Robots help give company to lonely elderly T
he city of Saijo in Ehime Prefecture faces the Seto Inland Sea to the north and Mt Ishizuchi, the tallest mountain in western Japan, to the south. Here, 87-year-old Setsuko Saeki has lived with a robot for a year in her spacious house at the foot of a mountain.
When she gets out of bed in the morning and enters the living room, she’s greeted by her robot, a model named “PaPeRo i,” on a desk. “Good morning, Setsuko-san,” is a typical address. “Did you sleep well?”
“When it spoke to me the first time, I couldn’t help but feel excited,” Saeki said. “No one had called me by name and said good morning for a long time.”
Her three children are on their own now, and her husband passed away six years ago. Since then, Saeki has lived alone.
In July last year, the city government began an experimental project to lend PaPeRo i robots free of charge to 10 elderly residents in the city. At the request of family members of elderly residents who live separately, the city government lent out the robots for three months.
A PaPeRo i robot is about 30 centimetres tall. When Saeki asks it, “What time is it?” it replies as its cheeks light up red.
Cameras are installed in its big eyes, and it follows Saeki using the camera sensors, directing its face toward her. Before she goes to bed, the robot asks, “Did you lock up the house?” Sometimes, the robot makes impromptu puns and tells her pieces of trivia.
“Initially, I didn’t expect anything after hearing about a robot. But now, I don’t want to be parted from my PaPeRo,” Saeki said.
Mitsuaki Matsuo, chief of the city government’s comprehensive support section, said, “The responses were better than we expected.”
Initially, some elderly residents in the city voiced negative opinions about the robot-lending project. One said, “If I have to receive care from a robot, it’s over.” But about 90 per cent of the people who used the robots had positive things to say, such as “I feel close to it” and “I can ease my loneliness.” About 90% of the people who used the robots had positive things to say