The importance of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Japanese healthcare

Japan has the fastest ageing population in the world and is also experiencing a rapid natural decline in population, which is putting strong pressure on the Japanese economy and especially on healthcare. The use of technologies, especially robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), offers an effective solution. The main goal of the thesis is therefore to evaluate to what extent Japan has managed to use the existing potential of AI and robotics in healthcare over the last decade in solving the main problems of this sector. A secondary objective is to identify the main challenges that Japan may face in their further implementation and to identify how these technologies can contribute in response to population ageing. The thesis concludes that the use of robotics has a more advanced form compared to AI, but even robots are not close to widespread use in healthcare. It is due to many unresolved obstacles in the form of legal, ethical, technical and social issues. At the same time, these technologies can make a significant contribution to solving the situation - for example, by meeting the growing demand for health services, reducing staff workload, faster and more accurate diagnosis or prolonging healthy life expectancy through prevention and prediction, along with greater patient involvement. They can thus increase the efficiency of healthcare at a lower total cost.