**1. Introduction**

A society that fosters resilience to changes in living function (a "living function-resilient society") is required now. We need social and industrial systems that ensure safety and high-level community involvement when we experience changes in cognitive function, physical function, or family function as we move toward an aging society (a dementia society). **Figure 1** shows the current age distribution of the Japanese population and that of accident rates, birth, and caregiving. Rapid, mental, and physical developments occur during infancy. Women experience significant changes during pregnancy and around birth. There are times when they or their child or parent needs nursing care. Changes in their physical and mental functions or in being able to care for someone in

**Figure 1.** *Changes in living function and a living function-resilient society.*

the family occur rather frequently in the family context. When viewed in terms of changes in living function, this means that a society will emerge in which we have to address changes in living function over generations, from a parenting generation that deals with development in children to a caregiver generation that deals with the declining living function of the elderly. The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, indicates the need to ensure the safety of people of all ages and the physically and intellectually challenged, ensure access to services, and implement urban design with consideration of safety and accessibility [1].

**Figure 1** shows a snapshot of the current Japanese society. Significant changes will occur in a short period of 10 years or so: Japan's aging population will continue to grow until 2025 as the baby boomer generation grows old. As a result, our society will have a rapidly growing population that will need support in daily living. Compared to 2015, the elderly people aged 75 or over will increase by 5,000,000, and the number of dementia patients will increase by 2,000,000. China, as a driving force in the global economy, is also faced with an aging population: the proportion of its population aged 65 and over will be 16% by 2030. So China is likely to have the same issues as Japan, incurring enormous social costs. Today, Japan's social costs associated with dementia are huge, at US\$ 127 billion. The costs are projected to reach US\$ 181 billion in 2025 in Japan and US\$ 2 trillion in 2030 globally. Thus, the issue of how society can develop adaptability to changes in living function will be increasingly important and is a key issue leading to a new growth strategy to develop adaptability (resilience) to changes in living function as a social mechanism separate from the issue of individual efforts.

In recent years, low-cost sensors, storage devices, and cloud computing services have become widely available. Artificial intelligence (AI) based on big data is rapidly advancing. These developments will make it possible to build a society that fosters resilience to changes in living function (a "living function-resilient society") that can adapt flexibly to changes in diverse physical and cognitive functions of children, women, the elderly, and the physically and intellectually challenged and allow people to exploit their potential to the fullest. There is an expectation that in the next 10 years, a new industry that helps translate the need for living function resilience into innovation will grow significantly.

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*Living Function-Resilient Society in the Centenarian Era: Living Safety Technology Based…*

**2.1 Variety in living function and intervention needs (one-size-fits-all issue)**

The variety in living function needs to be acknowledged. A one-size-fits-all or universal intervention strategy is not necessarily effective: we need a mixed strategy combining universal, selective, and individual strategies [2]. We must have a basic understanding of what issues are involved in designing interventions based on a mixed strategy and where they arise. However, we do not fully understand them. We need to reveal the whole picture of issues associated with changes in the living function of the elderly and to base intervention design (precision intervention [2]) on that picture. To this end, we must have a system that collects data on changes of

In the area of nursing care, providing one-to-one care services using human labor is considered ideal. In reality, it is difficult to provide services in terms of social costs. On the other hand, a universal strategy does not allow the variety in living function to be addressed. Precision care, which is defined as intermediate between universal and one-to-one strategies, is important. The use of AI technology may make it possible to align the variety in living function with individual adaptability by properly dividing the variety in living function into segments and

Various intervention approaches have been proposed. An approach that is shown to have efficacy under laboratory conditions or under specific circumstances may have no effectiveness in other situations, such as the local community or society more broadly [3]. This is an issue of a lack of understanding of a local community or an individual life as a complex system and of error arising from the incorporation of a simplified model used in laboratory research into a complex system [4]. It is suggested that researchers act to hear user requests with a serious mind, for example, by conducting a complete interview survey. The issue is often discussed in terms of attitude or mindset in conducting research. However, we think that this discussion misses the point and that it is not a matter of mindset and effort but is a scientific issue arising from lack of science and technology and methodology for dealing with complex systems in field settings. Recently, it has been pointed out that the incremental approach (incrementalism) has a limit and design should be implemented in a manner that allows scaling (big change). We need to put in place in individual lives and facilities a system to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions and make continuous improvements. We need a method of designing and evaluating effective interventions in complex life systems

that are present in individual lives and in facilities and in communities.

Data on life are fragmented by facility and life situations. For example, data on illness, data on living function change, data on daily activities, and data on accidents/incidents exist in different facilities. It is necessary to use the data in an

**2.3 Fragmented living data and support services**

This report identifies issues in building living function resilience and discusses, on the basis of our research, the potential for AI and the Internet of things (IoT) in

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85422*

building a living function-resilient society.

**2. Issues in building a living function-resilient society**

living functions and issues stemmed from the changes.

selecting services that match each segment.

**2.2 Gap between efficacy and effectiveness**

*Living Function-Resilient Society in the Centenarian Era: Living Safety Technology Based… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85422*

This report identifies issues in building living function resilience and discusses, on the basis of our research, the potential for AI and the Internet of things (IoT) in building a living function-resilient society.
