Structural Understanding of the Global Age-Tech Ecosystem: An Exploratory Analysis Based on the STEP Framework and Major National Strategies

초록

This study aims to exploratorily analyze the global Age-Tech emerging at the intersection of aging and digital transformation, and to conceptualize it as a technological and institutional ecosystem that supports aging societies. Unlike existing studies that have mainly focused on individual technological domains such as telemedicine, assistive robots, and smart homes, this study understands Age-Tech as an integrated structure in which social demand, technological infrastructure, industrial dynamics, and policy governance interact. To this end, this study synthesizes relevant literature and industry trends and proposes the STEP framework composed of Society, Technology, Economy, and Policy. In addition, by comparing Age-Tech development strategies across countries—Japan, the United States, China, South Korea, Germany, and the European Union—it analyzes the structural patterns of the global ecosystem. The results show that the global Age-Tech ecosystem is developing along different paths depending on demographic aging and pressure on healthcare systems, technological convergence among artificial intelligence, IoT, robotics, and digital platforms, and differences in institutional and industrial structures across countries. Japan is characterized by a robotics-centered approach, the United States by a platform-centered approach, China by infrastructure integration, South Korea by AI-based smart healthcare, and Europe by a policy-coordinated approach. This study suggests that Age-Tech should be understood not as a collection of individual technologies but as a multi-layered socio-technical ecosystem, and provides a conceptual foundation and a framework for comparative analysis for future Age-Tech research.

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