This is an important article published in the Japan Times. It reports that the Japanese government said on Wednesday that it hopes to train 10,000 doctors and 12 million people nationwide to support dementia patients by fiscal 2020. It explained that the numerical targets were among new fiscal 2020 interim goals in the government’s new Orange Plan strategy on dementia care that covers the years through fiscal 2025, which ends in March 2026.
Source: 10,000 support doctors, 12 million helpers to be trained to assist dementia sufferers
This article is worth reflection.
Firstly, Japan has an acute problem of an aging population but many advanced Western countries like the UK will soon have similar problems.
Secondly, Japan has recognized the social and economic challenge of dementia and has adopted a strategic approach to coping with the economic and social challenges of dementia.
It’s worth a quick comparison to the UK. Let me clarify the context from an earlier blog
The welfare system in many advanced countries has been abused and poorly managed. Socialists have become the new conservatives trying to prop us the crumbling welfare state. Meanwhile, conservatives have botched it, by relying on progressive and prolonged austerity, rather than radical reform.
UK Conservative, ‘weak and wobbly’ leader, Theresa May, ducked radical reform and strategic solutions – her best offering was the Dementia Tax (which was quickly withdrawn). Meanwhile, Labour’s Far-Left opposition will simply throw more money at the NHS and local authorities.
It’s no great leap to translate the 12 million helpers proposed in the Japanese strategy to the UK context. Yes, let’s reform welfare and find 12 million UK helpers. As for the 10,000 support doctors, that’s part of a strategic solution for UK public healthcare – see earlier blog entitled: Opinion – Hunger, filth, fear and death”: remembering life before the NHS – New Statesman.
Thoughts?
Dr Alf's Blog 
What is even more frightening about this initiative by the Japanese Government in relation to the situation in the UK is that Dementia is already at epidemic proportions and due to lack of public education is set to get much worse.
Public policy regarding food,exercise,zoning,drinking ,smoking ,vaping,air quality,car exhaust emissions,plastics,chemicals in the air ,fertilisers,the water supply is outmoded and inappropriate.
The NHS,family doctors,nutritionists and celebrity chefs could all play their part but we see no variable taxes on food,no limits on sugar and no ban on aspartame a substance developed for the Pentagon for biological warfare.
We see people cooking with aluminium saucepans which causes dementia,people using aluminium foil,deodorant containing aluminium chlorohydrate,baking soda and using fluoride toothpaste which over time will lower IQ by 20%.
6 million people take recreational drugs one of the worst of which is Skunk which is 7 times stronger than cannabis of the type smoked by Hippies in the 1960,s.
Those Hippies many of whom still smoke pot and have progressed onto other more mind numbing drugs are in their mid 60’s and 70’s today and are the emerging class of new Dementia patients.
UK alchohol consumption is double the world average and the effects are worsened by the number of people drinking on an empty stomach and suffering from vitamin D deficiency.
The UK population through lifestyles and bad diet is literally killing itself through lack of knowledge and bad habits and is setting itself up for Dementia,Depression,Diabetes and other afflictions on the way.
Continued…
Dr Alf would call for an evidence led approach to these problems but the NHS is slow to assimilate evidence,even slower to act on it and fails to understand how far behind current thinking it is in terms of evidence,treatments and disease causation.