should reflect these values contrary to
that of one of efficiency.
We believe these viewpoints are important
when considering how senior people can be
more active, and also reveal the key points
of community design in an aging society.
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Published in May 2013 by:
British Council / FUJITSU LABORATORIES LTD. / Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan (GLOCOM) / Future Sessions
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© 2013 British Council, Fujitsu Laboratories ltd., Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan, Future Sessions