Japan Needs the Wellness Business

18.9.2009

In Japan, the population is ageing even more rapidly than in Western countries: in 2020, 32 million of the projected 128 million Japanese are expected to be over 65. Some five million of them are likely to need care, but the workforce will not be large enough to provide it. Japan is now seeking different ways to solve these new challenges. For the wellness and health care business, this means a growing market. Oulu has been active in establishing a relationship with Japan. For example, the Finland Wellbeing Center (FWBC), which started in Sendai in northern Japan a few years ago, offers an excellent route for Oulu´s businesses to provide their strong wellness and health care service, concept and technology expertise to the Japanese.

Solutions from the Finnish model

Many practices that have become standard in Finland, such as supporting the elderly who want to continue living at home and offering rehabilitation, are completely new to the Japanese. "Taking care of elderly parents has traditionally been the responsibility of the eldest son or, in practice, his wife. This is now changing, however, because the elderly prefer to live alone and need new services, products and technology solutions to be able to do so," says Merja Karppinen, the Head of Research and Development at Sendai-FWBC's and the Business Development Director of Finpro. She has lived a good part of past 25 years in Japan. Finns can supply these solutions and rehabilitation and prevention services, too. According to Karppinen, the Japanese have understood the potential savings to society and want to invest in these solutions now.

Lifestyle business, too

In Japan, women and men have always lived in very separate worlds: men at work, women at home. Marriage has been a contract on the division of labor. Karppinen says that now that baby-boom generation men have retired, old couples are having trouble getting along with each other. People have started to talk about a retirement crisis. "Women want to lead their own lives, often without the husband. Men on the other hand look for a new lifestyle after their careers. This has created a market not only for the wellness business, but also for a totally new lifestyle for affluent people who are in good health and want to lead independent lives," Karppinen says.