Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) Chairman Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa spoke at an online event commemorating the release of Dementia Innovation Readiness Index 2020. At the event, Dr. Kurokawa gave high praise to policies for dementia implemented by the national Government and Tokyo Municipal Government and spoke on the importance of further accelerating efforts to promote understanding and build awareness together with multi-stakeholders including the public and NPOs in the future. Dr. Kurokawa also noted that he has high expectations for digital technology, especially more accurate diagnostic technology, to contribute to solving issues in dementia in the future.

The Dementia Innovation Readiness Index is an annual report that is produced by the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) in partnership with Singapore’s Lien Foundation. This year’s Dementia Innovation Readiness Index 2020 assessed thirty cities worldwide using 26 indicators including the situation surrounding dementia treatment, measures for dementia prevention and risk reduction, and efforts to promote care and innovation. Tokyo was included as one of those thirty cities. The situation in each city and their efforts were then assigned scores ranging from zero to ten for each category.

Tokyo’s overall dementia readiness score was 7.3, placing it seventh among the thirty cities. Tokyo received a 6.1 for “Early detection and diagnosis,” putting it in sixteenth place for that category. This score was relatively low compared to Tokyo’s scores in other categories. Furthermore, the ability of General Practitioners (GPs, which are also referred to as family doctors in Japan) to diagnose and treat dementia scored highly, but the presence and awareness-building activities of specialists for the senior population and the public availability of reliable diagnosis rates were pointed out as weaknesses.

HGPI Manager Mr. Shunichiro Kurita was interviewed during the creation of the report. Mr. Kurita provided an overview of dementia policy in Japan with a focus on efforts in Tokyo.

For the full report, please visit the link below.
https://www.alz.co.uk/dementia-innovation-readiness-index