Like many developed Asian countries, Western nations are facing an aging society. This places huge burdens on current healthcare systems. How can we cope with the rapidly increasing demand for healthcare? A wider use of technology is one possible solution. Japan is at the forefront of attempts to develop robotic technology in the service of its citizens, in particular the older members of its population. To learn from the Japanese experience, we visited the country to assess the current state of healthcare robotics there. The present report is intended as a contribution to the debate on the future of our healthcare system. We hope it will bridge the gap between the healthcare providers and the developers of robotics systems, and provide a basis for further discussion and practical collaboration. This study is a joint enterprise of the Rathenau Instituut in The Hague and the Science and Technology section of the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo. Ying Ying Lau from the Rathenau Instituut collected in-formation through interviews and laboratory visits in Japan in the period from September to December 2008. Her work was supervised by Daan Archer, Science and Technology Attaché at the Embassy and Technology Assessment researchers Christian van ‘t Hof and Rinie van Est from the Rathenau Instituut. At the end of November 2008, they visited several laboratories to talk to experts. They were accompanied during some of these visits by a delegation of Dutch healthcare managers, who provided them with feedback on their experi-ence of Japanese robotics. The study was rounded off by an expert meeting at the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo on 27 November 2008, where the future of healthcare robotics in Japan was discussed. This report is the beginning of a larger set of activities in the field of robotics in the Netherlands. In November 2009 an international conference on robotics will be held by SenterNovem (an innovation agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs), the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Rathenau Instituut. Various investigations will be carried out in preparation for this event. For example, the athenau Instituut will carry out an exploratory study on service robots. The Rathenau Instituut will also study developments in the field of healthcare robotics in the Netherlands. We would like to thank all the robotics experts who have contributed to our understanding of the current developments in Japan. The meetings and institutes are mentioned in Appendix A. We also owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the Dutch Embassy in Tokyo and look forward to future collaboration.

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