Japan scraps ambitious plan to decrease dementia

June 4 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is no longer pursuing a stated plan of reducing rates of dementia by 10 percent in 10 years, following criticism of a strategy that does not reflect the reality of the degenerative disease.

The Japanese government is canceling ambitious goals to reduce the number of dementia patients by 2029 because of problematic statements, the Nikkei and Tokyo Shimbun reported Tuesday.

Members of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party are joining the prime minister's critics, who are saying there is no evidence that dementia and Alzheimer's disease are preventable.

The government's statements mislead the public into believing somehow the patient is at fault for not taking steps to stop memory loss, critics in Japan say.

The Abe administration first mentioned dementia eradication targets on May 16, two months ahead of Upper House parliamentary elections.

In a draft paper outlining strategy, Tokyo said it would launch a new campaign from 2019 to 2025 to fight the spread of dementia, a non-contagious disease.

The government said dementia rates could decrease by 2029 if the onset of dementia in patients could be "delayed by one year" for the next 10 years.

The program would reduce dementia rates by 6 percent by 2025, then by 10 percent in 2029, Tokyo claimed.

The Abe administration also said ways to "delay dementia" would be to "increase social interaction among the elderly" and improve exercise. But such policy measures would be unprecedented in the developed world, according to reports.

Kyodo News reported Tuesday the proposal was concerned with welfare spending at a time when Japan's population is aging at a rapid pace.

The number of Japanese people age 65 or older has nearly quadrupled in the last four decades.