Visualization Website for the Japan-UK Joint Project “The Future of Unpaid Work:AI’s Potential to Transform Domestic Work in Japan and UK”

What’s New

12/25　Site open

About This Website

This website has been established to visually present the results of analyses and simulations obtained from the collaborative research project between the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Economic and Social Research Council Research Grant in the United Kingdom. The project, titled “Future of Unpaid Labor in Households: A Comparative Study between Japan and the UK on AI and Related Technologies” (Principal Investigator: Dr. Nobuko Nagase, Professor at Ochanomizu University Research Institute), was conducted from December of 2019 to December of 2023. Additionally, the UK project titled “Exploring AI’s potential to transform unpaid domestic work in the UK and Japan” was led by Dr. Ekaterina Hertog, Associate Professor of AI and Society at the Oxford Internet Institute and Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford, spanning from January 2020 to December 2023.

The graphs on each data visualization page can be interactively modified to display content based on user interests. For more information on the research overview of the above-mentioned projects, please refer to the “Research Overview” section below. It is important to note that the analyses and simulations displayed on this site are based on the outcomes of Work Package 4, “Simulation of Future Society using the Framework of NTA/NTTA” (Principal Investigators: Rikiya Matsukura, Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Nihon University, and Dr. Setsuya Fukuda, Senior Researcher of the Department of the Research Planning and Coordination, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research), within the mentioned collaborative research project.

The program codes for all the analyses and simulations presented on this website are created by Dr. Setsuya Fukuda.

Research Overview

This project will introduce unpaid domestic work into the discussion of AI’s potential to influence the future of labor. Despite the fact that working age adults in Japan spent 38 percent of all paid and unpaid work on household and care work, and in UK the figure is 56 percent, the future of unpaid household and care work has received little research attention.

Our goal is to make predictions as to whether and how AI and digital technology will replace or facilitate human work in multiple domestic tasks, and how it may affect gender division of labor within household and also women’s career.

We will build on existing predictions of the likelihood of automation of a variety of paid work tasks, but will go beyond purely technological criteria and also analyse relevant economic factors, such as affordability of technology and social factors, such as acceptability of machines performing different tasks in the domestic context.

Based on these dimensions we will build realistic simulations of the future of unpaid work and use them to evaluate the social consequences of automation in Japan and UK.

Dr. Ekaterina Hertog of Oxford University Internet Institute is PI of UK side. Dr. Nobuko Nagase of Ochanomizu University is PI of Japanese side. By applying to UKRI for UK team and JST-RISTEX for Japanese team, the two groups in UK and in Japan simultaneously got competitive fund from the government that runs from 2020 January to 2023 December.

https://www.jst.go.jp/ristex/hite/community/project000420.html

Dr. Nobuko Nagase, Professor, Ochanomizu University (Principal Investigator)

Research Findings

Articles and Contributions：https://www-p.hles.ocha.ac.jp/domesticai-project/paper-presentation.html

Conference Presentations and Lectures：https://www-p.hles.ocha.ac.jp/domesticai-project/conference-presentation-lecture.html

Seminar：https://www-p.hles.ocha.ac.jp/domesticai-project/seminar.html

Member

Japan side member

永瀬伸子（代表者） Nobuko Nagase(PI)	お茶の水女子大学基幹研究院人間科学系　教授 Professor, Ochanomizu University
太田裕治 Yuji Ohta	お茶の水女子大学基幹研究院自然科学系　教授 Professor, Ochanomizu University
大森義明 Yoshiaki Omori	横浜国立大学国際社会科学研究院　教授 Professor, Yokohama National University
臼井恵美子 Emiko Usui	一橋大学経済研究所　教授 Professor, Hitotsubashi University
松倉力也 Rikiya Matsukura	日本大学経済学部　教授 Professor, Nihon University
福田節也 Setsuya Fukuda	国立社会保障・人口問題研究所　室長 Senior Researcher, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research
長町理恵子 Rieko Nagamachi	追手門学院大学経済学部　准教授 Associate Professor, Ottemon Gakuin University
奥田純子 Junko Okuda	北陸大学経済経営学部助教 Assistant Professor, Hokuriku University
平河茉莉絵 Marie Hirakawa	日本大学経済学部　助教 Assistant Professor, Nihon University
江天瑶 Jian Tianyou	お茶の水女子大学　リサーチアシスタント Research Assistant、Ochanomizu University
靳璇 Jin Xuan	お茶の水女子大学　リサーチアシスタント Research Assistant、Ochanomizu University

Advisor

小沼光代
Mitsuyo Onuma

株式会社Flap代表
Flap Inc.

British side member

Ekaterina Hertog (P.I.)	オックスフォード大学インターネット研究所　准教授 Associate Professor of AI and Society, Oxford Internet Institute and Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford
Vili Lehdonvirta	オックスフォード大学インターネット研究所　教授 Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Lulu Shi	オックスフォード大学教育学部　講師／インターネット研究所　研究員 Departmental Lecturer, Department of Education and Research Associate, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

The Future of Unpaid Work: AI’s potential to transform domestic work in Japan and the UK

DomesticAI | Oxford Internet Institute

Contact Us

Please contact us at the e-mail address below.

Nihon University Population Research Institute
Email：adm-ken.eco@nihon-u.ac.jp