With an aging population, Japan seeks to improve the care of people with dementia.
On June 14, the House of Councillors of Japan, the upper house of the Parliament, unanimously passed and enacted the Dementia Basic Act, whose purpose is to “comprehensively promote measures so that people with dementia can live with hope while maintaining their dignity.” The House of Representatives already approved the bill earlier.
With an aging population, cases of dementia in Japan keep increasing. A research group of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimated the number of people with dementia to be over 6 million in 2020.
And it is predicted that more than 7 million people in Japan will have dementia by 2025, approximately one in five people over 75 years old. The Dementia Basic Act defines dementia as people who have Alzheimer, neurodegenerative, cerebrovascular and other diseases in which cognitive functions have deteriorated.
For now, the law mostly lays out basic principles regarding measures to prevent dementia and clarifies the responsibility of national and local governments. The bill was submitted so that Japan “maintains the dignity of people with dementia and respects them as members of a society” that “values dementia care.”
The prime minister Fumio Kishida created the “Dementia Policy Promotion Headquarters” and the government is tasked to lay out a concrete action plan for the care and prevention of dementia within six months.
It will also need to provide support so that people with dementia and their families don’t become isolated.
Furthermore, Japan has introduced September as Dementia Month and September 21, the Dementia Day, during which authorities must increase awareness about dementia and how to prevent it.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 55.2 million people have dementia worldwide, and the number is expected to rise to 78 million by 2030 and 139 million by 2050. Last October, the WHO launched its first blueprint for dementia research to face more effectively “one of the greatest health challenges of our generation.”