‘How do I end a call?’: the elderly Japanese people determined to master smartphones

It’s not only young people whose gaze is fixed on tiny screens. But for these users in Tokyo, clicking and scrolling is anything but second nature.

“I can’t deal with all of the apps that jump out at me,” says one. “How do I know if I’ve definitely ended a call?” asks another.

They are common concerns among the four women and one man attending a beginner’s smartphone class at a public facility for older residents in Nerima in the Japanese capital’s north-west suburbs.

In Yasushi Nishioka, they have a patient guide to navigating the myriad functions and settings that can make the smartphone a portal into a new world of hyper-connectivity, but also a vortex for digital dystopia.

“Please don’t feel like you need to remember everything,” says Nishioka, a retired programmer for an IT company. “It’s just a question of holding it in your hand and getting used to it.”

Yasushi Nishioka guides his students, most of them in their 70s, at the smartphone training session in Nerima, Tokyo. Photograph: Justin McCurry/The Guardian

The participants, most of whom are in their 70s, say they are intimidated by their devices – three iPhones and two Android handsets. But they are determined not to spend their later years in analogue isolation after the closure of Japan’s 3G network.

The country’s telecom companies have gradually plunged older networks into darkness. The 2G service had completely shut down by 2012 and by 2022 au, a popular carrier, no longer offered 3G, with rival SoftBank following suit in 2024. At the end of March, NTT Docomo became the last to pull the 3G plug, citing the need to retire inefficient base stations to reduce electricity consumption.

While some flip phones are still compatible with 4G, the move affected an estimated half a million people and more than 400 phone models, as well as early car navigation systems, vending machines that rely on 3G for cashless payment systems and unstaffed car parks that use the network for remote management, according to the Mainichi Shimbun news site.

The smartphone beginners were taken through the functions and settings of their devices, including volume control and online payments. Photograph: Justin McCurry/The Guardian

Docomo and other carriers are helping subscribers – a mixture of stubborn flip phone users and the smartphone anxious – by offering classes that include sessions on taking photos and video and shopping safely online.

Unless they embrace the smartphone, which works only on 4G and 5G networks, flip phone loyalists will lose their voice-call and email functions and have their contracts cancelled along with their phone numbers.

Japan’s garakei phones – a combination of Galápagos, in reference to their availability only for the domestic market, and keitai denwa, meaning mobile phone – were ubiquitous before the first iPhone was released here in 2008.

Yasushi Nishioka’s mature students were especially interested in how to use health trackers and weather forecasts. Photograph: Justin McCurry/The Guardian

Today, over the course of two hours, Nishioka guides his students through the basics: how to turn their phones on and off and control the volume, along with tips on scrolling and pinching in and out. He then turns to cashless payments and QR codes and – two subjects of common interest among the participants – health trackers and weather forecasts.

“If you use your phone only for admin it will quickly get boring,” he says, promising that next week’s session will delve into entertainment, social media and photo and video content.

All of the participants raise concerns about security – a growing problem in Japan, whose large population of over-65s are often the target of online scams. “If you have any doubts at all, just ignore the message or call,” Nishioka suggests, before sharing an app that filters out suspicious contacts.

“When I bought my smartphone I turned it on and the number of icons was so confusing I had no idea what to do,” says Hiroko Kanda, a class participant. “It’s taking me a while to get used to it.”

Another, who preferred not to give her name, reluctantly bought her first smartphone three months ago. “I didn’t have the confidence to make the switch,” she says, her flip phone resting next to her iPhone. “I still use my garakei on 4G … but I really like the weather and travel planner apps on my new phone.”

Their reasons for taking the plunge aren’t wildly different to those that keep younger people umbilically attached to their devices: reserving tickets for musicals, joining WhatsApp groups, learning a foreign language and making travel plans.

“Of all the things that annoy people about smartphones and often makes them quit, one really stands out,” says Nishioka, before revealing a grievance that unites users, novice and experienced, across the generations: “Managing their passwords.”