From Isolation to Connection – Radio Taisō and Aging in Japan
This project, which I developed for the Social Design and Management course at the University of Tokyo, investigated how Radio Taisō could be understood as a form of soft infrastructure to address isolation among the elderly.
2025
Public Space, Loneliness
From Isolation to Connection: Rethinking Accessibility for Tokyo’s Aging Society
Social Design and Management Project · Related PhD Research
Description
Japan’s demographic crisis has intensified the phenomenon of kodokushi (lonely death), where individuals die in isolation, often unnoticed. Over 80% of such cases involve elderly people living alone. This project, completed for my Social Design and Management course at the University of Tokyo, investigated how Radio Taisō, Japan’s long-standing morning exercise routine, could be understood as a form of soft infrastructure to address isolation.
Radio Taisō was reframed not only as exercise, but as a practice of emotional, social, and informational accessibility. Ethnographic observations across Tokyo parks showed how different environments—from small, informal gatherings under trees to large, instructor-led sessions—support different kinds of social interaction. Using frameworks such as the social buffering effect and Relational Regulation Theory, the project highlighted Radio Taisō’s potential to provide routine-based, low-stakes connections.
The final output included policy guidelines for municipalities, suggesting practical, low-cost strategies for enhancing inclusivity: diversifying participation styles, improving access to information, and rethinking park spaces as infrastructures for connection. - Full project report available via the "open project" link.
At the PhD level, I am expanding this inquiry through long-term ethnographic fieldwork. While the SDM project was a classroom-based design and policy study, my doctoral research situates Radio Taisō within broader debates on cultural infrastructure, accessibility, and public space in aging Japan. I am also engaging with theoretical frameworks such as governmentality, banal nationalism, and affect, exploring how practices like Radio Taisō operate simultaneously as health intervention, social discipline, and everyday ritual. This research asks how such “soft infrastructures” shape community, belonging, and governance in an aging society.
Tags
Aging Society · Social Design · Public Space · Radio Taisō
