Japan's aging population

 

Illustration image. Koji Sasahara / AP 

Forgotten bull orders to help Japan's dementia  

As Japan's population continues to age, the problems of dementia are becoming increasingly felt by society. The government is investing large sums of money in projects to tackle the disease, writes the Washington Post.  

One of the projects is a so-called dementia cafe in the Tokyo district of Sengawa, i.e. a cafe where the employees suffer from dementia. The business has been nicknamed the "Cafe of Forgotten Orders".  

People with dementia work here one day a month. The aim is partly for the stigma surrounding the disease to disappear, but also for the employees to feel productive and needed.  

- It's so funny. I feel like I'm getting younger just by being here, says waiter Toshio Morita who discovered his first symptoms two years ago. 

A group of people participating in a gym for the elderly in Japan. Reuters Photographer / REUTERS  

The Japanese are getting older – one in ten over 80  

Japan has the world's oldest population, and it continues to both age and decline. It shows data from the country's census according to the BBC.  

The data shows that ten percent of the Japanese population is over the age of eighty, a figure that is a record high. In addition, almost 30 percent are over 65, which is the largest proportion among all countries in the world.  

The aging population is a major problem for the country's government, which has had to approve a record budget for next year, partly because of the high social costs. The high age of the population also creates problems for employers, who find it difficult to find personnel of working