There is an unexpected noise echoing through the halls of the Ichoan Nursing Home in Japan these days — the sound of toddler giggles.
The nursing home began "employing" toddlers to raise the spirits of residents. The toddlers work whenever they feel like it, roaming the halls of the nursing home while delighting all residents in their path.
At the end of every shift, these adorable kids are handsomely rewarded ... with a payment of ice cream and diapers.
Connecting generations
Ichoan isn't the only nursing home with pint-sized visitors. Here in the U.S., many school, church and community groups organize nursing home visits for kids. Research has suggested that locating care programs for kids and older adults in the same physical space has multiple benefits for both groups.
In Japan, one-third of the population is over the age of 65, and with the pandemic restrictions in the past years, those older residents have felt isolated, prompting the government to create a Ministry of Loneliness last year.
Kimie Gondo, Ichoan's director, saw the joy in her residents' faces when she happened to bring her own granddaughter to work one day.
"When I saw the elderly people smile, I realized the power possessed by infants," Gondo told TODAY.
'They're so cute!'
Gondo put out a call for potential new hires — children up to 3 years old who might want to make some new friends. She kept the age limit low to keep conversations simple, and she enforces mandatory retirement from the job before preschool.
Rena Shinohara, one of the 70 "baby workers" hired by Gondo, gets chauffeured to the job site by her mother, Kanae Shinohara.
"She gets to interact with grandmothers and grandfathers," says Rena’s mother. "It’s funny — I’m not working, but she has a job."
Visitors like Rena make the day brighter for residents like Tatsuo Ojiro, 93, who doesn't see his own grandchildren that often. Of these tiny visitors, Ojiro says, "It energizes me to see them, so this really helps me!"
Another resident, Atsuko Okamura, 81, says, "When they come, they’re so cute!"
