（046）2015/3/2：日本手机商推出老年人专用智能手机
Leaves译 2015/3/2 原文来源：纽约时报
My 77-year-old mother taps out e-mails on her iPhone no sweat, but she still asks me, “Will my e-mail address work on that computer” Instead of admiring her resolve to master the smartphone, I become snarly as I try to explain the concept of portability.
我77岁的老母可以很轻松地在她的iPhone上发电子邮件，不过她还是会问我：“我的电邮地址在电脑上能用吗？”我倒是没有钦佩她想要掌握智能手机的决心，相反，向她解释移动性的概念时我还有点不太耐烦。
She happens to be the same age as Teruko Miyata, another woman who is part of a growing group of Japanese seniors who yearn to keep up with popular technology but face the humiliation of struggling to learn how to use the gadgets from people their children’s or grandchildren’s age. “It’s hard to ask young people questions,” she says. “They already assume you know a lot.”
她正好和另一位女士宫田辉子的年龄一样大。她们都属于那些渴望跟上流行科技的日本老年人群体，但从自己孩子或孙子辈那里学习使用电子设备时却遭遇着尴尬。“从年轻人那里问问题很难。”她说，“他们认为你已经知道了很多东西。”
But recently Miyata was sitting at a SoftBank Mobile store counter showing customers how to use the company’s latest smartphone. SoftBank, Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator, released a smartphone in May geared for seniors — with large icons and simple features — and decided to capture the gray market by training and hiring a “senior crew” to sympathetically explain the know-how to their peers.
但最近，宫田却坐在一家软银移动（SoftBank Mobile）店面的柜台边向顾客展示如何使用这家公司最新推出的手机。软银是日本第三大手机运营商，5月份，它针对老年人推出了一款图标很大、特性简单的手机，并培训、聘用了一批“老年店员”向他们的同辈人体贴地解释这款手机的使用诀窍，以此占领“灰白头发市场”。
Preventing older people from digital isolation is a small but significant endeavor in a country experiencing an unprecedented and frightening pace of aging. Almost one in four people are over age 65 — and that share is expected to approach one in three by 2030.
这个国家正在经历史无前例、令人忧心的老龄化，防止老年人与电子产品隔离是一种力度不大但意义重大的举措。该国65岁以上老年人几乎占四分之一，而且据估计，到2030年这一比例将达到三分之一。
A friend recently observed that when you see a Japanese couple pushing a stroller, there’s usually a tiny dog inside instead of a baby.
最近一位朋友观察到，当看到一对日本夫妇推着一辆婴儿车时，通常里面是一只小狗，而不是一个婴儿。
How the dwindling population will support its pensioners and their medical care remains the country’s most pressing issue, but these days attention is shifting to how to ensure that seniors remain happy and active.
萎缩的人口要如何支撑起领养老金的群体和他们的医疗保健体系，这依然是这个国家最严峻的问题。不过，当下的关注点已经转移到了如何确保老年人的幸福和活跃。
Japan is in the process of raising the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, and beginning this year businesses are required to keep employees on their payroll through age 65 if they request it. But with a life expectancy of 83 years, people still have nearly two decades on their hands. Last year a cabinet-appointed study group urged the nation to stop using 65 as a benchmark and instead to plan for “an era of life into the 90s.” The majority of people over 65 consider 70 the start of old age.
日本正在酝酿强制性将退休年龄从60岁提高到65岁。从今年开始，如果65岁以上的员工要求继续工作，那么公司就必须继续聘用他们。不过，日本平均寿命预期是83岁，他们退休后还有将近20年时间。去年，一个内阁任命的研究团体敦促国家停止将65岁作为标准，转而为“步入90岁时代”作好规划。大多数65岁以上的人认为70岁才是老龄生活的开始。
Kumiko Yanagi, who runs a gerontology research group and who proposed the senior teaching concept to SoftBank, was surprised at the number of her elderly contacts who signed up to be trained as instructors. “They are looking for chances to learn something new and to feel useful,” she observed.
柳久美子运营着一个老龄人研究团队，向软银公司提议聘请老年店员对顾客进行指导这一概念的也是她。她很惊讶有那么多比自己年长的人报名受训成为导员。“他们在寻找机会学习新东西，并且希望感觉自己还有用。”她说。
“Open your books to Page 13,” Miyata tells two female students at the SoftBank shop who flip through an 80-page glossy instruction booklet with large, colorful illustrations. “Push in,” she says, explaining one of the main features of SoftBank’s “Simple Smartphone.” Tapping on sensitive touchscreens is usually the first hurdle for older fingers, so the Simple Smartphone is designed to respond to a firm press. A bright blue pulsating circle signals that the command was received.
在软银公司的店面中，两位女性顾客学员翻阅着一本带大幅彩色插画的80页精美指引手册，宫田对她们说：“请把书翻到第13页。”她解释着软银“简单智能手机”的一条主要特性。“按下去。”她说。对于老年人的手指来说，通常第一个障碍是在灵敏度很高的触摸屏上打字，因此这款简单智能手机设计成使劲按才会有反应。出现一个跳动的亮蓝色圆圈，则表示手机收到了指令。
Other special features include a magnifying glass that can be dragged around the screen to enlarge what is on view. There’s an emergency button on the side of the phone that when pushed sounds an alarm and sends an e-mail to registered recipients telling them the location of the owner. Designated e-mail addressees, usually family members, also receive what SoftBank calls an “I’m fine e-mail” the first time the phone is used each day. The message notes that the phone was turned on and reports the number of steps — recorded by a pedometer application — taken by the owner on the previous day.
还有一个特性是放大镜，可以在屏幕上到处拖动，将视野中的内容放大；手机侧部有个应急按钮，按下去会发出警报，并向预先注册的地址发送电子邮件，告知使用者的方位；指定电邮地址通常是家里人，每天手机第一次使用时会自动发送软银所谓的“报平安邮件”。信息会告诉家人手机已经打开，同时告知使用者之前一天走路的步数，该数据由一款计步器程序记录。
Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, was the first to come out with a senior-oriented smartphone with technology developed by Fujitsu. Fujitsu recently developed an international model that went on sale in France in June. Unlike in Japan, where the phones are clearly marketed for the elderly with names like DoCoMo’s “Raku-Raku” or “Easy-Easy,” the French version dials down the gray aspect, advertising it with men and women 10 years younger than its targeted clientele.
日本最大的手机运营商NTT DoCoMo是首家针对老年人推出手机的厂商，其技术由富士通开发。富士通最近还推出了这款手机的国际版，6月份在法国发售。在日本，这些手机取名为“Raku-Raku”（容易-容易），市场定位很清晰，就是瞄准了老年人。但法国版不同，没有太强调年龄，广告中的男女也比自己的目标客户年轻10岁。
DoCoMo will soon unveil a version for the Japanese market with an enhanced screen and an improved social media app. The online community accessed from the phone is monitored round-the-clock by Fujitsu staff who protect the site from spamming and delete any personal information elderly members may have inadvertently posted. The close to 70,000 members exchange stories about their pets and grandchildren and chat about going to medical appointments.
DoCoMo将很快针对日本市场推出一款强化了屏幕并提升了社交媒体应用的升级版。通过这款手机可以参加在线社区，富士通员工对社区进行全天候监控，保护站点不受垃圾广告侵害，并删去任何老年人可能不慎贴上去的个人信息。近7万名成员互相讲述着他们宠物和孙辈的故事，谈论将要去门诊预约。
Fujitsu says that the percentage of repeat use of the app by many of its members rivals that of Facebook, suggesting that Japan’s elderly are eager to venture into virtual communities. See you in the cyberworld, Mom.
富士通称，这款应用使用者众多，重复使用率比得上脸谱网。这表示日本的老年人渴望参加虚拟社区。咱们网上见，老妈！
My 77-year-old mother taps out e-mails on her iPhone no sweat, but she still asks me, “Will my e-mail address work on that computer” Instead of admiring her resolve to master the smartphone, I become snarly as I try to explain the concept of portability.
我77岁的老母可以很轻松地在她的iPhone上发电子邮件，不过她还是会问我：“我的电邮地址在电脑上能用吗？”我倒是没有钦佩她想要掌握智能手机的决心，相反，向她解释移动性的概念时我还有点不太耐烦。
She happens to be the same age as Teruko Miyata, another woman who is part of a growing group of Japanese seniors who yearn to keep up with popular technology but face the humiliation of struggling to learn how to use the gadgets from people their children’s or grandchildren’s age. “It’s hard to ask young people questions,” she says. “They already assume you know a lot.”
她正好和另一位女士宫田辉子的年龄一样大。她们都属于那些渴望跟上流行科技的日本老年人群体，但从自己孩子或孙子辈那里学习使用电子设备时却遭遇着尴尬。“从年轻人那里问问题很难。”她说，“他们认为你已经知道了很多东西。”
But recently Miyata was sitting at a SoftBank Mobile store counter showing customers how to use the company’s latest smartphone. SoftBank, Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator, released a smartphone in May geared for seniors — with large icons and simple features — and decided to capture the gray market by training and hiring a “senior crew” to sympathetically explain the know-how to their peers.
但最近，宫田却坐在一家软银移动（SoftBank Mobile）店面的柜台边向顾客展示如何使用这家公司最新推出的手机。软银是日本第三大手机运营商，5月份，它针对老年人推出了一款图标很大、特性简单的手机，并培训、聘用了一批“老年店员”向他们的同辈人体贴地解释这款手机的使用诀窍，以此占领“灰白头发市场”。
Preventing older people from digital isolation is a small but significant endeavor in a country experiencing an unprecedented and frightening pace of aging. Almost one in four people are over age 65 — and that share is expected to approach one in three by 2030.
这个国家正在经历史无前例、令人忧心的老龄化，防止老年人与电子产品隔离是一种力度不大但意义重大的举措。该国65岁以上老年人几乎占四分之一，而且据估计，到2030年这一比例将达到三分之一。
A friend recently observed that when you see a Japanese couple pushing a stroller, there’s usually a tiny dog inside instead of a baby.
最近一位朋友观察到，当看到一对日本夫妇推着一辆婴儿车时，通常里面是一只小狗，而不是一个婴儿。
How the dwindling population will support its pensioners and their medical care remains the country’s most pressing issue, but these days attention is shifting to how to ensure that seniors remain happy and active.
萎缩的人口要如何支撑起领养老金的群体和他们的医疗保健体系，这依然是这个国家最严峻的问题。不过，当下的关注点已经转移到了如何确保老年人的幸福和活跃。
Japan is in the process of raising the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, and beginning this year businesses are required to keep employees on their payroll through age 65 if they request it. But with a life expectancy of 83 years, people still have nearly two decades on their hands. Last year a cabinet-appointed study group urged the nation to stop using 65 as a benchmark and instead to plan for “an era of life into the 90s.” The majority of people over 65 consider 70 the start of old age.
日本正在酝酿强制性将退休年龄从60岁提高到65岁。从今年开始，如果65岁以上的员工要求继续工作，那么公司就必须继续聘用他们。不过，日本平均寿命预期是83岁，他们退休后还有将近20年时间。去年，一个内阁任命的研究团体敦促国家停止将65岁作为标准，转而为“步入90岁时代”作好规划。大多数65岁以上的人认为70岁才是老龄生活的开始。
Kumiko Yanagi, who runs a gerontology research group and who proposed the senior teaching concept to SoftBank, was surprised at the number of her elderly contacts who signed up to be trained as instructors. “They are looking for chances to learn something new and to feel useful,” she observed.
柳久美子运营着一个老龄人研究团队，向软银公司提议聘请老年店员对顾客进行指导这一概念的也是她。她很惊讶有那么多比自己年长的人报名受训成为导员。“他们在寻找机会学习新东西，并且希望感觉自己还有用。”她说。
“Open your books to Page 13,” Miyata tells two female students at the SoftBank shop who flip through an 80-page glossy instruction booklet with large, colorful illustrations. “Push in,” she says, explaining one of the main features of SoftBank’s “Simple Smartphone.” Tapping on sensitive touchscreens is usually the first hurdle for older fingers, so the Simple Smartphone is designed to respond to a firm press. A bright blue pulsating circle signals that the command was received.
在软银公司的店面中，两位女性顾客学员翻阅着一本带大幅彩色插画的80页精美指引手册，宫田对她们说：“请把书翻到第13页。”她解释着软银“简单智能手机”的一条主要特性。“按下去。”她说。对于老年人的手指来说，通常第一个障碍是在灵敏度很高的触摸屏上打字，因此这款简单智能手机设计成使劲按才会有反应。出现一个跳动的亮蓝色圆圈，则表示手机收到了指令。
Other special features include a magnifying glass that can be dragged around the screen to enlarge what is on view. There’s an emergency button on the side of the phone that when pushed sounds an alarm and sends an e-mail to registered recipients telling them the location of the owner. Designated e-mail addressees, usually family members, also receive what SoftBank calls an “I’m fine e-mail” the first time the phone is used each day. The message notes that the phone was turned on and reports the number of steps — recorded by a pedometer application — taken by the owner on the previous day.
还有一个特性是放大镜，可以在屏幕上到处拖动，将视野中的内容放大；手机侧部有个应急按钮，按下去会发出警报，并向预先注册的地址发送电子邮件，告知使用者的方位；指定电邮地址通常是家里人，每天手机第一次使用时会自动发送软银所谓的“报平安邮件”。信息会告诉家人手机已经打开，同时告知使用者之前一天走路的步数，该数据由一款计步器程序记录。
Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, was the first to come out with a senior-oriented smartphone with technology developed by Fujitsu. Fujitsu recently developed an international model that went on sale in France in June. Unlike in Japan, where the phones are clearly marketed for the elderly with names like DoCoMo’s “Raku-Raku” or “Easy-Easy,” the French version dials down the gray aspect, advertising it with men and women 10 years younger than its targeted clientele.
日本最大的手机运营商NTT DoCoMo是首家针对老年人推出手机的厂商，其技术由富士通开发。富士通最近还推出了这款手机的国际版，6月份在法国发售。在日本，这些手机取名为“Raku-Raku”（容易-容易），市场定位很清晰，就是瞄准了老年人。但法国版不同，没有太强调年龄，广告中的男女也比自己的目标客户年轻10岁。
DoCoMo will soon unveil a version for the Japanese market with an enhanced screen and an improved social media app. The online community accessed from the phone is monitored round-the-clock by Fujitsu staff who protect the site from spamming and delete any personal information elderly members may have inadvertently posted. The close to 70,000 members exchange stories about their pets and grandchildren and chat about going to medical appointments.
DoCoMo将很快针对日本市场推出一款强化了屏幕并提升了社交媒体应用的升级版。通过这款手机可以参加在线社区，富士通员工对社区进行全天候监控，保护站点不受垃圾广告侵害，并删去任何老年人可能不慎贴上去的个人信息。近7万名成员互相讲述着他们宠物和孙辈的故事，谈论将要去门诊预约。
Fujitsu says that the percentage of repeat use of the app by many of its members rivals that of Facebook, suggesting that Japan’s elderly are eager to venture into virtual communities. See you in the cyberworld, Mom.
富士通称，这款应用使用者众多，重复使用率比得上脸谱网。这表示日本的老年人渴望参加虚拟社区。咱们网上见，老妈！
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