4th Healthy Aging Prize for Asian Innovation (HAPI) Award Ceremony held in Bangkok for First Time, Celebrating Regional Excellence in Healthcare Technologies and Community Initiatives for Healthy Aging

BANGKOK, Thailand 31 January 2025 – The Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) celebrated the winners of the prestigious Healthy Aging Prize for Asian Innovation (HAPI) at an award ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand. The ceremony brings together pioneering organizations from Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, and Malaysia, recognizing their outstanding contributions to addressing the challenges and opportunities of aging societies.

In its fourth year, the 2024 HAPI competition drew applications from 12 countries and regions across East and Southeast Asia, marking its most competitive round to date. The program celebrates innovative solutions across three main categories: Technology & Innovation, Community-Based Initiatives, and Supporting Self-Reliance.

"The increasing number of older people in societies across ASEAN and East Asia represents a positive development, demonstrating the success of regional health and wellbeing initiatives. While caring for an aging population presents certain challenges, we see population aging as a positive sign that people are now able to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives," said Mr. Isao Kano, President and CEO of JCIE.

The 2024 Grand Prize winners showcase diverse approaches to healthy aging:

• Technology & Innovation: Nurse & Craft (Japan) has developed "Home Nursing to Regenerate the Town," an initiative that combines healthcare delivery with community revitalization.

• Community-Based Initiatives: Padyarescue Inc. (Philippines) implemented the "Go Bike Project—Ronda Kalusugan Program," demonstrating innovative approaches to community healthcare delivery.

• Supporting Self-Reliance: School of Lifelong Education, Chiang Mai University (Thailand) created "MEDEE—Fostering Work Skills for Seniors in the Digital Era," addressing the critical need for digital inclusion among older adults.

"Through this work, we have identified several areas that we see as critical to address and which many of the winners of our Healthy Aging Prize for Asian Innovation target. These include how to tackle housing and other issues that will enable people to grow old in their homes or in the place of their choosing. Another important issue for the region as a whole is how to ensure that as countries age, they have access to a well-trained caregiving workforce to help support this older population, while also recognizing the critical work carried out by informal caregivers, including family members. Finally, we also see a need to address some of the societal issues that develop as a population ages, such as preventing social isolation and the challenges created by depopulation, particularly in rural areas," continued Mr. Isao Kano.

This year's competition witnessed several significant trends, including increased participation from Thailand and the Philippines, with a Filipino organization securing a Grand Prize for the first time. The awards also saw a rise in initiatives focused on lifelong learning, digital literacy, and income-generating opportunities for older adults, reflecting a growing emphasis on empowering seniors to make informed choices about their health and wellbeing.

The HAPI program highlights several critical areas for addressing aging societies, including housing solutions that enable aging in place, development of well-trained caregiving workforces, support for informal caregivers, and prevention of social isolation, particularly in rural areas. The program recognizes that population aging is a whole-of-society issue requiring cross-sectoral and intergenerational cooperation.

“The HAPI program's success stems from the strong partnership between JCIE and ERIA. ERIA's deep networks in ASEAN have been critical in promoting the award program, while their research expertise has helped build the intellectual foundation through longitudinal aging studies, fostering dialogue and innovative solutions,” concluded Mr. Isao Kano.

Through this initiative, JCIE and ERIA continue to promote regional information sharing and collaboration, recognizing that different countries are aging at different rates and face unique challenges. Countries like Japan, which became the world's first super-aged society in 2006, offer valuable insights for neighboring nations, while some countries facing the challenge of "becoming old before they become rich" are developing innovative approaches that can benefit the entire region.

About the Award
HAPI is an award program designed to recognize and amplify innovative policies, programs, services, and products that address the challenges facing aging societies. This prize is an initiative of JCIE and ERIA, carried out under the auspices of the Japanese government’s Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative (AHWIN). Awards are given in three categories:

• Technology & Innovation: New technologies and techniques that encourage healthy and productive aging, that improve the way that older persons receive care, or that provide greater efficiency, safety, and/or convenience for older persons and caregivers
• Community-Based Initiatives: Community-based approaches including intergenerational approaches to keeping older adults healthy, active, engaged, and/or safe
• Supporting Self-Reliance: New ways to help older adults maintain, improve, or restore their ability to carry out activities of daily living and to age in place

The award is unique for its breadth of coverage, allowing a wide range of organizations including community organizations, NPOs, associations, local governments, businesses, and others across the region to apply and enabling them to showcase how they are innovating on a diverse set of interconnected issues. HAPI was introduced at a pivotal time as Asia now faces unprecedented demographic changes: according to UN data, East and Southeast Asia are expected to have 557 million people aged 65 or over by 2050 nearly double today’s number.

About the Organizers
HAPI is an initiative of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA, www.eria.org), based in Jakarta, and the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE, www.jcie.org), located in Tokyo and New York. These nonprofit think tanks are partnering on several projects under the auspices of the Japanese government’s Asia Health and Wellbeing Initiative (AHWIN). AHWIN was launched in 2016 to promote bilateral and regional cooperation on a range of issues related to fostering vibrant and healthy societies where people can enjoy long and productive lives, to develop sustainable and self-reliant health care systems in Asia, and to contribute to the region’s sustainable and equitable development and economic growth. As part of that initiative, ERIA and JCIE are focusing on the promotion of healthy aging in Asia, supporting research, dialogues, and information sharing that can benefit people and policymakers throughout the region. For details about HAPI, visit our website at https://www.ahwin.org/award/.