Swedish research contributes to improving public health in Japan.
– Through long-term and careful work, we have been able to transfer it to a very different cultural context, says Björn Slaug, who has collaborated with a number of Japanese researchers since 2017.
One of them was Rumiko Tsuchiya-Ito, researcher at the Dia Foundation for Research on Aging Societies, who was interested in how elderly people who had, for example, suffered a stroke, could continue live at home and receive rehabilitation at home. She searched the scientific literature, found Björn and Susanne's articles and made contact.
– Thanks to their wonderful support, we have finally published our first paper on the Japanese Housing Enabler. I am going to illustrate housing accessibility issues in Japan with this assessment in the near future, says Rumiko Tsuchiya‐Ito.
– Our tool, Housing Enabler, is one of the few in the world that measures accessibility objectively and is scientifically evaluated. It has been used for 20 years and is well established, continues Björn Slaug.
Major adaptations to Japanese conditions were required
Rumiko applied for and received funding to come to Lund for three months and work on translating the tool into Japanese and adapting it to Japanese context. Housing in Japan is very different from Swedish housing.
– They are quite small and narrow. And in Japan you usually have three hygiene areas; one with a toilet, another where you wash and a third where you get dressed. Separate shoes are often used in the different spaces, says Björn Slaug.
Another difference is the entrance, where the difference in height can be large - you take off your shoes outside the door and change into indoor shoes. Modern homes are increasingly furnished in a Western style, but in traditional homes people sit on the floor and eat, on a special floor material.
– All this means that we had to adapt the tool with hundreds more assessment items. It is more extensive in Japan. A further study may be needed to see if the tool can really be used reasonably with so many more assessment items. The next step will be a research project that maps the problems in Japanese housing, says Björn Slaug.
Most of the work has taken place in Japan. Björn has been there many times, including during a two-month research stay.
– I like the Japanese culture and could very well imagine growing old there. There may be more trips there in the future. Together with other CASE researchers, I have another collaboration with one of the Japanese researchers who is an architect, which is about ensuring that evacuations from buildings are accessible to the entire population, regardless of age or disabilities.
The Swedish researchers are also learning new things.
– We have gained greater cultural understanding. And Japan has come further to integrate technological solutions to facilitate everyday life at home. For example, the toilets are often technically advanced in Japan, with an instrument panel that controls, air drying and flushing and so on, says Björn Slaug.
We have gained greater cultural understanding.
CASE's tool has previously been used in other European countries, with similar problems to Sweden, with an increasingly ageing population. Now, it reaches more parts of the world, where older people live in a completely different way. After Japan, hopefully more countries await. Last Friday, Björn Slaug and CASE researcher Oskar Jonsson, who is currently on a research visit in Canada, met researchers at Dalhousie University and the University of Toronto to write a joint application for a similar research project there.
– They have the same problem. I hope more countries get in touch, says Björn Slaug.
The research project has been financed mainly by the Japanese Pfizer Health Research Foundation and the research institute JSPS Kakenhi, as well as Forte in Sweden.
At the end of June, a first article was published in the Journal of Housing and the Built Environment:
Assessing housing accessibility issues for older adults in Japan: an expert panel approach to cross-cultural adaptation and content validity of the Japanese housing enabler
Read more about Housing Enabler in the research portal.
