On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Japan-ASEAN Friendship Cooperation, this series looks back on the trust and development that Japan and JICA have built with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and explores the vision of partnership for the future. In this second installment, we focus on two issues common to both Japan and ASEAN, namely, the aging population in Thailand and sustainable resource use in Malaysia, and introduce Japan’s and JICA’s efforts to tackle these issues from the same perspective as their counterparts in the region.
Japanese specialists creating care plans for the elderly in Thailand.
As equal partners in taking on the same challenges
ASEAN is developing at a remarkable pace, with a total population of approximately 680 million (in 2022), about 5.5 times that of Japan, and it is predicted to overtake Japan in terms of total GDP by 2030. Japan and the ASEAN countries are now evolving from a relationship of “providing assistance” and “being assisted” to one of equal partners who look to the future from the same standpoint.
The partnership between the two is similar in the area of social issues. In Thailand, efforts are being made to address the country’s rapidly aging population, and in Malaysia, efforts are being made with Japan to promote sustainable resource use.
Thailand Facing Rapid Aging
Aging is a challenge common to many ASEAN countries. In particular, poverty and care for the elderly are major social issues in Thailand, where the birthrate is rapidly declining and the population is aging along with the average life expectancy is increasing. According to data from the United Nations, the percentage of Thailand’s total population aged 65 and over is projected to increase from 4.3% in 1990 to 16% in 2023 and 31.6% in 2050. Although the current aging rate is lower than that of Japan (29.1% in 2022), Thailand is moving toward a super-aged society (i.e., a society with an aging rate of 21% or higher) at a faster pace than Japan, and aging countermeasures are indeed an issue shared by Japan and Thailand.
In Thailand, the aging of the population is so fast that the government has not been able to keep up with the pace of aging. While there is a mountain of issues such as long-term care, pension system, and employment for the elderly, the jurisdiction is divided among the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Labor, which has been pointed out as an adverse effect of stove-piped administration. This is the view of Shintaro Nakamura, an international cooperation specialist at JICA who is in charge of social security and aging-related issues.
International Cooperation Specialist Nakamura (far left) visits the homes of elderly people in Thailand as part of a JICA project to provide care services tailored to the needs of the elderly.
In Thailand, the elderly are defined as those aged 60 or older, and there are currently about 12 million of them. However, only 10% of them are recipients of occupational pensions, which are equivalent to Japan’s welfare pensions, and the majority of them cannot make a living on pensions alone. Furthermore, according to a survey by the Asian Development Bank, approximately 30% of the elderly have some kind of physical disability. “As soon as they are unable to work due to health problems, they are destitute and unable to pay for nursing care, so their families leave their jobs to take care of them, creating a negative cycle,” said Nakamura.
Learning from Each Other, Mutual Aid in Thailand and the Japanese Care System
In response to the demand for comprehensive efforts to enable the elderly and their families to live with peace of mind, JICA has been providing a variety of cooperation in Thailand for 15 years since 2007, drawing on its knowledge of Japan’s long-term care insurance system and “community-based comprehensive care” to support the elderly in the community. Nakamura says, “It is a very significant achievement that the Thai government introduced the concept of Japanese care management and care planning*1 into its long-term care policy that was launched in 2016.
Traditionally in Thailand, there is a strong sense that “family and community” are the ones who support the lives of the elderly, making it difficult for family members to use nursing care facilities. On the other hand, there are “health volunteers” in each community who look after the health of the elderly, and it is said that there are about 1 million of them nationwide. Therefore, JICA has taken advantage of Thailand’s mutual assistance system to provide a wide range of services from medical care and rehabilitation to livelihood support in the community with the help of volunteers.
- 1 Care management refers to the process of providing a combination of appropriate care and support services to persons requiring support and nursing care, and the systems that support this process. A care plan is a written plan to be prepared when using services
In the “Mobile One-Stop Service” supported by a JICA project, health center staff and local government welfare officers visited villages to conduct health checks and procedures for senior citizens’ allowances with the cooperation of the community.
According to Specialist Nakamura, in Thailand, temples provide a place for day care services, and health volunteers talk with the elderly to maintain social ties, and there are many things that can be noticed in the Japanese nursing care field. She said, “Nursing care is something that supports people’s lives, and different lifestyles require different types of care. In Japan, we tend to judge what services are provided and who can enjoy them only within the framework of the long-term care system, but I feel that it is necessary to create a system that can respond more flexibly according to needs, as in Thailand,” says Nakamura.
The experiences of Japan, an “advanced nursing care country,” will be shared with Thailand, including its trials and errors, and Japan will also learn from Thailand’s culture of mutual support and flexibility. It is hoped that a new form of nursing care will be created through mutual learning that is suited to each country.
Agricultural Biomass to be Utilized in Malaysia for Sustainable Resource Use
In the environmental field, Malaysia and Japan are taking on the challenge of utilizing oil palm (oil palm) resources that yield palm oil. Palm oil is oil used in detergents, margarine, confectionery, and other food products. It is one of Malaysia’s key industries, and about 30% of the world’s palm oil is produced in the country.
However, oil palm trees must be cut down approximately every 25 years as the productivity of the fruit bunches (the fruit portion on the clusters) declines. Many of the old trees that are cut down are left in the plantation due to the economic burden of transporting them, which causes infections by pathogenic insects that make reforestation difficult, and the spraying of pesticides for disease control causes human suffering and soil contamination.
Oil palm left abandoned after logging (Photo courtesy of International Agricultural Research Center)
In response, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), private companies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and government agencies are participating in an industry-government-academia-academia project to create high added value from old oil palm trees for the purpose of sustainable land use and rehabilitation of oil palm plantations. In addition to scientifically and economically evaluating the impact of neglecting the old trees, technologies are being developed to produce various products such as biogas and biodegradable materials using the old trees.
Akihiko Kosugi, JIRCAS expert and project leader, says, “The utilization of biomass is considered important as a renewable energy source, and palm biomass resources, in particular, are enormous in quantity and are positioned as a very attractive renewable resource. It is a very attractive renewable resource,” he says.
The project was initiated in 2018 as part of the “International Science and Technology Cooperation for Addressing Global Issues (SATREPS)” program, a collaboration between JICA and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to promote joint science and technology research with developing countries (Expert Akihiko Kosugi in the center).
Stable supply of palm biomass resources has been a major issue in the utilization of palm biomass, but this project has succeeded in developing a technology that allows different palm biomass resources to be processed in the same process. This has enabled the stable procurement of palm biomass resources even when it is difficult to transport tree trunks from plantations during the rainy season, for example, by substituting other resources other than tree trunks. Expert Kosugi is now expecting that the technology will serve as a reference for solving the problem of biomass feedstock procurement in Japan and also as a role model for biomass utilization technology in ASEAN countries, which are made up of diverse agricultural producing countries.
Public-private partnerships indispensable for solving common problems
In order for ASEAN and Japan to cooperate in solving common issues, it is essential to have a wide range of partners, including private companies, universities, and research institutes. JICA will continue to work with ASEAN countries to solve social issues through various partnerships. JICA will continue to work with ASEAN countries to resolve social issues through various partnerships.
Independent Physical Fitness Program” to Extend Healthy Life Span (HADATE KOGYO CO., LTD.) In addressing the aging of society, it is necessary to make efforts to extend the healthy life spans of the elderly, rather than relying solely on nursing care. (Shizuoka Prefecture), which manufactures and sells sporting and recreational goods in Thailand, has developed an “Independent Physical Fitness Program” for preventing nursing care in collaboration with Shizuoka University. The program, which provides an independent physical fitness test for evaluation, analysis, and improvement of independent physical fitness, an independent physical fitness training menu, and training for trainers to manage and guide the training, has been introduced to health promotion efforts for the elderly in the northeastern region of Thailand.
Elderly people in Thailand enjoying themselves while improving their health through “Independent Physical Fitness Training” A scene from the “Independent Physical Fitness Test” (photo courtesy of HADATE KOGYO Co., Ltd.)
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