BOOK REVIEW: Robots Won’t Save Japan (An Ethnography of Eldercare Automation)

By James Wright. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Hard cover, 182 pp with notes and Index

For at least three decades, Japan has been aware that it is in a demographic crisis. In 1949 Japanese couples were having 2.9 million babies annually. By 1970, that figure had fallen to 1.2 million, and today Japan is only producing 800,000 babies a year. The country’s population is projected to fall from 120.76 million in 2030 to 105.80 million in 2050…