Project Director　： Takeo OGAWA
（Specific Non-Profit Organization Asian Aging Business Center,President）

（Length：3years）

Project goals

We will research and develop supportive skills for organizing functional integrated community as a life-infrastructure in super-aged society until 2030s.
・Development of supportive skills for organizing reciprocal communities, in which older residents will be able to live longer.
・Development of training programs for community coordinators, which will engage in community work toward the super-aging society.
・Development of the corporation forum for open innovation based on super-aging communities
・Development of the intermediary-functions for promoting collaboration among industries, academia, government and residents on communities

Project overview

In Japan, governments and markets worry about their power reduction because of the long-term depopulation. Therefore, neighborhood communities are expected to perform functions as a substitution or complementary for government and market. Although the expectation is strong, neighborhood communities, which are specialized for maintaining living environment, indicate their weaknesses: for example, harder recruiting new leaders, and disadvantage conditions of community organization. Then, our project is aimed to develop support technologies for community-activities/organization to be challenging toward the super-aging society until 2030.
Goals and objectives of our project are developing “supportive skills” for empowering reciprocal spirits of stakeholders toward super-aging future through social experiments in fields. We are developing skill-up programs for community coordinators, which might be volunteers, organization staffs or administrators, to challenge toward super-aging future through “the training curriculum of faculty development for community coordination”. In addition to businesses, we are organizing “the corporation forum” for innovating community strategies through seminars for corporations, and matching them with activities/organizations in experimental fields. We are assessing “a platform of the intermediary functions” for constructing the functional integration of communities in super-aging society through experimental networking among community coordinators, administrators and the corporation forum.
Through the development of supportive skills, results such as the following can be expected; Communities which are experimental fields will be able to organize comprehensive partnerships between neighborhood communities and new stakeholders beyond generational, industrial and regional differences. Every corporation which might be private company, health and social service provider, educational school will challenge open innovations to be coping with social needs of communities toward super aging society. Local government will be able to establish the intermediary program for supporting for activities/organizations by new initiatives of neighborhood communities beyond the bureaucratic structure. Our challenges will be informed to abroad.

Stakeholders

Ogawa, Takeo. The Specific Non-Profit Corporation Asian Aging Business Center
Sasaki, Kimiyo. The Specific Non-Profit Corporation Asian Aging Business Center
Tashiro, Masahiko. Public-interest Incorporated Foundation Kyushu Economic Research Center
Minami, Shintaro. Public-interest Incorporated Foundation Kyushu Economic Research Center
Fukuoka-city
Public-interest Incorporated Foundation the Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center
Active Aging Consortium in Asia Pacific
Specific Non-Profit Corporation Donner le Mot
Inoue, Masami. Innovative Collaboration Office of Oita University
Miwadai Koku Jichi kyougikai
Island City Shogai Sukoyaka Town Council

Community spotlight: The city of Fukuoka (Fukuoka Prefecture)

A secondary school district “Miwadai” is a suburban community which is composed with detached housings. Social experiment of community bus is challenged in here. It is preparing networking among community center, town autonomy, hospital, school, and corporation for providing life-support services. A secondary school district “Kanayama” is a residential area in mixture among collective housing and detached ones. It is trying to provide congregation services for preventing isolation of the living alone. “Island City” is organizing a council among a hospital, facility for the elderly, developing corporation, and NPO in order to realize a concept of Future Healthy City, and organized senior volunteers for an outcome of its lesson of health promotion, which are working in a facility for the elderly.

Publicity

Reports, Research Results, etc