Perhaps all that miso soup and fresh fish contributes to the longevity that is still the rule in Japan. Those aged 65 and older make up a full quarter of the country’s population, a number that could grow by 10% to 35m by 2025. (Japan’s overall life expectancy average is 84.5 years, among the highest in the world.) But as Japan’s population greys, so, too, do the country’s healthcare workers, a factor complicated by an already relatively low doctor-patient ratio of 2.2 physicians per every 1,000 people. Add to that low birth rates and stringent immigration laws and what becomes clear is that a void exists in healthcare personnel.
Enter the robots, a solution perhaps perfectly tailored to the technology-obsessed Japanese. They were both the first to use a robot for medical surgery (the Puma 200 in 1985) and the first to develop robots for nursing therapy (the very cute robot seal Paro, developed in 2005). Today, Japan has 180 US-based da Vinci robotic surgical systems and the government just announced that it will team up with Japanese manufacturers and universities to create a Japanese equivalent system.