Description: The blog of Robert Moorehead & students at Ritsumeikan University
Here’s a nostalgic look back at our time in Kyoto . It’s not sociological but it reminds us why we love Kyoto so much.
As Japan ‘s population shrinks, and its proportion of elderly rises, the nation continues to avoid increasing immigration. Rather than hire humans to provide care for the nation’s elderly, Japan’s political leaders look instead to a robotic revolution to provide that care.
Inventions such as Paro, a robotic seal that coos and purrs, provide Japan’s elderly with virtual companionship and help them cope with solitude. Apparently the ubiquitous pattern of kodokushi (solitary deaths) detailed in Anne Allison ‘s Precarious Japan is more manageable if Paro is with you. However, Paro does not yet seem to have the ability to call the neighbors or an ambulance, or to get an elderly person’s distant family to come visit.
Robert Moorehead, PhD | Sociologist, Associate Professor at College of DuPage
Dream of the Water Children: The Black Pacific – 水子の夢 . Black-Japanese memory . Amerasian . Militarism . Pacific. Social Justic
Robert Moorehead, PhD | Sociologist, Associate Professor at College of DuPage