One of the biggest problems among the elderly care In Japan Is the " Bedridden Elderly " ( Säng-liggande äldre )."  Bedridden Elderly" is called "Netakiri" in Japanese. This is a very unique problem in Japan.  In 1990 the number of elderly aged 65 and over is about 14,000,000 and the aging rate is 12%.  The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates that about 700,000 bedridden elderly exist in Japan in 1990.  It means that about 5% of the elderly aged 65 and over is bed ridden in Japan nowadays.  The definition of "Bedridden Elderly" is not so exact, because different municipalities use a little different definitions about the "Bedridden Elderly".  But the general definition is that "Bedridden Elderly" means the elderly who spend the most of their daily time on the beds. 

Table.6 show the location of the "Bedridden Elderly" in 1986.  

There were about 600,000 "Bedridden Elderly" in Japan in 1986 and about 250,000(41.8%) stayed at the hospitals for over six months! And about 130,000 (21.l%) stayed at the nursing home and about 220,000 (37.1%) stayed at their own homes.  There is no public sheltered housing (service house) in Japan. 

There are some reasons why so many "Bedridden Elderly" exist in Japan. The following four reasons are supposed to be very important . 

Families have the responsibility to take care of the elderly in Japan, but the family care-givers do not have knowledge how to rehabilitate and activate the sick or handicapped elderly.  As a result, families let elderly lie on the bed every day.

And elderly themselves prefer to lie on the bed.  Because Japanese elderly are get used to sit and lie on the "TATAMI" -special Japanese matt- not to sit on the chairs.

So elderly prefer to lie on the floor when they feel tired.  "To lie on the bed and to take a rest is the best way to recover your health!".  This is a traditional Japanese saying.  And the importance of the rehabilitation for the elderly is not so realized in Japan.  And at Japanese hospitals and institutions rehabilitation has not been so emphasized neither.  The numbers of stuffs and nurses at the Japanese hospitals and the nursing homes are much lower than Swedish standard(1 will explain about this point more in detail later).  

Another Japanese problem is the rapid increase of the number of senile dementia elderly.  The Swedish society faces the same problem also.  In 1991 about one million elderly are suffered from dementia disease in Japan. Table.7 shows the location of the dementia elderly.  

One of the difference in the two countries is that the support by the home help service and the day care center. In Japan the number of home helpers and day care centers are much less than those in Sweden. So the burden of Japanese families who take care of senile dementia elderly is much heavier.

And recently in Sweden the group living ( gruppboende ) has become popular for the senile dementia elderly. But there is no group living in Japan.

The location of the senile dementia elderly in both countries are very different. The biggest reason is that the function of the various facilities in the two countries are much different. Later I will explain the difference of the facilities in both countries.

74% of them stay at home. And they can get only the little home help service. The statistics shows almost the same trend of that of "Bedridden Elderly - most of the elderly are cared by the family at home without the support of home helpers -".