When rescue workers responded to a midnight emergency call from an Osaka apartment unit in August 2016 and rushed to the scene, they first had to climb over piles of junk including empty cans and leftover food. Among it, they found a dehydrated elderly woman whose thinking was muddled; nearby was her older sister who was suffering from dementia and in a state of confusion.
Their case illustrated another aspect of the growing problem posed by dementia in Japan.
Some people with the illness are unable to discard their garbage. Some unintentionally start fires, while others aimlessly wander around their apartment complexes or on nearby streets where their actions often go unnoticed.