Abstract
In the face of acceleration of demographic aging, quality of life (QOL) and self-sustaining support for people withh disabilities and the elderly have gotten a lot of attention recently. Along with the progress of human space activities, further expansion of the relationship between space and welfare engineering, is expected. The present paper includes (1) outline of spin-off of space technologies (2) case examples of spin-off from space to rehabilitation engineering(3) potential technology transfer from rehabilitation engineering to space technology, if any (4) present situation in Japan's space activities (5) voluntary activities from private sector. From the point of human engineering, the collaboration between space technology (including space utilization) and welfare engineering in the aging society should be given strong consideration.
