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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