Photo/Illutration A railway employee checks on an elderly woman playing the role of a missing person at a train station in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, in 2018. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A total of 17,565 people with dementia were reported missing to the police in Japan last year, up 86 from 2019.

The figure has risen for eight years in a row since statistics started being kept on the matter in 2012, according to an announcement by the National Police Agency on June 24.

The number of missing persons with dementia who were found dead was also a record-high 527, including missing persons cases reported in 2019 or prior.

Japan's total number of missing persons fell for the second straight year in 2020 to 77,022, the lowest since 1956 when such statistics began being kept and was down 9,911 from 2019.

The number of missing persons who had dementia was 1.8 times higher than in 2012. As elderly patients with dementia grow older, they are more likely to go missing, the data showed.

According to the police, 9,619 missing persons were in their 80s or older while 6,866 persons were in their 70s. Together, the two age groups accounted for 94 percent of the total number of people with dementia who went missing in 2020.

By prefecture, Osaka had the most missing people with dementia, with 1,990, followed by 1,889 in Saitama, 1,745 in Hyogo, 1,618 in Kanagawa and 1,349 in Aichi. Tokyo reported 1,169 people missing with the syndrome.

A total of 214 people with dementia who went missing in 2020 were not found within that year.

The number of missing persons whose locations were confirmed while they are still alive was 16,887, including cases reported in 2019 or before.

Among these, 74.2 percent were found the same day that police received reports that they were missing. A total of 99.3 percent were found within one week of being reported missing.

REGIONAL COOPERATION VITAL

“It's important for families to file a report with police or municipalities as soon as possible for quicker locating,” said Takao Suzuki, the head of the Institute for Gerontology, J.F. Oberlin University.

Suzuki and others carried out an analysis of more than 1,000 elderly people with dementia who went missing in Aichi Prefecture in fiscal 2014 and 2015. Thirty-three of the missing were found dead. About two-thirds of the 33 were located more than 24 hours after they had been reported missing.

About 40 percent of those who found missing persons with dementia were ordinary citizens.

About 40 percent of the missing were found in the compounds of their houses, near their houses or in their own neighborhoods.

“It's indispensable to obtain the attentiveness and cooperation from local residents,” Suzuki said. “The municipalities’ efforts are important, including notifying and training local residents.”

About 80 percent of municipalities share information with the police, corporations and groups to find missing persons and have established a network to do so as of April 1, 2020, according to the health ministry.

The Kushiro city government in Hokkaido strengthened efforts to find missing people with dementia swiftly by building a network following the death of an elderly person about 30 years ago who left home to take out the garbage.

The local government has been regularly calling for cooperation on the issue of missing people with dementia and holding training on conducting searches for its residents.

This month, after a local radio station provided information on a missing person on the air, one resident listening checked up on a woman in her 70s to ensure she was OK.

Municipalities have been using various methods, including GPS, to locate missing people with dementia.

The Takasaki city government in Gunma Prefecture lends residents GPS tracking devices free of charge. If missing persons are reported, a special center checks their locations.

Over a period of five and a half years through May, a total of 1,105 system users went missing, but all were found safe. About 90 percent were found within one hour of being reported missing.

Related News