They can pick Hello Light<\/a>, an LED lightbulb that autonomously sends text messages to caretakers when the light hasn\u2019t been turned on for a while. <\/p>\n Or, MaBeee<\/a>, a battery that powers TV remotes, lights and other small devices and alerts family members when they are not being used. <\/p>\n There\u2019s also Bocco<\/a>, which can store medication reminders, transmit weather alerts and tell when the home is too hot or too cold. A nod to Japan\u2019s affinity for anthropomorphic packaging, the messaging device is shaped like a small snowman.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest problems we have in Japan, in this [elder care] industry, is the gap between the demand and the supply because there are a growing number of elderly people but we are understaffed,\u201d said Masaru Yamaoka, general manager of Panasonic\u2019s Smart Aging Project<\/a>, one of many divisions housed within Japan\u2019s corporate brands focused on technology for the aging population. <\/p>\n Finding sustainable, low-cost ways to care for the elderly population is a problem Texas is all too familiar with and Japan, home to the world\u2019s largest over-65 population at 36 million<\/a>, is beating Texas in solving. <\/p>\n The Best of the Tribune in your Inbox<\/p>\n Keep tabs on Texas politics and policy with our morning newsletter.<\/p>\n Chronic workforce shortages along with rising costs to care for a growing older population have prompted Japan \u2014 from companies to local governments \u2014 to heavily invest in technology to make it easier for family members to remotely monitor the elderly. The country\u2019s aim is to keep aging residents in their homes, rather than in an expensive nursing home, for as long as they can.<\/p>\n Texas shares the same goal. Keeping older Texans healthier in their own home not only costs both the healthcare system less, but most people prefer it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never heard anyone say, \u2018Gee, I hope I end up in a long-term care facility,\u201d said Karen Fingerman, director of the Texas Aging and Longevity Center at the University of Texas at Austin. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to have all this technology, which most of us have some, at least, wouldn\u2019t it be better if it were more usable and it were designed as you get older to have the ability to help you stay in your own home?\u201d <\/p>\n Compared to Japan, Texas has far fewer seniors at 4.4 million<\/a>, but they are among the fastest growing<\/a> population segments. By 2040, the number of older Texans will grow to 6.8 million and by 2060 reach 9.2 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n Healthcare workforce shortages, sparse public transportation and spotty internet reliability, particularly in rural areas, where 28% of Texas\u2019 over-65 population lives<\/a>, isolate many older Texans and deprive them of access to healthcare, which can worsen their outcomes and accelerate the need for expensive residential care<\/a>. <\/p>\n While most elderly Texans live in their own homes, roughly 80% of the 87,000<\/a> Texans who live in nursing homes are over the age of 65. Most of them rely on Medicaid, the insurance plan for low-income individuals, to pay for their care. Medicare, the insurance plan for Americans 65 and older, only covers short term stays following a hospitalization. <\/p>\n Medicaid spending on Texans over the age of 65 totaled over $8 billion in 2023, according to health policy researchers at KFF. Their analysis of Medicare, which pays for the bulk of healthcare costs for seniors, was $28 billion<\/a> in Texas in 2021. The Texas Legislature, which reconvenes in January, has made the rising cost of healthcare<\/a> a primary focus for next year, as it did in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople want choices,\u201d said Mark Hollis, spokesperson for AARP Texas. \u201cThey want options and they deserve to have good affordable safe options where they want to live out their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n In Japan, building nursing homes to accommodate the next 20 years of aging baby boomers seems an expensive investment when the number of seniors in subsequent generations will eventually start to decline.<\/p>\n An estimated 2.7% of older Japanese, or about 1 million, live in residential care facilities. About 6.7 million Japanese<\/a> over the age of 65 live alone and most of the rest live with family members, spouses, adult children or extended family. Japan\u2019s community-based, government-funded home healthcare service help seniors live in their own homes. Still, more than 58,000 people over the age of 65 were found dead in their homes<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n To keep seniors living independently and healthily, corporations<\/a> and local governments<\/a> in Japan have turned to developing and distributing at no cost to seniors \u2018mimamori\u2019 products, or monitoring technology. Less intrusive than a security camera, these drop-in services and personalized chatbots direct older residents on how to maintain their physical and mental health in their own home and keep an open line of communication with caregivers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2040, the number of elderly people who need [residential] care will decrease,\u201d Panasonic\u2019s Yamaoka said. \u201cWe are going to see many elderly people staying at home. That\u2019s why we believe that these kind of systems will be necessary in Japan. \u2029And we also believe the communication model will be in demand.\u201d<\/p>\n While Japan has worked for decades on making its transportation and cities elderly-friendly and it fared better than Western countries because of stricter infection controls, the pandemic revealed new vulnerabilities. \u201cIt became very difficult to rely entirely on human beings to visit elderly people, especially due to COVID,\u201d said Akihiro Hioki, the aging services chief for Shibuya City, one of Tokyo\u2019s 23 wards or districts.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why taking a look at Japan\u2019s less publicized age-tech world, one far from the gushy news streaming daily from robotics labs, could prove instructive for Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need, you know, an army of robots, just to make sure that mom\u2019s good,\u201d said Darryl Greer, a regional program manager for AARP\u2019s Older Adults Technology Services, which offers digital literacy programs for seniors<\/a>. <\/p>\n By 2021, Shibuya City embarked on an ambitious project: handing out 3,000 smart phones<\/a> to its older residents preloaded with disaster and health apps. The phones gave residents better access to municipal notifications, forms and payment portals, as well as communication applications like Line, the Asian version of WhatsApp. The city also launched in-person classes on how to use them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe realized that we need to have a mixed solution with human power and also, technology,\u201d Hioki said. By 2024, Shibuya declared the effort a success with more older residents switching from their old flip phones to smart phones. <\/p>\n Then, last year, Shibuya became one of several cities in Japan offering to install monitoring options, like Hello Light, MaBeee and Bocco, in older residents\u2019 homes. <\/p>\n \u201cCOVID was a turning point,\u201d said Yuichiro Suzuki, chief operating officer for Tokyo-based Yukai which makes Bocco. \u201cSo many people, in my generation, they were not able to go visit our parents.\u201d They needed a way to check on family members that didn\u2019t require boarding a bullet train to see them in person, he said. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear exactly how many monitoring services are available nor a way to accurately capture exactly how many cities offer to front the costs for them. But, the Japanese see the technology as a way to ward off social isolation and depression that can greatly exacerbate a senior\u2019s health problems. <\/p>\n \u201cIf elderly people feel they have a pain in the knee, they avoid going out many times, and then because of the less interaction, they might suffer depression,\u201d Panasonic\u2019s Yamaoka said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s kind of like a domino effect.\u201d Health starts to deteriorate for the individual and hastens a move to a residential facility. <\/p>\n Companies have a vested interest in these devices because if their employees can offload some of their responsibilities of caretaking onto technology, they can remain more productive at work, Yamaoka said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many municipalities also pay for an app called Health Mileage created by cellphone service company NTT Docomo<\/a>. To sign up, a participating organization, such as a local municipality, must first invite residents to join and they can use it to track their steps. Officials will also use the app to push out programs to encourage walking, such as new walking paths and events.<\/p>\n Local governments \u201cwill encourage their residents to use this application,\u201d Satoshi Hiyama, NTT Docomo\u2019s senior manager of Medical & Healthcare Tech Group, said. \u201cBecause if they have more healthy residents, they will reduce medical costs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n More than a dozen cities<\/a> also offer a partial subsidy to those over the age of 70 who live alone for NTT Docomo\u2019s Chikaku<\/a>, which means nearby. For less than $20 a month, the popular subscription-based device that\u2019s shaped like a white house turns the user\u2019s television set into a videophone and monitor<\/a>. While there are some similar services in the U.S. like Grandpad<\/a> or JubileeTV<\/a>, The Texas Tribune was unable to locate a Texas city that subsidizes them for residents.<\/p>\n With permission of the older user, Chikaku allows remote relatives to use a phone app to login to their elderly loved one\u2019s televisions to see if their parents are available for a call and conduct a chat from there.<\/p>\n Local and federal officials want to lower healthcare costs because in the country\u2019s nationalized healthcare system, the government has to pay for most of it. Residents here pay about 30% of their care. <\/p>\n Unfettered healthcare access has allowed the rapidly growing older population to disproportionately use the system. Because the elderly often treat hospital waiting rooms like community centers, the Japanese often joke that if they don\u2019t show up one day, they must actually be sick.<\/p>\n To brace for Japan\u2019s silver tsunami, the federal government in 2000 started requiring workers aged 40 and older to pay a monthly long-term care insurance premium that subsidizes the country\u2019s elder care services. Still, about 70% of Japan\u2019s hospitals<\/a> operate today at a loss. <\/p>\n Cities see technology as a way to bring down costs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe there is a growing demand among elderly people and their family members for these types of monitoring services,\u201d said Hioki, Shibuya City\u2019s aging services chief. \u201cWe need to work for the improvement of the welfare of the residents. That\u2019s our task.\u201d<\/p>\n What Texas could do today and learn from countries with far larger senior populations could help offset future healthcare costs. <\/p>\n The state\u2019s Aging Texas Well strategic plan<\/a>, a general roadmap for state, local and nonprofits stakeholders, identifies social isolation as a factor that can exacerbate health issues, details how residential care options are limited and expensive, and urges Texas leaders to make resources easier to locate and use. <\/p>\n \u201cThe overwhelming majority of older adults wish to age in place or age in their community to have the best quality of life,\u201d the plan\u2019s 2026-2027 update stated. \u201cMoreover, it is more cost effective to assist older adults and their family caregivers to do this through long-term supportive services than it is to age in an institutional or nursing home setting.\u201d<\/p>\n Other than nursing homes, many also live in assisted living facilities. It\u2019s estimated that 1.4% of older Americans live in assisted living, which would mean about 60,000 senior Texans. Moving to an assisted living community, which offers personal care services, medication management and meals for those older individuals who need it, is also expensive, running between $3,000 and $6,000 a month. Medicaid does not pay<\/a> for that monthly assisted living bill, only for some services received while living there. Medicare pays nothing toward assisted living<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 plan considers access to technology a key element in reducing social isolation and improving health for senior Texans who want to live as independently as possible as long as possible. <\/p>\n The state maintains an Age Well Live Well page <\/a>that lists resources for older adults including how they and their caregivers can find one of the state\u2019s 28 Area Agencies on Aging<\/a> for more information on local programs. But there is no centralized effort in Texas at this time to improve online access or monitoring efforts like those seen in Japan to help seniors stay healthy in their own homes. Local Texas nonprofits are doing much of the technology heavy-lift, focused mostly on improving the digital literacy of older Texans. <\/p>\n Thanks to assistance from Methodist Healthcare Ministries, Bastrop County Cares is one of those nonprofits invested in helping seniors connect to technology. It gives participants a smartphone, tablet or laptop if they complete a digital literacy class.<\/p>\n The county has also received $43 million in a state broadband grant plus $11 million from a local broadband provider to improve connectivity in this rapidly growing community. With better service on the way, more older adults are interested in getting better connected to telehealth and relatives. <\/p>\n \u201cThey recognize that they need it and they just don\u2019t know how to get the training,\u201d said Norma Mercado, Bastrop County Cares\u2019 executive director. \u201cBut once they do, it\u2019s made living in their own homes so much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n Judy Kanas, 84, lives in a community that is growing dramatically and as a result, has more resources such as the computer class she attended through Bastrop County Cares this month. <\/p>\n The retired social worker and legal assistant came to class hoping to better navigate healthcare providers\u2019 portals, which have bedeviled her own aging desktop at home. Healthcare appointments are critical at this stage of life for Kanas, who has Type 1 diabetes, and her husband, who has cancer. The couple drives 30-plus miles to Austin for doctors appointments because they want to live in their home as long as they can. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have deer that come and drink our water, and it\u2019s kind of country living and I don\u2019t want to give that up,\u201d Kanas said. <\/p>\n Namkee Choi, a gerontology professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work, has been researching better ways to get more seniors, particularly low-income seniors, access to telehealth counseling sessions on tablets and computers. <\/p>\n \u201cThey want to live in their home using whatever freedom they have,\u201d said Choi.<\/p>\n Choi said many lower-income individuals are confined to cellphone plans with limited minutes. But her research shows that if access challenges are conquered, older adults are able to quickly pick up the skills to log on and not only sign up for appointments, but build new social connections with others.<\/p>\n According to the state\u2019s strategic aging plan, social isolation increases the risk for premature death by 29%. <\/p>\n Greer, the manager at AARP\u2019s digital literacy organization, works in San Antonio with other community partners to get more older adults online. As technology has become easier to operate, more are interested. <\/p>\n \u201cSome folks, they really embrace it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with some of our students, especially here in San Antonio, it\u2019s like, some of them feel like technology was never really designed for them because they worked vocationally.\u201d<\/p>\n The state\u2019s aging future depends on greater flexibility in our existing support systems, says Hollis with Texas AARP. <\/p>\n \u201cWe encourage both the public sector and the private sector to be mindful of the needs of a rapidly aging population,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly room for growth, thinking innovatively about liveable communities for people of all ages.\u201d<\/p>\n Disclosure: AARP, AARP Texas and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of a reporting fellowship sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[148,2669,51280,7913,3621,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-354099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-medicaid","tag-medicare","tag-photo-build","tag-photography","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/TheBrief_PrimaryLogo.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260302-Eldercare-Tech-Sasarindo-KO-38-full.jpg\")
Keiko Kamiya, one of the residents of Sasarindo elderly care home, looks at photographs of residents on the wall on March 2, 2026. Kosuke Okahara for Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260302-Eldercare-Tech-Sasarindo-KO-32-full.jpg\")
A staff member of Sasarindo elderly care home checks residents\u2019 health status on the computer. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260302-Eldercare-Tech-Sasarindo-KO-55-full.jpg\")
A power-assisted walker at Sasarindo on March 2, 2026. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260225-Eldercare-Tech-Care-Show-TH-06-full.jpg\")
Coverage of Care Show Japan, an annual expo showcasing advancement in eldercare technology,\u00a0 on Feb. 25, 2026 in Tokyo. Toru Hanai for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260225-Eldercare-Tech-Care-Show-TH-29-full-1.jpg\")
Care Show Japan 2026, pictured here on Feb. 25, 2026 in Tokyo, is one of the largest trade shows featuring eldercare technology like virtual reality headsets, bed monitors and fall detection devices used in residential care facilities.\u00a0 Toru Hanai for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260305-Eldercare-Tech-Waseda-KO-09-full.jpg\")
A screen shows a robot\u2019s perspective at the Research Innovation Center in Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan on March 5, 2026. University labs have been looking at using robots to combat an eldercare workforce shortage. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/20260305-Eldercare-Tech-Waseda-KO-15-full.jpg\")
Misa Matsumura, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, configures a robot at the Research Innovation Center in Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan on March 5, 2026. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/202620260318-Eldercare-Tech-Home-Device-KO-04-full.jpg\")
Yuichiro Suzuki, COO of Yukai Engineering, explains how the company\u2019s Bocco communication device, shaped like a snowman, operates, on March 18, 2026. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/202620260318-Eldercare-Tech-Home-Device-KO-15-fullA.jpg\")
A diagram explains how users can speak to Bocco. Kosuke Okahara for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ElderCare_IPL-0007-full.jpg\")
Alejandra Alcaraz, a lead digital navigator from Digital Lift teaches a class of seniors through Bastrop County Cares, which works to get more residents online.\u00a0 Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ElderCare_IPL-0020-fullA.jpg\")
Alejandra Alcaraz, left, helps Judy Kansas, 85, with her laptop during the course in Bastrop. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ElderCare_IPL-0008-fullA.jpg\")
Judy Kanas makes a list of computer terms during a Bastrop County Cares technology class. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n