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Naonori Kodate

University College Dublin


Naonori Kodate

Naonori Kodate (PhD) is an Associate Professor in Social Policy and Social Robotics at University College Dublin (UCD), National University of Ireland, and the founding Director of UCD Centre for Japanese Studies. He holds a BA (International Relations, College of Arts and Sciences) and LL.M (Graduate School of Law and Politics) from the University of Tokyo (UT), and MSc in European Politics and Policy, and a PhD in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His PhD thesis “Institutional logics and responsive government: hospital sector reforms in England, Japan and Sweden 1990-2006” (supervised by Profs. Martin Lodge (LSE) & Simon Hix (European University Institute)) investigated various patterns of policymaking in healthcare with a particular focus on risk, regulation and political accountability.

He is affiliated with la Fondation France-Japon at EHESS, the Institute for Future Initiatives at UT, Public Policy Research Center at Hokkaido University as well as the Universal Accessibility & Ageing Research Centre, Nishi-Tokyo, Japan. He is also a founding member and a member on the Board of Directors, Future Technology for Integrated Care (FTIC) Research Network, Japan as well as a Member of the Board of Academic Councilors, the Japanese Society for Wellbeing Science and Assistive Technology.

His books include “Japanese Women in Science and Engineering: History and Policy Change” (Routledge, 2015), “New International Handbook on Social Welfare in UK & Ireland” (旬報社, 2019, in Japanese), and “Systems Thinking for Global Health” (Oxford University Press, 2022). He co-produced a documentary film “Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan’s Robot Revolution” (2021). He has successfully obtained competitive research funding and led international and interdisciplinary research projects, working with engineers, scientists, healthcare professionals, social scientists, anthropologists, linguists and historians.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Countries Europe; Ireland; Japan;
Topics Ageing in place; Artificial Intelligence; Care Homes; Care inequalities; Care innovations; Deinstitutionalisation; Dementia care and support; End-of-life care and LTC; Ethics and care; LTC Reforms; Person-centered care; Prevention and rehabilitation and LTC; Social Innovation in LTC; Technology and LTC;
Methods Comparative policy analysis; Longitudinal data analysis; Mixed methods; Policy analysis; Qualitative studies; Quantitative data analysis; Quasi-experimental methods; Questionnaire; Scoping reviews; Surveys; Systematic Review; Translation and cultural adaptation of instruments;
Role Research;
Interest Groups Technology and Long-Term Care;
Websitehttps://people.ucd.ie/naonori.kodate
ORC.ID0000-0002-6480-7327
GOOGLE SCHOLARhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8nYp0nUAAAAJ&hl=ja
X (Twitter)https://x.com/naokody
LinkedInhttps://ie.linkedin.com/in/nao-kodate-b410b04
Other 1https://www.ehess.fr/fr/personne/naonori-kodate;
Research interests

His research straddles comparative healthcare politics and policy, and science & technology studies (STS). Key themes include: care and caring, health services research, systems thinking, safety & care quality, social robotics, welfare technologies, implementation science, and organizational learning. His recent research projects have been looking at the impact of digitalization and eHealth (e.g. robots) on care, patient safety regulation (e.g. incident reporting systems), and gender equality in science and technology education.

Key publications

Kodate N, Obayashi K, Mannan H, Masuyama S (2022). Improving care quality in a nursing home in Japan: organisational culture, robotics-aided care and systems approach. In F. Larkin, F. Vallières, H. Mannan, & N. Kodate (Eds.) Systems Thinking for Global Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Obayashi K, Kodate N, Ishii Y, Masuyama S. (2023) Assistive technologies and aging in place for people with dementia and disabilities: a proof-of-concept study with in-home passive remote monitoring with interactive communication functions. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. doi.org/10.1080/17483107.2023.2287148

Kodate N, Maeda Y, Hauray B, Tsujimura M, Chan WCH, Mannan H, Dalgalarrondo S, Cheung MC, Yumoto A, Suwa S, Yu W, Donnelly S, Sakata N, O’Shea D, Obayashi K, Masuyama M. (2022) Hopes, fear and ethical dilemmas regarding care robots: Content analysis of newspapers in East Asia and Western Europe, 2001-2020, Rehabilit. Sci. 3:1019089.

Kodate N, Donnelly S, Suwa S, Tsujimura M, Kitinoja H, Hallila J, Toivonen M, Ide H, Yu W (2021). Home-care robots – Attitudes and perceptions among older people, carers and care professionals in Ireland: A questionnaire study. Health & Social Care in the Community. doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13327.

Obayashi K, Kodate N & Masuyama S. (2021). Assessing the Impact of an Original Soft Communicative Robot in a Nursing Home in Japan: Will Softness or Conversations Bring more Smiles to Older People?. Int J of Soc Robotics. 14, 3, 645-656.

Obayashi K, Kodate N & Masuyama S (2020). Measuring the impact of age, gender and dementia on communication-robot interventions in residential care homes. Geriatrics and Gerontology International, 20, 373-378.

Kodate N & Timonen V (2017) Bringing the family in through the back door: the stealthy expansion of family care in Asian and European long-term care policy. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 32 (3), 291–301.