In a Japanese nursing home, some workers are just babies
TOKYO — Cooing, giggling and the patter of tiny feet mix with the sound of walkers and wheelchairs at a nursing home in southern Japan. In this graying nation, one home has been recruiting an unusual class of workers to enliven its residents’ days.
These are “baby workers,” as the nursing home’s head calls them: 32 children so far, all younger than 4 years old, who spend time with its residents, who are mostly in their 80s.
Residents strike up conversations with the young helpers. The babies, accompanied by their parents or guardians (usually mothers), offer the residents hugs.
The visitors’ reward? Diapers, baby formula, free baby photo shoots and coupons for a nearby cafe.
The facility, Ichoan Nursing Home, is in Kitakyushu, a city of 940,000 in Fukuoka prefecture that is aging and shrinking like the rest of Japan.
As families have become smaller and older people more isolated, the nursing home’s baby worker program has helped people connect across generations.
“I don’t get to see my grandkids very often, so the baby workers are a great treat,” said Kyoko Nakano, 85, who has lived at the nursing home for more than a year.
“They are just so cute, and they make the whole place brighter,” Nakano said. “Young energy is different.”
As Japan’s population has aged, the use of nursing homes has grown rapidly. The number in such homes more than doubled, to 1.8 million, between 2005 and 2020, according to the Japanese government.
Life can be lonely and dull there, but at Ichoan Nursing Home, residents said that the babies brought energy and light.
Studies have linked social interaction with less loneliness, delayed mental decline, lower blood pressure and reduced risk of disease and death among older people.
Socializing across generations has also been shown to draw older people out, making them smile and talk more. For children, these intergenerational interactions have been shown to enhance social and personal development.
Among Ichoan’s 120 residents, the oldest is 101, said Kimie Gondo, 58, the nursing home’s director.
The youngest baby worker, at 2 months old, can barely hold his head up, she said.
Gondo said she was inspired to start the program last year when she took her newborn granddaughter with her to work and saw how the residents smiled and played with her.
“I thought it was selfish to only have my granddaughter enjoy this special time,” she said, “so we decided to open it up to any baby that wanted to come do the same work.”
Toddlers are asked to stroll around the nursing home and interact with the residents, and parents help the babies circulate.
“Nothing is mandatory,” Gondo said. “The babies decide when they come and for how long they want to stay.”