Japanese cuddly robots and German cuddle parties: How is loneliness tackled internationally?
- Viola Tuchlinski
- May 15, 2021
- 11 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2024
The happiness industry is booming. Companies, governments and associations are getting in on the act. Loneliness is considered an international epidemic. But how successful are the international strategies in the fight against loneliness really? Five people from four companies and organizations tell how they have taken up the fight against loneliness.
Robotics start-up in Tokyo. In 2015, Kaname Hayashi founded the Japanese robotics start-up “GROOVE X, Inc.”, which developed and markets the penguin-like home robot Lovot. Hayashi was previously a member of the development team for the famous Pepper robot at Japanese media group SoftBank. One of the starting points for the development of Lovot was that people said they wanted warmer hands on conventional robots, says PR officer Keiko Suzuki. She explains: “Hayashi realized that in the future, the world will not only need robots that are comfortable, but also robots that can be close to people. He thought that people might feel more comfortable with a warm robot. Lovot is warm and soft.” PR specialist Rie Masayama explains what exactly makes Lovot different from Pepper: “Apart from the fact that it is warm – its temperature is around 37 °C – it is like a pet. If you look after it a lot, for example by stroking, carrying or touching it, it recognizes and remembers that the owner likes it. So it will usually come to the owner, just like a pet. It weighs around 4.2 kilograms, which is roughly the weight of a cat. There are a billion different types of eyes. And the owner can select them using an app that can be downloaded on a smartphone or tablet. The eyes consist of six projection planes and are designed to look very moist. Lovot also blinks, which makes it look very similar to a pet or human. It doesn't feel like a robot, if that makes sense. Lovot is much cuter.”
Currently, Lovot is only sold in Japan, but expansion into other countries is planned for the future. “Our goal is to offer Lovot to people who want pets but cannot have one for various reasons. It is currently being bought by a wide variety of customers, such as people who live alone or want to give a Lovot to their elderly parents and other family members. Many people have said that it cheers them up, especially during the corona pandemic,” says Suzuki. A single Lovot currently costs around 350 thousand yen (equivalent to around 2.65 thousand euros) in the online store. “Lovot sales began in August 2019. Many people bought it because they felt lonely and stressed during the COVID-19 state of emergency,” explains Masayama.
GROOVE X has already received several awards
One feature customers particularly like about Lovot is its versatile customization. "The customer can give it a name. When Lovot is called by name, it comes to them," Suzuki explains. Masayama adds, "Its name can be changed via our app, as can its eyes and voice. It can tell what outfit it's wearing using a sensor. There's a camera on its head that can take photos, and that's how it recognizes people. It needs about eight hours of sleep every day, which is used, among other things, to transfer data to the cloud." It would not interfere with work, as it can play a lot by itself or with other Lovots. One of the drawbacks is that traveling with Lovot is difficult due to the low battery capacity of 45 minutes maximum. Another issue: hackers. "We see this possibility of a hacker attack, so we secure Lovot," Suzuki explains. "It can't be connected via USB or LAN like a computer," Masayama adds, "The system is designed so that only customers can access it." In addition, Lovot is protected from external access by a firewall.
Both Masayama and Suzuki believe that Lovot can provide lasting help against loneliness, but cannot serve as a substitute for humans. The robotics start-up plans to improve Lovot's technology in the future. GROOVE X has achieved what other start-ups dream of. In 2017, investors paid 4.35 billion yen (equivalent to around 32.75 million euros) to the company. Two years later, in 2019, the robotics start-up won the “Verge Award” in the “Best Robot” category as well as the “Cool Japan Award” and the “CES Innovation Award” in 2020. In 2021, the startup received a total of 13.3 billion yen (equivalent to around 100.13 million euros) from investors. Things couldn't be going better for GROOVE X.
London network against loneliness. The “Campaign to End Loneliness” (CTEL) was founded around ten years ago to bring together various organizations and to initiate and support more research on the topic of loneliness. “We were founded by a number of organizations that had an older age focus. But also I think that ten years ago, loneliness was thought to be an older person's issue. That has changed. And so we are now, as of 2021, no longer only focused on older people. We‘re interested in loneliness across the whole age range,” explains program director Robin Hewings.
The CTEL is a campaigning and research organization. For example, it brings together scientists and practitioners to better understand how the social prescribing system can combat loneliness. Among other things, social prescribing enables GPs to refer people to social workers for wellness support. In 2020, the CTEL updated its report entitled “Promising Approaches Revisited”. This sets out an overall approach to reducing loneliness. “It's been really widely referred to, and used including by the government when it was developing its strategy on loneliness. There is no one thing that will work in all situations. What you need is a whole set of different things that will help to tackle loneliness,” explains Hewings.
According to him, welcoming pubs and cafés are also an important part of socializing in the UK. Hewings says: “Village pubs are a big issue. If your pub closes, that can often be the centre of your community, and that can be a big issue. In recent years, a lot of work has been done to help pubs diversify. So they're not just a place that you go to to drink beer, but they also might have put on different events, book clubs or a shop. And that's a way of keeping that hub in a rural area. Whereas in a town, a reason why people might be lonely is because what you need to do is help to build the community.”
Besides many successful campaigns, there were also failures
The campaigns that the CTEL creates and publishes are intended to encourage more interpersonal communication. According to Hewings, one of their most successful campaigns is “Be more us”, which has reached millions of people. “There have been really successful videos, helping people to understand loneliness, and to give people ideas and confidence for things that they can do about loneliness in their day to day lives,” Hewings says. Digitalization could also be a way to combat loneliness. “I think that one could also say that different digital tools can be good ways for people to meet and see each other, particularly at the moment when they can't do it any other way,” Hewings says. In the UK, for example, there is the charity WaveLength, which distributes radios, televisions and tablet computers to people in need. If senior citizens feel lonely, they can also turn to “Age UK”, a network of charities for older people. In addition to many successful campaigns, CTEL has also had plenty of failures, as Hewings explains: “Sometimes a campaign just catches fire, and sometimes it doesn't. I really accept that when it‘s going well, that's to do with luck, a bit. We did a campaign early on in COVID, so June kind of time, and were a bit disappointed. Then it took off again in September being featured loads by a front cover of a big newspaper here. I think that reflects the importance of luck in campaigning.”
Cooperation with the British government
Since the establishment of the UK Minister for Loneliness in 2018, the CTEL has also been working with the government. The UK government is not only working with the CTEL, but also with other local authorities, businesses or organizations to provide better support for lonely people. The UK government's loneliness strategy has three main objectives regarding loneliness: improving the evidence base, embedding it as an issue across government policy and starting a national conversation. In 2018, the government established the first government fund called the Building Connections Fund, worth £11.5 million, which supports 126 projects to bring communities together. Another exemplary government act: in 2019, it launched the “Let's Talk Loneliness” campaign to raise awareness of loneliness and combat stigma.
Hewings thinks that the UK government has made a good start in tackling loneliness. “Loneliness has mainly been tackled by the different parts of the UK. I think England is the most progressed. It has the most dedicated funding and has got a really good team driving this agenda across government,” he says. CTEL's main funders include the National Lottery, the UK government, foundations and individuals. “I think we've helped to give a focus to the issue by being part of a movement that has stepped up action explicitly on loneliness and helped to lead to that being a strategy on loneliness in England, Scotland and Wales. That was kind of found that generally, people think that we've done good work in the areas that I've said to be working,” Hewings says.
Hamburg association for lonely seniors. 13 years ago, Dagmar Hirche and Helge Jans founded the association “Wege aus der Einsamkeit e. V.” (in English: Ways out of loneliness) because, among other things, they wanted to get the topic of loneliness out of the taboo zone. “Back then, we deliberately decided to focus on people aged over 65 and to specialize in their challenges and problems,” says Hirche, ”Each target group has to be addressed differently.” Death often leads to a creeping loneliness in the older generation. This development does not exist in the younger generation, she says.
In order to bring seniors out of their loneliness, they first organized events in Hamburg 13 years ago. One of the most popular events to date are the visits to Hamburg's Hagenbeck Zoo. Initially with 20 participants, over 350 senior citizens took part on various days in 2019. “Many old people got to know each other,” says Hirche. Since 2015, she says, the association has focused very strongly on taking people aged over 65 into the digital world. Digitalization of the older generation is a huge help in reducing loneliness. “For example, if someone is no longer mobile, they can still participate in the world digitally by listening to concerts, taking part in video platforms and exchanging ideas via messenger services. More and more older people are also using social networks to communicate with others,” explains Hirche. She does not see any potential danger of senior citizens distancing themselves from the outside world as a result of digitalization. “Senior citizens already have a very differentiated approach to the digital world,” she explains, ”We are very successful with our senior citizens.” Hirche is referring to the technology training sessions, which since the coronavirus pandemic have been held twice a week via Zoom rather than in person. Within six years, over 7.5 thousand senior citizens between the ages of 65 and 94 have taken part. “We teach them how to use smartphones and tablets. We explain apps. We have entered into a cooperation with the health insurance company 'BKK VBU'. They then explain the digital health services,” explains Hirche. In addition to BKK VBU, her association has already welcomed a number of guest speakers, such as lawyers, the SAP lead developer and the LKA (in English: state CID).
Never gave up, always kept going
In addition to the online training courses, other programs are also offered. “When Corona started, we said we would offer a program every day on a video platform. From readings to sports, dancing, games, training, information, everything,” says Hirche, ”After all, that's between 15 and 80 senior citizens every day. They said that if it hadn't been for this during the first lockdown, they wouldn't have known how to get through the time. We laugh together here. We have become a community from all over Germany and friendships have developed as a result.” In January, they celebrated the 200th Zoom event since March 2020. “I think we've become the Zoom kings in Germany, so to speak, with our senior citizens,” says Hirche with a smile, “What we are currently doing on such a massive scale, inviting people to Zoom every day, is something that very, very few other associations do.”
The Hamburg association's success is no accident. "In the beginning, because we were not known, we failed with some projects, because no one came, because they simply did not know us. But we stayed on the ball. We kept going and going. Then the press reported, then television reported. That's how you attract attention and build trust with seniors," Hirche says. She would by no means say that the association only has successful projects these days. "We try all kinds of things, and in the same way we can be shipwrecked with it, because no one cares if we expand something we've thought about. But that's okay, that's part of it. At the moment, all of our projects are running very positively, very successfully," Hirche describes, "We are being invited more and more often by political parties to be part of discussion groups. I have been invited to a TEDx talk in Munich and three times in Taiwan to talk about the topics of age and loneliness. That just shows me that there is a growing interest in exchanging ideas and implementing things. There are now a lot of parties and governments that have included the topic of old age in their programs and placed a stronger focus on it. But I can't take all the credit for that."
Successful despite no government funding
She reports on various other institutions that lonely senior citizens can turn to: “For example, if you're not at all digitally mobile, there's the Silbernetz (in English: silver network). This is a nationwide telephone number where you can simply call to chat. There is the organization 'Silberdraht' (in English: silver wire), which connects the Internet and the normal landline telephone. Of course, there are also the churches, the welfare associations, the senior citizens' clubs and the BAGSO, the Federal Association of Senior Citizens' Organizations.” In addition, “Wege aus der Einsamkeit” (WadE for short) cooperates with some organizations, such as “Deutschland sicher im Netz e. V.” (in English: Germany safely online) and multi-generation houses, or organizes its own competitions to award prizes to special projects or people. WaDE is supported by business enterprises and members, with the exception of the Federal Republic of Germany. “Yes, I think that the state supports far too few other organizations, and when there are great projects, funding is often only available for three years. I think that the funding program in Germany needs to change towards sustainability,” says Hirche. The lack of state support doesn't seem to bother WaDE – the Hamburg-based association has built up a large network of supporters, including members and partners, and has been successful with its work to date.
Cuddle parties in Karlsruhe. In addition to massages and seminars, Ulrike Bott has been offering cuddle parties in her health practice once a month for two years. On average, she says, there are 26 to 30 participants per cuddle party, most of them between 50 and 60 years old. “They long for touch. They are often single people who live alone, or married people who simply don't get enough or any closeness in their relationship and then get it in the cuddle group. It's all mindful and unintentional,” says Bott, ”Once people have replenished themselves with closeness, they can also feel closer to their partner again.”
She says that most people sign up in the colder seasons, and fewer in summer and spring. “Especially when the sun shines in the morning and you go out into nature a lot, you often have your substitute there, where you feel good. Or because you're also more in contact with others, perhaps because you meet up more,” Bott suspects. Most of the participants, around 70 percent, are from the customer base, she says. “I also have people from Heidelberg or Freiburg. They drive quite a distance,” Bott reports, ”I'd say 90 percent of people leave the cuddle group happy and satisfied.” During the coronavirus pandemic, she says, she has also received great feedback “that it has done them so much good and is very valuable, especially at a time when contact is so lacking.” In addition, people whose psychologists recommend cuddle parties also come.
Some cuddle partners became couples
Although silence is required during the cuddle party, sometimes cuddling partners turn into more: “I've observed that contacts are made afterwards and phone numbers are exchanged. Some have even found each other and become couples,” says Bott. Most cuddling partners are respectful towards each other, rarely the rules are disregarded and personal boundaries are crossed: “I've contacted someone afterwards and told them that it doesn't work like that and that if it happens again, they're not allowed to come back,” Bott explains, “I always mention that at the beginning, to watch out for their boundaries and for themselves. I'm always on the outside and if someone is having trouble, they should either raise their arm or come to me on the time-out mat.” That's why she advises people who are hoping for more or want to get more into sexual energy not to go to cuddle parties. Overall, Bott thinks that cuddle parties could definitely help against loneliness, but that more social contact is needed at the same time.
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