Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin will travel to Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday for a three-day trip to study advanced practices in medical care, long-term care and caregiving as the city prepares for a super-aged society, and to strengthen inter-city cooperation with Nagoya, the city announced Friday.
The visit is aimed at charting a concrete policy direction for Seongnam's "Seongnam-style End-of-Life Home Care" initiative and observing firsthand Japan's medical, nursing and caregiving facilities, which have been dealing with a super-aged society ahead of South Korea.
Mayor Shin and the Seongnam delegation will visit home-care medical institutions and long-term care facilities in Nagoya on Monday to examine how the city's integrated medical and care systems support aging in place — allowing elderly residents to continue living in their own communities — along with the current state of in-home caregiving services.
Particular attention will be paid to Japan's community-based integrated care system, which helps elderly residents receive the medical and nursing services they need while living as long as possible in familiar surroundings and their own homes. Seongnam plans to analyze the operational models and inter-agency coordination practices observed during the visit and explore ways to apply them to its community care policies, including the Seongnam-style End-of-Life Home Care program.
On Tuesday, Shin will meet Nagoya Mayor Hirosawa Ichiro at Nagoya City Hall to exchange views on key policies including responses to a super-aged society and discuss ways to expand cooperation between the two cities across industry and the economy. The delegation will then visit Vantelin Dome Nagoya, home stadium of the Chunichi Dragons professional baseball team, as a benchmarking exercise for Seongnam's own planned baseball stadium.
The delegation will also call on the UN Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), headquartered in Nagoya, to discuss cooperation for the successful hosting of the 17th High-Level Meeting on Sustainable Transport (EST Forum) in Asia, scheduled to be held in Seongnam in 2027 — including key agenda items, program details and ways to secure participation from overseas cities and experts.
"Observing firsthand Japan's medical, nursing and caregiving facilities, which have navigated a super-aged society before us, will provide meaningful reference points for designing Seongnam's future care policies," Shin said. "We will adapt the best practices we find to suit Seongnam's conditions and build a care system that allows residents to spend their later years in good health and with dignity, right where they have lived."
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