Japan-Australia Intercultural Knowledge Exchange Event Held at Soka University in Hachioji: Discussion on "Social Implementation of Technology" Between Japanese and Australian Researchers and Local Government and Facility Staff in Hachioji
On Saturday, May 23, the Japan-Australia Exchange Fund's Japan-Australia Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange Hachioji event was held at Soka University and nearby senior welfare facilities.
At the Hachioji event, held as the kickoff event of the Japan-Australia joint research project "Australia-Japan Cross-cultural Knowledge Exchange for the Wellbeing of Older Adults," In the morning, we visited three senior welfare facilities and implemented robot utilization there. In the afternoon, a workshop was held in the multimedia classroom at Soka University Global Square, featuring five technical presentations and a storyboard roundtable based on the presentations.
In the technical presentation, Julia Low from RMIT University, Australia (presentation titled: "How eating context shapes food experiences: Insights from café environments, space analogues and future eating design") and Fumihiro Kato from Tokyo Denki University (presentation titled "Next-Generation Medical Care and Welfare Opened by Tele-Existence—From Remote Consultations to Palpation AI, VR Rehabilitation") introduced research trends in elderly welfare utilizing AI, VR, the metaverse, robots, and more.
Based on this, the storyboard roundtable featured staff from the Hachioji City Senior Welfare Division, the Senior Vitality Division, and senior welfare facilities near the university, with the coordination of Mr. Isamu Okada from our university's Faculty of Economics and Business Administration for exchanging opinions on "social implementation of technology."
Here are some voices from the participants.
・The content was very interesting. I clearly understood how rapidly technology is advancing now. As a field operator, I felt it was good to wait for those technologies to become usable on the ground.
・I received a lot of stimulation. I thought it would be wonderful to develop the initiatives introduced in this technical presentation with themes unique to Hachioji and utilize them at the facility as well.
・It was a very helpful course. Next time, I thought that if more businesses and organizations were invited to participate, many people would be happy to attend.
