Portrait of a Care Home

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the genba (actual site) of care at Sakura nursing home before care robots were introduced and addresses the questions of who does care, how, and why. Although more men are becoming caregivers in Japan, the balance at Sakura reflected the still predominantly female-gendered norm of caregiving roles in Japanese society. Given the labor shortage in the care sector and difficulty finding and recruiting new care workers, maintaining staff morale was one of the most important tasks of the manager of Sakura, and he hoped that robots might help. However, the introduction of robots or any change is complicated: staff had to be persuaded to accept them or at least to try them out. The chapter then details the care routines and the flow of daily life at Sakura, looking at the motivations of the staff for entering the Japanese eldercare industry, how they provide personalized care, and how they build trust relationships with residents.