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Income Management Officer Sam Gowan visited Japan on an exchange programme organised and funded by the Japanese Cabinet Office to learn more about the differing ways in which the needs of elderly people are met in this country and the Far East.
He has sent regular accounts of his activities in Japan.
Saturday was spent as a cultural exchange/home-stay. I spent this time with Mr and Mrs Wantanbe and their two children Ryu and Nonoka. This has been a fantastic part of my experience and provided a little time away from the busy schedule we’ve been following. My hosts were kind enough to take me to Adachi museum (pictured left). This museum is half garden half museum complete with glass tunnels so the garden can be enjoyed at all times of the year.
Saturday evening saw the closing party for the Shimane Prefecture visit and I was put forward to give the closing speech in Japanese (a very short straw!). With help in preparation from our professional interpreter I gave the speech, getting some laughs at the appropriate times. Presumably at least some people understood!
On Sunday we flew back to Tokyo and made our preparations for the closing ceremony which was given today by our delegation leader Oli Henman (pictured right and below) and 6 other delegates. The success of the trip and the ideas that we will take home with us were given as feedback to the Cabinet Office along with suggestions for improvements to the systems in place here.
Thank you kindly to all the people who have hosted us here and given us this valuable insight into German, Finnish and Japanese social welfare systems and not-for-profit organisations, and thank you for reading.
Sam
Pic above shows the closing ceremony party.
Today's weather - snow. We checked out of the Matsue New Urban hotel and spent today in a nearby conference centre. The purpose of today has been to summarise the Shimane visit and provide feed back to all the relevant parties as well as to prepare our own feed back to take home with us.
One point made was that many of the activities we observed seemed to link up mental and physical exercise. An example of this is a ball game in which we joined in, where a large group of elderly day centre users sat in a circle. Each of us were given a ball (one of four colours). The aim was to pass the balls around looping the balls behind our backs. At random intervals the direction would change or we would be asked the colour of the ball we were holding. The complexity comes in doing an activity which requires co-ordination while at the same time time thinking about something else. My observation was that many of the systems in use to support the ageing population are actually run by elderly people themselves. This changes the scenario from a user group being cared for by a service provider to a self-reliant group (see my blog on the 9th February where an example is given).
Part of the difficulty in getting help to the people who need it is actually finding those in need. This is particularly relevant in more rural areas of Japan were vulnerable people can be missed. A method of inclusion that was initiated by Mr Osuka (Matsue Council for Social Welfare) is a 'pen-pal' system where elderly people are invited to write to one another regularly. This has the benefit of bringing the postman to the writer's door and in addition to bringing about social inclusion.
Thursday 11th February: Matsue New Urban Hotel, Shimane.
Today the rain has become heavier and the wind has picked up. We visited Tobisu Community Centre for the day - an idyllic community centre in the bamboo forests of rural Shimane. This centre has some unusual group activities including the production of Soba (buck wheat noodles) from raw materials and the production of various items made from the abundant local bamboo. We were again graced with Japanese hospitality at lunch time when we were served the very noodles we saw being produced in the morning.
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| One of the users of the day centre seals the fresh bamboo with a blow torch. | A bamboo tiger in final its final stages of production. | A farewell from the users of one of the day centres we visited – the kind of smiley farewell that you can very quickly become used to. |
Today has been the first rainy day of the trip. We are on the north side of the Japanese mountain range which means I’m told, with the northerly wind, we will be getting much more of the same.
This morning we visited the Social Welfare Corporation “Keijin-kai”. The organisation provides day care facilities and permanent accommodation for people suffering with dementia in some squeaky clean and impressive facilities. Following a tour of the building, we had a question and answer session with the management of the corporation, who were interested to hear about the more general aspects of the elderly field in our respective societies. In answer to a question asked about interaction across the generations, the staff were interested to hear about some of the projects organised on a local level, where students from local sixth forms visit Town and Country Housing sheltered schemes to assist the residents in computer literacy and learn how to cook.
I can be seen left defeating the highly animated music/activities staff in a “paper, scissors and rock” dual. I eventually lost to my more experienced opponent.
Right is a picture of a game of mental agility and dexterity where a short sentence is read out and then we all race to grab the picture card with the printed letters of the first word of the sentence. This doesn’t sound too difficult until you consider the whole game is played to the home team’s advantage - in Japanese. We lost again.
This morning we flew out of Tokyo, passing Mt Fuji (pictured right) and one hour later arrived in the prefecture of Shimane, on the northern coast.
This prefecture has the highest proportion of elderly people in Japan (28.9%), which in turn has the highest proportion of elderly people in the world. The afternoon was spent in a lecture on the ways in which this prefecture is attempting to cope with this age imbalance.
One interesting approach is the employment of the active skilled elderly to support less able elderly in tasks such as repairs and gardening etc. The people employed to do this are skilled individuals who have retired from full time work. The lecture was followed by a group discussion with the prefectural governor and a gift exchange to show our gratitude at being able to observe the working systems here (pictured left).
This evening we were graced with some superb sushi and sashimi and generous amounts of hot sake in an informal welcome reception (pictured right).
The weekend was spent discussing and debating various methods of developing managers for non-profit organisations. The cultural difference in group discussions became quite apparent with the Japanese participants being less comfortable to openly challenge the views of other participants. The collective views of each group were then compiled into a presentation for members of the Cabinet Office.
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On Sunday afternoon we said our farewells to the Japanese organisers and participants who are pictured waving to us from outside the coach. Although the weekend was exhausting (Saturday’s schedule lasted 12 hours) the social atmosphere of working together was addictive and we were reluctant to end this part of the trip.
Back in the heart of Tokyo now, I feel no commentary on Japan would be complete without a description and picture of the ultra high-tech toilets here. Pictured is the control panel, which has a bidet function (for ladies), washer jet (for ladies and gentlemen) with a massage function including the rather intimidating stronger jet option. If you really don’t fancy using the toilet paper there’s also an air dryer function too!
Today has been hard work. It was the first day of this year’s Non Profit Management Forum which will continue for 3 days (through the weekend!). The forum has so far consisted of groups of ten people from Germany, Finland, UK and Japan. Each group discussed ways of developing managers in terms of interpersonal skills, the findings were then presented (I drew the short straw here) to the rest of the forum.
This evening has been particularly entertaining as each nation put on a cultural display along with various publications produced by our respective organisations (Town & Country’s Spotlight and News Exchange were amongst others on display). We (the UK) provided some interactive music in the form of the song and dance 'The Hokey Cokey' to which all 120 people moved. This went down very well, although regrettably I am unable to provide a photo …
We have now left the opulence of the ANA Intercontinental hotel and have moved to the more modest accommodation of the Olympic Village. Today began with a visit to Tokyo Colony – a social welfare corporation aiming to provide practical training and in-house employment to people with disabilities. On a tour of the offices I was bowled over at the dexterity with which one employee removed a document from a printer with his toes in one seemingly effortless movement.
We were then treated to a generously portioned, freshly prepared lunch by the staff of the in-house restaurant in a very kind gesture. Dessert was a very pleasant first for me – apple sorbet made with freshly crushed apples.
Our next port of call was the Shuyodan Foundation. The primary aim of the Foundation is to provide activities for young people, and has a slightly unusual motto of “Love and Sweat”. This symbolises their belief in group activities such as 40 km family night hikes where “love” describes the bonds formed between members and “sweat” the endurance of the activities (something we would perhaps call “character building”).
This seminar and general discussion began in the grand board room on the top floor of a skyscraper building with views out across the city skyline, and a group exercise of punching the air and slapping our chests in unison with a Japanese chant. Certainly good for momentarily curing jet-lag and livening up a seminar.
Pic: A formal gift presentation to the Shuyodan Foundation.
After arriving yesterday evening, jetlagged, we began today with a formal gift exchange with a member of the Japanese Cabinet office. Following this, we embarked upon a series of seminars looking at the non profit organisations of Japan as a whole and the factors influencing their success and short comings.
Later in the day we discussed with Mr Kojima (Cabinet Office) the current trends in the field of elderly services within Japanese society. Japan makes no secret of having the highest average longevity in the world, however, combined with the baby boom post WW2 period, Japan now has a top heavy population. The proportion of the population at retirement age is now 20% (the highest in the world) and increasing rapidly.
The day came to an end with a reception/party and a formal welcome from Mr Oshima, Senior Vice Minister of the Cabinet Office, along with a local TV film crew who interviewed the group leaders.
While chatting to a couple of the film crew presenters, they told me not to get nervous - thinking I had misunderstood them I asked what they meant, they pointed to the TV camera filming us. End of natural conversation.
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