Every year JLGC sends members of UK and European local government on the Japan Study Tour to give an insight into how Japanese local authorities operate and to observe best practice. This year’s participants were sent to Shizuoka to understand the city’s secret to promoting healthy living and support for the aged. Two months on from the visit, the tour participants were reunited at the offices of JLGC for a feedback session.
JST 2018 Group in Shizuoka
A quick slideshow of the photos from the visit jogged their memories before diving into discussions. One particular photo was of the group participating in an exercise session on DVD for the elderly called Den-den where they found the overall concept to be a problem-solver in many ways. This ranged from inter-generational inclusion with the involvement of local footballers conducting the exercises, to support for education as donations from the sale of meals sold at the sessions for the exercise-goers went to the local schools. One of the travelling fellows even brought back a Den-den exercise DVD to see how her parents and family friends would react to this quirky workout, and to her surprise, was very well received. Could there be a thriving UK Den-den community in the near future?
Den-den was just one of the many areas of elderly care that was explored at one of Shizuoka’s top facilities. The facility was able to showcase other ways of keeping the elderly active including a pedal wheelchair that allowed for better mobility while easing reliance on carers, and cooking sessions in small intimate groups to provide a sense of independence and achievement through this social activity. This was a stark contrast to the image of a care home that many of the visiting group had in their minds. Upon reflection, there was an air of agreement suggesting that what they witnessed in Shizuoka could be of great use for British care facilities.
As part of Shizuoka’s recipe for creating better healthy living the city has a number of food-related initiatives in place. The tour participants were already impressed with Japan’s attitude towards healthy eating, however this was brought to another level when they were shown Shizuoka’s added social value through local agriculture. To cope with the pressures of an aged society, the city devised a reward scheme for elderly people who were caring for one another in which they could gain fresh produce from the local farmers or gifts for their grandchildren. The group found the sense of pride and the support for local agriculture, as well as the community as a whole, to be inspiring to the point that they wondered why Britain does not share the same level of love for their own locally-grown products. Through social activities and quality of diet, it is no surprise that there has been a positive impact from Shizuoka’s approach to having a longer healthy lifespan rather than just living longer.
Despite the tour lasting less than a week, the compact schedule gave the participants plenty of information and new ideas to report back to their home organisations. Although the primary purpose of the tour is to show Japan’s best practice to the UK and strengthen relations between local government organisations from both countries, a positive by-product was created in the form of newly forged links between the UK participants and the organisations they represent. Japan Study Tour 2018 may have ended, but the deeper collaborations and information sharing has only just begun.
Details of the next JST will be published within the next few months – email mailbox@jlgc.org.uk to request application information
