[(Title)] Japan to increase support for firms developing caregiver robots.

The government will step up support for companies developing caregiver robots with an eye on improving productivity in the field of elderly nursing care amid widespread labor shortages.

政府会加大对开发护理机器人的公司的支持，在劳动力普遍短缺的情况下，提高老年人护理领域的生产力。

In its budget request for fiscal 2019, which begins next April, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to request that funds for such support be increased by about 20 percent from the previous year's ¥1.1 billion, informed sources said.

知情人士称，经济、贸易和工业部计划在明年4月开始的2019财政年度预算要求中，对此类资助的资金比前一年的11亿日元增加大约20%。

The use of robots for providing help going to the toilet, walking and other assistance is expected to alleviate the physical burdens of care workers considerably and contribute to an easing of labor shortages in the industry.

通过机器人帮助人们上厕所、走路和提供其他帮助，预计将大大减轻护理人员的身体负担，并有助于缓解该行业劳动力短缺的情况。

Furthermore, the ministry aims to help drastically reduce their work logging care recipients' health data, including blood pressure levels, by creating robots that automatically collect such data as they assist those in care.

此外，该部还致力于通过生产能自动收集数据的机器人，协助护理人员，帮助他们大幅减少记录受照顾者健康数据的工作，包括血压水平等。

An administrative work assistance system that automatically stores such data so it is better used in care services is also envisioned.

他们还设想了一种自动存储这些数据的管理工作辅助系统，以便更好地用于护理服务。

The system would have an artificial intelligence engine that analyzes recipients' behavioral patterns so that more effective care plans will be drawn up for them.

该系统将会有一个人工智能引擎来分析受照顾者的行为模式，以便为他们制定更有效的护理计划。

Through the initiative, the ministry aims to nurture the caregiver robot sector into a growth engine for the Japanese economy.

通过该计划，卫生部的目标是将护理机器人培育为日本经济增长的引擎。

The use of robots to collect personal health data is a relatively unexplored field, even among major U.S. technology firms that lead the gathering and AI-based analysis of big data such as consumers' shopping histories, according to the sources.

知情人士称，使用机器人收集个人健康数据是一个相对未知的领域。即使是美国的主要技术公司，也只是主导了对消费者购物史等大数据的收集和AI分析。