To commemorate Dementia Awareness Month and World Alzheimer’s Month in 2026, Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) will host an HGPI Seminar titled, “Visualizing Hidden Caregiving and Building the Support of the Future – Diversifying Family Structures and the Potential for Tailored Support.”

Fulfilling the vision of the 2024 Basic Act on Dementia to Promote an Inclusive Society will require building support systems that honor the dignity of people living with dementia and their families and ensuring they can continue living in familiar communities with peace of mind. Although there has been significant progress in dementia measures in recent years, addressing the major burdens still felt by the families of people living with dementia and others close to them will require ongoing and targeted efforts.

While people living with dementia became eligible for a certain degree of support with the introduction of the Long-Term Care Insurance System in 2000, their family members and others close to them continue to take on a variety of roles that public systems cannot cover. Referred to as “unnamed long-term care” in Japan, these duties include making arrangements with services, providing accompaniment to medical visits, and maintaining a watchful eye and caring attention in everyday life. Providing “unnamed” or informal care creates significant physical and mental burdens for caregivers.

One factor that led to these circumstances is the changing environment surrounding families and relationships. Among households that include people certified as needing long-term care, there has been a steep increase in single-person or senior-only households and a sharp decrease in three-generation households. Consequently, responsibilities for long-term care management that were once shared among family members are now concentrated on single primary caregivers. In addition to an increasing amount of long-term care and management being provided by active members of the workforce, increasing diversity of household circumstances has led to growing numbers of men providing long-term care, young caregivers, dual caregivers, and caregivers who live with health concerns themselves. Various needs that cannot be met with a one-size-fits-all approach to support have emerged.

Centering our focus on quality of life (QOL), existing studies have shown that QOL for a person living with dementia is closely linked to that of their family members or others around them. To enable people with dementia to continue living with hope, we must create an environment where they and their families can live their own lives while maintaining mutual respect for each other’s life experiences. Furthermore, we must promote support for both sides in tandem.

Within this context, this HGPI Seminar will feature a talk from Dr. Tomoko Wakui (Associate Principal Researcher, Research Team for Human Care, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology) on caregiving burden and physical and mental health for family members and other caregivers of people living with dementia. Drawing upon knowledge obtained through initiatives such as “Care-VIP,” a program that utilizes Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to provide tailored family support, Dr. Wakui will share difficulties and challenges in daily life faced by people living with dementia, their family members, or other caregivers based on changes in caregiver characteristics or challenges that have emerged as family structures become more diverse. She will discuss how Japan can best design its future policies and approaches for long-term care to build an inclusive society where people living with dementia, their family members, and other caregivers can all live true to themselves.

 

 

[Event Overview]

• Speaker: Dr. Tomoko Wakui (Associate Principal Researcher, Research Team for Human Care, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology)
• Date & Time: Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 18:30-19:45 JST
• Format: Online (Zoom webinar)
• Language: Japanese
• Participation Fee: Free
• Capacity: 500 participants

 

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■ Speaker Profile

Dr. Tomoko Wakui (Associate Principal Researcher, Research Team for Human Care, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology)

After earning a Ph.D. in Health Science from the Division of Health Sciences and Nursing at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Tomoko Wakui assumed her current role in 2013. As a specialist in public health and gerontological social science, Dr. Wakui’s research focuses on the various challenges in daily life encountered by senior citizens certified as needing long-term care and their family members who are involved in providing it. Her efforts in recent years include establishing a support program to quantify long-term care provided by family caregivers, and conducting research in disaster preparedness support for senior citizens certified as needing long-term care and their families. She is also promoting the implementation of family caregiver support programs based on her research findings as well as their use in communities.

 

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