Naonori Kodate

University College Dublin

Dr Nao Kodate is Associate Professor in Social Policy and founding Director of UCD Centre for Japanese Studies (UCD-JaSt). He is currently the Director of Research for the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice.

Nao holds a BA (International Relations) and LL.M from the University of Tokyo (College of Arts and Sciences / Graduate School of Law and Politics), MSc in European Politics and Policy, and a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His PhD thesis “Institutional logics and responsive government: hospital sector reforms in England, Japan and Sweden 1990-2006” investigated various patterns of policy-making in healthcare with a particular focus on risk, regulation and political accountability.

He is currently the Principal Investigator of a Toyota Foundation-funded international research project “Harmonisation towards the establishment of Person-centred, Robotics-aided Care System (HARP: RoCS)”, working with teams in Ireland, Japan, Hong Kong and France.

Film screening and discussion: Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan’s Robot Revolution

Japan is arguably the first post-industrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. David Prendergast, Professor in Science, Technology & Society at Maynooth University, will introduce and show his newly-released 35-minute documentary film, Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan’s Robot Revolution, which explores the role of robots in the social care of Japan’s ageing population. Accompanied by the film’s producer, Naonori Kodate, Associate Professor of Social Policy and Social Robotics at University College Dublin, David will facilitate a discussion with delegates about the issues the film raises.