Chief Change Officer - #240 Dominic Carter: Cracking Japan’s Business Code – From Market Research to Aging Tech – Part Two

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

If you think aging tech is just about nursing homes and health monitors, think again. Dominic Carter, CEO of The Carter Group, is uncovering massive, untapped opportunities in the aging population—starting with Japan, one of the most aged countries in the world. From wearable tech that steadies shaky hands to high-tech bedsheets that improve sleep, he’s on a mission to rethink how we age.In Part 2, Dominic breaks down the challenges, cultural barriers, and business opportunities in aging tech. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, or just navigating the realities of aging parents (which, let’s be honest, is most of us), this episode is packed with insights.Key Highlights of Our Interview:The Personal Push – “Watching my parents struggle with aging made me realize how much better it could be.” How a frustrating experience led to a game-changing business idea.The Tech Struggle is Real – “It’s not the technology that’s lacking—it’s the mindset around adopting it.” Why older generations resist helpful tech and what needs to change.The Future of Aging Tech – “We tested 26 products, but only a few stood out.” What works, what doesn’t, and the two innovations that are making a real impact.Japan’s Aging Economy – “30% of Japan’s population is over 65. That’s not a niche—it’s the future.” Why the biggest consumer market is also the most overlooked.Advice for Builders & Investors – “If you don’t listen to users, you’ll fail. It’s that simple.” The do’s and don’ts of launching a product in this space.______________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guests: Dominic Carter______________________--Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs,Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>130,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.

Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, we are talking with Dominic Carter, CEO of the Carter Group, whose journey from Australia to Japan is anything but predictable. He didn't just move aboard. He jumped head first into a new culture, built a career, burned out, left, and then came right back,

this time on his own terms. In part one, we dig into his early days. How a fascination with Japan turned into a full-blown career. Why opening a Kōkyū office at 24 almost broke him? And what made him bet on himself as an entrepreneur? In part 2, things get personal. Dominic, now in his 50s, is facing the same challenge as many of us are. Aging parents. Omni is not just navigating it, he's building businesses around it. We'll dive into the future of aging tech, the cultural barriers that slow innovation, and why the biggest business opportunity in Japan might

just be the one no one's paying enough attention to. Let's get started. I know there's a personal reason that led you to this next big thing. Can you share that story with us? What made this the right path for you? Yes, I think a lot of people, and a lot of people my age too, because I just turned 50. And so a lot of people around our age are dealing with their aging parents. And I became, you know, honestly speaking, I became very frustrated dealing with my parents because I wanted them to be a lot more proactive about the way that they were managing their situation

and the fact that their independence was gradually disappearing. I could see that happening. I think they were in denial, but my brothers and sisters and I, we were very concerned about it. So I started, I gave, I got dad an Apple Watch, for example. We tried speakers and we tried the pendant that they wear, if they fall over they can't. But it was very hard to get their cooperation.

Right. In Australia, yeah. My brothers and sisters, I have four brothers and sisters and they're still in Australia and I'm the only one in Japan. I was looking at that. I just looked at their experience and I thought, you've got to be better than this. Like I wanted to be better than this when I'm the same age as well. Because when we think about, when we think about aging, yes, we want to help out, we want to help our parents, but we're also thinking of ourselves as well.

And I'm thinking like, when I'm, when I'm in my mid seventies, I think these are the, these are the types of solutions that would be great to have around. And I, I certainly hope that I'll be able to access those and I'll have the capacity to help myself in a way. But very much looking at my parents' journey and all of the issues that they've had, I thought, yeah, this is an area of business where we can actually really, of course, there's a huge opportunity in a market like Japan, and Japan's not the only aging market, but it is the oldest market. So I'm 50, but the median age in Japan is 50. So half the population is over 50. 30% of the population is over 65. The size of the market is massive, and aging people in

Japan do tend to have more financial resources than younger people, interestingly. So it's a big business opportunity in that sense, and there's a lot of interest in it globally. From the point of view of being able to work on projects that have a genuine positive impact for people, I think it's something that we can also feel very good about as well, because the products that we're working with really do help improve people's quality of life. Technology, no doubt, it plays a huge role. And I'll let you talk more about that in a moment. But as I was listening to your personal story, I couldn't help but relate. I'm also over 50.

My parents are in the mid-70s, early 80s. And of course, many of my friends have parents around the same age. And yes, generational shifts are something we all see coming. What affects my parents now will eventually affect me, and not just now, but in the years ahead. But don't you think part of the challenge isn't just technology? It's not about having the right tools or even how good they are. A huge part of the problem is mindset and habit.

Our parents' generation often isn't mentally prepared to adopt technology deeply, even when it could make their lives easier, healthier, or better. So when we talk about technology adoption, isn't the biggest barrier sometimes not the tech itself, but the willingness to accept and use it? Yes, it's very hard and we can't really move faster than the user in that respect. So I think if we project out into the future, I think you and I will be very open to technology and every way that can benefit us as we age. But our parents, they're, it's a, it's in a sense, it is a little bit too late for them. There are certain, if we look at, when I say too late, I mean too late for them to fully embrace.

There are some people who do, but they're the minority. At the same time, there's a philosophy, I think, especially in Japan, where people think aging is, and rightly aging is a natural process. So these deteriorations that we face over time, they're actually natural. We accept them. So anything that's like too extreme of an intervention, or it's helping too much, is in danger of being rejected because it doesn't really fit in with people's philosophy and their way of thinking.

And frankly, people prefer other people to look after them. Aging people in Japan still have people to look after them because the baby Burmese who are the biggest or have been in the past the biggest portion of the population in Japan, they have children and the children, there are enough people to look after the baby boomers. For people who are our age though, Gen X, you could think of them being, there's a generation bulge in there called the baby donkai. The donkai are the baby boomers and the baby donkai are the children of the baby boomers. But the baby donkai are another big

group in the population, but they're really beneath us. There's the people that were for our elders. I think the opportunity in aging tech is a long-term one. And I think it'll come, it really comes from people in their fifties who, yes, they may be able to gently introduce some solutions to their parents as they become available. So things like sensors and stuff that's full detection and so forth. As that gets better, yes, that's a no brainer that we can put that in without parents. But that tech has to be very unobtrusive.

You really can't be asking aging adults past a certain point to be really learning new technology and stuff. It just doesn't really work. But for us, yes, as we age, I think, yes, we have almost a responsibility to be very conversant with technology because, and especially in Japan, as I say, we don't have people, we don't have enough people who are younger than us look after us, if we don't look after ourselves as we can, then we're really causing a problem to other people.

And, and Japanese people understand that very well. They're very aware of their impact on other people and they don't want to cause a problem for other people and being responsible as a person, being personally responsible is a really key value. I think that thinking, that way of thinking actually works very well with tech, but I think it's going to take a while, but it's really a generational curve that we're on in terms of getting to the point where aging technologies are really fully utilized. So we have to have the technology, but as you say, we have

to have the mindset. And I think that our generation has that mindset, but I think we need to, we really need to get in early because our over time, we become more set in our ways. And I think we just want to be aware that we are aging and that we may want to be thinking about this as we get older. and that we may want to be thinking about this as we get older. Sure. So far, I haven't asked about your specific role in this tech space. Are you more of an investor? Are you actually building the technology? Or are you more on the marketing and community building side? What exactly is your role right now? And looking ahead, do you see yourself shifting,

doing more of certain things, less of others? Because beyond just creating new products, there's also the challenge of shaping mindsets, helping people become more open and receptive to this future of aging. How do you see your role in making that happen? I think that the first thing to bear in mind is, I think this is a huge task,

like that it has many aspects to it, and there are many roles within that and many opportunities. But we're coming, we've of course started off as being researchers, which means that we've spent, for example, we spent a lot of time in the last five years with people in their homes, for example, looking at how they, how do they prepare their meals as they get older, how do they clean, How do they prepare their meals as they get older? How do they clean? How do people go shopping? So where can technology come to play a role in those daily tasks?

Now in the last three or four years, we've done about 25 projects just on those sorts of issues on robotics because we have clients that are looking at how do we build really good human-centric robotic solutions that people actually want to work with? Because people generally don't just in the area of robots. They don't really know how to interact with them. And the attempts have been put on the market so far, they've had their limitations. So we're starting from a perspective as researchers, because I say we see, as researchers, we see a lot of stuff that doesn't work.

We see the issues in people that make tech. They can see problem. In aging, problems are very easy to see. Sometimes in innovation, you can have the situation that we have a solution, that do we have a problem. That happens a lot, actually. In aging, the problem's really obvious, but what seems like a very reasonable solution from the point of view

of the technologist, when you put it in the user's hands, may not work. We've got examples of how that can be an issue. So I think that the first thing that I am working on is ensuring that we have a very good fit between user needs and what that technology does. So our first role in the whole area of aging tech is to filter the ideas that have potential, where from those that are much longer term in terms of, so the people that are producing these solutions, they have very well intended, they want to help people and they theoretically will help people, but we really need to work out what are the ones

where we can bring them to market fairly soon. And then when we've identified that there's a really good fit with needs and there's a, it seems like a fairly practical solution, then we, we still have the job of adapting, sometimes there'll be some elements of cultural adaptation that you need to do for Japan, selling it into the market here, but also just basic user experience stuff that needs to be, needs to be cleared up or worked on. So when we've got a relevant product, we've optimized user experience, we can use that with our skills that we have in research. Then we're facilitating commerce.

So what we're doing is we're selecting the companies, we then connect them up to distribution. So that's the first stage of our project is identifying the companies, checking, appraising the user experience, and then connecting them up to distribution stage one. So we've got two companies that we're really advanced in doing that at the moment. Then after that, of course, we spend a lot of time with users so we understand what the needs are. So if there are no solutions for certain needs, then we may want to develop those solutions and assemble teams to actually create products. So Aventure Studio is definitely in the works for us. And then in the big picture too, there's an investment story around that as well. But really for me, the key thing is that we can get some success with these early

projects so that then we can expand it out to the bigger picture to make sure that the essentially that yes, if there are opportunities to create product, we can do that. If there are companies that we can facilitate investment for, that we think will meet needs that we've validated and that we think that their products will address, then we want to facilitate investment for those businesses as well. So for us, that's a really interesting business. So it's a good business to be in, but as I say, it's about making sure that we

get the right projects. business to be in, but as I say, it's about making sure that we get the right projects. I think that's where our focus on the user and that sort of really, that active listening and that connection with the user, I think that really enables us to be able to really increase the chances of success of these, because like I'm concerned if we don't really have successful experiences with age tech, people will lose interest in the area. And they'll say, oh, okay, the mindset of elderly people is too close-minded. So therefore we tried it and we're not going to do that anymore because it's too hard. Well, it's only too hard if you don't listen to your users.

It may stop you putting lots of resources into a solution that just isn't something that people really feel that they need. Or creating a user experience that just doesn't really suit the way that people live and what their priorities are. And then I think the whole area of aging tech will get a lot more credibility and traction because there is skepticism around, I think the whole area of aging tech will get a lot more credibility and traction because there is skepticism around. I think people are very hopeful that we can improve lives, but I think that there's some

justified skepticism around it as well. And as I say, working on the right projects, I think is really important. You are looking to establish successful use cases, something tangible that can attract more resources, build momentum, and bring more voices to support your vision. That's how real impact happens. So I'm curious about the two projects you are currently working on. What are they? And more specifically, what problems are they solving? Since you mentioned that you carefully selected them,

there must be a strong reason behind why you believe they have a real short SSS? Can you tell us more about that? We started recruiting our user community about two years ago. And what we're asking these people to do is work with us to praise the technology. And these are ordinary people, like they have more than average, they have an interest in technology, but they're not terribly different from everyday people. And so last year we tested 26 different age tech concepts with them.

And we found several that we thought were very promising on that basis. That the guys in the community themselves have said, we're very interested in these. And out of those, there are two that we're working on. The first is it's actually fiber technology. That's a Canadian company called Comfort Linen. It's a pajama and sheet set that you have to wear the pajamas when you're in bed. But the pajama fabric and the sheet fabric cracked to make it very easy for you to move around in bed.

Because mobility in bed is a big issue, for example, for people with Parkinson's disease, but even just as we age, it can get harder to move around. We don't have as much sort of muscular power to move around and so people can end up being very uncomfortable in bed. Your ability to move in bed has a big impact on your sleep

quality, which is something that I had no idea about. Like people that have the issue can relate to that idea very easily. We found, I would say much more than I expected, a lot of interest in the products. And then we took that product in home trials. And the people that we worked with really were just raving about it.

So we had people, we tracked people for a month, we gave them the product for a month and then at the end asking them how did it work for them. And people were saying, well, I'm seeking so much better now. And they really want to tell other people about it as well. So it's a really great product. So we're working hard on that with working to obtain distribution and the correct adaptation of product at the moment. Another product we're working with is actually another Canadian company.

It just happened that they're Canadian companies, but this company is called Steadywear and they have a mechanical device that you can put on your hand if you have essential tremors. So you have shaky hands, essentially. You can put, you can strap this onto your hand. It's not too big, especially the latest version is a lot, the form factor is a lot easier for people to handle. It's not as heavy as the earlier versions, but that counteracts your tremors. So there's a mechanism inside the device that as you, if you tremble one way, counteracts, so it can basically cancel out the tremors. So people who can't draw a straight line or they can't pick up a cup of tea or

just do the basics in their daily routines, they can use pick up a cup of tea or just do the basics in their daily routines. They can use this device and obviously it's going to change your whole life. If you're able to do those daily tasks again. They're two examples. They're not even digital. They're not even digital tech, but it doesn't have to be digital tech. Like it can be, and of course we're looking at things like Alzheimer's, trading apps.

So certainly we are looking at digital tech as well. They're two examples of products where they're accessible. They make a very, almost immediate difference to people's lives. And I want to see with the, with the product we're lives. And I want to see with the project we're working on, I want to see impact, a very visible impact on people's lives very early on. Because I think we need that to get the momentum for all the rest of the projects that we want to take on.

Sure, that's so much to unpack in this topic. And I love to dive deeper in future episodes with you. But for now, as we conclude this conversation, after speaking with so many entrepreneurs and creators, and after carefully selecting just two projects to test in Japan. What have you learned? For those listening or watching this on YouTube, whether they are builders, entrepreneurs, or investors, or maybe they're already working on something in this space, what advice would you give them? What risks should they watch out for? And on the flip side, what immediate opportunities should they pay attention to?

Your insights could be incredibly valuable to those making way in this space. Yes, given my background, it's probably unsurprising that I would say, even at the point of conceiving your idea, it's very useful if you talk to users and the people that you're trying to help. You have to listen very objectively to what users are telling you. So it's very human for us to hear the feedback and say, oh, I didn't really quite explain the idea well enough, or they didn't get, they didn't really quite get the idea, or I strongly believe that we're moving in the right direction, even though users are telling us they may have concerns or they're not so interested or... And I think you really, I think you really, you may need to change your idea. You may need to come up with a new one, or you may

need to adjust the way that you're approaching it. So I've worked in consumer insights for long enough, almost 30 years almost, you really over that time you understand that the people who are successful, the ones that do tend to listen to what their users and customers are telling them, that doesn't mean that you're unable to lead the market or that the user is not going to be able to tell you what to do necessarily in terms of how to deliver that innovation or what to create or whatever, but they really do need to listen to what they're saying.

So there's a little bit of a dance, but you really have to, you gotta, sometimes you're leading, sometimes they're leading, but you've gotta dance with them. If you just, if you're assuming that better what they want than what they know, like you're asking for trouble. So my advice is do that.

Save yourself a lot of time, effort and money. It is much easier to pivot during the development process and to pivot once you're in the market. My advice to investors would be to probably do more due diligence around the whole perspective of the user around these startups that you're investing in. I think you probably increase your odds of success if you do that. Having said that, the opportunities are huge. There's a lot of goodwill around anything to do with aging related innovation, age tech, and age tech is a huge area. It's not just care tech.

When people think about age tech, people go straight to, take it to our own minds. We tend to go straight to nursing homes and that's of course a very needed area for technology to come into, but age tech starts, I think, at age 50, around there. There's stuff that, anything that we're looking at to help us deal with the fact that we have some diminished capacity or we're concerned that we might or we want to prevent stuff happening that we hear about. Yeah, so in your 50s even something like a fitness app or an nutrition app or even there are cognitive apps that people in who are younger use. In Japan cognitive training apps are used people of all ages, right? And that is, that could be considered to be age tech. And then you can get into more as we go into our sixties and seventies, there

can be more active prevention technology. And then of course, going into the eighties and nineties. So it's very wide. The whole area of innovation and technology for over 50s is like a really wide area. Even fintech has a big role to play for people who are aging. Safety, helping people to prevent scams and so forth, that's a big problem in Japan. We thought not just elderly people, but certainly there has been some terrible cases of people who've been very badly exploited. So even those kind of countermeasures put in place for

fraud, it's really a wide area. And the idea that it's a niche is actually crazy because, you know, half the population is over 50. So you're marketing to half the population in one of the richest countries in the world for the people that actually have the money. It's a great opportunity, but just partner as much. Just think in terms of partnering with users. Like they're not subjects that you do stuff to. They're not just buyers.

They're people who buy your product. They're people that you really wanna partner with to create a solution where you're commercially successful, but like they're having their problem solved or their life improved. Yesterday, I spoke with an other guest about social impact. And she summed it up with three words, culture, cost, and capital. As you talk about opportunities and risks in Japan's aging space, I realized these three

words fit perfectly. Cause, which is making life better for the aging population. Culture, which is understanding local nuances so products actually work for Japanese consumers. Capital, which is money. Money is important, but if a product doesn't meet real needs, it won't succeed. The economics is not right. Sometimes it's about tweaking the approach, the messaging, or even the design. And like you said, aging solutions aren't just about nursing homes or healthcare. There are so many unmet needs for people over 50, over 60, tons of opportunity. At the end of the day, it's about understanding the user, what they want, what they don't,

and why. Aligning both sides is what creates real impact. Yeah, I think the culture is a very appropriate way of looking at it because, of course, I'm a foreigner in Japan, so I'm always confronted by those in my own experience here and people that want to sell into the market and have to understand cultural differences. But actually, there are really big cultural differences between age groups in the same culture. So the culture of a 25 year old is very different from the culture of a 55 year old. And the culture of a 55 year old is very different from the culture of a 75 year old. But they're both over 50. And so you'll go, so we're going to have this one term that says aging adults. There's a cultural difference in age between age groups, even in the same

culture, but we have to take the same approach. So I would say to people when they're coming to Japan, I would say, look, you have to listen to what people are saying. Don't like put, even though it's impossible not to, but try not to put it through your filters and apply your playbook, how you deal with everything. Because often people that come into the market here, they just want to apply their playbook and they're doing research to give them permission to apply their playbook and that isn't necessarily what people are saying.

So you have to listen. We can't apply our same playbook with aging adults that we would apply, say, to people in their 20s or 30s. So I wish I had thought of this, but this idea, but I did read a while back, someone was basically saying that all user experience research should be done among elderly people first. Because every problem that you find in the tech with older people will immediately have that problem, right?

Where younger people are compensating for it all the time and may not even notice that there is an issue there. It's listen, really, and I think if you do that you've got a fighting chance of being successful. But we see a lot of, unfortunately, it can be heartbreaking because there are concepts that we really like and we think that they can really help but they just need a lot of work. Doing it the right way is really starting from the basics. Change is happening whether we like it or not. We age every second.

It's not about if we change, but about how we change. And that's exactly what you're working on. Helping shape that change in a way that's human and meaningful. That's so much to consider. Mental health, financial security, and yes, scams. That's a serious issue in Japan, especially since it's one of the richest countries in the world with much of the wealth in the hands of the older generation. Lots to talk about and even more to do. Dominic, thank you so much for your time today.

So I'd love to come back. So thank you for having me. And that's where we leave it. From career changes to tackling Japan's aging crisis. Dominic's story is a lesson in adaptation, both in business and in life. The reality is aging isn't something happening to other people. It's happening to all of us. The real question is, how are we going to prepare for it? Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show,

leave us top rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.