Heads, Hands and Hearts for Age-Tech
Tokyo, Japan
October 26, 2022
Overview of the Event:
This inaugural event was a wakeup call and challenge to stakeholders to “make this a beginning in super-charging the ecosystem for age-tech start-ups in Japan,” as Dominic Carter, CEO of The Carter Group so aptly put it.
Japan is experiencing the test of managing its unprecedentedly ageing population – the oldest in the world. While Japan leads in this distinction (with nearly 30% of its population aged 65+), the challenge of rapid aging is global, with societies around the globe grappling with innovating solutions and approaches to meet the demands presented.
However, never have we been better placed to rise to the challenge. Advanced technology provides opportunities to improve our quality of life as we age, enhancing physical capabilities as well as emotional connectedness and happiness.
Japan represents a centre of age-tech innovation and is the real-time consumer laboratory for developments in the new area known as age-tech.
Age-tech products and services are at the intersection of ageing and technology, encompassing a wide range of solutions for ageing adults and those who care for them – everything from simple wearables for health tracking to robotic exo-skeletons that aid mobility, to social companionship options, and beyond.
With all this in mind, this event brought together 120 visionary minds designing the future of age-tech for Japan and the rest of the world (i.e., entrepreneurs, startups, investors, established enterprises, universities, research institutes, and government agencies), fostering the meaningful connections needed to collaborate in the age-tech venture space.
Held at the Tokyo American Club (TAC), Heads, Hands & Hearts for Age-Tech was conducted in cooperation with the Vitality Swiss program of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan.
Speakers and Panelists:
Helping to super-charge the vision of Living Best through dialog and illuminating comments were a host of international and domestic speakers. Please refer to https://www.living-best.tech for further details regarding all speakers and panelists, as well as replay links:
Keynote Speaker – Keren Etkin
Author of The AgeTech Revolution, founder of The Gerontechnologist, advisor to age-tech startups, investors, care providers, and innovators in the global longevity economy.
Special Guest Speaker – Ken Mogi
Neuroscientist, broadcaster, and author of Awakening Your Ikigai and The Way of Nagomi and many other books covering popular science, criticism and self-help.
Panelists on Japan’s age-tech ecosystem and success factors
Mr. Osamu Kobayashi
Department of International Affairs, Japan Science and Technology Agency Kobe (JST), promoting international joint research programs (SICORP, SATREPS, e-ASIA programs).
Dr. Ryuta Kawashima
Director of the Smart Ageing International Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer (IDAC), Tohoku University; prize-winning scientific output in cognitive brain mapping.
Dr. Akiko Kishi Svensson
Chief Medical Officer of the MEDMIRAI, a startup company funded by The University of Tokyo IPC, which accelerates research results into healthcare and medical services.
Mr. Hiroyuki Suzuki, Ph.D.
Leading initiatives with start-up support through Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) and XBorder Innovations, Inc. (XBI), while establishing a global innovation ecosystem in Keihanna Science City.
Takeshi Haeno
Partner at Monitor Deloitte Japan, responsible for healthcare industry strategy services, with expertise in both private and public sectors. Co-author of “Healthcare Innovation Strategy for the Future.”
Age-tech start-ups and business ventures… already demonstrating great promise in improving the lives of aging adults globally and in Japan, shared their basic concepts live, ranging from memory capture and playback (La Camera della Felicita) to software to help hospitals manage risks related to post-operative delirium (PIPRA) and onward to an app that helps aging adults with health, wellness and companion care (CareMates).
In addition, four age-tech start-ups shared their concepts via video … ranging from early dementia diagnostics and memory assistance (Hippo Camera) to communications that contributes to greater sociability (SAIL), to artificial intelligence robotics that helps with reduction of social isolation (Intuition Robotics) to in-home robotics to help with aging in place and independent living (Toyota Research Institute).
Wrap-Up
Committed to enabling age-tech product development that is authentically human centric, The Carter Group-Japan Market Resource Network serves as a catalyst for tech-enabled product and service development that contributes to creating an ageless society through its Living Best Professional Community and Living Best User Community – both launched with the Heads, Hands & Hearts event.
Living Best Professional Community is a global knowledge-sharing and networking platform that connects interested parties in the world of age-tech in Japan, wherever they may be.
Living Best User Community, is a consumer-based platform that connects age-tech developers with Japanese older adult users to test product preferences and necessary adaptations.