The cost of providing health and social care for the nation's dementia sufferers totaled ¥14.5 trillion in 2014, with nearly half of the cost borne by families, a health ministry panel said Friday.
The ministry said it was the first ever detailed estimate of the cost of the condition, which affects more than 4.5 million people nationwide.
The government is encouraging a shift from institutional care to home care for elderly dementia patients as a way to curb the demand on government-run nursing care insurance, which has grown to around ¥10 trillion per year. But the study suggests that without strengthening home nursing care services covered by government insurance, the result will be that households are forced to assume even more of the cost and responsibility.