Issues on the Dissemination of Japanese Nursing Care Robots

From a Perspective of Business Ecosystem

Abstract

At present, the super-ageing society is progressing in Japan, so, development and dissemination of Nursing Care Robots are promoted by collaboration between MHLW （the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare） and METI （the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry）.

However, the progress of the promotion for development and dissemination is unfavorable. And, there are some background factors, for example, price problem and technical problem so on. On this point, we have a hypothesis that the most notable blocking factor is the lack of the business ecosystem’s viewpoint for the development and dissemination of the Nursing Care Robot in Japan.

Therefore, we analyze these problems by using data from original and other questionnaire surveys in this paper. The constitution of this paper is as follows.

First, to take a general view of the birth of the concept about Japanese Service Robot including the Nursing Care Robot. Second, to carry out the original questionnaire survey for the nursing care and welfare facilities and to analyze the blocking factors of dissemination by using those data statistically. Third, to consider the relationship between concepts of the business ecosystem and the Nursing Care Robot business, based on the articles by Ander & Kapoor and Sugiyama & Takao. Fourth, to present the scheme of the Japanese Nursing Care Business Ecosystem formed in various sectors including financial and human resource development sectors.