Kanemasa Ito feeds his dementia-stricken wife Kimiko, who needs constant supervision, at their house in Kawasaki, Japan.Behrouz Mehri / Agence Francepresse KAWASAKI, Japan - Kanemasa Ito compares caring for his wife Kimiko to waging a daily war with the devil. The woman he loved has all but disappeared - lost to dementia, she can no longer eat, bathe, or go to the toilet alone. There is a demon inside her head, Ito said, articulating the dramatic change in the person he'd built a life with, while she babbles nonsensically. One of the world's most rapidly aging and long-lived societies, Japan is at the forefront of an impending global healthcare crisis. Authorities are bracing for a dementia time bomb and their approach could shape policies well beyond its borders. By 2025, one in five of the over 65s - around 7.3 million people - in Japan will have dementia, the Health Ministry estimates, up from around 4.6 million now. Alzheimer's disease, a syndrome in which cognitive ability, emotional control and social behavior deteriorate, accounts for the majority of cases. Ito's wife was just 54 when she was first diagnosed. Now some 15 years on, he is close to breaking point trying to care for her and manage the disease. No longer able to discern what is harmful from what is safe - Kimiko has previously tried to drink cleaning products, unaware of the hazard of ingesting them - she needs constant supervision. It exhausts me, the 73-year-old confessed in an interview at their Kawasaki home. Their story is becoming increasingly common in a country where a lack of resources and caregivers means the burden falls increasingly on spouses and children. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is aiming to increase the number of nursing homes and raise care worker wages to tackle the problem. Dementia is a major global health issue with cases soaring as people live longer. The World Health Organization estimates a new case is diagnosed every four seconds. Many developed countries are already facing challenges on how to fund care, but Japan's issue is pronounced because its population has aged at a faster pace. The overwhelming mental, physical and economic burden of caring for a incapacitated loved one can push people to the brink. Between 1996 and 2015, there were 754 murder-suicide cases involving family caregivers, mostly men, in Japan, according to a study by Etsuko Yuhara, an associate professor of welfare at Nihon Fukushi University. Agence France-presse Ito, who had closed a convenience store he used to run to take care of his wife, said he hopes the government will create a better environment for caregivers. Every day is a battle, he said, referring to how Kimiko resists getting dressed in the morning and having her hair washed at night. He regularly takes Kimiko out for a walk in a nearby park and grocery shopping, but it is hard to know if she is aware of what is happening. Ito added: It's really tough to accept. trio spinnersfestival braceletsadjustable wristbands24hourwristbandsjordan wristband
XINING - Forty years ago, Li Yifan would net more than 100 Przewalksii's naked carp a day. Now, he and fellow volunteers are saving the fish, which became endangered after decades of overfishing. The species of carp, known in China as huangyu, is endemic to the Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland saltwater lake. It is the dominant of five native species of fish in the lake which is located on the Qinghai Plateau. From late May to mid-August every year, the carp swim upstream to three freshwater rivers to spawn, with the migration peaking in late June. Volunteers rescue carp that become stranded as small tributaries dry up during their arduous journey. In 2015, Li and eight villagers from Gangca County set up a team of volunteers to protect the carp. "Previously we caught them, now we save them. It's retribution for our actions," Li said. As a result of rampant fishing since the 1960s, when a famine swept the country, the lake's carp stock plunged from its peak of 320,000 tonnes in the 1950's to just 2,600 tonnes in 2001. The fish was listed on the China Species Red List in 2004 due to overfishing and habitat loss. All fishing has been prohibited in the lake for the last 17 years, however, illegal fishing has persisted. "The lake is so huge and the fishermen are cunning. Law enforcement can't deal with them on their own," said Norrigsang, a herdsman from Gangca who used his own savings to found a patrol to catch people fishing illegally along the lake's 300-kilometer-long shoreline in the 1990's. The job is no easy task. He recalled an incident in January 2013, when the seven-member team was attacked by a group of more than 100 fishermen. Thanks to the increased efforts of volunteers and intensified law enforcement, the illegal fishing of naked carp has been dramatically decreased since 2014, according to fishery authorities. In addition to the volunteers, the local government is working to restore the fish population by helping them spawn. Several years ago, the Gangca government dismantled a two-meter-high dam on the Shaliu River and built 18 steps in its place to assist the fish migration. Last year, it spent 8.5 million yuan (1.25 million U.S. dollars) building 21 steps on the Quanji River. But assisting the migration is only part of the battle, they also need to increase fertilization rates, The success rate for natural fertilization is extremely low, as the sperm of male carp can only survive for 20 seconds in the water, said Zhou Weiguo from the carp rescue center. "With such low fertilization rates we can't increase the population of the endangered species," Zhou said. In 2001, fishery workers began an artificial insemination program. They hatch fertilized eggs at the rescue center and raise the young fish, or fry, in tanks for a year before releasing them into the lake. Since 2002, more than 100 million captive-bred carp fry have been released into the lake, with an 85 percent survival rate. Last year, the stock of carp in the lake climbed to 70,800 tonnes. Despite the progress, there is still a long way to go, said Yang Shoude, a forest police officer in the Qinghai Lake National Nature Reserve. "If the naked carp population can not be increased in time, algae growth will become out of control and eventually 'kill' the lake," Yang said. Winning the battle requires combined grassroots and governmental efforts, Norrigsang said.
