Grey matters

Ageing societies must harness the skills and experience of the “silver tsunami” to ease the strain on public resources – and keep the sustainability agenda on track, writes John Elkington.

“Whether we like it or not, defusing this demographic time bomb will claim a growing share of the attention of political and business leaders.”

Over the years, I have met a surprising number of robots in Japan, including Aibo, Sony’s robotic dog. And one thing I have been told repeatedly is that the Japanese obsession with robots is partly fuelled by a concern that the ageing of the country’s population will trigger huge demand for elderly care, which people would very much prefer was met by machines than by immigrant workers. Continue