'TSUNAGARI' communication

Families in Japan increasingly have one or more members living outside of the family household, but many people don't want to lose the bond between family members when they live apart. We have developed a concept called 'Tsunagari' communication aimed at fostering a feeling of connection between people and maintaining their social relationships. A system based on this concept, called the Family Planter system, was also developed for family use. We have field tested this system with family members living apart, and our interviews of users have shown that the users' family relationships tend to be slightly improved by use of this system.