Dating back to as early as 2011, the Ministry of Civil Affairs published the "9073" elderly care guidance policy in its 12th Five-Year Plan for Building a Social Elderly Care Service System, i.e., 90% of the elderly people would be taken care of at home under the assistance of social services, 7% of the elderly people would be taken care of through the paid services from the community, and 3% of the elderly people would be living together and taken care of at the elderly care service establishments.

The interview of Shigehiko Kobayashi was scheduled on a morning of the early summer. He came earlier than us and waited at the room for the interview. Modest and gentle was the journalist’s first impression of him (the journalist was from www.ceweekly.cn). His entourage translator told us that Shigehiko Kobayashi could speak very standard Chinese, but he still invited a translator to help on the spot in order to express his opinions more precisely.

How should the consumption pattern be changed?

 During the interview, Shigehiko Kobayashi told the journalist that his mother just moved in a nursing home in Japan this year. The journalist was quite surprised hearing about this, because Shigehiko Kobayashi should have had the conditions to choose a better way of elderly care for his mother as he was the board chairman of Hitachi Systems (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd

 "China is at present still at the stage of exploring how to further develop its elderly care services. Under the influence of the traditional perception, most elderly people are not willing to leave their own living environment, and children are not willing to put their parents in the elderly care establishments, either. But Japan has entered into an aging society for many years, so the elderly care facilities and ideas are relatively more developed", explained by Shigehiko Kobayashi.

  According to relevant statistics, by the end of 2014, the population of elderly people aged above 60 years in China already reached 212 million, representing 15.5% of the total population; the number is expected to reach 400 million by around 2033, and the percentage is expected to reach 1/3 by around 2050. However, growing in the opposite direction, up to 30% of the beds in the newly built elderly care establishments in China in recent two years were not occupied. Shigehiko Kobayashi told the journalist that some statistics revealed that the occupancy rate of the nursing home in the suburbs of Beijing was only around 16%.

Hitachi Systems is a supplier of intelligent IT solutions to the elderly care service operators, and Shigehiko Kobayashi also sees big differences between China and Japan in terms of standardization of services. "In Japan, although the food and drink in South Japan and North Japan have their own characteristics, the ingredients and tastes of the food are about the same. After the elderly people move in a nursing home, they will find the food and drink are similar to what they have in their daily life. It is easy to standardize the catering service. But the case is greatly different in China. The diets in South China and North China are so different, not only in the main food and food ingredients, but also in the tastes. It is in reality very difficult to develop any standards for food." Shigehiko Kobayashi told the journalist that, in view of this situation, Hitachi System had incorporated the diet management module developed by its Chinese partner, so the system could create standards for the food with minor differences, such as the vegetables and meats that people eat daily, and then improve the classification of food based on the needs of the elderly people from different regions. "At the same time, we will adjust the diet according to the physical conditions of the elderly people. For example, the amount of daily sugar intake by a diabetic patient is set in the system. The elderly patient may choose the food he wants to eat from the menu, and the system will calculate the total sugar intake amount based on the food selected to determine if the amount exceeds the standard. Once the sugar amount exceeds the standard, the system will make an adjustment accordingly."

 Internet+ home-based elderly care is moving forward in the internet times.

In addition to the benefits of providing and optimizing the elderly care establishment services for the elderly people, the home-based elderly care is also a major trend in the future development of elderly care. As early as in 2011, the Ministry of Civil Affairs published the "9073" elderly care guidance policy in its 12^th Five-Year Plan for Building a Social Elderly Care Service System, i.e., 90% of the elderly people would be taken care of at home under the assistance of social services, 7% of the elderly people would be taken care of through the paid services from the community, and 3% of the elderly people would be living together and taken care of at the elderly care service establishments. Today, with the proposition and development of "Internet+", the risk of home-based elderly care is decreasing and the feasibility is growing.

In 2015, during the 2^nd World Internet Conference, President Xi Jinping met "over the air" through the web camera with the elderly people 2 kilometers away in the home-based elderly care service center in Wuzhen. This drew people’s focus and attention to the "Internet+ elderly care system" in Wuzhen. It was learned that the operations of this service center consist of two parts: online platform and offline emergency call center. The online platform incorporated the service interchange platform powered and supplied by Hitachi Systems. After installation of the intelligent home care device, remote health care device, and slip alarming and positioning SOS calling equipment, remote monitoring and management of the elderly’s home can be realized. "If an elderly person is found to have no movement for 12 hours, the offline emergency call center and the elderly’s family members will receive an alarm, and the service personnel will go to the elderly’s home to check in a timely manner. This may just happen when the elderly person forgets to wear the device, but this service is very necessary." Shigehiko Kobayashi introduced that the center was designed to serve a total number of approximately 4000 persons in 3 communities and 1 village around it. Since its trial operation in August 2015, more than 2200 persons have logged in the system and completed the need assessment survey, more than 160 devices have been supplied, over 700 alarms and notifications have been received, and the service has been provided for over 1800 times. At present, this "Wuzhen pattern" is promoted in Tongxiang City of Zhejiang Province, and is expected to be popularized in other regions in the future.

Shigehiko Kobayashi told the journalist that the key to the successful cooperation between Hitachi System and Chunxitang Social Elderly Service Development Center in Tongxiang City was the common business operation philosophy of paying attention to the real needs of the elderly people. In his opinion, practitioners in the silver industry in China can be classified into two types: one type are those who know nothing or little about the elderly care industry, most of whom are people from the government, senior housing developers and big enterprises newly entering into the market, and the other type are those who have certain knowledge about the elderly care industry but have not yet formed their own philosophy. "This is currently a big issue faced by the elderly care market in China. Chinese nursing personnel are lack in number, professionalism and relevant skill training for home-based elderly care, so we need to establish a complete mechanism for education on professional nursing personnel and retention of talents in order to provide better assistance and more scientific advices to the elderly in daily life."

Source: www.ceweekly.cn