계산하는 기계는 돌보는 기계가 될 수 있을까?— 일본의 개호로봇과 돌봄의 다층적 재구성— = From Computation to Care Reconfiguring Care through Japan’s Care Robots

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Amid rapid global ageing and population decline, Japan adopted nursing-care robots early to address workforce shortages and improve efficiency. Japan’ s ex- perience reveals not only benefits—reduced physical burden and greater service efficiency—but also complex challenges, including weakened care relations, inten- sified commercialization and techno-dependence, and persistent cost and quality issues. Care robots should therefore be understood not merely as substitutes but as technologies that reshape care systems and ethics. This article revisits fundamen- tal questions: where the boundary of“robot” lies, how“ care ” should be defined, and what it means for robots to perform care. Four conclusions follow. First, care is a relational, multilayered practice rather than sentiment or duty, and from a posthuman perspective it is co-produced with technology. Second, care robots reconfigure provider–recipient relations: while supportive use can enhance emo- tional care, widescale automation risks eroding the relational and ethical core of care. Third, robots are not moral persons but vulnerable actants requiring main- tenance, which supports a redistribution of positions and responsibilities within care networks. Finally, at the structural level, care robots may alter how respon- sibility and power are distributed, making governance grounded in distributive justice and accountability essential.