Sony to help track elderly in Japan

Sony Corp will start offering a service to track the elderly in Japan at a time when the nation is grappling with revelations hundreds of its oldest citizens are missing.

The service, to be introduced next month, will track people via integrated-circuit cards that can be scanned at readers installed at hospitals, homes and shops, said Izumi Hisatomi, a spokeswoman at Sony subsidiary FeliCa Pocket Marketing. Registered family members and guardians will pay 300 yen ($3.50) a month to receive an e-mail providing the time and location of the user each time the card is swiped.

The technology may help Japan address problems associated with a greying population while providing a growing market for companies like Sony. The government said this month it was investigating the whereabouts of 840 pensioners over the age of 85 after a series of scandals revealed some of the nation’s oldest people were missing.

“As the elderly population increases, we believe this kind of technology provides great potential,” Hisatomi said by telephone today. “It’s also possible for the service to eventually be used by elderly people who are bedridden.”

FeliCa, which is 60 per cent owned by Sony, will start the service next month in Saku City, Nagano prefecture, with plans to expand it to five or six more cities.

Participating businesses will pay 100,000 yen for each card reader and a monthly fee of about 3,000 yen. FeliCa aims to have 30,000 readers installed in stores and institutions each year.

The problem of Japan’s missing elderly came to light last month after a man thought to be Tokyo’s oldest at 111 was found to have been dead for about 30 years. Days later it was discovered the whereabouts of the city’s oldest woman were also unknown.

At least 279 Japanese aged 100 or older are unaccounted for, the Asahi newspaper reported on August 13, citing its own research.

The average lifespan for Japanese men and women reached a record last year, with men living an average of 79.59 years and women 86.44 years. Japanese women have the longest life expectancy in the world, according to the government.

Japan’s centenarian population has more than tripled to 40,399 people in the past decade.