ABSTRACT
The emergency response service (ERS) introduced by Tbkyo’s Musashino Welfare Public Corporation in 1981 is considered to be the beginning of ERS in Japan. In the private sector, a security firm started providing ERS to ordinary households in 1982, as an addition to the many home-security services. ERS equipment can roughly be classified into two types of equipment: ERS user equipment for people living alone and ERS center equipment. ERS user equipment consists of a pendant radio transmitter and a telephone set for emergency signal transmission. ERS center equipment consists of personal computers and emergency signal receiving units. The names and addresses of users and the telephone numbers of their contact persons are stored in a database on the personal compute disk. One of the most important goals for Japan’s elderly welfare policy is to spread and expand ERS to older people living alone throughout the country as the society continues its rapid aging.
