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Japanese cafe giving joy to elderly dementia-sufferers and families

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Kyodo News

<p>NAGOYA - A coffee shop in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi has begun catering to elderly people with dementia, creating a welcoming community between customers, their caretakers and the children given a chance to wait on them.</p><p>At Anki Cafe in Toyohashi, named after the regional dialect word &quot;anki&quot; meaning &quot;relief,&quot; no one is bothered even if a customer bursts into song or wanders aimlessly around the shop -- behaviors related to the illness often considered too disruptive to be acceptable in regular society.</p><p>&quot;When my mother chats with her friends, she seems so happy,&quot; said Eiko Hosokawa from Gamagori in Aichi. The 59-year-old has cared for her dementia-suffering 83-year-old mother almost single-handedly for a decade.</p><p>Watching her mother speak to a woman around her age and willingly chat with children serving as staff, Hosokawa said she felt comforted that there was &quot;a place for her.&quot; The cafe also became her own place of respite, she said.</p><p>Before finding out about the cafe in August last year, Hosokawa could never leave her mother alone at home even just to go out to a cafe for a break. But if she took her mother, she was worried that her mother might suddenly start screaming.</p><p>Anki Cafe is managed by Tomoka Sugino, a 52-year-old woman who was forced to care for her father Masamachi who was injured around April 2020 in a workplace accident. He became trapped under heavy machinery while cleaning at a construction company operated by a relative.</p><p>When she was studying home nursing care, a photograph caught her attention. It showed two elderly people smiling as they drank some juice.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/09/06/22/biologist-studying-dementia-wins-p57-m-science-prize">Researcher transforming our knowledge of dementia wins $1 million science prize</a></li></ul><p>&quot;Caretaking is of course important but a place where old people can laugh is necessary,&quot; she thought. She opened the cafe in June last year, helped by the 82-year-old Masamichi who by that time had recovered.</p><p>Sugino wanted to create a place for people of different ages to communicate at a time when children have fewer opportunities to interact with their grandparents. Like in other parts of the world, Japan&#x27;s traditional family structure has shifted and no longer do three generations regularly live under one roof.</p><p>Hoping that spending time with the elderly would foster kindness in children that would lead to them helping the elderly when they are in need, Sugino has &quot;hired&quot; around 40 children from nearby elementary schools and kindergartens to be store staff.</p><p>One day in September, 7-year-old Koharu Ono was helping out at the coffee shop.</p><p>&quot;Sometimes I feel a bit nervous, but it&#x27;s fun asking what people want and bringing them drinks. I play card games with guests sometimes too,&quot; she said.</p><p>In aging Japan, dementia has become a pressing issue. The government estimates that around 7 million people, or one in five who are aged 65 years or older, will suffer the illness by 2025.</p><p>&quot;There will be a time when places like Anki Cafe will be necessary across Japan. It would make me happy to see more shops undertaking similar projects,&quot; Sugino said.</p><div><strong>==Kyodo</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1520076" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

A coffee shop in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi has begun catering to elderly people with dementia, creating a welcoming community between customers, their caretakers and the children given a chance to wait on them.