A look at dementia care in Japan. New voluntary initiatives are complimenting the publicly-funded health and care provision. Across the nation 5.4 million trained volunteers called "dementia friends", have introduced an imaginative range of dementia care and support programmes. Examples are the suzu-no-ya, or open house scheme, and neighbourhood watch initiative to monitor "wanderers" - people who tend to stray from their homes and find themselves lost.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/nov/18/dementia-care-japan-community-volunteer-schemes